Cover of The Witch of Edmonton

The Witch of Edmonton

The Witch of Edmonton has received considerable attention recently both from scholars and critics interested in witchcraft practices and also from the directors in the theatre. The play, based on a sensational witchcraft trial of 1621, presents Mother Sawyer and her local community in the grip of a witch-mania reflecting popular belief and superstition of the time. This edition offers a thorough reconsideration of the text with a complete transcription of the original pamphlet by Henry Goodcole. This edition will be of particular interest not only to students of Renaissance Drama but also of the cultural history of the seventeenth century. Open University adopted text (for their new Renaissance Drama module).

Genre
literary fiction
Themes
theatrewitch
Setting
renaissancecollegeengland
Audience
adult
Length
short · 160 pages
Form
playspoetry

Click a tag to see books like this one that share it.

Read it? Sign in to help tag it.

Liked The Witch of Edmonton? Here’s where I’d start.

These suit anyone who liked The Witch of Edmonton. Sign in and mark a few books for picks shaped around your own taste.

  1. Free onlineFree
    Bartholomew Fair Shares plays, classics, drama
  2. Women Beware Women Shares plays, classics, drama
  3. Free onlineFree
    The White Devil Shares plays, drama, classics
  4. A Chaste Maid in Cheapside Shares plays, university, classics

“People who read The Witch of Edmonton tend to reach for these next.”

  1. The Maid's Tragedy
  2. The Cid / Cinna / The Theatrical Illusion
  3. My Children! My Africa!
  4. The Man of Mode

“If you want more of the same (literary fiction about theatre), start with these.”

  1. Free onlineFree The Beggar's Opera
  2. The Second Shepherd's Play
  3. Doctor Faustus and Other Plays, Parts 1-2
  4. The Knight of the Burning Pestle

“If it was the plays that hooked you, try one of these.”

  1. The Busie Body
  2. Free onlineFree The Alchemist
  3. Free onlineFree Volpone
  4. Edward II

“These start from a similar idea, even if they go somewhere else with it.”

  1. Witchcraft at Salem
  2. The Crucible: Text and Criticism
  3. Witchcraft: A Secret History
  4. The Witchcraft Sourcebook