Performing Witchcraft, Exorcism, and Abortion on the Italian Renaissance Stage

ebook The Witch and The Possessed Girl by Antonfrancesco Grazzini · Anglo-Italian Renaissance Studies

By Mary Gallucci

cover image of Performing Witchcraft, Exorcism, and Abortion on the Italian Renaissance Stage

Sign up to save your library

With an OverDrive account, you can save your favorite libraries for at-a-glance information about availability. Find out more about OverDrive accounts.

   Not today

Find this title in Libby, the library reading app by OverDrive.

Download Libby on the App Store Download Libby on Google Play

Search for a digital library with this title

Title found at these libraries:

Library Name Distance
Loading...

Antonfrancesco Grazzini's plays, La Spiritata (The Possessed Girl) and La Strega (The Witch), are available in English for the first time, with notes and an "Introduction". These plays deal with witchcraft, superstition, sexuality, and abortion. The context for such themes is analyzed in the "Introduction". Grazzini enhanced literary drama with elements from popular performances. He influenced other playwrights, including in England, where The Possessed Girl was adapted as the Elizabethan comedy, The Bugbears. Writer and linguist John Florio used Grazzini's plays in his lexicon of Italian for English learners. Grazzini celebrated artistic and popular traditions of Renaissance Florence; he is significant for writing and preserving many literary genres, especially the burlesque and carnivalesque. He participated in Florentine spectacle and theater, as a writer of plays, a composer of interludes, and a chronicler of festive events. His importance to the development of the Italian language is evident in his plays.

Performing Witchcraft, Exorcism, and Abortion on the Italian Renaissance Stage