Lady Ribblesdale’s Play: Comic Witchcraft in a Victorian Family Drama, <i>Lancashire Witches</i> (1877–1878) by Emma Lister

ABSTRACT In 1877–1878 the British baroness Emma Lister, Lady Ribblesdale, wrote a two-act comedy drama about the Pendle witches of 1612. The play is unknown and highly unusual in its representation of witches, which it relates to the politics and current affairs of mid-Victorian Britain and its empire. This article presents an edition of the play with a critical introduction and notes, based on the unpublished manuscript in the Brotherton Library, University of Leeds, YAS MD335/1/7/4/17.