THE | MOST EX-CELLENT AND | Lamentable Tragedie, of | _Romeo_ _and Juliet_. | As it hath beene sundrie times publiquely Acted, | by the KINGS Maiesties Seruants | at the Globe. | Newly corrected, augmented, and | amended: | LONDON | Printed for IOHN SMETHVVICK, and are to be sold | at his Shop in Saint _Dunstanes_ Church-yard, | in Fleetestreete vnder the Dyall | 1609 |. It was printed from Q2, from which it differs by a few corrections, and more frequently by additional errors. The next Quarto has no date. Its title-page bears for the first time the name of the author. After the word 'GLOBE' and in a separate line we find the words: 'Written by W. _Shake-speare_.' Otherwise, except in some slight variations of type and spelling, the title-page of the undated Quarto does not differ from that of Q3. It was also printed '_for Iohn Smethwicke_,' without the mention of the printer's name. Though this edition has no date, internal evidence conclusively proves that it was printed from Q3 and that the Quarto of 1637 was printed from it. We therefore call it Q4. It contains some very important corrections of the text, none however that an intelligent reader might not make conjecturally and without reference to any other authority. Indeed had the corrector been able to refer to any such authority, he would not have left so many obviously corrupt passages untouched. The title-page of the fifth Quarto, our Q5, is substantially identical with that of Q4, except that it is said to be printed 'by _R. Young_ for _John Smethwicke_,' and dated, 1637. It is printed, as we have said, from Q4. The punctuation has been carefully regulated throughout, and the spelling in many cases made uniform. The symbol Qq signifies the agreement of Q2, Q3, Q4, and Q5. The text of the first Folio is taken from that of the third Quarto. As usual there are a number of changes, some accidental, some deliberate, but all generally for the worse, excepting the changes in punctuation and in the stage-directions. The punctuation, as a rule, is more correct, and the stage-directions are more complete, in the Folio. The text of the second Folio is printed of course from the first. In this play there are found in it a considerable number of conjectural emendations, not generally happy, and perhaps more than the usual number of errors. A careful study of the text of _Romeo and Juliet_ will show how little we can rely upon having the true text, as Shakespeare wrote it, in those plays for which the Folio is our earliest authority.