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NOTES.

Note I.

A list of Dramatis Personæ in MS. of an early time is prefixed to Capell's copy of the sixth Quarto.

'Falstaff' is spelt 'Falstaffe' or 'Falstalffe' in the Quartos, but consistently 'Falstaffe' in the first Folio.

'Poins' is spelt 'Poines' or 'Poynes' in the Quartos, and occasionally, in the Folio, 'Pointz,' as it is in The Merry Wives of Windsor, III. 2. 63.

'Bardolph,' spelt thus, or 'Bardolfe,' in the Folio, is 'Bardoll' or 'Bardol' in the Quartos. We retain the spelling which is most familiar in names so well known.

Note II.

I. 1. 28. Mr Staunton says that 'now is twelve months old' is the reading of the first Quarto. Capell's copy has 'now is twelue month old.'

Note III.

I. 1. 62. We take this opportunity of reminding our readers that we have not recorded minute variations of spelling except where they seemed to have importance as helping to determine the text. We give as a general rule the spelling of the earliest copy.

Note IV.

I. 1. 73. Capell says: "Too hasty a perusal of a passage in Holinshed betray'd Shakespeare into a mistake in this place. The 'earl of Fife' was not 'son to Douglas' but to a duke of Albany, as the same chronicler tells us soon after; and in this passage too, was it rightly pointed, and a little attended to: for that duke was then governour; i.e. of Scotland; and the word governour should have a comma after it, or (rather) a semi-colon." He goes on to say that the mistake is repeated I. 3. 261, and proposes to give historical truth to both these passages by reading:

That is (says Capell) by delivering him, as it appears they did by some words of the Poet himself, p. 85 (i.e. IV. 4. 23), where the earl of Fife is spoken of as making a part of Hotspur's army at Shrewsbury.

Note V.

I. 1. 75-77. The first and second Quartos read:

leaving a blank between 'not?' and 'In faith.' The subsequent Quartos and the Folios have the same reading without the blank. Pope reads:

Rann has, for the second line,

a reading which Malone by mistake assigns to Pope.

Malone himself gives:

Capell reads:

Dr Nicholson proposes:

For, he says, 'In faith' sounds too familiar to be addressed by a subject to his king.

Note VI.

I. 2. 56. "Here," says Mr Dyce, "all the old copies, I believe, have '—when thou art a king' &c. but erroneously." Four of the Quartos, the first, second, seventh and eighth, have 'when thou art king,' which is unquestionably the right reading.

Note VII.

I. 2. 97. The first and second Quartos read as in the text. The third and following Quartos and the Folios print Poines in italics, as if the words 'Now shall we know ... true man' were spoken by him.

Note VIII.

I. 2. 148. Theobald was the first to suggest that Harvey and Rossill were the names of the actors who performed the parts of Peto and Bardolph. But in II. 4. 165, 167, 171 for 'Ross.' which is found in the Quartos the Folios substitute not 'Bard.' but 'Gad.' i.e. 'Gadshill.'

Note IX.

I. 2. 175. Steevens claimed as his own conjecture the reading 'to-night,' which Capell had adopted in his text. Mr Knight punctuates, 'and meet me. To-morrow night, &c.'

Note X.

II. I. 6, 11. Either the article or the pronoun was intentionally omitted in these passages, in order to give rusticity to the carriers' language. The Folios supply the article in the former passage, but leave the latter untouched.

Note XI.

II. I. 72. We have recorded Jackson's conjecture in this passage as a curiosity. Its full value can only be appreciated by reading his own explanation. In many other cases the emendations of Becket and Jackson are quoted as amusing instances of the licence which they permitted themselves.

Note XII.

II. 2. 46, 47. The first and second Quartos here read 'Bardoll, what newes?' as part of Poins's speech, and in the same line with it. The third, fourth, fifth and sixth have, 'Bardol what newes?' the seventh and eighth, Bardol, what newes?' Bardol being in italics. In the Folios, 'Bardolfe, what newes?' is put in a separate line, and this arrangement appears to have suggested Johnson's conjecture. We have omitted, as unnecessary, many of the stage directions which editors have introduced into this scene, because the whole affair takes place in the dark.

Note XIII.

