APPENDIX C
The Text of the Present Edition
The text of the present edition is, in the main, by permission of the Oxford University Press, that of the Oxford Shakespeare, edited by the late W. J. Craig. Stage directions, when not bracketed, are from either the First Quarto or the First Folio or both; bracketed stage directions are modern. The title of the play is from the First Quarto. The Dramatis Personæ are as given in the First Folio under the caption 'The Actors' Names.'
In II. ii. 131-149 the present editor has substituted the original assignment of speeches, in ll. 131, 135, as found in both Quarto and Folio, for Craig's assignment, as there seems to be no sufficient reason for emendations. He has also assigned ll. 139-148 to the Prince. Craig divides as follows:
131–133Poins. Sir John . . . certificate.
134 Prince. Peace.
135–149 Poins. I will . . . eat it.
Many minor departures from the Oxford text have been made in this edition in an attempt to arrive at a consistent text. The Oxford editor has in the majority of cases followed the readings of the First Quarto, but in about fifty instances he has adopted the slightly different expressions used in the more formal and less colloquial Folio text. For example, in the scenes of low comedy, he in the Folio is almost invariably a' in the Quarto; is it is is 't; it is is 'tis; etc. The Oxford editor has used sometimes the formal, sometimes the informal expression. He sometimes follows the Folio in correcting the grammar and the mispronunciations of Mistress Quickly and Justice Shallow, and sometimes does not; he
