‘To kill harmless cattle': Animal Victims and The Witch of Edmonton

Early Theatre ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 24 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Molly Hand
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
Early Modern England ◽  
Source Text ◽  
Human Animal ◽  
The Witch

The Witch of Edmonton (1621) is often viewed as a sceptical portrayal of witchcraft that offers a sympathetic view of the accused, but its accurate depiction of animal victims in events leading to accusations remains overlooked. This essay argues that witchcraft in early modern England was largely an animal crime. Following its source text, Henry Goodcole’s The Wonderfull Discoverie of Elizabeth Sawyer, A Witch (1621), and earlier prose accounts, The Witch of Edmonton illustrates the centrality of human-animal relations to the gendered dynamics and discourse of early modern witchcraft.

scholarly journals Women, Marriage, Property and Law: Contextualizing The Witch of Edmonton

Early Theatre ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Tim Stretton
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
Historical Context ◽  
Early Modern England ◽  
Economic Relations ◽  
Recent Scholarship ◽  
Personal Relations ◽  
Marital Property ◽  
The Witch

Changes in marital property and marriage negotiations, the economy, and personal relations in early modern England form the backdrop for key elements of The Witch of Edmonton. This essay draws on recent scholarship surrounding these changes to provide historical context for analyzing the play. It argues that the commercialization of economic relations and the emergence of trusts facilitated a shift away from customary arrangements (such as dower) towards more contractual ones (such as jointures). Meanwhile, increased reliance on credit and legal instruments, such as bonds, produced record levels of litigation, contributing to legalistic thinking and cynicism about legal agreements. 

scholarly journals “Paltrie Vermin, Cats, Mise, Toads, and Weasils”: Witches, Familiars, and Human-Animal Interactions in the English Witch Trials

Religions ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 134
Author(s):  
Helen Parish
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Witch Trials ◽  
Human Animal ◽  
The Witch ◽  
Causal Theories ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Shed Light

This article explores the role played by the relationship between witch and familiar in the early modern witch trials. It positions animal familiars at the intersection of early modern belief in witchcraft and magic, examining demonologies, legal and trial records, and print pamphlets. Read together, these sources present a compelling account of human-animal interactions during the period of the witch trials, and shed light upon the complex beliefs that created the environment in which the image of the witch and her familiar took root. The animal familiar is positioned and discussed at the intersection of writing in history, anthropology, folklore, gender, engaging with the challenge articulated in this special issue to move away from mono-causal theories and explore connections between witchcraft, magic, and religion.

The Animal Face of Early Modern England

2013 ◽  
Vol 30 (7-8) ◽  
pp. 177-198 ◽  
Author(s):  
Erica Fudge
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
17Th Century ◽  
Early Modern England ◽  
History Of Philosophy ◽  
Historical Reconstruction ◽  
The Past ◽  
History Of ◽  
Human Animal ◽  
Ways Of Thinking ◽  
Archival Study

This article is both a work of historical reconstruction and a theoretical intervention. It looks at some influential contemporary accounts of human-animal relations and outlines a body of ideas from the 17th century that challenges what is presented as representative of the past in posthumanist thinking. Indeed, this article argues that this alternative past is much more in keeping with the shifts that posthumanist ideas mark in their departure from humanism. Taking a journey through ways of thinking that will, perhaps, be unfamiliar, the revised vision of human-animal relations outlined here emerges not from a history of philosophy but from an archival study of people’s relationships with and understandings of their livestock in early modern England. At stake are conceptions of who we are and who we might have been, and the relation between those two, and the livestock on 17th-century smallholdings are our guides.

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