[P. 185]. “An errand ... from farre countries.” A similar tale is told—in some English work against witchcraft after Scot—of an Italian judge who thus tried a supposed witch.
[P. 187]. “A thousand for one that.” Here the “that” does not, as with us, refer to the “one” but to the “thousand” = “he might have cited a thousand that fell out contrarie” for one that fell out truly. A thousand for one, though four words seem, as it were, to have been considered one thought. See Shakespearean noting under this page.
[P. 190]. “To offer ... to Moloch.” Curious that Scot, knowing that fire was accounted holy, should not have seen that this idolatrous rite was in its essence a purifying, and possibly an expiatory, one.
[P. 198]. “Menehas” (example, Deut. xix, 10). Hebr. מנחש. Here he does not quite agree with Wier, i, § 9.
——— “Philosophers table.” Cf. Strutt, s. n. The philosopher’s game, played on a “table” or board.
——— “Sober writer.” Of course, ironical.
——— “Of each letters.” Either misprint for letter, or rather, perhaps, a loose way of saying “of each [set of] letters”, or “of the letters of each person’s name or names”.
——— “Unequal number of vowels.” A bit of folk-lore as yet, I think, unnoticed.
[P. 200]. “Added the Apocrypha.” Council of Trent, 1550, made them of equal authority with those which the Church of England defines as “Canonical Scriptures”.
[P. 202]. “True loves.” Garden pansies, viola tricolor, L. (Britten and H.), four-leaved grass, occasional variations of the three-leaved grass, trefoil.