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Comparison and Contrast of
"The Dream of the Rood," "The Land of Cokayne,"
and The Second Shepherds' Play

by Pat Shields
At first glance, one might think that "The Dream of the Rood," "The Land of Cokayne," and The Second Shepherds' Play are three disparate poems with nothing in common. On closer examination, many points of comparison and contrast can be found other than the fact that they were each written in a form of English that had become institutionalized by the time they were recorded. Examination can be made of the poetic style and mechanics, of word order, the way the works were named, their parallels in Christian scripture, their mention of the word "God," whether or not the works are satirical or didactic, meant for entertainment or instruction, and how magic appears in the stories.

Alliteration, rhyme, and meter
Alliteration, rhyme, and meter are the most obvious ways of comparing and contrasting the three poems. By its very nature, "The Dream of the Rood" (DrR) is alliterative. It is an Old English poem composed possibly at least 500 years before the Norman invasion and the beginning of the influence of the French court on speech and literature. The main characteristics of DrR, as of any OE poetry, is the alliteration linking together the elements of the two-part lines of variable, usually four, stresses. The alliteration must be on the major accents on each side of the caesura, and each side of the line must have at least one alliterative element.
"wann under wolcnum.     Weop eal gesceaft" (Mitchell 244, line 55)

Rhyme occasionally happens, but it is accidental and is not used to link the lines.

"The Land of Cokayne" was written well after the Norman invasion, but before Chaucer made his English-style innovations in literature. The "Cokayne" poet dispensed with deliberate alliteration and concentrated on writing 95 couplets of masculine rhyme in simple tetrameter. The influence of the French court on speech and literature had been active for about 210 years when this was written, establishing end-rhyme as a poetic form. Alliteration, when it occurs, is accidental, attributable only to choice or availability of words. An example of the end rhyme is the first couplet:

"Fur in see bi west Spaygne / Is a lond i-hote Cokaygne" (Dunn 188, ll 1-2)

The Second Shepherd's Play was written just after the time of Chaucer, nearly in the new Modern English period. It combines all of the elements of the two poems above and adding some. Compared to DrR and "Cokayne", it is a very sophisticated work of poetry. Not only is there controlled tetrameter shaped into "aaaa" masculinely- rhymed quatrains, and deliberate alliteration, but there is a construction similar to the five-line "bob and wheel" at the ends of the stanzas, there is internal rhyme, and the entire poem is the script of a play. Not only that, but the internal rhyme goes on for four lines in an "aaaa" fashion as well, so that the first half of each line of the quatrain rhymes with the first half of every other line in the quatrain. This makes the lines of the "Shepherd" quatrains appear to have a caesura. The rhyme scheme looks something like this: a-a' a-a' a-a' a-a' bcccb
Daw: Now trow me, if ye will by Saint Thomas of Kent,

Either Mak or Gill was at that assent.
Coll: Peace, man, be still! I saw when he went.

Thou slanders him ill, thou ought to repent.

Good speed.
Gib: Now as ever might I thee,
If I should even here dee,
I would say it were he
That did the same deed."


(Norton 329, ll 458-466)
Of course, this appearance could be attributable to the typesetter or to a decision about the way to represent this poem on paper . It could have been written in stanzas of thirteen lines in an ababababcdddc pattern of masculine rhyme, the first eight lines in trimeter, followed by five lines similar to "bob and wheel" construction, or in some other form.

Word Order
When DrR was written, word order was not very important, because the functions of the words were signaled by inflections. There was also a paucity of adjectives. Lines 119-121 as listed below under "Mention of God" seem to have a very strange word order to our twentieth-century eyes, and the thoughts seem to be incomplete.

After the Danish invasion, inflections disappeared. By the time of "Cokayne," the influence of the French court language had been felt on the English language, and subject-verb-object order had been established. The adjectives and articles that were now available for use enable us to have a delightful impression of a fantasy land . "Ther beth rosis of rede ble / And lilie likful for to se." (Dunn 190, ll 79-80) Although the vocabulary of "Cokayne" is a little strange to us, that is to be expected with all the language changes that happen naturally over five hundred years. The verses are generally understandable, however, because they have the same word order that we use today.

