FOOTNOTES:
[7] For facsimile reproductions see Bibliography, [Appendix D].
[8] In the table of Quarto editions may be noted four entries with the words "or 1619" added to the date which appears on the title-page. These four plays, the Roberts Quartos of The Merchant of Venice and A Midsummer-Night's Dream of 1600, the third Quarto of Henry V, 1608, the second Quarto of King Lear, 1608, along with the 1619 Quartos of The Merry Wives and Pericles, an undated Quarto of The Whole Contention (the earlier form of 2 and 3 Henry VI), the Quarto of Sir John Oldcastle, dated 1600, and the Quarto of A Yorkshire Tragedie, dated 1619, have been shown by Mr. A. W. Pollard, with the coöperation of Mr. W. W. Greg, to have been put on the market at the same time, and Mr. W. J. Neidig has proved from typographical evidence that the title-pages of all nine were set up in succession in 1619. A very curious problem is thus presented, and the motives for the deception practised, apparently by the printers Pavier and Jaggard, have not been satisfactorily cleared up; but at present it appears likely that in the case of these nine Quartos the correct date of publication should be 1619, and that, in the case of the first two mentioned, the question of the comparative authority of the Heyes and Fisher Quartos respectively as against that of the Roberts Quartos should be settled against the latter. This last point is the only part of this remarkable discovery which is of importance in determining the text, as the Quartos dated 1608 and 1619 were already known to be mere reprints of earlier ones.
[9] For this and other prefatory matter from the First Folio, see [Appendix A].