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Back The Witch
Chapters (43)
  1. Cover Page
  2. The Witch
  3. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
  4. ABBREVIATIONS
  5. INTRODUCTION
  6. FURTHER READING
  7. The Witch
  8. [DRAMATIS PERSONAE]
  9. THE WITCH
  10. [Act I,] Scene ii
  11. Act II, Scene i
  12. [Act II,] Scene ii
  13. [Act II,] Scene iii
  14. Act III, Scene i
  15. [Act III,] Scene ii
  16. [Act III,] Scene iii
  17. Act IV, Scene i
  18. [Act IV,] Scene ii
  19. [Act IV,] Scene iii
  20. Act V, Scene i
  21. [Act V,] Scene ii
  22. [Act V,] Scene iii
  23. APPENDIX
  24. In a maiden time profess’d
  25. Come Away, Hecate!
  26. Notes
  27. Thomas Holmes, Esquire
  28. Act I, Scene i
  29. [Act I,] Scene ii
  30. Act II, Scene i
  31. [Act II,] Scene ii
  32. [Act II,] Scene iii
  33. Act III, Scene i
  34. [Act III,] Scene ii
  35. [Act III,] Scene iii
  36. Act IV, Scene i
  37. [Act IV,] Scene ii
  38. Act IV Scene iii
  39. Act V, Scene i
  40. [Act V,] Scene ii
  41. [Act V,] Scene iii
  42. Appendix
  43. Footnotes

In The Witch great ‘folks’ get away with murder and it is expected that high rank will allow sinners to go unpunished (e.g. IV.i.51–3, V.i.93–4). Not only is it evident in the play that the witches will not be caught and tried but there is also no question of any character being punished for using the witches’ services or attempting criminal acts. The duchess is pardoned, Sebastian gets his Isabella, Almachildes is merely exposed as a fool. Only Antonio falls down a hole into hell, and he was one of the few characters who did not use the witches.25 These formal happy endings may appear qualified, but the fact that many of the characters have avoided punishment for misdeeds committed, or intended, is important and complements the emphasis on characters attempting to ‘rid’ themselves of evidence of misdoing (e.g. I.i.38, II.iii.9, 14: the duchess attempting to rid herself of Almachildes; Aberzanes and Francisca ridding themselves of their baby). An alternative to avoiding punishment is of course repentance, but when this option is mentioned (e.g. the duke in V.iii, Antonio in relation to Aberzanes and Francisca), the morally dubious status of the character who is recommending repentance totally undercuts the idea.

The Witch has not received a great deal of critical scrutiny in comparison with the more popular Middleton plays such as The Changeling and Women Beware Women; it has been discussed as a tragicomedy, as a parody of Beaumont and Fletcher, as the ‘middle of Middleton’, as a theatrical failure.26 My emphasis would be that The Witch clearly anticipates The Changeling and also Women Beware Women in its presentation of women characters as being distorted by their culture into practising internecine warfare and immorality. The Revels editors (p. 19) also find in The Witch ‘an all-pervasive irony’ that anticipates these two later plays. The opening banquet scene of The Witch, in particular, looks forward to the central banquet scene of Women Beware Women (III.iii) in its complex structure and carefully paced relaying of plot information and development. I would also stress the link between the endings of The Witch and Women Beware Women. Both are uncompromising and astonishing. In The Witch the ludicrous ending also ensures that most questions raised by the play are left unanswered despite (indeed because of?) the absurdly superficial neatness of the ending.

STAGING AND STAGE HISTORY