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88 T//C Folklore of Shakespeare.
young women were often denounced by enemies, and sufifered a cruel death. Charles Lamb says of The Witdi of Rduionton, by Rowley, Decker S: Ford : " Mother Sawyer differs from the hags of Middleton or Shakespeare. She is the plain, traditional, old woman witch of our ancestors : poor, deformed, and ignorant ; the terror of villages, herself amenable to justice. That should be a hardy Sheriff, with the power of a county at his heels, that would lay hands upon the Weird Sisters."
It is only necessary to indicate a few points relating to witches, as the subject is too vast for incidental treatment. It is difficult to realise that human nature in a civilised society could sink to the execution of such frightful cruelties as are credibly related.
The literature of the subject is largely contained in two books : llie Discovery of Witchcraft, by Reginald Scot (1584), and A Dechxration of Egregious Popish Impostures under the prctetice of Casti?ig out Devils, practised by Edmunds, alias Weston, a fesuit, and divers Roman Priests, his luicked assistants (1603), by Samuel Harsnet, Bishop of Chichester, and afterwards Archbishop of York.
These two authors throw much light upon the subject, and have been found to be valuable illustrators of many passages in Shakespeare's plays. They are both unfair to the Roman Catholics, because they make them responsible for superstitions equally believed in by Protestants of the time.
Dr. Brinsley Nicholson reprinted Scot's work in 1886, and in his dedication to Prince Leopold, Duke of Albany, he refers as follows to the author : " This work of an Elizabethan Englishman . . . whose honesty, intelligence and compassion fought against the cruel superstition and ignorance of his age." Scot, however, built up his case with an immense amount of information which shows a considerable leaning towards credulity.
Harsnet was more authoritative than Scot, for he printed
