Witchcraft and Superstition in Elizabethan England

Magic and Superstition

Fairies, magic, witches, spells, prophecies, and superstition were all a part of the Elizabethan view of life. Often, these beliefs were as important to them as the teachings of the church. Fairies were thought to lead people to the devil.

Many superstitions during the Elizabethan period dated back to traditions and beliefs from much earlier times. The superstitions were also steeped in the belief in old magic and the mystical properties of animals and herbs.

Elizabethan superstitions also related to special chants, omens and names and numbers. Many traditional English customs are based on the mythical relationship to superstitions dating back to the Dark Ages and even further back to the Romans and their Gods and Goddesses.

The origins of many superstitions are based on trust in magic or chance. An irrational belief that an object, or action, or circumstance which are not logically related to a course of events can influence its outcome.

Ignorance and fear of the unknown combined with a false conception of causation and cessation resulted in many Elizabethan superstitions. Fear of the supernatural and forces of nature or God resulted in the belief of superstitions during the Elizabethan period.

Magic and Superstition

Women that did not fit in to society for any reason were branded as witches. They were accused of working for the devil and often burned at the stake or drowned. People believed that witches could:
See into the future Curse people Bring plague and disease Cause natural disasters (flood etc) Cause death

Witches & Witchcraft

A witch-mania characterized the Elizabethan era. Most people believed in witches and circulating pamphlets containing tales of witches and witchcraft were the equivalent of todays popular newspapers.
Henry Fuseli, The Three Witches

During Queen Elizabeth Is reign there were 270 witch trials. 247 of the 270 trials included women. The accused had the following characteristics:

Old Poor Single/ widowed Kept many animals

Witches and Witchcraft

Witches were said to have diabolical powers. They could:
predict the future bring on night in the daytime cause fogs and tempests kill animals curse enemies with fatal, wasting diseases cause nightmares and sterility take demonic possession of any individual raise evil spirits by concocting a brew

It was believed that witches allowed the devil to suck their blood. Accused witches were examined for the Devils Mark - a red mark on their body from which the devil had sucked blood.

White Witches practiced White Magic (good) Black Witches practiced Black Magic (bad)

The number of poor was increasing and people were far less charitable. Old, poor, unprotected women needed to be supported and this was resented by other Elizabethans. Access to doctors and medicines was minimal. Women were expected to produce cures for most ailments as part of their house keeping. Wise women also used herbs for this purpose.

The use of herbs and plants such as mandrake, datura, monkshood, cannabis, belladonna, henbane and hemlock were common ingredients in brews and ointments for medical purposes. As the fear of witches and witchcraft increased in Europe the Catholic Church included in its definition of witchcraft anyone with knowledge of herbs as those who used herbs for cures did so only through a pact with the Devil, either explicit or implicit. Possession of such herbs, many of which did have psychedelic effects, resulted in execution by burning in Europe.

Witches were believed to have:

diabolical powers Ability to

Fly Predict the future Kill enemies with diseases Raise evil spirits

It was believed that witches allowed the Devil to suck their blood in exchange for a familiar: a bird, reptile, or beast as an evil servant

The people that were convicted of being witches would admit to the crime because of torture or because of psychiatric illnesses England: Death by hanging France and Spain: burned at the stake

Witches and Witchcraft - Misogyny?

Between 1560 and 1603, hundreds of people, nearly all of them women, were convicted as witches and executed In 1604 an official Act of Parliament decreed that anyone found guilty of practicing witchcraft should be executed Those who confessed to being witches did so under torture or because they were in the grip of delusions recognized today as psychiatric disorders.