"Shepherds' Play" is even closer in time to us, and has the advantage of having been composed after Geoffrey Chaucer had made an impact on the English language, bringing syntax and rhythm even closer to what we use today. Again with the exception of some obsolete vocabulary, "Shepherd's Play" is quite understandable. "But we must drink as we brew, / And that is but reason. " (Norton 330, ll 501-502)

Titles
There has been some discussion about the aptness of the title, "The Dream of the Rood," for the devotional poem found in the Vercelli book of English prose and poetry compiled at least by the second half of the tenth century (Bradley 109). Professor J. A. W. Bennett, in the first chapter of his book, Poetry of the Passion, says that ". . . we shall see that this title could be bettered." He titled the chapter "A Vision of A Rood," and on page 26 he renamed the poem, calling it the same title as the chapter.
The two main points of contention in Bennett's title are "a Rood" and "A Vision." First of all, it was not "a Rood" that was seen, it was meant as "the" Rood upon which Christ was crucified, as "the" instrument of our salvation. To call this cross "a rood" is inexact. Second, "a Vision" has the connotation of something seen with the eyes, seen in a waking state whether or not it is a normal waking state, or in active imagination, ecstasy, or trance. (American College Dictionary 1361). The Latin root of vision, "visio," means sight.

DrR does not use imagery of active vision until it is made clear to the reader or hearer that this story is about a dream. The choice of words places the poem into the realm of dreams. In the very first line is the word "swefna," a form of "swefen," meaning "sleep" or "a dream." The verb, "swefan," means "to sleep." (Bosworth 945-946) The same word appears in "Caedmon's Hymn" when Caedmon's dream is spoken of: "Feor aweg gewitan swefna and nihta gedwymeru." (Bosworth 946) This line places "swefna" at the dreaming time, "nihta," night The Second Shepherds' Play mentions "sweven" in line 384, and means a dream that took place when the speaker, Mak, was asleep, even though he was lying about dreaming.

The second line of DrR also places dreaming at night; midnight ("midre nihte"), to be precise. Reinforcing the dream imagery is the use of "gemaette," the past tense first person of "gemaetan," meaning "to dream." (Bosworth 413)

The poet says in the third line that midnight is the time when people are asleep. Before the poet starts relating the things he saw, it is made clear by word choice that "The Dream of the Rood" is just that, a dream. When something is seen in this poem, it is necessarily a dream image. The genre of the poem is that of "dream-vision."

The poem is aptly titled "The Dream of the Rood;" if it must be named in Modern English, hardly anything else will suffice.

There has also been a question about what the title of the Middle English poem "The Land of Cokayne" (circa 1275-1300) might mean. The Dictionnaire de L'Ancienne Langue Fran�aise (Dictionary of Ancient French) says that "cocaigne" (pronounced like the English phonetic spelling, "cokayne") was used in poetical French before 1300 and meant "profit, avantage," (Godefroy 164-165) which means the same as English "profit" and "advantage." The Dictionnaire de la Langue Fran�aise (Dictionary of the French Language) tells us that "avantage" was used around 1175 in this sense of being profitable. The second definition in this category also gives us "avantage" in the sense of "pleasure" as a term of etiquette. (Rey vol. 1, 751). This dictionary also tells us that "cocagne" was first used at around the end of the 12th century, of uncertain origin, and that it comes possibly from cocca [Greek kokkos, berry (Dorland 346)] meaning "coquille, round object" or from coquera, "to cook something," and possibly from coucagno which attests to the provincial in the sense of "pain de pastel" and from coco in the sense of "brioche." (Rey vol. 2, 673) A "brioche" is a small, round roll made out of wheat flour. "Pain de pastel" has multiple levels of meaning, two of which seem to be "loaf of pastel," which is literally a lump of artist's pigment, and "a type of sweet pastille." All these meanings or derivations of "cokaigne" fit very well with the subject matter of the poetry. "The Land of Cokayne" is definitely an advantageous place to be, with cooked, hot food for the taking, oil, milk, honey, and wine flowing, and no problems to spoil the mirth. It is said to be a better place than paradise! The buildings are made of pastries and cakes. Many "round objects" are to be found in this land; sausages, pies, and jewels. "Cokayne" is a land of pleasure, whether etiquette has anything to do with it or not. This poem seems to have the correct title!

There is no doubt about the title of The Second Shepherd's Play, circa 1425. It is ". . . so called because it is the second of two Nativity plays that are part of the cycle believed to have been performed at Wakefield in Yorkshire." (Norton 316).

