“Go Touch His Life”: Contagious Malice and the Power of Touch in The Witch of Edmonton

Vile Vapours

“…My purpose in this article, however, is to expand on this understanding of the play by examining an aspect of it which has received little scholarly attention: the role of contemporary medical theory in the play's representation of witchcraft. Bronwyn Johnston (2019) has recently departed from the familiar social reading of the play in making the case for Sawyer as a locus of infection in Edmonton; in the present article, I discuss the physiological aspects of Sawyer's transformation into a witch. The Witch of Edmonton presents a dramatic setting in which the devil is, as contemporary Protestants were fond of pointing out, 'the prince of this world' (Oldridge 2010: 38).…”