Witch Hunts
Causes
Popular belief in magic
cunning folk helped villagers deal with tragedies such as the plague, physical disabilities etc. Claims power often by the elderly or impoverished and especially women

Catholic Church claimed that powers came from either God or the devil
Used witch hunts to gain control over village life in rural areas

Witch Hunts
Causes
Women were seen as weaker vessels and prone to temptation: constituted 80% of victims
Most between ages 45 and 60 unmarried Misogyny hatred of women Most midwives were women if babies died in childbirth midwives could be blamed

Religious wars and divisions created a panic environment scapegoats Leaders tried to gain loyalty of their people by protecting them against witches

Elizabethan England
Queen Elizabeth I passed a new and harsher witchcraft Law in 1562 but it did not define sorcery as heresy. Witches convicted of murder by witchcraft were to be executed but the punishment for witches in England was hanging, not burning at the stake which was the terrible death that was inflicted on French and Spanish witches. Lesser crimes relating to witchcraft resulted in the convicted witch being pilloried. Torture was not allowed as part of the investigatory or punishment procedure for witches. As the Witchcraft Law did not define sorcery as heresy the matter of religion was not involved in the prosecution of witches.

The attitude of Queen Elizabeth was certainly more lenient than those of her neighbours in France and Spain.

Elizabeths mother, Anne Boleyn had been accused of being a witch ( Anne Boleyn had a sixth finger growing from her fifth small finger. Anne also had a prominent mole on her neck these deformities were seen by her enemies as a sure sign that Anne Boleyn was a witch.) Queen Elizabeth was known to consult John Dee and she also showed an interest in Astrology. Perhaps these explain her leniency towards witches.

Essex Witch Trials

In the 1580s, 13% of assize trials in Essex were for witchcraft.
64 were accused and 53 were found guilty. The accused were tried for maleficium, the use of diabolical power to cause harm, not for heresy. Most of the accused confessed to the charges although torture was not allowed as part of the investigatory or punishment procedure for witches.

The first witch trial to appear in a secular court in England resulting in a series of witch trials in Chelmsford, Essex. The prosecution of women as the main victims of witch hunts

Essex Witch Trials (cont.)

The First of the Chelmsford 'witches' was the decrepit Elizabeth Frances.
Elizabeth Frances confessed to using a familiar cat called Sathan in order to harm various people. The cat was given to Agnes Waterhouse and her daughter Joan Waterhouse. Elizabeth Frances was sentenced to one year in prison but poor Agnes Waterhouse was hung. Her daughter, Joan, was found not guilty

The Second Chelmsford Witch trial of 1579 once again brought the unfortunate old Elizabeth Frances to answer accusations of witchcraft, along with several other women ' They were found guilty and hanged

Timeline of Elizabethan Witchcraft and Witches

The following timeline of Witchcraft and Witches describes the growth of the belief in Witches and Witchcraft:
1486 Malleus Maleficarum (The Hammer of Witches), published by two Dominican inquisitors vividly describing the satanic and sexual abominations of witches 1542 King Henry VIII passed the Witchcraft Act against conjurations and wiches craftes and sorcery and enchantmentes. His second wife, Anne Boleyn, was accused of being a witch 1562 Elizabethan Witchcraft Act was passed during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I. It was an act 'agaynst Conjuracions Inchauntmentes and Witchecraftes'. 1566 The Chelmesford Witches. The first witch trial to appear in a secular court in England resulting in a series of witch trials in Chelmsford, Essex. The first woman to be hanged for witchcraft was Agnes Waterhouse

Timeline of Elizabethan Witchcraft and Witches

The Agnes Waterhouse trial in Chelmsford produced the first Chapbook relating to witchcraft 1579 The Windsor witch trials 1582 St. Osyth Witches of Essex (the case was tried at Chelmsford) 1584 The Discoverie of Witchcraft was published by Reginald Scot following the Chelmsford witch trials. Reginald Scot argued that witches might not exist 1587 Clergyman George Gifford publishes 'A Discourse Concerning the Subtle Practices of Devils by Witches and Sorcerers' 1593 The trial of the Warboys witches of Huntingdon 1593 George Gifford published 'A Dialogue Concerning Witches and Witchcraftes' 1597 Publication of Demonology by James VI of Scotland (later James I of England) 1604 James I released his statute against witchcraft, in which he wrote that they were "loathe to confess without torture."