Parallels in Christian scriptures
DrR reflects the stories of the crucifixion of Christ in Matthew 27 and 28, Mark 15, Luke 23 and 24, and John 19 and 20. In these chapters of the Gospels are the stories of men carrying the Cross on their shoulders, the wounds of Christ, the crucifixion of thieves, the Cross being set on a hill, Christ being stripped (although the poem says he stripped himself and the Bible says he was stripped by soldiers), the crown of thorns, the darkening of the day, the earthquakes, Christ giving up the ghost, the claiming of Christ's body, the hewing of the tomb out of stone, Christ being placed in the tomb, Christ rising from the dead, and Christ's ascension with the angels coming to meet him.

"Cokayne" is not very noteworthy for any attempt to stay close to the truth, but it does say something about paradise. "Thogh paradis be miri and bright, / Cokaygn is of fairir sight. / What is ther in paradis / Bot grasse and flure and grene ris?" (Dunn 188, lines 7-8) Paradise is mentioned one time in the Bible, in the New Testament, in Luke 23:43, where Jesus tells the repentant thief hanging on a cross beside him, "To day shalt thou be with me in paradise." (KJV) Elijah and Enoch, two Old Testament men, are mentioned as being the only men in paradise, which is one of the reasons Cokayne is a better place. The list of jewels in "Cokayne" is reminiscent of the descriptions of the stones that make up the foundations of the new Jerusalem in Revelation (Apocalypse) 21:14-21. The description of the rivers flowing with oil, wine, milk and honey is taken from Exodus 3:8, where God is leading the Israelites to a better land (Canaan, a "land of Cokayne?"). "And I am come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land unto a good land and a large, until a land flowing with milk and honey; unto the place of the Canaanites . . . . " (KJV)

"Shepherds' Play" is based on the story of the Nativity found in Luke 2:7-20. As in the play, the angel appears to the shepherds out in the fields at night, and tells them that Christ is born and is in Bethlehem. The shepherds go to Bethlehem to visit the Christ child. The shepherds in the poem do double duty since they are made to perform scenes associated with the wise men. The star that Coll mentions to the other shepherds is found in Matthew 2:2, 7, and 9. The number of wise men is not stated in the Bible, but there are three gifts, gold, frankincense, and myrrh, (Matthew 2:11), and the number of wise men is traditionally associated with the number of gifts. The number of visiting shepherds matches the number of wise men, and the shepherds follow the star as the wise men did. The shepherds also bring three gifts. In addition, mention is made of the prophecy in Isaiah 7:14 about a virgin conceiving: "Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel." (KJV) Since everything in the Old Testament was thought to be pointing forward to man's redemption, this verse was taken to be a portent of the conception and birth of Christ.

Mention of God
God is mentioned in all three poems. DrR always pairs "God" and "almighty" with one exception: "weruda God" (God of the company) in line 51. This mention of God serves to reinforce the devotional nature of the poem. "Cokayne" and "Shepherds' Play" treat the mention of God much more casually, even disrespectfully. "Cokayne" repeatedly says "God knows" in order to complete a rhyme, except for the last mention of God in which the people who hope to go to Cokayne pray to God. "Shepherds' Play" is peppered with oaths calling upon God (for example, "By God, I could teen you" in line 218, and the repeated use of "pardie," meaning "By God"), until the end when its solemn portion is revealed. There, "God is made your friend" (Norton 334, l 641) and God is the omnipotent father of heaven (Norton 336, l 737) The word "God" remains unchanged throughout the 700 years or so that these poems encompass. When the poems represent something that is supposed to be accepted as truth, no jokes or oaths mentioning God are attempted.

Satire or didacticism?
DrR is didactic, and is not the least bit satirical. It teaches the biblical accounts of the crucifixion, blending together the elements from the different accounts. The reason for the crucifixion is explained in the last part of the poem, and the reader or hearer is made to know that Christ is the victorious, powerful soldier who conquered death. Christ is held up to scorn and derision, which is the technique of satire, but it is not for the sake of mocking him. It is for the sake of our salvation. It is not the poet who derides Christ. DrR also teaches Rood legends that are not biblical, but traditional. The original dream is surely a reflection of Saint Constantine's dream of the cross before he led his army into battle ("In hoc signo vinces") and his acceptance of Christianity for himself and his nation after the victory. The fact that the speaker was lying down gazing at the cross is similar to prostration in ceremonies of devotion to the Cross. The burial and uncovering of the cross, and its decoration with gold and silver, is the story of Saint Helen's finding of the true Cross and the appearance of its relics in Christendom.

