SOURCE: Grinnell, Richard W. “Naming and Social Disintegration in The Witch of Edmonton.” Essays in Theatre 16, no. 2 (May 1998): 209-23.

In the following essay, Grinnell argues that The Witch of Edmonton is about social insecurity and upheaval.

In 1621, Elizabeth Sawyer of Edmonton was brought to trial, tried, and executed for using witchcraft to kill her neighbor, Agnes Ratcliffe. Records show us that Sawyer was typical of those accused of witchcraft in Renaissance England: she was female, elderly, poor, willing to lash out at those she felt had wronged her, and Ratcliffe was a typical victim: of slightly higher social status, in conflict with Sawyer over economic issues.¹ Like many witchcraft victims before her, Ratcliffe died of a wasting sickness shortly after a memorable clash with the woman who had been defined as a witch. Wallace Notestein notes the case briefly in his early A History of Witchcraft in England...