End of the Witch Hunts

Scientific Revolution of the 18th and 17th centuries discredited superstition Advances in medicine Witch trials had become chaotic accusers could become the accused Protestant Reformation emphasized God as the only spiritual force in the universe Yet trials did occur in great numbers in Protestant countries Some literature of the 16th and 17th centuries implied that people had a large degree of control over their own lives and did not need to rely on superstition.

Witchcraft and Drama

Witchcraft was a topical subject in the period in which Middleton wrote The Witch (1609) by Thomas Middleton Macbeth by William Shakespeare The Witch of Edmonton (1621) by William Rowley, Thomas Dekker, and John Ford

The Witch by Thomas Middleton

Jacobean tragicomedy (acted by the King's Men at the Blackfriars Theatre between 1609 and 1616. Exploited public interest in the scandalous subject of witchcraft.

The Witch is known chiefly because parts of the play were incorporated into Shakespeare's Macbeth, perhaps around 1618. The added text involves Hecate and the Three Witches, and is found in Macbeth, Act III, scene v, and Act IV, scene i, lines 39-43 and 125-32, and includes two songs, "Come away, come away" and "Black spirits.

Sources
Discovery of Witchcraft by Reginald Scot (1584): invocations, demons' names, and potion ingredients. Middleton, however, ignores Scot's sceptical attitude toward witchcraft and merely mines his book for exploitable elements.

Sources
The situation of a historical Duke and Duchess of Ravenna, related in the Florentine History of Niccol Machiavelli and in the fiction of Matteo Bandello.

Setting: Ravenna (Italy)

Middletons Witch
Middleton's chief witch is a 120year-old practitioner called Hecate. Her magic adheres to the classical standard of Seneca's Medea; she specializes in love and sex magic, giving one character a charm to cause impotence.

Historical Background
In forming this aspect of the play's plot, Middleton may have been influenced by the contemporaneous real-life divorce scandal of Lady Frances Howard and the Earl of Essex, which involved charges of magicinduced impotence

Frances Howard, the Countess of Essex, sued for annulment of her marriage with the Earl of Essex on the grounds of nonconsummation because he was impotent, but only to her. The idea of satanic involvement was seriously considered by the judges

Middleton's Hecate has a son (and incestuous lover) called Firestone, who serves as the play's clown. Hecate leads a coven of four other witches, Stadlin, Hoppo, Hellwayn, and Prickle.

The occult material in The Witch occurs in only three scenes: Act I, scene ii introduces the coven and contains abundant witchcraft exotica, to establish the macabre mood:

Witchs Cauldron:
.fried rats and pickled spiders, the flesh of an "unbaptized brat," a cauldron boiling over a blue flame, "Urchins, elves, hags, satyrs, Pans, fawns...Tritons, centaurs, dwarfs, imps...", "the blood of a flittermouse," and much much more.

Hecates Familiars
At one point, a cat enters playing a fiddle (a role probably filled by a musician in feline costume).

Hecates Songs and Spirits

III,iii features the song "Come away" that was added to Macbeth, and deals the witches' flight through the air: at one point "A Spirit descends in the shape of a Cat," and Hecate is shown "Ascending with the Spirit." V,ii contains the song "Black spirits," also inserted into Macbeth

Middleton's witches are lecherous, murderous and perverse in the traditional demonological way, but they are also funny, vulnerable and uncomfortably necessary to the maintenance of state power and social position by those who resort to them.1

1. Marion Gibson, Witchcraft and Society in England and America, 1550 1750, Ithaca, NY, Cornell University Press, 2003; p. 97.

Italy and Catholicism

Middleton's choice to set the play in Italy may reflect an element of satire against witchcraft beliefs and practices in Roman Catholic societies of his time.

