The Witch (1615/16?), categorised by its author as ‘a tragi-comedy’, pits the intrigues of a group of Italian aristocrats against themalevolent practices of Hecate and her witches’ coven, leaving theaudience with the impression that human malevolence is by far thefiercer and more effective. This edition sets the play into itsdramatic and literary contexts, ranging from Shakespeare’s Macbeth and Middleton’s own later tragedies to Reginald Scot’s sceptical Discoveryof Witchcraft and King James’s virulent Daemonologie. It also arguesthat Middleton wrote it as a topical satire to capitalise on thescandal involving Frances Howard, who obtained a divorce from the Earlof Essex on the grounds that he had been sexually incapacitated bywitchcraft; she was also rumoured to have tried to poison him.Middleton exposes his noble characters precisely by letting them getaway with murder.
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