ASEM 2481

CRN 4109

10:00AM-11:50AM T,R

STURM 254

Witchcraft & Renaissance Drama

Prof. Linda Bensel-Meyers 486A Sturm Hall X1-2859 lbenselm@du.edu
Office Hours: 9-11 MW and by appointment

Course Description:
Witchcraft and Renaissance Drama will trace how the rise of the
witch hunts in England is reflected in and fueled by several venues
of cultural production in England from 1558-1621. The course will
journey chronologically through the laws against witchcraft, the
witch trial transcripts and the popular drama as all manifestations of
how the metaphor of witchcraft served to address several cultural
fears of the transition from the medieval to the early modern period.
The exploration will focus on three different periods through the
Tudor to the Late Jacobean Age to explore how the drama both
reflected and shaped Englands response to the European Witch
panic.

Course Objectives:
The course will draw from history, sociology, rhetoric, and
literature to ask you to reflect and comment on how literature can
be a cultural artifact that informs our understanding of how popular
movements shape social trends and behavior. Each of the three
units will ask you to read and analyze trial transcripts and a literary
work through the lens of current research to draw your conclusions.
At the end of the course, you will be given the opportunity to
reflect on how the evolution of the witchcraft panic in Early
England informs your understanding of social movements and fears today.

Method of Evaluation:
Commonplace Postings
10%
postings] Dialectical Arguments (3)
responses]
Three Essays (5-7 pp. each) 75%

[Daily Discussion board

15%

[In-class peer

[Unit conclusions]

Commonplace Book:
The Commonplace Book was a technique used throughout Renaissance
education, directing students to collect quotations from their readings so that they might refer back to those truths
throughout their lives. For this class, we will keep virtual commonplace books. Before each class, you will be expected to
post one quotation from the reading assigned for that day, and explain how that quotation helps you fashion your
understanding of some aspect of the witchcraft panic and the religious, gender, and/or class conflicts of early modern

England. To post your daily commonplace, use the Discussion Board on the Blackboard webpage for this class. Besides
giving us a springboard for our class discussions, your commonplace postings can serve as early rough drafts of your
work for the papers you will write for each unit.
Sutton (1615)

The Swimming of Mary

Required Texts:
Rosen, Barbara, ed. Witchcraft in England, 1558-1618.
Amherst: U of Mass. P, 1969. ISBN: 0870237535.
Sharpe, J.A. Witchcraft in Early Modern England .Longman
(2002). ISBN 0582328756.

Recommended Editions of the

Plays:
Corbin, Peter and Douglas Sedge, Eds. Three Jacobean
Witchcraft Plays: Sophonsiba, The Witch, The Witch of
Edmonton . The Revels Plays Companion Library.
Manchester UP, 1989. ISBN: 0719019532.
Marlowe, Christopher. Doctor Faustus. Norton Critical Edition. Ed. David Kastan. W. W. Norton & Company
(2004). ISBN: 0393977544.
Shakespeare, William. Macbeth: Texts and Contexts. Ed. William C. Carroll. Bedford/ St. Martins (1999). ISBN
0312144547.

Digital Texts:
In 1486, The Malleus Maleficarum (The Witches Hammer ) taught magistrates how to identify, interrogate, and
convict witches. To access Kramer and Sprengers The Malleus Maleficarum go to:
http://malleusmaleficarum.org.
Early English Books Online Database:
http://www.penlib.du.edu/FindIt/EResources/findit_databasesearch_results.cfm?alpha=E
Other relevant sites:
http://www.elizabethan-era.org.uk/elizabethan-witchcraft-and-witches.htm

King James Accusing

Witches

ASEM 2481:

Witchcraft & Renaissance Drama

Spring 2011 Course Schedule

Dat
e

Topic

T 3/22 Background
R 3/24 Witchcraft comes to
England
T 3/29 Early Witch Trials
R 3/31 The Faust Legend &
Renaissance magic
T 4/5
Doctor Faustus A-text
R 4/7

T 4/12 First Unit Conclusions

R 4/14 A Scottish King

Reading Due

Writing Due

Sharpe Chs. 1-2

Rosen Ch. 1.
Scan Malleus Malificarum (digital text)
Rosen Chs. 2-3.
Norton Critical Edition, pp. 182-208, 226-236.

Commonplace posting

Marlowe Doctor Faustus A-text Acts 1-2

Complete Doctor Faustus A-text.
Bring Rough Draft of paper 1
Rosen Ch. 4.

Commonplace posting
Commonplace posting

T 4/19 Witch-trials & beliefs

R 4/21 Changing times.
T 4/26 Discourses of
Witchcraft & Women
R 4/28 Macbeth
T 5/3

R 5/5 Second Unit

Conclusions
T 5/10 Witch Hunts & Politics

Sharpe Chs. 3-4.

Rosen Chs.5-6.
Macbeth casebook, pp. 300-68.

Commonplace posting
Commonplace posting
Dialectical Argument
1st Paper Due by 5
pm as email attchmt.
Commonplace posting
Commonplace posting
Commonplace posting

Shakespeare Macbeth Acts 1-2

Complete Macbeth.
Bring Rough Draft.

Commonplace posting
Commonplace posting
Dialectical Argument

Rosen Ch. 7.

R 5/12
T 5/17
R 5/19
T 5/24
R 5/26

Jacobean Decline
The Witch of Edmonton

The Aftermath
Third Unit Conclusions

Rosen Ch 8. Sharpe Ch. 5.

Acts 1-3 (in Three Jacobean Witchcraft Plays).
Complete The Witch of Edmonton.
Sharpe Ch.6.
Bring rough draft.

2nd Paper Due by 5

pm as email attchmt.
Commonplace posting

W 6/1

Final Paper Due

by 1:00 as email attachment to

lbenselm@du.edu

Commonplace posting
Dialectical Argument
3rd Paper Due