The Works of William Shakespeare [Cambridge Edition] [Vol. 5 of 9]

by William Shakespeare

NOTE III.

[I. 3. 59]. The insertion made by the Editor of the second Folio for the sake of the metre shows that a change had already taken place in the pronunciation of the word ‘Mayor,’ which in Shakespeare’s day was sometimes written and pronounced ‘Major.’ See 1 Henry IV. II. 4. 473: ‘I deny your major; if you will deny the Sheriff, so; let him enter.’ In line 84 of the present scene, however, the ‘Maior’ of the first Folio becomes ‘Major’ in the second—probably from inadvertence.