ABSTRACT
The scene: a town in Norfolk, late sixteenth century. A theatrical company is performing the History of Friar Francis, in which a woman, besotted with a younger man, murders her husband. Subsequently, the dead man’s ghost continues to appear to her in private. Now, however, as the spectre comes onstage, a certain woman in the audience, a respected local widow, cries out in distress. Distracted from the play, the other spectators turn to stare as she claims to see before her eyes the menacing ghost of her own dead husband. She requires no further prompting to confess that seven years ago, she too had been infatuated with a young gentleman, and had poisoned her husband. To her, the ghost onstage represents his exact likeness. Following this incident, an investigation by the local justices results in this woman’s conviction for murder and, presumably, her death.
