NOTE X.
[II. 4. 37.] We have followed the Folios in reading ‘Enter a Messenger’ and in assigning the speeches that follow to him rather than to the Marquess Dorset as is the case in the Quartos. The change must have been deliberate, and as the Queen does not greet the person who brings the intelligence, and expresses no anxiety for his safety when she herself is going to sanctuary, it seems more proper that the messenger should be one of inferior rank than one so nearly connected with the Queen. His ignorance of the cause of the arrest of the nobles and the terms in which he speaks of them are in keeping with the character of a messenger. In Act IV. Scene 1, the Queen, apparently, meets Dorset for the first time since Richard’s designs were disclosed, and passionately urges his escape.