Early Modern Hell Hell, Early Modern Author Leah Hamby Supervising Editor Kate McPherson Editor Kate McPherson Copy Editor Leah Hamby Senior Encoder Leah Hamby Encoding and Metadata LEMDO Team Copyright Holder (Content) Kate McPherson Copyright Holder (XML and interface) University of Victoria Early Modern England Encyclopedia EMEE

Anthology Leads: Kate McPherson and Kate Moncrief.

 Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada Mitacs Globalink Research Internship Utah Valley University

Released with Early Modern England Encyclopedia 1.0a

 University of Victoria on the Linked Early Modern Drama Online Platform

Intellectual copyright in this entry is held by Kate McPherson on behalf of the contributors. Copyright on the TEI-XML markup is held by the University of Victoria on behalf of the LEMDO Team. The content and TEI-XML markup in this file are licensed under a CC BY-NC_ND 4.0 license. This file is freely downloadable without permission under the following conditions: (1) credit must be given to the authors, EMEE, and LEMDO in any subsequent use of the files and /or data; (2) this availability statement must remain in the file; (3) the content cannot be adapted or repurposed (except for quotations for the purposes of academic review and citation); and (4) commercial uses are not permitted without the knowledge and consent of the authors, EMEE, and LEMDO. Neither the content nor the code in this file is licensed for training large language models (LLMs), ingestion into an LLM, or any use in any artificial intelligence applications; such uses are considered to be commercial uses and are strictly prohibited.

Early Modern England Encyclopedia

By Leah Hamby, inspired by Michael Best’s Shakespeare’s Life and Times, Internet Shakespeare Editions

Encoded in TEI P5 according to the LEMDO Customization and Encoding Guidelines

This document uses Canadian English spelling

 Document Types All documents in LEMDO are either born-digital documents or primary documents. Within those two general categories, LEMDO offers additional ways to categorize a file. Born-digital Born-digital documents are anything other than primary texts Critical Critical material, such as a general introduction or a textual introduction. Responsibilities Responsibilities Author A person, family, or organization responsible for creating a work that is primarily textual in content, regardless of media type (e.g., printed text, spoken word, electronic text, tactile text) or genre (e.g., poems, novels, screenplays, blogs). Use also for persons, etc., creating a new work by paraphrasing, rewriting, or adapting works by another creator such that the modification has substantially changed the nature and content of the original or changed the medium of expression. LEMDO uses the term author in two contexts: (1) to indicate the author of a primary work or document (such as Hamlet), and (2) to indicate the author of a secondary text (such as the Critical Introduction to <title level="m">Hamlet, by David Bevington). Editor A person, family, or organization contributing to a resource by revising or elucidating the content, e.g., adding an introduction, notes, or other critical matter. An editor may also prepare a resource for production, publication, or distribution. For major revisions, adaptations, etc., that substantially change the nature and content of the original work, resulting in a new work, see author. LEMDO uses the general term editor only in edition metadata and only to indicate when a person is responsible for editing all parts of an edition. Otherwise, use the more granular terms to describe the precise nature of the editorial role. Supervising Editor An editor who supervises the work of a student editor. Copy Editor LEMDO uses the term owner for the person who checks facts, quotations, and citations; may make formatting changes; may convert from one citation style to another; may suggest wording changes; and enforces conformity with the project style guide. Markup Editor A person or organization performing the coding of SGML, HTML, or XML markup of metadata, text, etc. Gloss needed. Copyright Holder A person or organization to whom copy and legal rights have been granted or transferred for the intellectual content of a work. The copyright holder, although not necessarily the creator of the work, usually has the exclusive right to benefit financially from the sale and use of the work to which the associated copyright protection applies. Normally the editor is the copyright holder for an LEMDO edition. EMEE Keywords Culture Learn about the customs, beliefs, and daily lives of people in early modern England. Daily Life Punishment Torture Published file. Updated metadata added figure. proofed Created File. Review of article finished. Michael Best Michael Best

Michael Best is Professor Emeritus at the University of Victoria, BC. He founded the Internet Shakespeare Editions in 1996, and was Coordinating Editor until 2017, contributing two editions to the ISE: King John and King Lear (the latter also available in print from Broadview Press). In print, he has published editions of works of Elizabethan magic and huswifery, a collection of letters from the Australian goldfields, and Shakespeare on the Art of Love (2008). He contributed regular columns for the Shakespeare Newsletter on Electronic Shakespeares, and has written many articles and chapters for both print and online books and journals, principally on questions raised by the new medium in the editing and publication of texts. He has delivered papers and plenary lectures on electronic media and the Internet Shakespeare Editions at conferences in Canada, the USA, the UK, Spain, Australia, and Japan.

