shepherd

   Used as a simple professional title to a country shepherd in novels describing rural life in former times, such as Far from the Madding Crowd, by Thomas Hardy. The novel contains many examples of its use.

   In The Pickwick Papers, by Charles Dickens, Sam Weller addresses the hypocritical Mr Stiggins as ‘shepherd’. Sam has been told by his father about this spiritual leader of fourteen women, one of whom is Sam’s stepmother. Mr Weller Senior is induced to go to one of Mr Stiggins’s meetings. ‘Here’s the shepherd a-coming to wisit his faithful flock; and in comes a fat chap in black, vith a great white face, a-smilin’ away like clockwork.’ After eating and drinking a great deal, the shepherd begins to preach, then makes the mistake of calling Mr Weller a miserable sinner. ‘I wish you could ha’ heard how the women screamed, Sammy, ven they picked the shepherd up from underneath the table.’ Sam is more polite to Stiggins than his father was, but his vocative use of ‘shepherd’ is ironic, being used as if it were a synonym of ‘Vicar’ or ‘reverend’.