he text of the _Two
Gentlemen of Verona_ and that of _All's well that ends well_.

As is the case with most books of that time[4], different copies of the
first Folio are found to vary here and there; generally, however, in a
single letter only. It is probable that no one copy exactly corresponds
with any other copy. We have indicated these variations, wherever they
were known to us, in a note either at the foot of the page or at the end
of each play.

A reprint of the first Folio, not free from inaccuracies, was published
in 1807. A second reprint is now in course of publication by Mr Lionel
Booth. The first part, containing the Comedies, has already appeared. It
is probably the most correct reprint ever issued.

The second Folio (F2) is a reprint of the first, preserving the same
pagination. It differs, however, from the first in many passages,
sometimes widely, sometimes slightly, sometimes by accident, sometimes
by design. The emendations are evidently conjectural, and though
occasionally right, appear more frequently to be wrong. They deserve no
more respect than those of other guessers, except such as is due to
their author's familiar acquaintance with the language and customs of
Shakespeare's day, and possible knowledge of the acted plays.

Capell's copy of the second Folio has been of great use to us in our
collations. He has annotated the margin with a multitude of marks in red
ink,--conventional symbols indicating where and how it differs from the
first. We have hardly in a single instance found his accuracy at fault.

The third Folio (F3) was first published in 1663, and reissued in the
following year with a new title-page[5], and with seven additional
plays, viz.: _Pericles, Prince of Tyre_: _The London Prodigal_: _The
History of the Life and Death of Thomas Lord Cromwell_: _The History of
Sir John Oldcastle, the good Lord Cobham_: _The Puritan Widow_: _A
Yorkshire Tragedy_: and _The Tragedy of Locrine_. With regard to the
plays which it contains in common with the former Folios, it is on the
whole a tolerably faithful reprint of the second, correcting, however,
some obvious errors, making now and then an uncalled-for alteration, and
occasionally modernizing the spelling of a word. The printer of course
has committed some errors of his own.

The fourth Folio (F4) was printed from the third, but with a different
pagination, in 1685. The spelling is very much modernized, but we have
not been able to dete