Myself and you, son Harry, will towards Wales,
To fight with Glendower and the Earl of March.
Rebellion in this land shall lose his sway,
Meeting the check of such another day:
And since this business so fair is done,
Let us not leave till all our own be won.

39 you,] om. F2F3F4. my Rowe (ed.

2).

towards] toward Q7Q8.

41 lose] loose Q5 Qe

40

[Exeunt.

sway] Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 way The rest. 43 so fair is] so far is F. so far fair is Pope. is so fairly Capell.

NOTES.

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.

The Acts and Scenes are marked in the Folios but not in the Quartos.

NOTE II.

1. 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.

1. 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.

NOTE IV.

I. 1. 72, 73. Capell says: "Too hasty a perusal of a passage in Holinshed...betray'd Shakespeare into a mistake in this place: the 'earl

of Fife' was not 'son to Douglas' but to a duke of Albany, as the same chronicler tells us soon after; and in this passage too, was it rightly pointed, and a little attended to: for that duke was then governor; i.e. of Scotland; and the word governor should have a comma after it, or (rather) a semi-colon." He goes on to say that the mistake is repeated 1. 3. 261, and proposes to give historical truth to both these passages by reading:

(1)

(2)

'Prisoners to Hotspur, are

Mordake the earl of Fife; and he himself
The beaten Douglas; and, with him, &c.'

'And make the regent's son your only mean
powers in Scotland.'

For

'That is' (says Capell) 'by delivering him, as it appears they did, by some words of the Poet himself at p. 85 (i.e. IV. 4. 24), where the earl of Fife is spoken of as making a part of Hotspur's army at Shrewsbury.'

I. 1. 75—77.

NOTE V.

The first and second Quartos read:

'A gallant prize? Ha coosen, is it not?

West. A conquest for a Prince to boast of,'

In faith it is.

leaving a blank between 'not?' and 'In faith.' The subsequent Quartos and the Folios have the same reading without the blank. Pope reads:

'A gallant prize? ha, cousin, is it not?

West. In faith, a conquest for a Prince to boast of.'

Steevens (1778) has, for the second line,

'West. 'Faith 'tis a conquest for a prince to boast of,' a reading which Malone by mistake assigns to Pope. Malone himself gives [following Capell's conjecture]:

6

West. In faith, it is a conquest for a prince

To boast of.'

Capell reads:

'Wes. It is a conquest for a prince to boast of.' Dr Nicholson proposes:

'A gallant prize? ha, cousin, is it not,

In faith?

West. It is a conquest for a prince to boast of.'

For, he says, 'In faith' sounds too familiar to be addressed by a subject to his king.

S. Walker proposes to arrange thus:

1. 2. 60. “Here," says Mr Dyce, "all the old copies, I believe, have '-when thou art a king' &c. but erroneously." Four of the Quartos, the first, second, seventh and eighth, have when thou art king,' which is unquestionably the right reading. [In his second edition, Mr Dyce omitted this note.]

NOTE VII.

I. 2. 103. The first and second Quartos read as in the text. The third and following Quartos and the Folios print Poines or Pointz in italics, as if the words 'Now shall we know...true man' were spoken by him.

I. 2. 156.

were the names of the

NOTE VIII.

Theobald was the first to suggest that Harvey and Rossill actors who performed the parts of Peto and 167, 169, 173 for 'Ross.' which is found in the Quartos the Folios substitute not 'Bard.' but 'Gad.' i.e. 'Gadshill.'

Bardolph. But in 11. 4.

NOTE IX.

I. 2. 185. Steevens claimed as his own conjecture the reading 'tonight,' which Capell had adopted in his text.

NOTE X.

II. 1. 6, 11. Either the article or the pronoun was intentionally omitted in these passages, in order to give rusticity to the carriers' language. The Folios supply the article in the former passage, but leave the latter untouched.

NOTE XI.

II. 1. 73, 74. We have recorded Jackson's conjecture in this passage as a curiosity. Its full value can only be appreciated by reading his own explanation. In many other cases the emendations of Becket and Jackson are quoted as amusing instances of the licence which they permitted themselves.

it.

NOTE XII.

II. 2. 49, 50. The first and second Quartos here read 'Bardoll, what newes. (newes?Q,)' as part of Poins's speech, and in the same line with The third, fourth, fifth and sixth have, 'Bardol what newes?' the seventh and eighth, 'Bardol, what newes?' Bardol being in italics. In the Folios, Bardolfe, what newes?' is put in a separate line, and this arrangement appears to have suggested Johnson's conjecture. We have omitted, as unnecessary, many of the stage directions which editors have introduced into this scene, because the whole affair takes place in the dark.

NOTE XIII.

II. 4. 247. Capell's misprint, 'how plain a tale,' which he corrected in MS. as well as in his notes, was followed by Malone and other editors.

NOTE XIV.

11. 4. 487. Johnson was the first to suggest that Poins and not Peto should remain with the prince. "I cannot but suspect," he says, "that for Peto we should read Poins: what had Peto done that his place should be honourable, or that he should be trusted with the plot against Falstaff? Poins has the prince's confidence, and is a man of courage. This alteration clears the whole difficulty, they all retired but Poins, who, with the prince, having only robbed the robbers, had no need to conceal himself from the travellers." Johnson's last-mentioned reason for the alteration has less weight when we consider that they all wore vizards. In favour of his conjecture we find that the Dering MS. has 'Poynes' for 'Peto' in line 530, and in the stage directions to lines 510, 515, 531. On the other hand, the formal 'Good morrow, good my lord' is appropriate to Peto rather than to Poins, who was on much more familiar terms with the prince, and rarely addresses him in this play except as 'Hal.' We have therefore left the whole text undisturbed.