The Works of William Shakespeare [Cambridge Edition] [Vol. 5 of 9] · William Shakespeare
LINENOTES TO III KING HENRY VI.
II. 5. 92, 93. Capell follows Hanmer in adopting the reading of the Quartos. We retain the reading of the Folios, because the alteration merely transfers the difficulty of explanation from one line to another. III. 1. As Sinklo is certainly the name of an Actor, who is mentioned in the stage directions in the _Taming of the Shrew_ (Ind. I. 86), and in _Henry IV._ Pt. II. (Act IV. Sc. 4), there is great probability that Humfrey is the name of another Actor, perhaps, as Malone suggests, Humfrey Jeaffes. Neither of these is mentioned in the list of ‘Principal Actors’ prefixed to the first Folio. IV. 1. 20–23. The following is the arrangement of these lines in the Folios: ‘Not I: no: God forbid, that I should wish them seuer’d, Whom God hath ioyn’d together: I, and ’twere pittie, to sunder them, That yoake so well together.’ Pope reads: ‘Not I; no: God forbid that I should wish Them severed whom God hath join’d together. Pity to sunder them, that yoak so well.’ IV. 2. 13. The reading ‘overture’ first appears in Warburton’s edition, being probably a misprint. Johnson adopts it, but suggests the true reading ‘coverture,’ without giving any indication that this was the reading in all the Folios and in all the editions before Warburton’s. We give this as one of the many instances of the carelessness with which Johnson’s work was done. IV. 8. In the Folios, Somerset is introduced in the stage direction, though he had gone with young Richmond into Brittany. The mistake arose from the Quartos in which Scene VI. and Scene VIII. form but one.
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