We have not felt ourselves at liberty in such cases as this to desert the authority of the Folio.
Note VI.
[ii. 1.] Scene, a hall in Leonato’s house. It may be doubted whether the author did not intend this scene to take place in the garden rather than within doors. The banquet, of which Don John speaks, line 150, would naturally occupy the hall or great chamber. Don Pedro at the close of the scene says, ‘Go in with me, &c.’ If the dance, at line 135, were intended to be performed before the spectators, the stage might be supposed to represent a smooth lawn as well as the floor of a hall. On the other hand, the word ‘entering,’ at line 70, rather points to the scene as being within doors.
Note VII.
[ii. 1. 67.] The conjecture of the MS. corrector of Mr Collier’s Folio, which seems to have suggested itself independently to Capell (Notes, Vol. ii. p. 121), is supported by a passage in Marston’s Insatiate Countesse, Act ii. (Vol. iii. p. 125, ed. Halliwell):
‘Thinke of me as of the man
Whose dancing dayes you see are not yet done.
Len. Yet you sinke a pace, sir.’
Note VIII.
[ii. 1. 87.] Mr Halliwell mentions that Mar. is altered to Mask. in the third Folio. This is not the case in Capell’s copy of it.