The Origins of Ghosts in English Folklore

In this episode, we explore the Elizabethan fascination with witchcraft and mysterious creatures like fairies and demons. Those subjects feature prominently in the literature of the period, and they reveal a lot about the world view of the people who lived in England in the late 1500s. Among the texts analyzed in this episode are Reginald Scot’s ‘Discoverie of Witchcraft,’ Christopher Marlowe’s ‘Doctor Faustus,’ Edmund Spenser’s ‘The Faerie Queene,’ and William Shakespeare’s three history plays about Henry VI.

TRANSCRIPT: EPISODE 168