[Note I.]
A list of Dramatis Personæ in MS. of an early time is prefixed to Capell's copy of the sixth Quarto.
'Falstaff' is spelt 'Falstaffe' or 'Falstalffe' in the Quartos, but consistently 'Falstaffe' in the first Folio.
'Poins' is spelt 'Poines' or 'Poynes' in the Quartos, and occasionally, in the Folio, 'Pointz,' as it is in The Merry Wives of Windsor, III. 2. 63.
'Bardolph,' spelt thus, or 'Bardolfe,' in the Folio, is 'Bardoll' or 'Bardol' in the Quartos. We retain the spelling which is most familiar in names so well known.
[Note II.]
I. 1. 28. Mr Staunton says that 'now is twelve months old' is the reading of the first Quarto. Capell's copy has 'now is twelue month old.'
[Note III.]
I. 1. 62. We take this opportunity of reminding our readers that we have not recorded minute variations of spelling except where they seemed to have importance as helping to determine the text. We give as a general rule the spelling of the earliest copy.