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

by William Shakespeare

NOTE XII.

[III. 2. 91–93.] In the first Quarto the passage reads thus:

‘But come my Lo: shall we to the tower?

Hast. I go: but stay, heare you not the newes.

This day those men you talkt of, are beheaded.’

The reading of the Folios, which we have retained, is not satisfactory, and looks like an attempt of the editors to amend the defective metre of the Quartos. The scene opens at four in the morning, and yet Stanley is made to say, ‘the day is spent.’