John Ford, Thomas Dekker, William Rowley

The Witch of Edmonton (eBook, PDF)

Redaktion: Kinney, Arthur F.

• Format: PDF

Produktbeschreibung

It is a historical phenomenon that while thousands of women were being
burnt as witches in early modern Europe, the English - although there
were a few celebrated trials and executions, one of which the play
dramatises - were not widely infected by the witch-craze. The stage
seems to have provided an outlet for anxieties about witchcraft, as
well as an opportunity for public analysis. The Witch of Edmonton
(1621) manifests this fundamentally reasonable attitude, with Dekker
insisting on justice for the poor and oppressed, Ford providing
psychological character studies, and Rowley the clowning. The village
community of Edmonton feels threatened by two misfits, Old Mother
Sawyer, who has turned to the devil to aid her against her unfeeling
neighbours, and Frank, who refuses to marry the woman of his father's
choice and ends up murdering her. This edition shows how the play
generates sympathy for both and how contemporaries would have responded
to its presentation of village life and witchcraft.

Produktdetails

• Verlag: Bloomsbury UK eBooks
• Seitenzahl: 160
• Erscheinungstermin: 18. Juni 2014
• Englisch
• ISBN-13: 9781408144237
• Artikelnr.: 41009054

Autorenporträt

John Ford (1586-1639) was an English playwright whose works have often been cited as examples of the 'decadence' of Caroline Drama. In the 19th century he was admired by Charles Lamb but attacked by William Hazlitt and others, who accused him of lacking a sense of morality. However, many 20th-century critics have praised his insight into character and his skill in writing dialogue

His best known play is the bloody tragedy 'Tis Pity She's a Whore (1627). Other works inlcude Love's Sacrifice (1627), the tragicomedy The Lover's Melancholy (1628), and Perkin Warbeck (1634), described by T. S. Eliot as "one of the very best historical plays in the whole of Elizabethan and Jacobean drama".

Inhaltsangabe

List of illustrations General editors' preface Preface Introduction Prince Charles's Men, 1618-22 Collaborations Reading Elizabeth Sawyer in 1621 Witchcraft and Bigamy: 1621 and 1658 Danger and Death: Tragicomedy and Domestic Drama in 1621 Curtain and Cockpit: Staging the Supernatural in 1621 London and Lancashire: Staging Witchcraft in 1634 The Witch and the Dog Staging The Witch of Edmonton: 1921 to 2014 Edmonton on Stage The Witch and the Dog: Reprise Forget the Hobby Horse! Printing The Witch of Edmonton: 1658 and 2014 Quarto Paratext THE WITCH OF EDMONTON Appendix: Doubling chart Abbreviations and References Abbreviations used in notes Works by and partly by Shakespeare Editions of The Witch of Edmonton collated Other works cited Modern productions cited