Ind. The Folios and the Quarto have here Actus Primus. Scæna Prima, making no separation between the play and the Induction. The play is divided into Acts, but not into Scenes. The second Act, however, is not marked in any of the old copies. The arrangement which we have followed is that of Steevens, which all subsequent editors have adopted, and which is therefore the most convenient for purposes of reference.
Ind. 1. 7. The phrase 'Go by, Jeronimy,' quoted from Kyd's 'Spanish Tragedy,' was used in popular 'slang,' derisively. It occurs frequently in the dramatic literature of the time, for example, in Beaumont and Fletcher's Captain, Act iii. Sc. 5. The 'S' of the Folios may have been derived from a note of exclamation in the MS., written, as it is usually printed, like a note of interrogation.
Ind. 1. 62. Mr Lettsom's suggestion that a line has been lost between 61 and 62 seems the most probable solution of the difficulties presented by this passage in its present form.
Ind. 1. 86. 'Sincklo,' the stage direction of the first Folio, was the name of an actor in Shakespeare's company, not mentioned in the list of 'Principall Actors' at the beginning of the first Folio. He was one of the actors in the Second Part of Henry IV., as appears from the 4to. edition of that play, published in 1600, where the stage direction to Act v. Scene 4 is, "Enter Sincklo and three or foure officers," and the part taken by Sincklo is that usually assigned to the 'Officer.' In the Third Part of Henry VI. Act iii. Scene 1, the stage direction in the first Folio is, 'Enter Sinklo, and Humfrey, with crosse-bowes in their hands.' Sinklo also appears as an actor in the Induction to Marston's play of The Malcontent. In the present play he probably took the part of Lucentio.
In iii. 1. 80, 'Nicke.' is supposed by Steevens to mean Nicholas Tooley, who at a later period became one of the 'Principall Actors.'
Ind. 1. 99. Pope inserts here the following speech from the old play: