Theile: Abstract

In my dissertation, I trace the influence, circulation, and translation history of tracts and treatises that were published between 1486 and 1642 in both England and continental Europe and examine the impact of these writings on the literature written for the English stage. In particular, I focus on works that debate the belief in the supernatural and the persecution of witches. The vast majority of the authors who published pamphlets and treatises dealing with occult beliefs were university trained, more often than not connected with either staunchly Catholic or fiercely reformed centers of Renaissance learning. In an effort to prove connections between the largely non-fictional body of literary and intellectual culture they produced and the stage literature of the English Renaissance stage, I examine sample writings of this early modern intelligentsia, writings that at times educate but more often caution the masses against committing sins of faith. As such, the core of my dissertation is dedicated to an investigation into early modern systems of belief and the cultural impact the rhetoric of this fundamentally theological, philosophical, and historical debate had on early modern playwrights.