I. 1. There is no division into Acts and Scenes in the Quartos, nor any trace of division in the Folios, except the 'Actus Primus, Scæna Prima' at the beginning of the play.
We wish to remind our readers that the symbol Qq signifies the agreement of the second, third, fourth, and fifth Quartos.
Note II.
I. 2. 116. The first Quarto here has 'thrall,' the others 'debt,' which though it makes a rhyme does not improve the sense. The next two lines are not in the first Quarto. As, unlike the immediate context, they also rhyme, while they are not particularly forcible, we incline to think that some other hand than Shakespeare's inserted them.
Note III.
II. 1. 13. Pope was the first commentator who called attention to the ballad which is alluded to in this passage, and it is remarkable that with all his partiality for the first Quarto he did not adopt the reading 'trim,' found both there and in the ballad. Percy, in a note to the ballad printed in his Reliques, conjectured that Shakespeare had written 'trim,' not 'true,' apparently without knowing that the word was found in the first Quarto. Capell, in his note, says that he had retained 'true' in his text, owing to his not having observed the authority for the other reading.
Note IV.
II. 2. As there is no indication given in the Quartos and Folios of Romeo's entrance here, it is not impossible that in the old arrangement of the scene the wall was represented as dividing the stage, so that the audience could see Romeo on one side and Mercutio on the other. If this were the case it would tend to justify Capell's arrangement of Hen. VIII. v. 2, though in the present instance he makes no allusion to it. It is clear from the first line of Romeo's speech that he overhears what Mercutio says, and though we have not altered the usual arrangement, we cannot but feel that there is an awkwardness in thus separating the two lines of a rhyming couplet.