NOTE I.
[DRAMATIS PERSONÆ]. Mr G. R. French writes to us: ‘In 1 Henry VI., it is generally said of the Duke of York: “Richard Plantagenet, eldest son of Richard, late Earl of Cambridge.” But he was an only son. “Eldest” should therefore be left out.’
We have made other changes in the ‘Dramatis Personæ’ of the following plays, in accordance with suggestions from Mr French, to whom we beg to repeat our acknowledgements.
NOTE II.
[I. 1. 60]. The word Rheims, spelt ‘Rheimes’ in the Folios, must be pronounced as a dissyllable, otherwise the metre halts. Capell’s interpolation, the credit of which is claimed as usual by Steevens derives some support from the fact that Roan, i.e. Rouen, is mentioned by Gloucester in line 65. Possibly we should read Rheimes for Roan in the latter passage.
NOTE III.
[I. 3. 59]. The insertion made by the Editor of the second Folio for the sake of the metre shows that a change had already taken place in the pronunciation of the word ‘Mayor,’ which in Shakespeare’s day was sometimes written and pronounced ‘Major.’ See 1 Henry IV. II. 4. 473: ‘I deny your major; if you will deny the Sheriff, so; let him enter.’ In line 84 of the present scene, however, the ‘Maior’ of the first Folio becomes ‘Major’ in the second—probably from inadvertence.
NOTE IV.
[I. 4. 16–18]. We leave this corrupt passage as it stands in the first Folio. In the second Folio, which is followed as usual by the third and fourth, it is thus given: