I. 1. 124. The punctuation which we have adopted seems to be the only one which will make sense of this passage without altering the text. We must suppose that, during the ‘skirmish of wit’ between Benedick and Beatrice, from line 96 to 123, Don Pedro and Leonato have been talking apart and making arrangements for the visit of the Prince and his friends, the one pressing his hospitable offers and the other, according to the manners of the time, making a show of reluctance to accept them. NOTE III. I. 1. 182, 183. Johnson was not satisfied with his own conjecture, and supposed something to be omitted relating to Hero’s consent or to Claudio’s marriage; ‘something which Claudio and Pedro concur in wishing.’ NOTE IV. I. 2. 1. We take this opportunity of reminding the reader that when no authority is given for the place of the scene, we generally follow the words of Capell. He, however, more frequently expands than alters the directions given by Pope. At the beginning of the next scene he puts, unnecessarily, ‘Another room in Leonato’s house.’ The stage was left vacant for an instant, but there is nothing to indicate a change of place. NOTE V. II. 1. 1. Mr Spedding, in _The Gentleman’s Magazine_, June 1850, proposed to rearrange the Acts thus: Act II.  to begin at what is now Act I. Sc. 2, Act III. . . . . . . . . . . . . Act II. Sc. 3, Act IV.  . . . . . . . . . . . . Act III. Sc. 4, Act V. remaining as it is. We have not felt ourselves at liberty in such cases as this to desert the authority of the Folio. NOTE VI. II. 1. Scene, a hall in Leonato’s house. It may be doubted whether the author did not intend this scene to take place in the garden rather than within doors. The banquet, of which Don John speaks, line 150, would naturally occupy the hall or great chamber. Don Pedro at the close of the scene says, ‘Go _in_ with me, &c.’ If the dance, at line 135, were intended to be performed before the spectators, the stage might be supposed to represent a smooth lawn as well as the floor of a hall. On the other hand, the word ‘entering,’ at line 70, rather points to the scene as being within doors. NOTE VII. II. 1. 67. The conjecture of the MS. corrector of Mr Collier’s Folio, which seems to have suggested itself independently to Capell (_Notes_, Vol. II. p. 121), is supported by a passage in Marston’s _Insatiate Countesse_, Act II. (Vol. III. p. 125, ed. Halliwell): ‘Thinke of me as of the man Whose dancing dayes you see are not yet done. _Len._ Yet you sinke a pace, sir.’ NOTE VIII. II. 1. 87. Mr Halliwell mentions that _Mar._ is altered to _Mask._ in the third Folio. This is not the case in Capell’s copy of it. NOTE IX.