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pits the intrigues of a group of Italian aristocrats against the
malevolent practices of Hecate and her witches' coven, leaving the
audience with the impression that human malevolence is by far the
fiercer and more effective. This edition sets the play into its
dramatic and literary contexts, ranging from Shakespeare's Macbeth and
Middleton's own later tragedies to Reginald Scot's sceptical Discovery
of Witchcraft and King James's virulent Daemonologie. It also argues
that Middleton wrote it as a topical satire to capitalise on the
scandal involving Frances Howard, who obtained a divorce from the Earl
of Essex on the grounds that he had been sexually incapacitated by
witchcraft; she was also rumoured to have tried to poison him.
Middleton exposes his noble characters precisely by letting them get
away with murder.
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Thomas Middleton was a prolific and successful English Jacobean playwright and poet. A contemporary of Shakespeare and Ben Jonson, Middleton wrote over 30 plays including A Mad World, My Masters which was first performed in 1606.
Elizabeth Schafer is Professor of Drama and Theatre Studies at Royal Holloway, University of London. Her publications include MsDirecting Shakespeare: Women Direct Shakespeare, performance histories of The Taming of the Shrew and Twelfth Night, and a biography of theatre manager, Lilian Baylis. She has edited The City Wit and The Northern Lass for the forthcoming Oxford University Press complete edition of Richard Brome's plays. Recent publications include Theatre & Christianity, and Shakespeare and Eco-Performance History: 'The Merry Wives of Windsor'.
