Magic on the Early English Stage (review)

The performance of magic and conjuring has been around since at least 2600 BCE when the magician Dedi performed a decapitation illusion for King Cheops of Egypt. Yet, even though this type of performance has existed for millennia, the skills and effects used by Dedi and his successors have remained largely unexamined by theatre scholars. While some areas of popular performance have begun to make their way into academic theatre studies, prestidigitation and sleight-of-hand performances have remained tangential to the "serious" study of theatre history. Recently, however, with the rising interest in cultural studies, theatre researchers have begun to include a broader range of performance and entertainment in their purview. Many popular topics such as chautauqua, circus, sideshow, and puppetry are now taking their place alongside the more "traditional" topics worthy of attention from theatre scholars, and this has also paved the way for a more vigorous study of the conjuring arts.

Philip Butterworth's book is one of the first to position the elements of magic and conjuring within the broader context of "legitimate" theatre history. While there have been numerous books devoted to the history of the conjuring arts, most have been aimed at a general readership, often focusing on biographies of famous magicians or providing an overview of performances with little analysis. Few texts dealing with the subject of legerdemain have been written for an academic theatre audience. Butterworth addresses this oversight as he bridges the gap between the history of magic and the history of theatre. He notes in his introduction that this is a natural amalgam of subjects because "[t]he same fundamental relationship between appearance and reality conditions the core of activity conducted by both conjurors and the staged presentation of illusion in the theatre" (1). Butterworth then proceeds to undertake an extensive source study of medieval texts containing references to "feats of activity," "jugglery," and the like. Through a close reading of manuscripts, financial records, scripts, and eyewitness accounts, he pieces together a picture of stage illusions and legerdemain performances that occurred at a time when theatrical activities were only serendipitously recorded, if at all. Throughout the book Butterworth makes extensive use of documents made available through the Records of Early English Drama (REED) project based at the University of Toronto, many of which have not been previously discussed in academic publications. Butterworth's explication of the sketchy and ambiguous clues found in these texts provides the reader with new insights into medieval itinerant performances and stagecraft.

While many books dealing with "magic" in the Middle Ages focus on the mystical arts, ceremonies, and the prevalent belief in witchcraft, Butterworth's attention is on the notion of "pretence" and how it plays into the concept of appearance versus reality. He discusses how the setting in which an illusion is presented can serve to either obscure or foreground "the artificiality of the proceedings" (1). While he is most interested in the use of magic performed in a setting where the audience is aware that an illusion is occurring, he does discuss some deceptions that have been perpetrated upon an unsuspecting audience. One particularly interesting instance of this occurs in chapter 6, when Butterworth recounts the fraud carried out upon the faithful who visited the Rood of Grace at the Abbey of Boxley in Kent during the early sixteenth century. The Rood was an image of the crucified Christ that was thought to be miraculous because it was capable of moving. It was later discovered, however, that the image had been secretly rigged with mechanisms allowing the figure to be operated like a puppet. When the deception was finally revealed, it engendered outrage among the pious. In addition to a good deal of material that is new and unexplored, Butterworth also covers some well-worn territory when he discusses Reginald Scot's The Discouerie of Witchcraft (1584), a text well known to historians of the conjuring arts. By juxtaposing information from new sources with the descriptions contained in...