Summary of The Gentle Shepherd by Allan Ramsay

Act 1, scene 1: Two shepherds, Patie and Roger, are beside a stream. Roger, who is superstitious and wealthy, is down in the dumps. He tries to pretend it’s because of an ominous dream he had. Patie says he knows he is upset because he is getting the cold shoulder from Jenny. Roger admits that is true and says that in fact Jenny loves Bauldy, who drives a cart. Patie says don’t worry because Bauldy doesn’t love her back; he loves Neps. Patie tells Roger that the way to attract women is to pretend you don’t care what they think, and he gives Roger the example of his own case with Peggy (Meg). Roger says Patie has cheered him up and gives him a plaid that his mother has woven. Patie tries to give Roger his flute, but Roger refuses it. They go to eat lunch.

Act 1, scene 2: Two shepherdesses, Peggy and Jenny, go to a riverbank to do the washing. Peggy wants to go further up the bank so they can go for a swim after they finish their washing, but Jenny is afraid that Patie and Roger will see them. Peggy asks Jenny why she treats Roger so unkindly. Jenny says that he dresses very fancily, but he has nothing to say for himself. Peggy says she’d better be careful or she will end up marrying no one. Jenny says she doesn’t mind being single. Peggy replies that men and women were made for one another. Jenny says if Roger would actually get around to asking for her hand, she’d spurn him: “They’re fools that slav’ry like, and may be free” (22). Peggy says Jenny can do as she likes, but she loves Patie. Jenny says she won’t feel that way once they are married. He may make much of his wife for ten or fifteen days, but after that he’ll feel angry that he gave up his freedom for her. One day he’ll be silent, then the next he’ll hit her in a drunken fit. Peggy tells her her words are having no effect. Patie is different than all the rest of the shepherds. Jenny say things change when kids come along with all their needs. Peggy says she can think of nothing better than looking after children. Jenny says that the threat of poverty makes life hard. Peggy replies that people must do their best and Heaven looks after the rest. Jenny says, just wait until you grow old. Peggy replies that they will grow old together like two elms. Jenny says Peggy has won the argument, helped a little bit by her own heart.

Act 2, scene 1:

Glaud and Symon, two neighbours are talking together at Glaud’s house. Symon says he has news. He has seen Hab, a servant who used to serve Sir William Worthy. Sir William fought during the Civil War on the side of Charles 1 under George Monk, but who then fled abroad when Cromwell took power. Now Cromwell and the Parliament are gone, King Charles II is restored to the throne, and Sir William is coming back. Now “ilka thing’s in tune” (29). Glaud wants to know if he can claim his estate back. Symon says, yes, and the people who extracted harsh rents in his absence can’t hurt the tenants again. Sir William was a generous landlord. He didn’t charge higher rent when his tenants made money. He didn’t make them doff their hats to him. He drank with his tenants. Glaud says it’s time to have a party. Symon says he’s already arranged a party at his house. Madge, Glaud’s sister, enters, wondering what all the noise is for. Glaud tells her the news and asks her to get his best clothes ready, call the girls from their washing and get everyone ready for the party.

Act 2, scene 2:

Bauldy is outside of Mause’s cottage. He burns for love of Peggy and bewails the fact that he is betrothed to Neps. He resolves to get Mause to use witchcraft to break things off with Neps and to win Peggy’s heart.

Act 2, scene 3:

Bauldy says Mause is looking well and sound for a 70-year-old. He tells her people think she is a witch and has caused all kinds of ills around the area. He offers her a bushel of groats mixed with pease if she will help make Patie love Neps and Peggy love him. Mause says she will do her best and tells him to come again at night after she has got some things ready. Bauldy says he will come as long as she doesn’t call up the devil and make him lose his way. He also asks her to come to Symon’s party in the guise of a cat. She says she might and tells him to keep their conversation secret or else he can fear bad luck. When Bauldy leaves, Mause laments the fact that poverty and old age, out of fashion clothes and living on her own should earn her the label of witch. Her wisdom actually comes from education and reading. She sets out a plan to teach people their mistake.

Act 2, scene 4:

Patie and Peggy meet by the stream. Peggy tests Patie by saying that he prefers the scenery to her and that he may meet someone else he likes better. Patie tells her he loves her the best and has done so since they were children. Peggy says women easily believe what they want to when men flatter them, but that time is the only thing that really proves whether love will last or not. Patie says he will love her as long as she loves him. They embrace—but she says they won’t be able to do anything except kiss until they are married. Much singing of duets in this scene.

Act III, scene 1:

Sir William has come to see his lands again, disguised as a peasant. His lands are still fertile, but his house is in ruins. He says that this can all be repaired, and he is anxious to see his son, the only object of his care since his wife died. Sir William had given the boy to Symon to bring up as a shepherd so that he could live as a “quiet, contented mortal,” unaffected by the corrupting influences of the aristocracy.

Act III, scene 2:

At Symon’s house, all have gathered for the party. Glaud notices that Patie is in love with Peggy and promises that, even though she is not his real daughter, he will give her as big a dowry as he gives his daughter, Jenny. Elspeth, Symon’s wife, says Patie cannot marry Peggy, and Symon says Glaud will find out why soon. Symon asks Glaud the story of how Peggy came to live with his family. Glaud says that Madge tells tales when she is angry with Peggy. Just then, Jenny says there is a fortune-teller who reads their palms, pulls out a book, looks at their faces, then tells strange stories. Symon invites him in. The “spae-man” (Sir William) offers to tell Patie’s fortune and correctly notes that he has a birth mark under his armpit. He also foretells that he will be a rich lord. He looks at Patie’s hand, then falls into a trance. Elspeth thinks he’s a warlock or second-sighted. Sir William sings a song about Patie being a lord, then goes for a walk with Symon around the ruins of his estate.

