PREFATORY NOTE

Summary

The text and glossary below are reprinted in a slightly revised form from those which appeared in the 1958 edition of the play for The Cambridge Pocket Shakespeare. And in all I have had the benefit of his advice and criticism from Mr. J. C. Maxwell.

Furthermore I cannot allow this play, which is the last in the canon I am solely responsible for in the present edition, to go out into the world without recording the great debt I owe to Mr C. B. Young. After the death of Harold Child in 1945 he took over all the stage-histories and from 1947 onwards has been always at my side drafting the glossaries, for me and others to work upon, checking the multifarious references and cross-references, reading through each volume, often more than once and never without cleansing it of error and inconsistency, and above all giving to everyone concerned the benefit of his wisdom and learning.