Читать книгу The Discoverie of Witchcraft онлайн

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In the biographical portion of this Introduction, besides a supposition or two of my own, which from his writings seem to me highly probable, there have been given notices of his pedigree, age, and marriages, matters hitherto unknown or misstated, and for which I would at once record my indebtedness to Edmund Ward Oliver, Esq. This gentleman having taken an interest in investigating these questions, and being a perfect stranger to me, wrote and offered the results of his inquiries so soon as he had learnt that I was engaged with this reprint, and has since most obligingly answered the various questions that I have had occasion to put to him. A copy of Scot’s Will has been also for the first time published, and some Notes and a Glossary added. Were I to have imitated the learned editors of former days, I should have added, not some, but exhaustive notes on every point, gathered from every known and unknown source; but I have confined myself to explanation, or to making a few remarks on the text, giving also the author’s agreement with, or obligations to Wier, so far as I knew them, and Shakespeare’s and Middleton’s obligations to himself; my reason for not entering into greater details being that I am no student of the pseudo-science of witchcraft, but a student only of what is useful, and true, and good.