The Works of William Shakespeare [Cambridge Edition] [Vol. 5 of 9] · William Shakespeare
NOTE VI.
V. 1. 17. However plausible the emendation _kin_ may seem, we leave _knit_, the reading of the Folios, as the conceit suggested by the ‘knot of amity,’ in the preceding line, is not alien from the author’s manner. Mr Collier, in a note to his second edition, says: “Mr Singer is obliged to admit that it has been proposed to read ‘near _kin_ to Charles.’ Where has it been so proposed? In the corrected Folio, 1632, which Mr Singer has always such a wish to ignore. The emendation was never suggested (not even in Mr Singer’s corrected Folio, 1632) until it appeared in our volume of ‘Notes and emendations,’ p. 277.” In fact, it was first suggested by Pope, and adopted by Theobald, Hanmer, Warburton, and Johnson. Capell restored _knit_, in which he was followed by Steevens and Malone. V. III. 75. This and other speeches which follow are marked by Pope and subsequent editors as spoken aside, but this is so obvious that we have not thought it necessary to encumber our pages with marginal directions. V. 4. 121. Malone, followed by Singer, Mr Collier, and Herr Delius, attributes the emendation ‘prison’d’ for ‘poison’d’ to Pope. Mr Staunton rightly assigns it to Theobald.
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