It was subsequently discovered that Frances had paid various people to practise witchcraft against Essex and also by witchcraft to bind Robert Carr’s affections to her alone. These dealings came to light in the course of the investigation into the death of Sir Thomas Overbury (d. September 1613), a close associate and probably lover of Carr for many years, who had implacably opposed Carr’s marriage to Frances. Frances had paid for witchcraft against Overbury, but when she found that this was not working, she attempted to have him poisoned. It is unclear what role Carr played in this; he always maintained his innocence, and it is possible that Overbury died from the effects of potions he was taking through choice at the time. Those who had attempted to poison Overbury, Frances’s accomplices, were all executed, but when both Carr and Frances were tried in 1616 and found guilty, they were merely sent to the Tower. They were released in 1622, shortly before Middleton and Rowley’s play The Changeling was licensed. The Changeling may indicate a renewed interest in the scandal as it seems to make reference to it – most obviously in the virginity test of IV.i.13

The intersections between this scandal and The Witch can be summarised as follows:

a) A woman of murderous inclinations named Frances/Francisca. There is the pun Frances Carr/Francisca, if the last syllable of ‘Francisca’ is stressed.

b) A separation between a man (Antonio, Essex) and wife (Isabella, Frances) to allow the remarriage of the wife (to Sebastian, Carr) as a virgin in circumstances where the fact of the virginity is stressed and is supposedly a result of the first husband being bewitched.

c) Sensational poisoning narratives. The duchess tries to murder her husband; Frances was rumoured to have attempted to poison Essex. The duchess attempts to murder Almachildes because he is in the way of her marriage to the Lord Governor, which would be politically advantageous for her. This parallels the attempt by Frances to have Overbury, the underling who opposed her marriage to Carr, murdered.

d) A court environment like that of James I.

e) An interest in love charms. The charms Almachildes uses to win Amoretta are like those Frances used to secure Carr’s attentions. In order to stress the love charm element, Middleton was willing to allow the plot to creak audibly (the coincidence of Amoretta and the duchess having the same names). This suggests that Middleton’s main focus was not plausible narrative but topical satire.