 Leah Hamby Leah Hamby

Leah Hamby is the primary encoder for the Early Modern England Encyclopedia. Aside from encoding, she also works as an editor for the project and contributed several articles of her own. She has been working on the EMEE since February 2023. As of February 2026, she is soon to graduate with honours from Utah Valley University with a major in history and a minor in creative writing. Her other work with the LEMDO program includes remediating William Kemp’s Kemp’s Nine Day’s Wonder for the Digital Renaissance Editions.

 Navarra Houldin Navarra Houldin

Training and Documentation Lead 2025–present. LEMDO project manager 2022–2025. Textual remediator 2021–present. Navarra Houldin (they/them) completed their BA with a major in history and minor in Spanish at the University of Victoria in 2022. Their primary research was on gender and sexuality in early modern Europe and Latin America. They are continuing their education through an MA program in Gender and Social Justice Studies at the University of Alberta where they will specialize in Digital Humanities.

 Kate McPherson Kate McPherson

Kate McPherson is Professor of English and Honors Program Director at Utah Valley University (Orem, UT, USA). In 2015, she began working to redevelop Shakespeare’s Life and Times, created by Michael Best, into the Early Modern England Encyclopedia. Her other publications include commentary on Pericles and The Comedy of Errors for the New Oxford Shakespeare (2016); the co-edited volumes Stages of Engagement: Drama and Religion in Post-Reformation England with James Mardock (Duquesne University Press, 2014) and Shakespeare Expressed: Page, Stage, and Classroom in Shakespeare and His Contemporaries, with Kathryn M. Moncrief and Sarah Enloe (Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 2013). With Kathryn M. Moncrief, Kate has also two edited collections, Performing Pedagogy in Early Modern England: Gender, Instruction, and Performance (Ashgate, 2011) and Performing Maternity in Early Modern England (Ashgate 2008). She has also published numerous articles on early modern maternity in scholarly journals. Kate participated in the 2008 National Endowment for the Humanities Institute, Shakespeare’s Blackfriars: The Study, the Stage, the Classroom, at the American Shakespeare Center. She also served as Play Seminar Director, a public humanities position, for the Utah Shakespeare Festival in 2017 and 2018.

 LEMDO Team The LEMDO Team is based at the University of Victoria and normally comprises the project director, the lead developer, project manager, junior developers(s), remediators, encoders, and remediating editors. University of Victoria https://www.uvic.ca/
Concept and Location

Early modern ideas of Christian Hell mostly align with common depictions today. A bottomless pit of darkness, hellfire that produces heat but no light, sounds of screaming, and the torture of the damned by demons were all present. The Book of Revelations 20:10 describes Hell as a lake of fire, as in this passage from the 1599 Geneva Bible: And the devil that deceived them, was cast into a lake of fire and brimstone, where that beast and that false prophet are, and shall be tormented even day and night for evermore.

The traditional location of Hell is inside the earth, although debates around this conception occurred. In Christopher Marlowe’s 1594 play Doctor Faustus, the demon Mephistophilis is summoned and questioned about where Hell is by the title character: Faustus: Tell me, where is that place that men call hell? Mephistophilis: Under the heavens. Faustus: Ay, but whereabouts? Mephistophilis: Within the bowels of these elements, Where we are tortured and remain forever. Hell hath no limits, nor is circumscribed In one self place, for where we are is hell, And where hell is there must we ever be. And, to be short, when all the world dissolves, And every creature shall be purified, All places shall be hell that is not heaven. Faustus: I think hell’s a fable. Mephistophilis: Aye, think so still, till experience change thy mind. (2.1.117–28) As this passage explains, the demon answers that Hell is within the Earth but at the same time present everywhere except Heaven.

Types of Torture

Early modern preachers divided the torments of Hell into two separate categories: poena sensus and poena damni. Poena sensus was the physical pain inflicted on the senses of the body, from hellfire specifically, although it was preached that all senses would be sources of pain in Hell. These types of torture featured strongly in artistic representations of Hell throughout the medieval and early modern periods. Poena damni was the spiritual pain of being forever separated from God. Paintings of the Last Judgement by prominent European artists like Michaelangelo reflect both these types of pain.

