Page:Henry VI Part 2 (1923) Yale.djvu/168

156 This tendency shows itself uncurbed in 2 Henry VI: in the Third Part the poet gets it under better control. In metrical matters also the habit of the young Shakespeare displays itself. He has revised the scansion of the verses with almost meticulous conscientiousness and in doing so exhibits mannerisms distinctly different from those of his original. He inclines much more to the use of the feminine-ending or eleven-syllable line than the author of the basic plays, and tends to avoid the weak-ending (final pyrrhic) line and the alexandrine.

 

The text of the present volume is, by permission of the Oxford University Press, that of the Oxford Shakespeare, edited by the late W. J. Craig. Craig's text has been carefully collated with the Shakespeare Folio of 1628, and the following deviations have been introduced:

1. The stage directions of the Folio have been restored. Necessary words and directions, omitted by the Folio, are added within square brackets.

2. Punctuation and spelling have been normalized to accord with modern English practice; e.g., yclad, warlike, housekeeping, Saint Albans, villainies (instead of y-clad, war-like, house-keeping, Saint Alban's, villanies). The words murder, murther, murderer, murtherer, burden, burthen, etc., have not been normalized, 