The Wakefield Cycle has several works, but none are quite as famous as "The Second Shepherds' Play". The play is a nativity story that retells the shepherds. The text is present with both the original translation and a modern translation. Please note, this story is also included in the collection “Everyman and Other Old Religious Plays In Plain and Simple English.”

The Wakefield Cycle has several works, but none are quite as famous as "The Second Shepherds' Play". The play is a nativity story that retells the shepherds. The text is present with both the original translation and a modern translation. Please note, this story is also included in the collection "Everyman and Other Old Religious Plays In Plain and Simple English."

Several classic religious / mystery plays are included in this large collection. The text is present with both the original translation and a modern translation. The collection includes: Everyman, The Chester Pageant of the Water-Leaders and Drawers of the Dee Concerning Noah’s Deluge, The Chester Pageant of the Barbers and Wax-Chandlers Representing Abraham, Melchisedec, and Isaac, The Second Shepherds’ Play, The Coventry Nativity Play of the Company of Shearmen and Tailors, The Miracle-Play of the Crucifixion, The Cornish Mystery-Play of the Three Maries, The Cornish Mystery-Play of Mary Magdalene and How She Brought the News of the Resurrection of Our Lord Jesus Christ to the Apostles, The Pageant of the Harrowing of Hell or Extraction of Souls From Hell, The Interlude of “God’s Promises”

MEDIUM AEVUM says of Heaven Singing, the general discussion of the subject from which the present volume follows on with examination of the individual plays: 'A formidable achievement, indispensable for any serious and comprehensive study of early English drama.'

Nowhere is the richness and variety of the English Renaissance better shown than in the dramatic works of the period which combined to an unusual degree the arts of poetry, music, acting, and dance. This collection of essays by a number of distinguished scholars offers a series of views of the music of this drama -- ranging from the mystery cycles still performed in the late sixteenth century to the cavalier drama of the early seventeenth. The essays included here are mainly concerned with the minor dramatic forms -- the mystery plays, the "entertainments," the masques, and the works of such playwrights as Marston and Cartwright -- which reveal more extensively the blending of music and drama; and they illustrate a variety of approaches to the dramatic art. The collection as a whole demonstrates the need for an interdisciplinary consideration of this important area of study. Of especial value to musicologists is the bibliography of extant music used in dramatic works of the period.