ABSTRACT
Recent popular and scholarly interest in the cult of Queen Elizabeth I re-examines her representation for possible moments of dissent. In this vein, the following discussion explores questions touching on women, power, and old age in Elizabethan and Jacobean England. How did the Queen’s subjects negotiate her feminine reign in an era of witch hunts? What is the relationship between dramatic depictions of witch-like, aged female bodies and the cult of Elizabeth? In Macbeth (1605-1606), Shakespeare provides a rich source for unraveling these questions, dabbling in the occult at the moment of transition between Elizabeth and James. Likewise, the play offers a glimpse into the medical understanding of the early modern period, revealing that anatomy is both social and political and forwards an agenda. By examining medical treatises alongside cases of witchcraft, we can come to understand the unease about the aged female body. Early modern anxieties over the aging bodies of unruly women stem from a specific physio-psychology of the period, in which normative female bodily functions-and deviations from them-were understood to affect women mentally as well as physically. The symptoms experienced by Lady Macbeth in the play suggest that her wish to become prematurely post-menopausal and obtain the masculine virility that characterizes witches has been granted. In addition, as a childless queen, Lady Macbeth’s references to the malevolent nurture associated with witchcraft become unflattering criticism of the type of political motherhood Elizabeth exercised during her post-menopausal years-a metaphoric move that presents her as the realm’s mother in order to counter her unmarried and childless status. As such, the play
1 For their insights and encouragement throughout the various stages of this essay, I warmly thank Barbara Bono, James Bono, Joe Zeccardi, Verena Theile, and Andrew McCarthy. For their helpful feedback on the final draft, I am grateful to my colleagues Lisa Manter and Barry Horwitz, and my summer research assistant Indrani Sengupta. Thanks
participates in a darker discourse about the cult of Elizabeth as the latter grapples with discomfort over her post-menopausal body and its perverse implications.
