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Witchcraft in Shakespeare's England
"In Act 1, Scene 3, the first witch tells her sisters that once when she saw a woman eating chestnuts she demanded some: ‘Give me!’ (1.3.4), but the woman called her ‘witch’ and ordered her away. The first witch then plans the harm she will cause the woman’s husband, a sailor on a ship, and the three witches cast a spell or ‘charm’ in retaliation (1.3.37). In Shakespeare’s England, this alleged practice was known as ‘mischief following anger’, and it was one of the most common charges against suspected witches in cases brought to trial. Most often, it was old, poor, often widowed women who were accused of these acts of angry revenge: a woman would beg for food or drink and when she was turned away she might respond angrily; later, when something unfortunate – such as a bad harvest or an ordinary illness – happened to the person who had denied the woman charity, the old woman would be blamed for their problems. Shakespeare’s enactment on stage of the witches plotting mischief would have intensified familiar fears of the harm witches could perform in daily life. "
