Macbeth, Witchcraft And The North Berwick Witch Trials

“Double, double toil and trouble”, is one of the most iconic lines in the Shakespeare cannon, with Shakespeare’s three witches having inspired well loved fiction from Thomas Middleton’s The Witches to Terry Pratchett’s Granny Weatherwax and beyond. Yet it is less well known that the witches’ famous speech tells the story of a bloody, highly politicised campaign against witchcraft that raged across Early Modern Scotland.

In his talk, author Jon Kaneko-James shall talk through the witches speech, telling the story of the North Berwick witch trials, Early Modern witchcraft belief, the scapegoating of witches for bad weather, and the political divisiveness of the 1604 Witchcraft Act.