II. 4. 245. Capell's misprint, 'how plain a tale,' which he corrected in MS. as well as in his notes, was followed by Malone and other editors.

Note XIV.

II. 4. 481. Johnson was the first to suggest that Poins and not Peto should remain with the Prince. 'I cannot but suspect,' he says, 'that for Peto we should read Poins: what had Peto done that his place should be honourable, or that he should be trusted with the plot against Falstaff? Poins has the prince's confidence, and is a man of courage. This alteration clears the whole difficulty, they all retired but Poins, who, with the prince, having only robbed the robbers, had no need to conceal himself from the travellers.' Johnson's last-mentioned reason for the alteration has less weight when we consider that they all wore vizards. In favour of his conjecture we find that the Dering MS. has 'Poynes' for 'Peto' in line 523, and in the stage directions to lines 504, 508, 524. On the other hand, the formal 'Good morrow, good my lord' is appropriate to Peto rather than to Poins, who was on much more familiar terms with the prince, and rarely addresses him in this play except as 'Hal.' We have therefore left the old text undisturbed.

Note XV.

III. 2. 174-176. The first Quarto, whose arrangement is followed in all the other Quartos, reads:

The first Folio has:

Pope altered the passage thus:

Capell's arrangement, taking in the previous line, is as follows:

Note XVI.

III. 3. 81. Theobald was the first to insert the words 'and Peto' in the stage directions. They are omitted in the Quartos and Folios, and Steevens following Johnson's conjecture, changed them to 'and Pointz.' This alteration is supported by the reading of the Dering MS. in line 186, 'Poynes' for 'Peto.' But 'Peto' is found in the text in III. 3. 186. It is true, as Johnson points out, that Peto is afterwards (IV. 2. 9) mentioned as Falstaff's lieutenant, but this may be the honourable place which the prince had promised him (II. 4. 519).

Note XVII.

III. 3. 187. Steevens adopted, without acknowledgement, Capell's arrangement:

Note XVIII.

IV. 1. 54. It is not improbable that a line may have been lost after reversion.

Note XIX.

IV. 1. 99. We leave this obscure passage as it stands in the old copies. Possibly, as Steevens suggested, a line has dropped out after wind. The phrase 'wing the wind' seems to apply to ostriches (for such is unquestionably the meaning of 'estridges') less than to any other birds. Mr Dyce quotes a passage from Claudian (In Eutropium, II. 310-313) to justify it:

But this means that the bird spreads its wings like a sail bellying with the wind—a different thing from 'winging the wind.'

Malone, agreeing with Steevens that a line might have been lost, suggested the following:

Note XX.

IV. 4. 22. We leave these lines as they are in the Quartos and Folios. Pope read the passage, perhaps rightly, as prose. Steevens smoothed the lines thus:

Note XXI.

V. 1. We have followed the Quartos, Folios, and all editors till Capell's time, in leaving the 'Earl of Westmoreland' among the persons entering. He does not speak, indeed, but it might be intended that he should be present as a mute person for the nonce. On the same principle we have left 'Lord John of Lancaster' in the stage direction of I. 1.

Note XXII.

V. 2. 72. Mr Collier reads 'wild o' liberty,' observing in a note that the three oldest Quartos have this reading. The true reading of these Quartos, and the fourth, is what we have given in the foot-note, 'wild a libertie.' Mr Grant White retains it in his text, interpreting 'never did I hear so wild a liberty reported of any prince.' Pope also adopted this reading without any note of explanation. Theobald restored what he called 'the reading of the old copies' and punctuated thus: 'Of any prince, so wild, at liberty.'

Note XXIII.

V. 2. 101. The stage direction of the first Quarto is literally as follows: Here they embrace the trumpets sound, the King enters with his power, alarme to the battel, then enter Douglas, and Sir Walter Blunt. The Folios have substantially the same, omitting the word 'Here.' They indicate no change of scene in this place. The Quartos do not, either here or elsewhere, mark any division into act or scene.

Note XXIV.

V. 4. 136, sqq. Pope reads thus:

Capell thus:

Note XXV.

V. 5. 30. Malone reads 'shewn' on the authority of the Quarto of 1598. But Capell's copy of that edition has 'taught,' and this is the reading of Malone's own copy, now in the Bodleian Library.