Solomon on Stage, Representations of Magic and the Occult in Early Modern English Drama

Abstract

This thesis examines the influence of beliefs about King Solomon on the depiction of magic in early modern drama. I explore the extent to which would-be magicians could use Solomon as a role model for their own endeavours, drawing upon sources which attributed magical powers to the biblical king. My concept of ‘Solomonic exceptionalism’ provides scholars with a framework for understanding this particular branch of magical enquiry which sought to distinguish itself from witchcraft, fairy magic, and prophecy. Solomonic exceptionalism is a concept which reveals gendered and class prejudices about who could successfully perform magic without risking their soul. I focus on how this idea was explored through theatrical depictions of magicians since the performance history of magic reveals an overlap between the business of the conjuring circle and the stage. Props, costumes, special effects, manner of speaking and so on were carefully described in books of magic attributed to Solomon, and these provided ripe inspiration for playwrights in particular. The first two chapters explore the ‘Solomonic moment’ of the late 1580s-early 1590s, a flowering of plays that popularised these tropes and cemented ‘Solomonic exceptionalism’ as an approach distinct from other forms of magic. Reginald Scot’s sceptical treatise The Discoverie of Witchcraft (1584) translated and printed previously obscure Solomonic grimoire content, inadvertently providing playwrights with a rich resource for their own depictions of magician characters. Some of these responses retain his scepticism: Galatea (c.1584-5), Doctor Faustus (1588), and 2 Henry VI (c.1590-1) all condemn the Solomonic magician by depicting his downfall, whether comic or tragic in proportion. Others, such as Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay (1589), John a Kent John a Cumber (1590), and John of Bordeaux (1591), shape more successful Solomonic exceptions who avoid damnation and even become the heroes of their narratives. When Solomon himself appears on stage in David and Bethsabe (c.1590) his wisdom is more overtly occult in nature than in earlier biblical dramas. The second two chapters discuss how James I reinvigorated interest in Solomonic exceptionalism. In both public pageantry and private court performances, James was explicitly associated with Solomon and the question of magical exceptionalism was particularly pertinent in the wake of his own book condemning magic, Daemonologie (1597). Plays like The Puritan Widow (1606) and The Alchemist (1610) parody the magical Solomon in response to the king’s apparent distaste for attempts to legitimize magic. Other plays, most notably Shakespeare’s Macbeth (1606) and The Tempest (1611) responded with greater nuance to James’ changing views. The Elizabethan/Jacobean theatrical development of these ideas draws to a close with James’ death and the emergence of a new kind of Solomonic figure, proposed by Francis Bacon in his prose fiction New Atlantis (1627): the scientist. The concept of Solomonic magical exceptionalism is thus essential for understanding distinctly early modern depictions of dangerous knowledge-seeking, particularly on the stage.