which of course is an accidental corruption, by displacement of the type, of 'myrackles' (i.e. 'miracles') the true reading. In the corrected copies of Q₂ this is altered, apparently by the printer's conjecture, to 'my wracke', which is also the reading of Q₁. Throughout the sheet in which this occurs the readings of Q₁ agree with the corrected copies of Q₂, and had it not been for the instance quoted, we might have supposed that the corrections in the latter were made from Q₁. But the corruption 'my rackles' for 'miracles' must have come from the original MS., and 'my wracke' is only a conjectural emendation, so that the order of succession in this sheet at least appears to be the following. First the uncorrected copy of Q₂, then the same corrected, and lastly Q₁. On the other hand it is remarkable that Q₁, if printed from Q₂ at all, must have been printed from a copy made up, with the exception just mentioned from II. 1. 128 to II. 4. 133, and another containing from IV. 6. 224 to V. 3. 64, of uncorrected sheets. Another hypothesis which might be made is that Q₁ and Q₂ were printed from the same manuscript, and that the printer of Q₁ corrupted 'miracles' into 'my wracke', while the printer of Q₂ made it 'my rackles', which was afterwards altered by a reference to Q₁. The question, however, is very difficult to decide, and at most is one rather of bibliographical curiosity than of critical importance. We may mention that, without giving the reasons for his conclusion, Jennens, in his edition of _Lear_ in 1770, quotes as the 1st Quarto that which we have called Q₂ and vice versa. A third Quarto, which we have called Q₃, was printed very carelessly page for page from Q₁ and published in 1655. In the first Folio _King Lear_ was printed from an independent manuscript, and its text is on the whole much superior to that of the Quartos. Each however supplies passages which are wanting in the other. Capell appears to have prepared the play for press in the first instance from Pope's first edition. The manuscript readings and stage directions, marked in his copy of that edition but not adopted in his own, we have quoted as 'Capell MS'. * * * * * 3. OTHELLO was first printed in Quarto in 1622 with the following title: THE | Tragœdy of Othello, | The Moore of Venice. | _As it hath beene diuerse times acted at the_ | Globe, and at the Black-Friers, by | _his Maiesties Seruants_. | _Written by_ William Shakespeare. | _LONDON_,| Printed by _N. O._ for _Thomas Walkley_, and are to be sold at his | shop, at the Eagle and Child, in Brittans Bursse. | 1622. | To this edition which we call Q₁, the following preface was affixed by the publisher: The Stationer to the Reader.