The Witch
Thomas Middleton
Bloomsbury Publishing
The Witch (1615/16?), categorised by its author as 'a tragi-comedy',<br/>pits the intrigues of a group of Italian aristocrats against the<br/>malevolent practices of Hecate and her witches' coven, leaving the<br/>audience with the impression that human malevolence is by far the<br/>fiercer and more effective. This edition sets the play into its<br/>dramatic and literary contexts, ranging from Shakespeare's Macbeth and<br/>Middleton's own later tragedies to Reginald Scot's sceptical Discovery<br/>of Witchcraft and King James's virulent Daemonologie. It also argues<br/>that Middleton wrote it as a topical satire to capitalise on the<br/>scandal involving Frances Howard, who obtained a divorce from the Earl<br/>of Essex on the grounds that he had been sexually incapacitated by<br/>witchcraft; she was also rumoured to have tried to poison him.<br/>Middleton exposes his noble characters precisely by letting them get<br/>away with murder.