Virtual Program | Free Shakespeare Read-Aloud Group: The Witch by Thomas Middleton

The Shakespeare Read-Aloud is continuing online! We meet twice per month on Zoom to read Shakespeare’s plays as a group, round-robin style, just like we did when we met in person at The Rosenbach. Be sure to register to receive email instructions ahead of the meeting time.

All readers are responsible for their own internet connection and we request that all readers be video-enabled to participate.

Reading Shakespeare’s plays aloud offers not only a communal way to enjoy these great works but also promotes a deeper understanding of their poetry and wordplay. No acting experience is required to participate—just bring your voice and a copy of the play!

The play we’ll read for this meeting is: The Witch by Thomas Middleton

“Come away, come away,
Hecate, Hecate, come away.”

If you think these song lyrics comes from Shakespeare’s Macbeth, you would be correct, but the song is also in Thomas Middleton’s tragicomedy The Witch. Many scholars think the text of Macbeth from the First Folio (it’s first printing) is a version of the play edited by Middleton for performance, and thus he added his own witch songs. We’ll read this little known Jacobean with extravaganza before we dip into Macbeth at our next session.

More on Middleton’s The Witch at the British Library’s webpage.

And you can also find the play online here.

This event is completely free with advance registration. If you would like to read aloud, please select the “I’d like to be a reader!” ticket; there are fifteen spots available. If reader spots are sold out you are welcome to join the waitlist by selecting the “reader waitlist.”