II. 1. 23. In the absence of any guidance from the Folios we have thought it better to follow Pope, who makes the king leave the stage, than Capell, who supposes that he retires to a couch. Bertram and Parolles could hardly, consistently with the etiquette of a court, or indeed the rules of good manners (of which Shakespeare had an instinctive knowledge), carry on a whispered conversation in the royal presence. The king we may suppose is carried out on a couch. When Bertram says, 'Stay: the king,' the ushers in attendance throw open the folding doors at the back of the stage, Bertram and Parolles retire close to one of the side doors, and while they are speaking together then the king is borne in upon his couch to the front of the stage. To say that the king retires to a couch, as Capell does, would imply that he was able to walk, but from what Lafeu says, lines 61, 62, it is clear that he could not even stand. We must therefore suppose that he is reclining on a couch throughout the whole scene. Thus, at his first appearance, his illness would be made evident to the spectators. After they have set the couch down, the attendants retire to the back of the stage so as to be out of ear-shot. NOTE IX. II. 1. 46. As printed in the Folios, the words 'what will ye do?' seem to be a taunt addressed, after the speaker's manner, to the young lords when their backs were turned and they were out of hearing. NOTE X. II. 1. 142. The correction made by Theobald is found also in a MS. note on the margin of the copy of the first Folio, which belongs to Lord Ellesmere, i.e. 'ffits' for 'shifts.' Theobald's emendation 'loneliness' for 'loveliness,' I. 3. 162, is also found there. NOTE XI. II. 3. 282. In the margin of the third Folio belonging to the Capell collection an unknown hand has made the correction 'detested' for 'detected.' NOTE XII. II. 5. 36. Another reading proposed by an anonymous correspondent of Theobald's will be found in his Letters to Warburton, Nichols' _Illustrations_, II. 346. NOTE XIII. III. 3. 3. Mr Grant White says that the Folio has merely '_Sir it_'--'_is_' having dropped out. He appears to have quoted from the reprint of the first Folio, published in 1808. The copies to which we have access read '_Sir it is_.' NOTE XIV. III. 7. 22. In this, as in so many other cases, Capell was the first to restore the true reading from F1. Steevens follows him, but as usual without acknowledgement. Sometimes as at V. 3. 193, he passes his authority over in silence, sometimes as at I. 2. 35, he sedulously attributes to some one else that which was undoubtedly Capell's by priority of publication. At IV. 3. 152 he assigns to an anonymous correspondent a reading which Hanmer had introduced. Steevens probably derived his knowledge of it from Capell, who had adopted it. Such unworthy practices go far to explain and justify the enmities of which Steevens was the object during his life-time. NOTE XV.