Act III, scene 3:

Roger approaches Jenny to speak with her. He says he loves her and wishes she could love him. Jenny says that she might, but that she wanted to be free. Jenny says men love until they get a woman as a wife, then they make her their drudge. Roger says that only happens when a man looks upon his wife as a possession or when people of dissimilar temperaments are married. Roger says he loves her truly, and the scene ends with them embracing, and Roger talking about his wealth and saying he will share it all with her. They see Patie and Peggy coming. Much singing of duets in this scene, too.

Act III, scene 4:

Sir William (still disguised) and Symon. Sir William asks to whom the house belongs, and Symon answers. Sir William drops his disguise. Symon is overjoyed. They talk about the ill effects of being born to an aristocratic family, giving examples: “Such useless branches of the commonwealth/Should be lopt off” (56). Then they talk about Patie, who is kind, gentle, a good leader and a good reader of the right kind of books: “on braes I crack wi’ kings” (57), he says. Sir William wonders if there is anyone with whom Patie is in love, and Symon says it is Peggy. Sir William says that he will have to break things off and that it is time for Patie to learn who he really is.

Act 4, scene 1:

Madge tells Mause that Sir William is back and that he has announced that Patie is his heir. She says that Peggy has lost Patie now. But Mause says, “Ev’n kings ha’e taken a queen out o’ the plain” (60) and it may happen again. Madge says nonsense, such things may have happened in the day of Robert the Bruce, but not now. Enter Bauldy. He asks Madge and Mause to put in a good word for him with Peggy now. Madge scolds him for forsaking Neps and perjuring himself. Bauldy calls her names and threatens to bring Madge before the kirk elders. Madge attacks him and gives him a bloody nose. Mause intervenes and tries to make them make up, but to no avail. Bauldy runs off. Mause tells Madge that Bauldy had tried to get her to help him with witchcraft. The two of them plot to make a fool of Bauldy. Madge will pretend to be a ghost and scare him.

Act 4, scene 2:

Roger tells Patie he has had success with Jenny. But Patie is sad. He has found a father and an inheritance, but his father doesn’t approve of his love for Peggy. He is caught between wanting to obey his father and wanting to keep his love. He tells Roger that he is going to Edinburgh, then London and France. Roger reminds Patie of his own words to him: They wha ha’e just enough can soundly sleep,/The o’er-come only fashes fauk to keep” (67). Patie tells Roger he intends still to marry Peggy. Enter Peggy, who has been crying. Patie says he will try to change his father’s mind. But Peggy says he will find a gentlewoman whom he will prefer to her. But she swears she will marry no one else. Patie says he will have to go abroad, but he will not forget her. Peggy says she will wait for him and will get an education. Patie mocks the gentry, but then says that there are still those among them who have integrity. He asks for a lock of Peggy’s hair in order to remember her. They decide to use the time they have left with kissing.

Act 5, scene 1:

Bauldy comes running over the Symon’s cottage, wild-eyed and with chattering teeth. Symon gives him a drink. Enter Sir William, who wants to know what’s going on. Bauldy says that he went to Mause’s cottage so she could help him win the heart of a girl when he saw a ghost rise up like a dead corpse. The witch and the ghost chased him then disappeared. Bauldy thinks Mause should be burned in a tar barrel for being a witch. Sir William says he will do the right thing. Bauldy says he’s going to get a group of men together to catch Mause. Sir William tells Symon there’s no such thing as witches; they are just invented by people who don’t have an education.

Act 4, scene 2:

Glaud, Peggy and Jenny are together. Glaud tells Peggy that, although Patie loved her when he was a shepherd, now as a gentleman he will become a rake and set out to ruin her and those like her. Peggy says Sir William is virtuous so Patie may be like him. Glaud says perhaps, although many of the gentry don’t even believe in doomsday. Enter Madge. She says that Sir William is currently settling a dispute between Bauldy and Mause and tells the girls to get ready. She laments the fact that Patie has become one of the gentry. Peggy says she is happy for him and perhaps she may still be his wife. Madge says “fat chance.”

Act 4, scene 3:

Sir William has heard Bauldy’s story and thinks he got what he deserved for betraying Neps. Bauldy says he will remain faithful to Neps. Bauldy admits that he was crazy to seek the devil and that Mause was not a witch, but he says she was revengeful. Enter Madge, Peggy and Jenny. Sir William says that Peggy reminds him of his sister. Glaud says Peggy was a foundling whom he found wrapped in expensive cloths. Mause tells the story that she was the nurse of Sir William’s sister’s child who saved her when she was being threatened by an uncle’s wife. She took the baby away and left her at a shepherd’s door, then she took a cottage nearby to keep an eye on her. Patie is overjoyed and asks his father’s blessing, although he says he would have married her anyway. Sir William says he going to take his estate back and make the villain reimburse his “ill-got gains.” He is going to repair everything and not leave ever again. Glaud says “God save the king, and save Sir William” (86). Bauldy says he has forgiven Madge and Mause. Sir William gives Symon and Glaud ownership of their lands and says that Mause can live in his house. He also makes Roger chamberlain (factor or steward).