How did Shakespeares audience see the Witches?
Most of Shakespeare’s audience believed in magic, witches and witchcraft. They also believed in the power of evil spirits. King James I, who ruled Britain at the time, even wrote a book about witchcraft, called Daemonologie. Women suspected of being witches were often tortured and hanged. In other countries at the time they were burnt at the stake. A Scottish woman, Agnes Sampson, was accused of trying to kill King James using witchcraft. It was claimed that she attached parts of a corpse to a cat, sailed to sea in a sieve, then put the cat into the sea to create a storm to shipwreck the King. Magic features in several other Shakespeare plays. In A Midsummer Night’s Dream the magic is produced by fairies. In The Tempest (which may have been his last play) most of it comes from a magician, Prospero. We do not know what Shakespeare’s own attitude towards witchcraft or magic was. However, his Witches are not figures of fun. Shakespeare may have wanted them to represent real witches, or ev
