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Notes to Shakespeare, Volume III: The Tragedies by Samuel Johnson
page 6 of 398 (01%)
But a more remarkable proof of the antiquity of this notion may be found
in St. Chrysostom's book _de Sacerdotia_, which exhibits a scene of
enchantments not exceeded by any romance of the middle age: he supposes
a spectator overlooking a field of battle attended by one that points
out all the various objects of horror, the engines of destruction, and
the arts of slaughter. [Greek: Deichnuto de eti para tois enantiois kai
petomenous hippous dia tinos magganeias, kai oplitas di' aeros
pheromenous, kai pasaen goaeteias dunomin kai idean.] _Let him then
proceed to shew him in the opposite armies horses flying by enchantment,
armed men transported through the air, and every power and form of
magic._ Whether St. Chrysostom believed that such performances were
really to be seen in a day of battle, or only endeavoured to enliven his
description, by adopting the notions of the vulgar, it is equally
certain, that such nations were in his time received, and that therefore
they were not imported from the Saracens in a later age; the wars with
the Saracens however gave occasion to their propagation, not only as
bigotry naturally discovers prodigies, but as the scene of action was
removed to a great distance.

The Reformation did not immediately arrive at its meridian, and though
day was gradually encreasing upon us, the goblins of witchcraft still
continued to hover in the twilight. In the time of queen Elizabeth was
the remarkable trial of the witches of Warbois, whose conviction is
still commemorated in an annual sermon at Huntingdon. But in the reign
of king James, in which this tragedy was written, many circumstances
concurred to propagate and confirm this opinion. The king, who was much
celebrated for his knowledge, had, before his arrival in England, not
only examined in person a woman accused of witchcraft, but had given a
very formal account of the practices and illusions of evil spirits, the
compacts of witches, the ceremonies used by them, the manner of
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