While depictions of the glories of Heaven, both in speech and art, tended to be vague, depictions of the sufferings of Hell were detailed and varied. English painter David Teniers painted The Rich Man Being Led Into Hell in about 1647, for example. Early modern people throughout Europe were familiar with suffering from pain, disease, and famine, and therefore had much inspiration to draw on when imagining Hell. Frescoes and paintings of Hell adorned many church walls to vividly illustrate the punishments the damned might expect.

A depiction of hell, including sinners being drowned in mud, staked through the heart, slashed at with swords, dragged across the ground, and hanged. An angel dressed in white gestures outward toward the area while holding a person by the wrist. Their grasp prevents the person from flinching backward. The white of their clothing is a small spot among the browns, oranges, and reds of the rest of the painting. An Angel Leading a Soul into Hell, an oil painting by a follower of Hieronymus Bosch, about 1516. Courtesy of Wellcome Collection. CC BY-NC 4.0.
Different Levels of Hell

The idea of degrees of suffering in Hell comes from the theologian Augustine, who insisted that unbaptized babies would suffer in Hell but endure only the mildest kind of pain. This idea of gradations of suffering seems to be popular since it found its way into Italian poet Dante Alighieri’s famous 13th century epic poem, Inferno, which portrays Hell as having nine distinct circles in a descending spiral ending with Satan frozen in ice at the very bottom. Other depictions of the biblical underworld feature different gradations than Dante’s or sometimes none at all.

Debates

Despite the existence of a few anonymous attacks on the concept of Hell in the 1600s, it was not until the 1740s as English thinkers integrated concepts of Enlightenment that it was openly criticized by some intellectuals. But for most of the early modern period, it was dangerous to challenge such a central principle of Christianity.

The existence of Hell is heavily supported by Christian scripture, especially the gospels of the New Testament. Because of this, criticizing the doctrine or discussing some of the many moral questions about the concept was dangerous to both reputation and livelihood. It was difficult to question Hell without also questioning the rest of the doctrine present in the Bible.

Many learned people considered Hell a necessary deterrent for immoral behavior that was better to be left unquestioned so that less learned people had reason to remain moral. It was a common belief among all social classes that there was a correlation between atheism and immorality. Anyone questioning the scriptures was suspect of being an atheist and therefore a threat to society.

When questions about the nature of Hell were eventually published, their concerns varied widely. Such questions included Is Hell truly eternal? Are the sinners in Hell punished for the sins committed in the afterlife? Do the blessed in Heaven take satisfaction in seeing sinners suffer? Due to social attitudes regarding sin and damnation as key components of Christian belief, for most of the early modern period, these questions remained unasked.

Key Print Sources Almond, Philip C. Heaven & Hell in Enlightenment England. Cambridge University Press, 1994. Steggle, Mathew. Paradise Lost and the Acoustics of Hell. Early Modern Literary Studies 7.1 (May 2001): 1–17. Rasmussen, Tarald. Hell Disarmed? The Function of Hell in Reformation Spirituality. Numen 56.⅔ (2009): 366–384.
Key Online Sources Amoako, Aida. The Bad Place: A Visual History of Hell. Art UK. 29 Oct. 2020. https://artuk.org/discover/stories/the-bad-place-a-visual-history-of-hell. Best, Michael. Hell Mouth. Shakespeare’s Life and Times. Internet Shakespeare Editions. University of Victoria, 14 Jan. 2011. https://internetshakespeare.uvic.ca/Library/SLT/ideas/the%20universe/hellmouth.html. Buetter, Nils. Where is Paradise? Imaging Heaven and Hell in Early Modern Times. Imagined Worlds: Willful Invention and the Printed Image. Ed. Amy Baker Sandback. AXA Gallery, 2005. Heidelberg University Archives. https://archiv.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/artdok/1161/1/Nils_Buettner_Where_is_Paradise_2005.pdf. Campbell, Gordon. Hell. Oxford Dictionary of the Renaissance. Ed. Gordon Campbell. Oxford University Press, 2005. Oxford Reference. https://www.oxfordreference.com/display/10.1093/acref/9780198601753.001.0001/acref-9780198601753-e-1808?rskey=17jtHu&result=1791.
Image Sources Follower of Bosch, Hieronymus. An Angel Leading a Soul into Hell. Circa 1516. Oil on Canvas. Wellcome Collection. Reference: 44837i. https://wellcomecollection.org/works/dum4xgme/images?id=e5pwks23.