ABSTRACT
The examination of early modern stage magic overviews its occurrence in the earliest type of mixed-gender professional theater, the Italian commedia dellߣarte, discusses necromancers and stage magicians, and concludes by inquiring into the significance of magical impotence superstitions for the London stage. Early modern stage witchcraft was informed by medical quackery as well as magical occultism, elite necromancy of the type engaged in by dߣAugier and Cantecroy, but also popular sorcery of the type practiced by the numerous uneducated wisewomen and cunning-folk who dispensed amuletic and charm-based cures and counter-cures. Thomas Platter is rightly recognized for his brief notice of an early performance of Julius Caesar at the Globe. The author's aim in focusing on his substantial little-known record of ligature in Languedoc is to highlight the potential relevance of non-theatrical tales to our understanding of transnational borrowings on the early modern London stage.
