Matters of Witchcraft in Early Modern English Drama

A new study of well and lesser known early modern witch plays through material culture and a range of methodological approaches

Matters of Witchcraft in Early Modern English Drama explores material culture and its role in shaping ideas about the occult. In focusing on matter and material practice, this edited collection provides a sustained investigation into early moderns’ embodied knowledge and sensory experiences as reflected in early modern theatre.

Animal bodies and plant matter, the material force of language, stage properties associated with the performance of witchcraft, source texts, the unseen matter of the occult, material evidence in witchcraft accusations, witches’ involvement with domestic products and processes – matter in its many forms reveals itself as crucial to the performance of witchcraft, on and off stage. The essays in this volume use a range of methodological approaches including animal studies and posthumanism, disability studies, queer and feminist studies, premodern critical race studies, book history, and performance studies. Contributors cover fresh approaches to well-known witchcraft plays like Macbeth and The Witch of Edmonton and provide new critical interventions of less-studied plays like Knevet’s Rhodon and Iris, Heywood’s Wise Woman of Hoxton, and Jones’s Adrasta. The collection expands the fields of early modern witchcraft studies and early modern cultural studies in exciting new directions.