Context:
Shakespeare is writing on a subject he knows to be of interest to James I - witchcraft. James had written his own book on Daemonologie. The book is a discussion about the existence and powers of witches. It also talks about necromancy - prophecy by the dead - which it describes as a 'black and unlawful science'.
Did you know?
Societies have often used women as scapegoats, someone to blame when something has gone wrong. It was practice to test a woman for witchcraft by ducking her into water. If she floated she was proved a witch: if she drowned she was innocent - but dead! Women who kept pets were sometimes accused of having them as 'familiars' to assist in their magic.
