Thomas Dekker, John Ford & William Rowley: The Witch of Edmonton

NB: Orders that include this product may take up to one month to ship, based on availability.

New Mermaids is a series of over sixty modernised and fully annotated classic plays, with an active program of new editions. New Mermaids are edited and updated by experienced teachers who are internationally recognised as authorities in their field. They are ideal for, and accessible to, actors, theatre-goers and students and are printed in a clear, easy-to-use format, with annotations below the text and a comprehensive introduction. 

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.