NOTES
Dramatis Personæ, omitted in the Folio, were first supplied by Rowe in 1709.
The Prologue. For general discussion of authorship, see Appendix C. It may be well, however, to state here that the question of the authorship of many parts of this play is undecided. For a hundred and fifty years Shakespeare's authorship of the Prologue has been denied. In the eighteenth century Dr. Samuel Johnson attributed it to Fletcher; in the nineteenth, it has been given to Ben Jonson, and to Chapman; in the twentieth, to Massinger. Besides the Induction to 2 Henry IV there are only three other prologues in Shakespeare's works, those to Troilus and Cressida, Romeo and Juliet and Henry V. In each case the prologue serves to explain the play. Here it is actually misleading, since the last lines of the Prologue promise us a tragedy and the Fifth Act is far from tragic. And the tone of this Prologue is curiously apologetic.
Pro. 9. May here find truth too. The play of Henry VIII in 1613 had, as an alternative title, All is True. (See quotation from Sir Henry Wotton, Appendix B.) Some critics find here and in
'To rank our chosen truth with such a show'
(l. 18) and
'To make that only true we now intend' (l. 21)
allusions to that title. If these lines contain allusions to that title, the question of the date is settled.
Pro. 12. shilling. The price of admission to the best seats in the theatre. It must be remembered, however, that the purchasing power of a shilling was over eight times that at present.
