Overview

A unique collection of materials, including works of literature as well as historical documents, Witchcraft and Society in England and America, 1550-1750 provides a broad view of how witches and magicians were represented in print and manuscript over three centuries. It combines newly annotated selections from famous texts, such as Macbeth, Doctor Faustus, and The Faerie Queene with unjustly obscure ones: portrayals of witchcraft and magic from private papers, court records, and little-known works of fiction. In this rich, broad context, Marion Gibson presents the voices of ""witches,"" accusers, ministers, physicians, poets, dramatists, magistrates, and witchfinders from both sides of the Atlantic. Each text is introduced with a short essay and fully annotated to explain unfamiliar words and concepts, give biographical details of participants and/or authors, and explore the context in which the text was produced.

Full Product Details

Author:   Dr Marion Gibson (University of Exeter, UK)
Publisher:   Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Imprint:   Continuum International Publishing Group Ltd.
Edition:   New edition
Dimensions:   Width: 15.60cm , Height: 1.50cm , Length: 23.40cm
Weight:   0.424kg
ISBN:  

9780826483003

ISBN 10:   0826483003
Pages:   286
Publication Date:   12 October 2006
Audience:   Professional and scholarly ,  College/higher education ,  Professional & Vocational ,  Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   Manufactured on demand  
We will order this item for you from a manufactured on demand supplier.
Language:   English

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements Introduction 1. Witchcraft in the Courts An Act against Conjurations, Witchcrafts, Sorcery and Enchantments 1541/2 An Act against Conjurations, Enchantments and Witchcrafts 1563 An Act against Conjuration, Witchcraft and dealing with evil and wicked Spirits 1604 The Witchcraft Act 1735 Information and Examination: Suffolk 1645 Printed Information and Examination: Devon 1682 Indictment: Essex 1579 2. Witchcraft in Elizabethan and Jacobean England The examination of John Walsh or Welshe, 1566 W.W., A true and just Recorde (London, 1582) A Brief abstract of the Arraignment of nine Witches at Northampton, 1612 3. English Demonologies George Gifford, A Dialogue concerning Witches and Witchcraftes (London, 1593) Reginold Scot, The Discoverie of Witchcraft (London, 1584) John Cotta, The Triall of Witch-craft (London, 1616) 4. Stage and Page: Witches in Literature Thomas Middleton, The Witch (c.1613-15) William Shakespeare, Macbeth (c. 1606) John Ford, Thomas Dekker and William Rowley, The Witch of Edmonton (1621) Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene (Books 1-3, 1590) Ben Jonson, The Masque of Queenes (1609) Miles Gale (?), 'Witchcraft ye practice of deluded minds' 5. Possession: The Devil and the Witch Jesse Bee and others, The most Wonderful and True Storie, of a certain Witch named Alse Gooderige (London, 1597) Edward Fairfax, 'A Discourse of witchcraft' (1621-22) 6. Learned Men and Magic Christopher Marlowe, The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus ( A text, 1604) Anon, The Merry Devil of Edmonton (c.1604) 7. Magic and Money: A Trickster Thomas Heywood, The Wise Woman of Hogsdon (c.1604) Ben Jonson, The Alchemist (1610) 8. Witchcraft in America Examination of Bridget Bishop Indictment of Bridget Bishop for afflicting Mercy Lewis Susannah Sheldon, evidence against Bridget Bishop and others Cotton Mather, Wonders of the Invisible World (Boston and London, 1693) Increase Mather, Cases of Conscience (Boston, 1693) John Hale, A Modest Enquiry Into the Nature of Witchcraft (Boston, 1702) 9. Decline and Change: Restoration to Eighteenth Century Joseph Glanvill, Saducismus Triumphatus (London, 1681) Francis Hutchison, An Historical Essay Concerning Witchcraft (London, 1718) Daniel Defoe, A System of Magick, or a History of the Black Art (London, 1727) Select Bibliography and Further Reading

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Author Information

Marion Gibson is Senior Lecturer in English at the University of Exeter, UK. Her publications include Reading Witchcraft (Routledge, 1999), Possession, Puritanism and Print (Pickering and Chatto, 2006) and Witchcraft Myths in American Culture (Routledge, 2007).

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