Sebastian (Celio)

Fernando

Isabella - Antonio Francesca (sister)

Duke - Duchess

Florida (courtesan)

CHARACTERS

Almachildes (a fantastical gentleman)

Act 1, Scene 1: Urbino, Italy; The grounds of the Lord Governor's house; the day of Antonio and Isabella's wedding; a banquet laid out

The protagonist, Sebastian, tells his friend Fernando that, while he was away, his fiance Isabella married the powerful aristocrat Antonio. Sebastian intends to reclaim her. Antonios courtesan, Florida, is worried that her lover has married, but Gasparo, a servant, tries to console her by assuring her that Antonio will continue sleeping with her after he has grown tired of his new wife.

Act 1, Scene 2: Hecate's cave

Hecate (the chief witch) enters carrying serpents and an "unbaptized brat. She instructs Stradlin to boil the baby. The baby's fat will be used to make an ointment that enables the witches to fly at night, transform themselves into incubi and have sex with young men.

Hecates Cave
Hecate tells her son Firestone that she only has three more years until her 120 years of life (allotted to her by the devil) will be up.

Hecate and Impotence

Sebastian asks Hecate to make Antonio impotent so he won't be able to have sex with Isabella. Hecate gives him a charm made from the skins of lizards and snakes.

Act 2, Scene 1: Antonio's house; the morning after the wedding Antonio is extremely glum because Hecate's charm made him impotent on his wedding night.

Sebastian as Celio
Sebastian is disguised as a servant, Celio. Sebastian deduces from Antonio's discontented demeanour that Hecate's charm has taken effect. He is pleased, but even more desperate than before to get Isabella back.

Act 2, Scene 2: The Duke's palace

The Duchess falls in love with Almachildes (a fantastical gentleman), as a result of a magical love charm from Hecate. The Duchess intends to use Armachildes to take revenge on her husband, the Duke, whom he hates because he had killed her father (and made a goblet of his skull)

Act 3, Scene 1: The Duke's palace

The Duchess has tricked Almachildes into having sex with her by blindfolding him and pretending to be Amoretta.

The scene begins as she removes the blindfold. She tells Almachildes that she will marry him if he helps her kill the Dukebut threatens to accuse him of rape if he refuses. Almachildes agrees to help her kill the Duke.

Act 3, Scene 2: The grounds of Antonio's house

Florida sneaks into the house for rendezvous with Antonio. Sebastian (posing as "Celio") learns about Floridas visits to Antonio (it seems that Hecate's impotency charm only impedes Antonio's ability to have sex with Isabella).

Celio tells Isabella about Antonios relationship with Florida. Isabella and Celio plan to catch Antonio red-handed, in the act of committing adultery.

Act 3, Scene 3: A forest glade

Hecate, Hoppo and Stadlin prepare for a night-time flight. Voices from off-stage sing the song "Come Away, Come Away" (which also appears in Macbeth). A "Spirit like a cat" (Malkin) descends as the voices sing. Hecate ascends with the Cat, extolling the expected pleasures of her night-time ride.

Act 4, Scene 1: The Duke's palace

Almachildes reveals in a soliloquy that he has helped the Duchess kill the Duke. A popular uprising has broken out in opposition to the Duchess' ascent to power. Almachildes regrets his role in the Duke's murder and worries that he will become the Duchess' next victim. The Duchess sends him away and says in a soliloquy that she intends to kill Almachildes and marry the Governor.

Act 4, Scene 2: Fernando's house (a sort of brothel)

Sebastian tells Florida and Fernando about his convoluted scheme to lure Isabella into bed and deflower her. Later, he gives up his complicated plan involving a double bed-trick and encourages Isabella to wait.

Act 4, Scene 3: Antonio's house

Antonios sister, Francisca, plots to compromise Isabella by having her found in bed with the servant. Antonio announces he has killed Gaspero and Florida, believing that Gaspero had an affair with his wife, Isabella. Then, Antonio wants to kill his sister too, who confesses everything.

