IV. 1. 1. Johnson followed Theobald and Warburton in printing Time's speech at the end of the third act, but said in his note: 'I believe this speech of Time rather begins the fourth act than concludes the third.' He had not referred, apparently, to the Folios or to Rowe and Pope. Theobald did not mean to include the speech in either act, but drew a line above it to mark that it was an interlude between the third and fourth. Warburton, and Johnson after him, omitted the line.
IV. 3. 48. A writer in The Gentleman's Magazine, 1st series, Vol. LX. p. 306, suggests that by 'me—' in this place is meant 'mercy,' and that the clown's exclamation is interrupted by Autolycus.
IV. 4. 82. We have retained here the spelling 'gillyvors' in preference to the more familiar form 'gillyflowers,' because the latter is due to an etymological error. The original word is 'caryophyllus,' which becomes 'girofle' in French, and thence by metathesis 'gilofre,' 'gillyvor.'
IV. 4. 263. We have retained wives in this passage because Steevens' reading wives' is too strictly grammatical to accord with the reckless volubility of the charlatan. To be consistent, Steevens ought to have printed witnesses' for witnesses in line 275.
IV. 4. 288. The first three Folios read thus;
Song. Get you hence for I must goe