TRANSCRIBER'S NOTE. Original printed spelling and grammar are retained, with exceptions noted in the Transcriber's Endnotes. Small caps are changed to all capital letters. Italics _are indicated by low lines_. Numerals originally printed as subscripts are shown inline e.g. "F1". THE WORKS OF WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. [Illustration] THE WORKS OF WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE EDITED BY WILLIAM GEORGE CLARK, M.A. FELLOW AND TUTOR OF TRINITY COLLEGE, AND PUBLIC ORATOR IN THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE; AND WILLIAM ALDIS WRIGHT, M.A. LIBRARIAN OF TRINITY COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE. _VOLUME II._ Cambridge and London: MACMILLAN AND CO. 1863. CAMBRIDGE: PRINTED BY C. J. CLAY, M.A. AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS. CONTENTS. PAGE THE Preface vii MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING 3 Notes to Much Ado About Nothing 89 LOVE’S LABOUR’S LOST 97 Notes to Love’s Labour’s Lost 191 A MIDSUMMER-NIGHT’S DREAM 199 Notes to A Midsummer-Night’s Dream 273 THE MERCHANT OF VENICE 279 Notes to The Merchant of Venice 369 AS YOU LIKE IT 375 Notes to As You Like It 462 PREFACE. The five plays contained in this volume are here printed in the order in which they occur in the Folios. 1. MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING. The first edition of this play is a Quarto, of which the title is as follows: Much adoe about | Nothing. | _As it hath been sundrie times publikely_ | acted by the right honourable, the Lord | Chamberlaine his seruants. | _Written by William Shakespeare._ | London | Printed by V. S. for Andrew Wise, and | William Aspley. | 1600. The First Folio edition of this play was obviously printed from a copy of the Quarto belonging to the library of the theatre, and corrected for the purposes of the stage. Some stage directions of interest occur first in the Folio, but as regards the text, where the Folio differs from the Quarto it differs almost always for the worse. The alterations are due however to accident not design. ‘Davenant’s version,’ to which reference is made in the notes, is his play ‘The Law against Lovers.’ 2. LOVE’S LABOUR’S LOST was published for the first time in Quarto, with the following title: A | Pleasant | Conceited Comedie | called, | Loues labors lost. | As it was presented before her Highnes | this last Christmas. | Newly corrected and augmented | _By W. Shakespere._ | Imprinted at London by _W. W._ | for _Cutbert Burby_. | 1598. The Folio edition is a reprint of this Quarto, differing only in its being divided into Acts, and, as usual, inferior in accuracy. The second Quarto (Q2) is reprinted from the First Folio. It bears the following title: