History ArtisticLicenseHistory / Theatre

* Creator/ChristopherMarlowe, an Elizabethan dramatist who influenced Shakespeare, was also prone to this. In his ''Theatre/{{Tamburlaine}}'' plays, the eponymous (anachronistic) Scythian conqueror ("Tamburlaine" was Turkic, not Scythian) takes control of the Persian Empire (which ceased to exist in 330 BCE, unless he meant the contemporary Safavid Empire, which did not exist in "Tamburlaine's" time) by capturing its capital, Persepolis (which was burned down by UsefulNotes/AlexanderTheGreat over a millennium ago), capturing the King of Turkey (which was a sultanate) and marrying the daughter of the Egyptian (Mamluk) Sultan, Zenocrate (who, aside from being invented, has a Greek name).

** For starters, Abigail Williams and most of the other accusers were children around 10-12 years old, not in their late teens as they are in the play (Mary Warren was the only one who really was 17) -- Miller himself admitted to [[AgeLift changing some characters' ages]]. Also, while the girls' true motives are unknown, Abigail did not have an affair with John Proctor, so it's a safe bet that it ''wasn't'' a scheme to MurderTheHypotenuse. In fact, the whole idea that the entirety of the Salem Witch Trials was born from a plot by Abigail is extremely questionable; for one thing, the whole situation is generally believed to have been a lot more complicated and less deliberate than that, but also, if ''any'' one girl could be pointed to as any sort of ringleader or the one who started it, historical records suggest that it was most likely Ann Putnam and/or Betty Parris, not Abigail.

** Its attempt to connect the Salem Witch trials to the RedScare, which -- in spite of its justification in pointing out some facts -- has opened it up to a counterattack by those who point out that [[BrokenAesop Communist spies in the Western governments were not imaginary creatures]], though the analogy holds in the sense that the hunts for them did cause considerable collateral damage.

** John and Elizabeth Proctor were much more active in trying to stop the nonsense, and this is likely what actually led to them being accused. However, it is true that John was hanged, while Elizabeth was spared as she was pregnant and the law required that she be allowed to live long enough to give birth; by the time she would have been eligible to be executed, the hysteria had run its course and she was released.

** For starters, Abigail Williams and most of the other accusers were children around 10-12 years old, not in their late teens as they are in the play (Mary Warren was the only one who really was 17) -- Miller himself admitted to [[AgeLift changing some characters' ages]]. Also, while the girls' true motives are unknown, Abigail did not have an affair with John Proctor, so it's a safe bet that it ''wasn't'' a scheme to MurderTheHypotenuse. In fact, the whole idea that the entirety of the Salem Witch Trials was born from a plot by Abigail is extremely questionable; for one thing, the whole situation is generally believed to have been a lot more complicated and less deliberate than that, but also, if ''any'' one girl could be pointed to as any sort of ringleader or the one who started it, historical records suggest that it was most likely Ann Putnam or Betty Parris, not Abigail.