A friendly ghost, a head in a well, a mute madwoman – and much more: weird comedy in Peele’s The Old Wife’s Tale (1595)

Abstract

Friendly ghosts are rare in English drama, as elsewhere. We expect ghosts to be scary, vengeful, angry, ugly. When authors try to create nice ghosts, problems arise: ghosts are not supposed to be nice! In his comedy The Old Wife's Tale (1595), George Peele invented Jack, the ghost (apparently) of a recently deceased young man. His friends wish to see him properly buried in the parish churchyard. Meanwhile, Jack goes about doing good deeds. He is not alone in the weird, dreamlike world of Peele’s play; there is a sorcerer, a mute madwoman, a speaking head in a well, and more. All this in a ‘tale’ told by an old woman to two unexpected guests, late at night. The existential status of Jack is far from clear. What is clear is that he facilitates the happy dénouement of the main plot of the play-within, and then disappears in a dramatic final scene.