elizabethan view on witchcraft:

Women were those most often accused of being witches! There were 270 Elizabethan witch trials of 247 were women and only 23 were men! Those accused of witchcraft were generally:

Old

Poor

Unprotected

Single women or widows (many kept pets for company - their 'familiars')

During the Elizabethan era men were all-powerful. Women had few rights and were expected to obey men. Elizabethan women totally relied on the male members of the family. Society and the culture of England was changing. The convents had been closed. The number of poor was increasing and people were far less charitable. Old, poor, unprotected women needed to be supported - and this was resented by other Elizabethans. Access to doctors and medicines was minimal. Women were expected to produce cures for most ailments as part of their house keeping. 'Wise women' also used herbs for this purpose. The use of herbs and plants such as mandrake, datura, monkshood, cannabis, belladonna, henbane and hemlock were common ingredients in brews and ointments for medical purposes.  As the fear of witches and witchcraft increased in Europe the Catholic Church included in its definition of witchcraft anyone with knowledge of herbs as 'those who used herbs for cures did so only through a pact with the Devil, either explicit or implicit.' Possession of such herbs, many of which did have psychedelic effects, resulted in execution by burning in Europe.



elizabethan witchcraft punishment:

Witches convicted of murder by witchcraft were to be executed but the punishment for witches in England was hanging, not burning at the stake which was the terrible death that was inflicted on French and Spanish witches.Lesser crimes relating to witchcraft resulted in the convicted witch being pilloried. Torture was not allowed as part of the investigatory or punishment procedure for witches. As the Witchcraft Law did not define sorcery as heresy the matter of religion was not involved in the prosecution of witches.



hubris: Excessive pride, presumption or arrogance (originally toward the gods)



elizabethen theatre views on woman:

The theate was a new thing in Shakespeare's time (the first full-time commercial theatre started when Shakespeare was about eight years old). Actors were regarded as a disreputable lot, because they hadn't been to college, and didn't have a professional qualification. 

When some actors, and some playwrights, started making shedloads of money (William Shakespeare himself became seriously rich in later life) things got worse. 

Elizabethan actors and playwrights were the rockstars of their day - people with regular jobs and regular educations felt threatened by them. 

The Elizabethans were not comfortable with women having their own money. They weren't as repressive as the earlier Tudors had been, but the general feeling was that a woman should have children and keep house. 

The idea that a woman could be financially independent - even wealthy - would have horrified most Elizabethan men.