Emotions in The Witch of Edmonton

Abstract

In The Witch of Edmonton, a diabolical dog escapes from the supernatural subplot to unleash mischief, madness, and murder in rural Middlesex. While the play’s emotional sophistication is easy to overlook because of the preposterousness of a costumed actor taking the stage as a talking dog, an analysis grounded in History of Emotions approaches and focusing on Dog reveals the extent to which this play, in dramatizing a society without charity, makes a convincing emotional plea centred on the emotions that mobilize, and are mobilized by, the uncanny character at its heart.