| Summary: | The author presents a criticism for the British playwrights Thomas Dekker, John Ford, and Thomas Rowley for writing a theatrical adaptation of the 1621 witch trial of Edmonton resident Elizabeth Sawyer. The play "The Witch of Edmonton" depicts a compassion for Sawyer. It strives to inspire some sympathy for women like Sawyer who had been accused of witchcraft. The author explains in greater detail the trial of Sawyer that might serve as a paradigm for the study of witch trials in early modern England. She argues that the playwrights focus on social alienation or even abuse toward suspects that often laid the foundation for suspicions of criminal conduct, rather than focusing solely on the crimes attributed to such women.
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