This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1903 edition. Excerpt: ... authority of the Quarto, namely, Singer's changes at ll. 205 and 222, which may be regarded as due to the original idea, upheld by Capell, in substantiation of the Quarto, that this scene is one of cross-purposes. The Cambridge editors admit their uncertainty, saying that, ' since the old copies are confused,' the parts ' can be determined only by the context, in this play a very unsafe guide.' If the Folio, however, should be stuck to throughout, the parts as they stand might be justified on this ground: that, to begin with, the audience must, from dramatic necessity, have been shown, unequivocally, how these lords and ladies were inclined to pair, before it could enjoy later the great scene.of confusion and artfully contrived cross-purposes. The ladies had just shown how their inclinations tended. Maria betrayed her special interest in Longaville, Katharine hers in Du-main, Rosaline hers in Biron. On the first entrance of the lords they also should have been made to reveal their hearts' bent as unmistakably, else the audience might think the comedy was to come into the piece through their loving those who loved others. It was necessary later to exchange mantles and favors, and not merely to mask in order to effect the lords' bewilderment. Perhaps now, in this opening interview, it is designed that there be some chance for fear by the lords lest the right one had not been found, this chance being provided by the masks, rather than any such actual mistaking as would prove confusing or misleading to the audience. Such a situation the Folio indicates as it stands, justifying Dyce's feeling that the masks do not so materially affect the situation as Capell over-ingeniously supposed. In that case neither is it necessary to change Rosaline to '...