Ep 184: The Case of Elizabeth Stile with Carole Levin - a podcast by Cassidy Cash

In 1606, as Shakespeare stagedMacbeth, James I had published his book on witchcraft and the supernatural calledDaemonology, and witch trials were rampant across the UK bringing women of all ages and classes before a court hearing for acts of anger, revenge, and even mental illness, all of which called them under suspicion of evil magic. The presence of witches on stage was not merely theatrical for Shakespeare’s plays but also represented a cultural reality for turn of the 17th century society in which witches, spells, magic, and the consequence of delving into the supernatural were active in the lives of Elizabethan England. One particularly harsh case of witchcraft in 1578 occurred when Shakespeare was just 14 years old, and saw a woman named Elizabeth Stile brought before the court for her acts of anger, considered so threatening that Elizabeth I had her famous magus and astrologer John Dee perform acts of counter magic to defend against Elizabeth Stile. Here this week to share the story of what happened to Elizabeth Stile, why she was charged as a witch, and what these incidents tell us about Shakespeare’s presentation of witches inMacbethandHenry VI part 2, is our guest and author ofWitchcraft in Shakespeare's Englandfor The British Library, Carole Levine.

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