The Witch of Edmonton - Softcover

Dekker, Thomas; Rowley, William; Ford, John

3.38

784 ratings by Goodreads

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1409961168 ISBN 13: 9781409961161

Publisher: Dodo Pr, 2009

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The Witch of Edmonton is an English Jacobean play, written by William Rowley, Thomas Dekker and John Ford in 1621. The play-"probably the most sophisticated treatment of domestic tragedy in the whole of Elizabethan-Jacobean drama"-is based on supposedly real-life events that took place in the village of Edmonton, outside London, earlier in the year. The play depicts Elizabeth Sawyer, an old woman shunned by her neighbours, who gets revenge by selling her soul to the Devil, who appears to her in the shape of a black dog called Tom. In addition, there are two subplots. One depicts a bigamist who murders his second wife at the devil's prompting, and the other depicts a clownish yokel who befriends the devil-dog.

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About the Author:

Peter Corbin was General Editor of the Revels Plays Companion Library and is Honorary Fellow in the School of Drama and Music at the University of Exeter

Douglas Sedge is Lecturer in English at the University of Exeter

Review:

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).

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