Open University Set Books

The multi-authored text The Witch of Edmonton has received considerable attention recently both from scholars and critics interested in witchcraft practices and also from the directors in the theatre. The play, based on a sensational witchcraft trial of 1621, presents Mother Sawyer and her local community in the grip of a witch-mania reflecting popular belief and superstition of the time. This edition offers a thorough reconsideration of the text, comprehensive notes and glossary, together with a complete transcription of the original pamphlet by Henry Goodcole, The Wonderful Discovery of Elizabeth Sawyer, A Witch, Late of Edmonton, Her Conviction and Condemnation and Death (1621), which the dramatists used as a source.