Thomas Dekker

The Witch of Edmonton Thomas Dekker

Elizabeth Sawyer is old, poor, malformed, and ugly. She faces the scorn of many and the persecution of most. At her wit's end, she engages in a deal with the devil who appears in the form of a black dog. The consequences of this pact with Lucifer is most tellingly a pestilence playing out upon the cattle of Old Banks and the rotting of his grain. In response to this, the people attempt to burn down the absolute hovel she calls home, but the witch's tongue proves too powerful for the weak-willed villagers. Until, that is, Elizabeth oversteps even the boundaries of the devil's plaything. The spell she casts upon Ann Ratcliffe to drive her over the edge of insanity results in the poor woman smashing her own head in. This prove to be the final nail that the old woman nails into her own coffin and she executed after being tried and convicted of being a witch.