DrR is a work of devotion and awe throughout, with no humor. Through the eyes of the dreamer and then of the Cross, the reader or hearer is to witness the suffering of Christ for our salvation and to reflect on what that message means in personal terms. The willingness of Christ to die to save mankind is expressed in such terms as ". . . he me wolde on gestigan" (line 34) and ". . . he wolde mancyn lysan." (line 41). These terms make it clear that Christ willingly sacrificed his life so that we might have salvation, and that being crucified was not something that was done to him without his consent. This story of Christ's willingness to give his life for our eternal salvation was designed to arouse emotions, but those emotions were to be turned inward for reflection on the state of a person's sinful nature, and to prompt that person to turn to Christ and away from sin.

Reflection on the Cross is important, says the poet, because

". . . ac (th)urh (th)a rode sceal
rice gesecan
but through the Cross must (shall)
kingdom seek



of eor(th)wege
aeghwylc sawl,



of earthpath
each soul
seo (th)e mid Wealdende
wunian (th)ence(th)." (Mitchell 246, lines 119-121)


he who with Ruler(the Lord)
dwell thinketh
(As soon as I find the HTML code for the "th" sounds, I will put the correct characters in.)
"He who thinks about dwelling with the Lord, each soul, must, through that Cross, seek his earthly path to the [Lord's] kingdom." (my translation)

"Cokayne" is mostly satirical, and only seems to be a little bit didactic. It contains instruction that must be read "between the lines." On the surface, this poem seems to be a bawdy joke about gluttonous flying monks and nudist boating nuns that gleefully commit some of the deadly sins. But if taken as ironic satire to expose and denounce vice and folly, this poem points the way to the attitude that the serious religious should adopt.

The reader or hearer is supposed to know just why there are only two men in paradise; they are the only two men who were ever good enough in God's sight to bypass Doomsday. This goodness and this closeness to God is what the religious should be striving for, not the indiscriminate fulfillment of fleshly pleasures.

The diet in paradise (fruit and water) is related to the diet of Daniel and his godly cohort in Daniel 1:5-20. King Nebuchadnezzar took Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, and said that he would feed them from his sumptuous provisions for three years. "But Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portion of the king's meat, nor with the wine which he drank . . . Then said Daniel . . . I beseech thee . . . let them give us pulse to eat, and water to drink." This was agreed to, and at the end of three years, the king found Daniel and his companions to be ". . . ten times better than all the magicians and astrologers that were in all his realm." (KJV)

The next-to-last stanza about standing chin-deep in hog manure for seven years, although humorous, tells just how much self-indulgence is worth.

The poem can also be taken as an awareness that all those who wear the habit are not what they profess to be; if the lie is that transparent to another human being, how much more can God see? This statement is especially true if the poem was ". . . a satire aimed by a Franciscan friar specifically against the Cistercian monks in Kildare." (Dunn, 188).

The poet could also have been poking fun at himself as a friar. In a note concerning "Piers Plowman," we are told that "Minstrels who entertain with jokes and fantastic stories are regarded as descendants of Christ's betrayer, Judas." (Norton 292) These poems are about 100 years apart in age, but the tradition of the Judas minstrel could have remained the same from the time of "Cokayne" to the time of "Piers Plowman."

"Shepherds' Play" is a fascinating blend of satire and didacticism. The beginning of the poem, the first 277 lines, is all political satire denouncing the way the peasants are forced to live in the feudal society of 15th-century England, ridiculing lower-class marriage, and making fun of housewives and lazy people.

The middle section of the poem, from line 278 to line 637, is also a satire of the way peasants are forced to live, and is a parody of the Nativity, using the same formula that the end of the play uses.

The endings of both the parody and the Nativity have the same theme, that of receiving forgiveness. The Lamb of God in the final scene is replaced by a sheep in the parody. The Virgin Mother is parodied by a woman who is anything but virgin. Both the child and the sheep are wrapped in rags, but the sheep is placed in a baby's cradle, and the baby is placed where the sheep's food belongs. This parody is very funny, and borders on the blasphemous

Although designed mainly for entertainment and for filling out the liturgical calendar, "Shepherds' Play" has instruction hidden inside. The shepherds had the right to kill Mak for his theft of the ram, but they dispensed mercy instead as an indicator to the viewer that forgiveness is what we should practice rather than vengeance, because forgiveness is what Christ dispenses to us. There is also de facto instruction of the events of the Nativity in the parody and the Nativity scene.

