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Product Description
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).
About the Author
Peter Corbin is Senior Lecturer in English at the University of Exeter. Douglas Sedge is Lecturer in English at the University of Exeter
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
21 of 22 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Brilliant contemporay analysis of the witchcraft craze,
By A Customer
This review is from: The Witch of Edmonton (Revels Plays Student Editions) (Paperback)
This play is an unusually intelligent contemporary drama about the witchcraft craze that swept early modern England. The play depicts Mother Sawyer, a lonely, feeble old woman, who is used as a scapegoat by the villagers of Edmonton for all their woes, and is believed to be a witch even though she isn't. In revenge, Mother Sawyer calls on the Devil for a Faustian pact in which she is given magical powers. She has some fun getting her revenge on the villagers, but ultimately the Devil betrays her, and she is hung at Tyburn.The play is by no means a modern, materialist analysis of witchcraft, but it is unique in highlighting the scapegoating phenomena as a cause of witchcraft, rather than as a justified response to it, and it also hints that crop failure and disease are natural, not caused by witches. The ultimate message seems to be, 'be nice to your poor neighbours and they won't feel the need to call up the devil in revenge', which is as good a moral as any. 'The Witch of Edmonton' is a fascinating and puzzling mixture of the strikingly modern, and the deeply Jacobean. It's a brilliant piece of theatre, and ought to be a lot more famous than it is. This is the best edition available, because it reprints the original pamphlet on which the play was based.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta) Amazon.com:
5.0 out of 5 stars (1 customer review) 8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Entertaining Plot - Methuen Student Edition is Great,
By Michael Wischmeyer - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: The Witch of Edmonton (Methuen Student Editions) (Paperback)
I look unfavorably upon books and screenplays rushed to the market to capitalize on recent sensational jury trials, confessions of serial murderers, and distasteful behavior by politicians and other celebrities. I would consider it unlikely that I would appreciate a play rapidly assembled by three playwrights on the recent execution of a notorious old woman condemned for practicing witchcraft. Surprisingly, I did enjoy such a play.
Admittedly, a few centuries have elapsed since Thomas Dekker and John Ford and William Rowley collaborated on The Witch of Edmonton. The Mother Sawyer subplot is apparently faithful to the actual event; Sawyer was hanged on April 19, 1621. Within days the chaplain of Newgate Gaol published a pamphlet titled The Wonderful Discoverie of Elizabeth Sawyer a Witch, late of Edmonton, her Conviction and Condemnation and Death. This document served as the primary source for Dekker, Ford, and Rowley. The first known performance was December 29, 1621 at the Court of King James, but earlier public performances are likely to have occurred. Many books, plays, (and now screenplays) on topical events are quickly forgotten. Fortunately, after several centuries of neglect, The Witch of Edmonton was republished in the late 1800s, most importantly in the influential Mermaid Series. More recently several major production companies, including the Royal Shakespeare Company, have staged The Witch of Edmonton. The short prologue to this play ends with the sentence: 'Here is mirth and matter.' However, most readers will agree that The Witch of Edmonton has only a few elements of comedy and that matter clearly overwhelms mirth. The plot involves two intertwined themes, both stories of betrayal and deceit and misplaced loyalty: 1) To gain a dowry, the young Frank Thorney deceives all that trust him, commits bigamy, and even murder. 'Tis done, and I am in. Once past our height, we scorn the deepest abyss' 2) Living in isolation, feared and abused by her neighbors, Mother Sawyer pleads for help. 'Would some power, good or bad, instruct me which way I might be revenged.' The devil in the guise of a dog obliges Mother Sawyer in return for her soul. The Witch of Edmonton is interesting, entertaining drama. The characters do not have the psychological depth found in Shakespeare's tragedies, but this play warrants reading by anyone that enjoys Elizabethan and Jacobean drama. I highly recommend the Methuen Student Edition. The extensive commentary, plot analysis, and character reviews are excellent. |
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