Jan. 22        Course intro: view The Burning Times, discuss reading early modern writing
                HW: Read Purkiss, Summers, Scot, James I in course packet
                Grad students: James Sharpe, “Witchcraft and Elite Mentalities,” in Instruments of
                     Darkness (library reserve)

Jan. 29        Discuss early modern witchcraft belief, its many subtleties and permutations
                HW: Read Endymion (read selectively in intro, priority = pages 7-60)

Feb. 5         Discuss Endymion (particularly gender, historical issues and staging)
                HW: The First Part of Henry VI (in Norton Shakespeare)
                Grad students: Read Steven Mullaney, “The Place of the Stage” (library reserve)

Feb. 12       Discuss 1 H6 (esp. portrayal of Joan, la Pucelle and Margaret of Anjou)
                HW: The First Part of the Contention , or 2 Henry VI (in Norton Shakespeare)
                Grad students: Read Mullaney, “The Rehearsal of Cultures” (library reserve)

Feb. 19       Discuss theatricality of power, power of theatricality in early modern England
                HW: The True Tragedy of Richard Duke of York, or 3 Henry VI (in Norton
                    Shakespeare). Grad students: Lorraine Helms excerpt from The Weyward Sisters

Feb. 26       Discuss the gendering of evil in the trio of Henry VI plays
                HW: The Tragedy of Macbeth (in Norton Shakespeare), write mid-term exam 
                    Grad students: Read Garry Wills excerpt from Witches and Jesuits (pages 3-10; on
                     reserve in library).  Note: those interested may want to read chapters 3-4 in Wills’
                     Witches and Jesuits.

March 5      Discuss status of the witches in Macbeth – is Lady Macbeth a witch? Is Macbeth?
                MID-TERM EXAM DUE
                HW: General Intro. to Three Jacobean Witchcraft Plays, pages 1-4, 13-20, and The
                 Witch (pages 85-142 in Three Jacobean Witchcraft Plays)

March 12     Discuss Hecate in The Witch and in Macbeth
                 HW: General Intro. to Three Jacobean Witchcraft Plays, pages 4-13 and Sophonisba,
                      or The Wonder of Women (pages 33-84 in Three … Witchcraft Plays)

March 18-24             SPRING BREAK – NO CLASS MEETINGS

March 26      Discuss relationship between witchcraft and sexuality
                  HW: General Intro. to Three Jacobean Witchcraft Plays, pages 20-28 and The 
                   Witch of Edmonton (pages 143-209 in Three Jacobean Witchcraft Plays) and Ewen
                   handout about Elizabeth Sawyer

April 2          Discuss dramatization of “real life” events, playwrights’ attitude toward subject]
                 HW: The Late Lancashire Witches and Ewen excerpts on Lancashire court records
                  (course packet). Grad students: James Sharpe, “Witchcraft in Popular Culture,” in
                 Instruments of Darkness(library reserve)

April 9          What aspects of the actual Lancashire cases are dramatized? Why?
                  HW: Intro. to The Alchemist (pp. ix-xxxi) + play (pp. 3-156) and Reginald Scot
                  handout on alchemy; make final selection of scenes for April 30^th performances

April 16        Discuss male witchcraft practice, Doll Common’s many-faceted role in this play
                 NOMINATE SCENES FOR APRIL 30^TH PERFORMANCES
                 HW: The Wise Woman of Hogsdon (in course packet)
                      Grad students: Jean Howard excerpt from The Stage and Social Struggle

April 30        Discuss Jonson’s satire; performances of select scenes from semester’s reading
                 HW: Complete final project