82 SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2019KING JAMES VI OF SCOTLAND (SEATED, RIGHT) SUPERVISING THE
TORTURE OF WITCHES IN EDINBURGH. DETAIL OF A WOODCUT FROM THE
1591 PAMPHLET NEWES FROM SCOTLAND
A WOODCUT FROM THE 1591 PAMPHLET NEWES FROM SCOTLAND,
PROBABLY WRITTEN BY JAMES CARMICHAEL, WHO LATER AIDED JAMES IN
THE WRITING OF HIS BOOK DAEMONOLOGIETempests,
Cauldrons,
and Chaos
the 1591 pamphlet Newes From Scotland re-
ported episodes to English audiences from
the witchcraft panic taking place in North
Berwick, near Edinburgh, Scotland. It record-
ed the cases against Geillis Duncan, Agnes
Sampson, and John Fian, who were charged
by Scottish authorities with the use of witch-
craft. Along with text, it featured several dis-
tinctive woodcut illustrations that depicted
scenes from their confessions, extracted un-
der torture: 1 A ship wrecks on the Scottish
coast, owing to the spells cast by the witches,
most likely an allusion to the foul weather en-
countered by the king and his queen while
sailing on the North Sea. None of the royal
ships were sunk, however. On land, 2 several
witches gather around a cauldron, while an-
other group listens to 3 the devil, as 4 John
Fian, a schoolmaster, takes notes. Fian—also
known as Cunningham—would be one of the
central figures in the trial of the North Berwick
witches, in the course of which he was brutally
tortured. The pamphlet also tells the story of
5 a peddler’s encounter with witches who
magically transported him to a wine cellar in
Bordeaux, France.3
1
4
CHARLES WALKER COLLECTION/ALAMY/CORDON PRESS
BRIDGEMAN/ACI