NOTE VIII.
[III. 2. 11.] The murderer’s answer ’Tis, which Rowe changed to Yes without authority, shows that we ought to retain the Is of the first Folio notwithstanding the grammatical inaccuracy. In the Quartos the murderer says, ‘All things is hansome now my Lord.’
NOTE IX.
[III. 2. 26.] We have left ‘Nell’ in the text as the mistake is, in all probability, Shakespeare’s own. He was thinking of the Duchess of Gloucester. Oddly enough neither Rowe nor Pope discovered the blunder. Shakespeare again wrote ‘Elianor’ or ‘Elinor’ for ‘Margaret’ in the 79th, the 100th, and 120th lines of this scene. In Henry V. V. 1. the author has made a similar mistake and written ‘Doll’ for ‘Nell.’ See also note VII on The Two Gentlemen of Verona.
NOTE X.
[III. 2. 182.] This is a striking example of the way in which corrections were made in the successive Folios; i.e. by mere guess-work, without reference to the first. The true reading escaped the notice of all editors before Capell.
NOTE XI.
[IV. 10. 14.] By comparing this scene as it stands in the Quartos with that of the Folios it will appear that Shakespeare, in remodelling it, intended that Iden should be alone when he encountered Cade, as his first speech is evidently a soliloquy; and after he has killed Cade he disposes of the body with his own hands. Shakespeare omitted, however, to strike out the reference to the ‘five men’ in line 36.
Steevens who brought the servants on the stage forgot to send them off it. The mistake remained uncorrected down to Mr Dyce’s first edition.
Another example of Shakespeare’s incomplete alteration of the Quarto has been pointed out by Malone at V. 1. 56.