Magic
Older English literature seems to fail to make the distinction between magic, religious miracles, and truth. Magic appears together with religious themes. Use of magic is often representative of man trying to assume powers that properly belong only to God. God created the entire universe in six days, and rested on the seventh day, but magic continues what God is supposed to have completed. Magic seems to say that God's work is not sufficient, that man wants more. Miracles seem to mean that God will sometimes work outside his creation contrary to the laws of nature that he formulated.

DrR shows a tree that became an instrument of death, and that then assumed the wounds and suffering of a man that died upon it. This particular instance of magical or miraculous transformation is a prime example of prosopopoeia, the giving of human speech and actions to an inanimate object. This cross spoke, dared not move although it could have fallen voluntarily and knocked down the enemies of Christ, felt the wounds that it took on when Christ was wounded, and bled copious amounts of blood. The blood turned to sweat and moisture, and again to blood. This story is more than simply a dream vision of a magically or miraculously transformed tree hewn down at the edge of the forest, however. This is supposed to be the true Cross which appeared to the narrator in a dream, and is to be venerated, not as a result of magic, but as a result of the saving act of Christ's death in which the Cross became the instrument of our salvation. This story, although acknowledged to be a dream, was intended to be the occasion for reflection on what was understood to be the truth. Only God can make a tree, but only a miracle or an act of imagination can make that tree think, speak, and bleed. Magic, miracles, or imagination could transform a tree, but only man's conscious choice to follow Christ could transform him into a creature destined for heaven.

"Cokayne" is a tale full of magical fancy, with monks flying through the air, hot geese announcing themselves to be ready for eating, cooked larks flying right into mouths, rivers flowing with everything to be desired to drink (except water!) houses made of baked goods and sausages, naked nuns for the taking, and a different wife every month all year long. None of the magic in this tale is to be believed, and it is strictly in the "once upon a time" category of fantasy, yet it is another instance of magic coexisting with a theme of religion.

"Shepherds' Play" actually shows someone casting a spell of magic, which would seem to be in direct opposition to its purpose of teaching about Christ. God created the universe, and by extension, he created sleep. Using a magic spell, Mak usurped God's position by causing the shepherds to sleep. We do not know if Mak's spell was seen as usual activity by the audience of the play, or if it was seen as part of the borderline blasphemous nature of the parody of the Nativity and was one more reason that Mak might have needed forgiveness.

"The Dream of the Rood," "The Land of Cokayne," and The Second Shepherds' Play are three poems with many points of interest in common, especially within the theme of religious truth versus fantasy. They all have relationships between magic and religion, satire and instruction, the position that God holds in language and in consciousness, references to and bases in Christian scripture, their legibility in terms of the order of the words, and their forms of poetry.

Works Cited

American College Dictionary. C.L. Barnhart, ed. Random House. New York. 1969.
Bennett, J. A. W. Poetry of the Passion. Oxford University Press. New York. 1982
Bosworth, Joseph. An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary. Clarendon Press. Oxford, 1882 (One would think they would buy a NEW edition!)
Bradley, S.A.J. Anglo-Saxon Poetry. Charles e. Tuttle, Co, Inc. Rutland, Vermont 1982.
Dorland's Illustrated Medical Dictionary. 28th ed. W. B. Saunders Company. Philadelphia. 1994.
Dunn, Charles W. and Byrnes, Edward T. Middle English Literature. Garland Publishing Inc. New York. 1990.
Godefroy, Fr�d�ric. Dictionnaire de L'Ancienne Langue Fran�aise, du IXe au XVe si�cle. Tome deuxi�me. Castellon-Dyvis, Paris. 1883. Reprinted in Belgium by Kraus Reprint Corporation New York. 1961.
King James Version (KJV) of The Holy Bible. The Gideons International. Nashville, Tennessee. 1973.
Mitchell, Bruce, and Robinson, Fred. C. A Guide to Old English. 4th ed. Basil Blackwell, Ltd. Oxford. 1986.
Norton Anthology of English Literature. 5th ed. Vol.1. M. H. Abrams, ed. W.W. Norton and Company, Inc. New York. 1986
Rey, Alain. Le Grand Robert Dictionnaire de la Langue Fran�aise. Deuxi�me �dition. Tome II. Les dictionnaires ROBERT, Montr�al, Canada. 1985.
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