in 1873 (cp. Athenæum; Mill Hill Magazine, 1876, by Dr J. A. H. Murray; Pall Mall Gazette, 1890; New Shakespere Society, P. A. Daniel, 1890.)

II. ii. 31. though'; Quarto I reads 4 read one thinking, on'; Collier MS., conjectured nothing.'

thought'; on thinking on'; Folios 3, unthinking, on'; 'no thought'; Lettsom

II. ii. 57. all the rest'; the reading of Quarto 1; Quartos 2, 3, 4, 5 and Folios 1, 2 read the rest of the'; Folios 3, 4, the rest of that'; Pope, all of that.' 'revolted'; Quartos 3,4 read revolting'; 'faction'; Daniel conjectured 'factious.' II. ii. 58. The Earl of Worcester'; Thomas Percy, Steward of the King's household: he was brother to the Earl of Northumberland.

II. iii. 9. 'Cotswold'; Quartos 1, 2, 3, 4 read Cotshall'; the Folios and Quarto 5 read' Coltshold.'

II. iii. 100. The Clarendon Press editors suggest that this passage bears considerable resemblance to the speech of Nestor (Iliad, vii. 157). (Hall's translation of Homer was published in 1581.)

II. iii. 164. Bristol'; the reading of Quarto 5; all the rest Quartos and Folios, Bristow,' ·

III. ii. 1. Barkloughly'; the name was derived from Holinshed, where it was undoubtedly a copyist's or printer's error for Hertlowli,' i.e. Harlech. III. ii. 14. Alluding to the old idea that spiders were venomous.

III. ii. 40. 'boldly'; Collier's conjecture; Quarto 1, 'bouldy'; Quarto 2, bloudy'; Quartos 3, 4, 5, and Folios, 'bloody.'

III. ii. 156. sad stories of the death of kings'; Shakespeare was probably thinking of the Mirror for Magistrates with its 'tragedies' of English princes, Richard among the earliest of them.

III. ii. 160-163, Douce plausibly suggested that this image was suggested to Shakespeare by the seventh print (here reproduced) in the Imagines Mortis, where "a King is represented sitting on his throne, sword in hand, with courtiers round him, while from his crown rises a grinning skeleton."

III. iii. 105. the honourable tomb'; the tomb of Edward III. in West

minster Abbey.

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III. iv. 11. joy'; Rowe's emendation; Quartos and Folios, 'griefe.' III. iv. 22. And I could sing'; Pope's emendation; weep,' has been generally adopted, but the Cambridge editors adhere to the reading of the Quartos and Folios. They explain that "the Queen speaks with an emphasis on sing.' And I could even sing for joy if thy troubles were only such as weeping could alleviate, and then I could not ask you to weep for me.'

IV. i. 55. Quartos. IV. i. 148. Prevent it, resist it'; Pope proposed 'prevent, resist it'; others scan resist' by apocope ('sist); the natural movement of the line suggests:'prevent it, resist it, |-lét | it not be so."

'sun to sun'; Capell's emendation of sinne to sinne' of the

IV. i. 154-318. This part of the deposition scene' appeared for the first

time in the Quarto of 1608. In the earlier editions line 319 reads: 'Let it be so, and lo on Wednesday next We solemnly proclaim.'

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IV. i. 215. that swear'; i.e. ' of those that swear'; Folios and Quarto 5, are made.'

IV. i 270. torment'st; Rowe's emendation of Quartos 3, 4, 5 and Folios, 'torments.'

IV. i. 281-288. A reminiscence of Marlowe's famous lines in Faustus: Was this the face that launch'd a thousand ships, etc.

V. i. 88. Better far off than near, be ne'er the near,' i.e. better to be far apart than to be near, and yet never the nearer.'

V.

iii. 43.

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'secure, foolhardy king'; Quartos secure foole, hardy king'; Folio 4, secure re foul-hardy king.'

V. iii. 88. Love loving not itself,' etc.; i.e. 'love which is indifferent to the claims of kindred can be loving to none.'

V. iii. 144. The reading of Quarto 5; the other editions omit 'too.' V. v. 9. this little world'; alluding to the conception of man as 'microcosm,' i.e. an abstract or model of the world.'

