Early modern people had a range of explanations for strange dreams. They could be a manifestation of personal anxieties, the product of an overactive imagination, or the fruit of indigestion. But scholars also theorised that dreams might be inspired by God or the Devil. Writing in 1716, the Glasgow minister Robert Wodrow described a ‘very loose and wicked’ young man called John Colt who lusted furiously after a maidservant. Eventually ‘he either dreamed, or, (if I mind,) the bed he lay in was burnt three times … the fire within brought fire without; which was God contending with him’.¹Robert Wodrow, Analecta: Or Materials for a History of Remarkable Providences, ed. Matthew Leishman, 4 vols (Edinburgh, 1842-3), vol. 2, p. 315. For Wodrow it was not important whether the fire happened in reality, or only in John’s dreams; either way it was a symbol of God’s judgement.

Dreams might also be considered prophetic. In the Old Testament, Joseph foretold future events, including a seven-year famine, after hearing about the dreams of a cupbearer, a baker and the Pharoah. God also encoded messages in dreams and visions. Jacob’s Ladder, a ladder to Heaven that appeared in a dream to the patriarch Jacob, was particularly notable. These biblical precedents broadly legitimised divination by dreams, and numerous early modern manuals offered guides as to how to interpret common dreams.

All the same, it remained difficult to discern whether a dream was divine or devilish in origin. Night-time was when the Devil was at the peak of his powers. Witches might also inflict terrifying dreams on their victims. Deciding where the dream came from was the crucial first step deciding how to interpret it, and whether to follow its message.