Witch of Islington, The

Anon. (1597?)

Historical Records

Henslowe's Diary

F. 27^v (Greg, I.54):

[July 1597]

14

tt at the wiche of Jslyngton

01—

07—

02-00-00

(marginal note: "marten slather went for the company of my lord admeralles men the 18 of July 1597")

[July 1597]

28

tt at the wiche of Jselyngton

01—

08—

00-13-00

Theatrical Provenance

The Admiral's Company.

Probable Genre(s)

Realistic tragedy (?) (Harbage, 74-5); domestic drama?

Possible Narrative and Dramatic Sources or Analogues

Ben Jonson writes, in an annotation to his Masque of Queenes (1609), on witches making pictures of their victims in wax, etc.:

Bodin... hath... much of the witches later practise in that kind, and reports a relation of a French Ambassadours, out of England, of certaine pictures of wax found in a dunghill, neere Islington, of our late Queenes, which rumor I my selfe (being then very younge) can yet remember to haue bene current. (B2r, n.)

It has been suggested that it was on this episode that the play was based. Fleay writes: 'This must have afforded the plot to The Witch of Islington' (II, 4-5).

References to the Play

None known.

Critical Commentary

H. W. Herrington posits a “dramatic vogue” for witchcraft plays in the late 1590s (478), and, after discussing Mother Redcap, writes:

Earlier in the same year [1597] Henslowe notes a performance of "The Witch of Islington." By the next year had been written "Black Joan." The former was either an out-and-out witch play, or else such a play with political bearings. The latter, in all probability, was a witch play also. If we may judge from the titles and the growing realism of dramatic treatment, they were of a kind far closer to actual life than those hitherto considered. (478)

Adams suggests that Henslowe's omission of 'ne' (i.e. new) in the diary entries indicates that it was a revival of an old play (95).

For What It's Worth

(Information welcome)

Works Cited

Adams, H. H. English Domestic Or, Homiletic Tragedy 1575 to 1642. New York: Benjamin Blom, Inc., 1943. Print.

Fleay, F. G. A Biographical Chronicle of the English Drama, 1559-1642. 2 vols. London: Reeves & Turner, 1891. Print. Web.

Herrington, H. W. “Witchcraft and Magic in the Elizabethan Drama”. The Journal of American Folklore 32.126 (1919): 447–85. Print. Web.

Jonson, B. The Masque of Queenes. London: Nicholas Okes for R. Bonian and H. Wally, 1609. Print. Web (EEBO); web (ed. W. Gifford, 1855, Google Books).

Site created and maintained by Simon Davies, University of Sussex; updated 13 May 2011.