The Witch's Familiar and the Fairy in Early Modern England and Scotland

This paper is a preliminary study into the nature of popular belief in the witch's familiar in early modern England and Scotland. It illustrates some of the similarities to be found between beliefs in the witch's familiar and contemporary fairy beliefs and argues that the extent of these similarities suggests that in the period there must have been considerable confusion between the two kinds of spirit, particularly on a popular level. The paper then goes on to argue that fairy beliefs provided a matrix of thought which underpinned the whole construct of the witch's familiar in the popular mind, a construct which interacted with elite demonological theory in a coherent and dynamic way.     

Fairies,Fractious Women,and the Old Faith: Fairy Lore in Early Modern British Drama and Culture

TABOU ET TOTÉMISME À MADAGASCAR: ÉTUDE DESCRIPTIVE ET THÉORIQUE. Par ARNOLD VAN GENNEP. Paris: E. Leroux, 1904. Reviewed by E. Sidney Hartland.

THE MASAI, THEIR LANGUAGE AND FOLK-LORE. By A. C. HOLLIS, with Introduction by Sir Charles Eliot Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1905, 8vo Pp. xxxii + 364. Price 14s. net. Reviewed by N. W. Thomas.

ENGLISH AND SCOTTISH POPULAR BALLADS. Edited from the Collection of Francis James Child by HELEN CHILD SARGENT and GEORGE LYMAN KITTREDGE. London: D. Nutt 1905. Reviewed by A. Lang.     

Women and Guilds: Corporations and Female Labour Market Participation in Early Modern Holland

Recently, historians have suggested that the economic role of Dutch women and the remarkable economic development of the Dutch Republic are related. Guilds are said to have played an important role. This article analyses the female admission to guilds in early modern Holland in order to assess how guilds affected female labour participation. A classification of guilds according to their admittance of women reveals significant variations in the extent of incorporation of women. Gender norms were not rigid and were applied with flexibility. Thus, guilds formed no obstacle for women in contributing to the flourishing economy of the Dutch Republic.     

Of Sheep and Scribbling: Women and Writing in (Mostly) Early Modern England

Books reviewed in this article: Kevin Pask, The Emergence of the English Author: Scripting the Life of the Poet in Early Modern England Carol Barash, English Women’s Poetry 1649-1714: Politics, Community and Linguistic Authority Anna Battigelli, Margaret Cavendish and the Exiles of the Mind Helen Wilcox (ed.), Women and Literature in Britain 1500-1700 Jeni Williams, Interpreting Nightingales: Gender, Class and Histories