V. v. 31. 'person'; so Quarto 1; the rest 'prison.'

V. v. 66. ' strange brooch.' (Cp. the accompanying illustration of a XVth century specimen.)

HENRY IV.—Parts I. and II.

Preface.

The Early Editions. (I.) The First Part of King Henry the Fourth, entered on the Stationers' Registers, under date of February 25, 1597-8, appeared for the first time in a Quarto edition, with the following titlepage:"The History of Henrie the Fourth; with the battell at Shrewsburie, betweene the King and Lord Henry Percy, surnamed Henrie Hotspur of the North. With the humorous conceits of Sir Iohn Falstalffe. At London. Printed by P. S. for Andrew Wise, dwelling in Paules Churchyard, at the signe of the Angell. 1598." (Cp. Grigg's Facsimile edition.)

No less than five subsequent Quarto editions appeared before the publication of the play in the first Folio; they were issued in 1599, 1604, 1608, 1613, 1622. Other Quartos belong to the years 1632 and 1639. Each edition seems to have been derived from its predecessor

The title of the play in the Folio is, "The First Part of Henry the Fourth, with the Life and Death of Henry Surnamed Hotspurre." The Cambridge editors refer the Folio text to a partially corrected copy of the fifth Quarto. The earlier Quartos were, however, probably consulted by the corrector.

(II.) The Second Part of King Henry the Fourth was first published in Quarto in 1600, with the following title-page :-"The Second part of Henrie the fourth, continuing to his death, and coronation of Henry the fifth. With the humours of Sir John Falstaffe, and swaggering Pistoll. As it hath been sundry times publikely acted by the right honourable the Lord Chamberlaine his seruants. Written by William Shakespeare. London. Printed by V. S. for Andrew Wise and William Aspley. 1600." (Cp. Grigg's Facsimile edition.) The play was entered by the publishers upon the Stationers' Registers on August 23rd of the same year.

By some accident the first scene of Act III. had been omitted in some copies of the Quarto. The error was rectified by inserting two new leaves, the type of some of the preceding and following leaves being used; hence there are two different impressions of the latter part of Act II. and the beginning of Act III. ii.

The text of this Part in the first Folio was probably ultimately derived from a transcript of the original MS. It contains passages which had evidently been originally omitted in order to shorten the play for the stage "Some of these are among the finest in the play, and are too closely connected with the context to allow of the supposition that they were later additions, inserted by the author after the publication of the Quarto" (Cambridge editors). Similarly, the Quarto contains passages not found in the Folio, and for the most part "the Quarto is to be regarded as having the higher critical value."

Date of Composition. There is almost unanimity among scholars in assigning 1 Henry IV. to the year 1596-1597. (i.) According to Chalmers, the opening lines of the play "plainly allude" to the expedition against Spain in 1596. Similarly the expression the poor fellow never joyed since the price of oats rose' (II. i.) may be connected with the Proclamation for the Dearth of Corn, etc., issued in the same year. The introduction of the word 'valiant,' detrimental to the metre of the line, in Act V. iv. 41,

"The spirits

Of (valiant) Shirley, Stafford, Blunt, are in my arms,"

may perhaps also point to 1596-7 as the original date of composition : the Shirleys were knighted by the Queen in 1597.

(ii.) The earliest reference to the play occurs in Meres' Palladis Tamia, 1598; while Ben Jonson ends his Every Man Out of His Humour with the words, "You may in time make lean Macilente as fat as Sir John Falstaff." In the Pilgrimage to Parnassus, acted at St John's College, Cambridge, Christmas 1598, there are what seem to be obvious reminiscences of the tapster's 'Anon, Anon, Sir.'* The point is of special interest in view of Mr H. P. Stokes' suggestion that 1 Henry IV. was itself originally a Christmas play of the previous year, 1597.

(iii.) General considerations of style corroborate these pieces of external evidence; its subtle characterisation, "its reckless ease and full creative

* Cp. "I shall no sooner open this pint pot but the word like a knave-tapster will cry Anon, Anon, Sir,'" etc.