<DIV>The Witch (1615/16?), categorised by its author as 'a tragi-comedy',<br>pits the intrigues of a group of Italian aristocrats against the<br>malevolent practices of Hecate and her witches' coven, leaving the<br>audience with the impression that human malevolence is by far the<br>fiercer and more effective. This edition sets the play into its<br>dramatic and literary contexts, ranging from Shakespeare's Macbeth and<br>Middleton's own later tragedies to Reginald Scot's sceptical Discovery<br>of Witchcraft and King James's virulent Daemonologie. It also argues<br>that Middleton wrote it as a topical satire to capitalise on the<br>scandal involving Frances Howard, who obtained a divorce from the Earl<br>of Essex on the grounds that he had been sexually incapacitated by<br>witchcraft; she was also rumoured to have tried to poison him.<br>Middleton exposes his noble characters precisely by letting them get<br>away with murder.</DIV>