"By the pricking of my thumbs, something wicked this way comes." Renaissance England was equal parts obsessed with and terrified of witches and sorcerers. King James not only instituted stricter witchcraft laws, but suppressed the books of witchcraft skeptics and wrote a treatise defending the existence and persecution of witches. England's playwrights rose to the occasion, pulling from both contemporary superstition and classical texts to depict witches, sorcerers, alchemy, and magic on stage for fascinated audiences. We will be reading Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Tempest, Christopher Marlowe's Dr Faustus, Ben Jonson's Masque of Queens and The Alchemist, Thomas Middleton's The Witch and John Milton's Comus, alongside the witchcraft texts and pamphlets these playwrights used as their source materials. Particular emphasis will be placed on the surviving documentation on costuming, dance, and music used in these plays, as well as the history of witchcraft persecution, alchemical "labs" as a precursor to modern chemistry, and Green Library's collection of Renaissance alchemical and witchcraft texts.
5 units · Letter or Credit/No Credit
"By the pricking of my thumbs, something wicked this way comes." Renaissance England was equal parts obsessed with and terrified of witches and sorcerers. King James not only instituted stricter witchcraft laws, but suppressed the books of witchcraft skeptics and wrote a treatise defending the existence and persecution of witches. England's playwrights rose to the occasion, pulling from both contemporary superstition and classical texts to depict witches, sorcerers, alchemy, and magic on stage for fascinated audiences. We will be reading Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Tempest, Christopher Marlowe's Dr Faustus, Ben Jonson's Masque of Queens and The Alchemist, Thomas Middleton's The Witch and John Milton's Comus, alongside the witchcraft texts and pamphlets these playwrights used as their source materials. Particular emphasis will be placed on the surviving documentation on costuming, dance, and music used in these plays, as well as the history of witchcraft persecution, alchemical "labs" as a precursor to modern chemistry, and Green Library's collection of Renaissance alchemical and witchcraft texts.
Offered in Autumn 2026 at Stanford University.