The Works of William Shakespeare [Cambridge Edition] [Vol. 5 of 9] · William Shakespeare
NOTE X.
II. 4. 37. We have followed the Folios in reading ‘Enter a Messenger’ and in assigning the speeches that follow to him rather than to the Marquess Dorset as is the case in the Quartos. The change must have been deliberate, and as the Queen does not greet the person who brings the intelligence, and expresses no anxiety for his safety when she herself is going to sanctuary, it seems more proper that the messenger should be one of inferior rank than one so nearly connected with the Queen. His ignorance of the cause of the arrest of the nobles and the terms in which he speaks of them are in keeping with the character of a messenger. In Act IV. Scene 1, the Queen, apparently, meets Dorset for the first time since Richard’s designs were disclosed, and passionately urges his escape. III. 1. 169, &c. The reading of the first Quarto is: ‘Well then no more but this: Go gentle Catesby, and as it were a farre off, Sound thou Lo: Hastings, how he stands affected Vnto our purpose, if he be willing, Encourage him &c.’ III. 2. 91–93. In the first Quarto the passage reads thus: ‘But come my Lo: shall we to the tower? _Hast._ I go: but stay, heare you not the newes. This day those men you talkt of, are beheaded.’
The reading of the Folios, which we have retained, is not satisfactory, and looks like an attempt of the editors to amend the defective metre of the Quartos. The scene opens at four in the morning, and yet Stanley is made to say, ‘the day is spent.’ III. 4. 5. We retain here the reading in which both the earliest Quartos and the Folios agree. It doubtless came from the pen of the author, and is after all a pardonable inaccuracy, such as may easily escape from the pen of a rapid writer or the tongue of a ready talker. III. 4. 10–13. We keep the reading of the Quartos but have made a change in the arrangement of the lines. This is the text of the Quartos: ‘_Buc._ Who I my Lo? we know each others faces: But for our harts, he knowes no more of mine, Then I of yours: nor I no more of his, then you of mine:’ The Folio reads: ‘_Buck._ We know each others Faces: for our Hearts, He knowes no more of mine, then I of yours, Or I of his, my Lord, then you of mine.’ Pope follows the Folios, but reads ‘Nor’ for ‘Or’ in the last line.
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