EN3012 Witchcraft and Drama, 2003

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Answer any TWO questions.

1. ‘Wandering through the world, as God’s hangmen, to execute such turns as he employs them in’ (King James, Demonologie, on devils).

Write an essay on the representation of devils in the witch-plays you have studied.

2. ‘The overwhelming impression one carries away is one of consternation at the human predicament, lives of desperation and helplessness before natural catastrophes which they did not in the least understand’ (Barbara Rosen on the witch pamphlets). In the light of this comment, write an essay on the way that the rest of the witch’s community is represented in any of the witch-plays you have studied.

3. Meg. Now let us laugh to think upon

The feat which we have so lately done,

In the distraction we have set

In Seely’s house; which shall beget

Wonder and sorrow 'mongst our foes,

Whilst we make laughter of their woes.

All. Ha, ha, ha!

(The Late Lancashire Witches)

Write an essay on the roles of any TWO of ‘wonder’, ‘sorrow’, or ‘laughter’ in a

range of the witch-plays.

4. ‘Your Satanicall sisterhood’

Write an essay comparing the different effects the dramatists get from the representation of solitary or collective witches.

5. ‘Presently he was like a very little dog, and desired her to open her mouth and let him come into her body, and then he would rule all the world…’

(Edward Fairfax, Daemonologia, recounting the trance visions of his daughter Helen)

Write an essay on the role of animals and/or children in the witchcraft plays you

have studied.

6. 'Tis said Hares are Hermaphrodites, one while Male, and another Female, and that which begets this year, brings young ones the next; which some think to be the reason that witches take their shapes so oft.

(King James, Demonologie)

In what ways, if any, might the witches depicted in the witch-plays be taken to

challenge normal gender categories?

7. ‘The plays do not reflect any single discourse of witchcraft, but instead manufacture not one but many literary witches of their own’ (Diane Purkiss). In the light of this comment, discuss some of the ways the dramatists develop their witches from their source material.

8. ‘God will not permit any innocent persons shall be slandered with that vile defection’ (King James, Demonologie). Write an essay on the representation of justice in the witch-plays.

9. Write an essay on the depiction of male participation in magical practices in any of the plays studied.

10. ‘This half-comic, half-nauseating world of feminised disorder as imagined by men’ (Diane Purkiss). Discuss any TWO or THREE of the witch-plays in the light of this remark about them.

11. ‘Middleton’s witches are of a lesser order than Shakespeare’s – they afflict the body, not the mind’ (Margot Heinemann). Discuss Macbeth and The Witch in the light of this comment.