The Witch of Edmonton

At the center of this remarkable 1621 play is the story of Elizabeth Sawyer, the titular “Witch of Edmonton,” a woman who had in fact been executed for the crime of witchcraft mere months before the play’s first performance. Described by the authors as a tragi—comedy and drawn in part from a pamphlet account of the trial then circulating, the play not only offers a riveting account of the contemporary superstitions embodied by the figure of the witch, but also delivers an implicit critique ...