Act 5, Scene 1: Antonio's house

Antonio intends to punish his sister Francesca and her lover, Aberzanes, by performing a mock marriage between them and then ordering them to drink poisoned wine.

But the wine is not poisoned, after all, and they are married. Gaspero and "Isabella" (actually Florida) are merely wounded, not dead.

Act 5, Scene 2: Hecate's cave, a cauldron set

The Duchess goes to Hecate to procure a "sudden, subtle" poison for Almachildes. Hecate offers her a voodoo portrait of Almachildes that will kill him slowly. The Duchess rejects the portrait because it would take too long. She also insists that the method of poisoning must be subtle.

Hecate orders Firestone to bring her some lizard's brain, bear breach and "three ounces of the red-haired girl I killed last midnight." These ingredients are stirred together in a pot with bat's blood, the juice of a toad, and the oil of an adder. Hecate sings a charm song and the other witches perform a dance for the moon.

Act 5, Scene 3: Antonio's house

It is announced that Antonio fell through a trap door and fell to his death while searching through Fernando's house for Isabella. "Celio" removes his disguise to reveal that he is actually Sebastian. The Lord Governor charges the Duchess with adultery and murder. The Duke sits up from his death bed, perfectly alive. The play ends on a note of festivity and redemption.

Engraving by Jan Van Der Velde, 'The Sorceress', 1626

Woodcut of a sorcerer surfing, from a continental witchcraft pamphlet

Woodcut by JJ Wick of a witch being carried off to hell by the devil. A horrified cleric looks on.

A young man swaps the book of salvation for the devil's black book of the damned

Woodcut of a witch being taken off by the devil on horseback

A German Sabbath scene of 1669: round the mountain, witches process, embraced by demons and led by musicians. Witches fly, fall off aerial goats, tend cauldrons.

Mathew Hopkins, Witchfinder

Pieter van Laer, Self Portrait as a Sorcerer' A love-spell is being attempted: the open book has a pierced heart motif The smoking potion is brewed up in the skull inverted on the hot coals

Frans Franken II, 'An Assembly of Witches, 1607. A largely female collection of witches gather to cast spells using books ('Grimoires'), skulls and other ingredients. One sits at a table to record the experiments

Adrianus Hubertus, Witches. The witches have boiled up their ointment, and two have already achieved lift-off.

The frontispiece to Bishop peter Binsfield's de confessionibus maleficorum et sagarum (1589). Here witches fly on pitch-forks and goats, blast crops, kneel to devils and consort with their demon lovers. Centrally, a witch adds a baby to a cauldron.

ALBRECHT Durer, Four Witches. The ambiguous engraving hovers somewhere between a picture of the Graces, and an image of a group of witches.

Albrecht Durer, Witch on a Ram. A traditional motif, with a witch riding an animal backwards, in this case, a ram. She carries a distaff, revealing her power, while behind her, she leaves meteoric disaster. Yet four putti play in the foreground, carrying and balancing things, while the witch's hair streams in the counterdirection to her travel.

Jacob Cornelisz van Oostsanen, Biblical scene: Saul and the Witch of Endor (Samuel, 28), when 'Saul, forsaken of God, seeketh to a witch. Saul seeks out the witch to know the future.

Henry Fuseli; Samuel appearing to Saul in the Presence of the Witch of Endor

Macbeth and the Witches, Theodore Chassiereau, 1855

Anonymous German artist's 'Der Liebeszauber' ('The Love Charm')

A youthful witch, had woven a love spell. Her incantation is captured in the scrolls which float in the air, a heart is at her mercy in the opened chest in front of the fire. The charm has worked, and the young man has arrived at the door.

William Blake, Hecate (1795)

John William Waterhouse, Magic Circle (1884)

Grien Weather, Witches