Page:Sir Thomas More play.djvu/23

INTRODUCTION iii was anxious to make an alteration, but not having his MS. before him, failed to make it fit in with the rest. The speeches in the MS. this fragment was intended to displace are, Dyce says, drawn through with a pen, and number 41 lines. As an instance of the confused state of the MS. this fragment--written on a single sheet--is placed between the scenes here marked ii. 1, ii. 2. The second set of additions is the scene ii. 2, (Dyce pp. 19-22. Mr. Simpson says this is a more cursive handwriting than the other two. The first sketch of this scene in the MS. is placed between i. 3, and ii. 1. In the same hand there is part of a scene (p. 68, Dyce) beginning, "Where be these players" ; see iv. 1, 1. 292, seq. The third series of additions Mr. Simpson regards as the most important of all, and goes so far as to pronounce them to be Shakespeare's, and to be in his handwriting. Of this more hereafter. These additions are ii. 3, (pp. 22-24, Dyce,) ii. 4, 11. 1-157, (pp. 24-29, Dyce,) iii. 2, (pp. 39-53, Dyce). Also iii. 3, given by Dyce in a note on p. 53, which mentions T. Goedal as taking the part of the Messenger. In the MS. the opening speech of iii. 2 is pasted over the original draft of the scene between More and Randall; see note to iii. 2, 1. 1 ; Dyce, p. 40. About a year later, Mr. James Spedding supplemented Mr. Simpson's labour by making an independent examination of the MS., the result of which he communicated to 4 Notes and Queries, X. 227. In the main he confirms Mr. Simpson's oonclusions; on some points he differs from him, and on others he goes beyond him. He says large alterations have been made in the original manuspript; whole scenes have been added or re-written. The