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the innumerable glosses which were once held to im their meaning or their metre? In the determination cling, we shall indulge in no idle controversies. We s abide by the original texts, which we still do consider t best authorities, as far as we have already abided by them except we find something so clearly wrong that has received an undeniable correction, that we are bound to admit it. Upon a most careful examination of Mr. Collier's volume Notes and Emendations," we deliberately express our lief that these instances will be very few indeed, be (and we must be forgiven if we call attention agai again to the principle upon which we have worked), b we hold that a substitution, even if it be an appare provement of an author who wrote two centuries an ago, is not necessarily to be admitted into his te further, that if such substitution rests upon the a of a corrector, who lived at a time when the langua that author used was changing, and changed-if the authority to support those corrections beyond their --those corrections are no more to be received as against the text, than if they had proceeded from of the host of commentators in the last century, J. Payne Collier, or from his humble fellow-labourer, Knight.

PRINCE HENRY, son to King John; afterwards King Henry III.

Appears, Act V. sc. 7.

ARTHUR, Duke of Bretagne, son of Geffrey, late Duke of Bretagne, the elder brother of King John.

Aprears, Act II. sc. 1. Act III. sc. 1; sc. 2; sc. 3. Act IV. sc. 1; sc. 3.
WILLIAM MARESHALL, Earl of Pembroke.

Appears, Act I. sc. 1. Act II. sc. 1. Act IV. sc. 2; sc. 3.
Act V. sc. 2; sc. 4.

GEFFREY FITZ-PETER, Earl of Essex, chief justiciary of Englana.
Appears, Act I. sc. 1.

WILLIAM LONGSWORD, Earl of Salisbury.

Appears, Act I. sc. 1. Act III. sc. 1. Act IV. sc. 2; sc. 3.
Act V. sc. 2; sc. 4; sc. 7.

ROBERT BIGOT, Earl of Norfolk.

Appears, Act IV. sc. 3. Act V. sc. 2; sc. 4; sc. 7.

HUBERT DE BURGI, chamberlain to the King.

Appears, Act II. sc. 2. Act III. sc. 2; sc. 3. Act IV. sc. 1; sc. 2; sc. 3.
Act V. sc. 3; sc. 6.

ROBERT FAULCONBRIDGE, son of Sir Robert Faulconbridge.
Appears, Act I. sc. 1.

PHILIP FAULCONBRIDGE, half-brother to Robert Faulconbridge, bastard son to King Richard I.

Appears, Act I. sc. 1.

Act II. sc. 1; sc. 2; Act III. sc. 1; sc. 2; sc. 3.
Act IV. sc. 2; sc. 3. Act V. sc. 1; sc. 2; sc. 6; sc. 7.

JAMES GURNEY, servant to Lady Faulconbridge.
Appears, Act I. sc. 1.

PETER OF POMFRET, a Prophet.

Appears, Act IV. sc. 2.

PHILIP, King of France.

Appears, Act II. sc. 1; sc. 2. Act II. sc. 1; sc. 4.

LEWIS, the Dauphin.

Appears, Act II. sc. 1; sc. 2. Act III. sc. 1; sc. 4. Act V. sc. 2; sc. 5. ARCIIDUKE OF AUSTRIA.

CARDINAL PANDULPII, the Pope's legate.

Appears, Act III. sc. 1; sc. 4. Act V. sc. 1; sc. 2.
MELUN, a French lord.

Appears, Act V. sc. 2; sc. 4.

CHATILLON, ambassador from France to King John.
Appears, Act I. sc. 1. Act II. sc. 1.

ELINOR, the widow of King Henry II., and mother of King John. Appears, Act I. sc. 1. Act II. sc. 1; sc. 2. Act III. sc. 1; sc. 3.

CONSTANCE, mother to Arthur.

Appears, Act II. sc. 1. Act III. sc. 1; sc. 4.

BLANCH, daughter to Alphonso, King of Castile, and niece to King Johu Appears, Act II. sc. 1; sc. 2. Act III. sc. 1.

LADY FAULCONBRIDGE, mother to the Bastard and Robert Faulconbridge. Appears, Act I. sc. 1.

Lords, Ladies, Citizens of Angiers, Sheriff, Heralds, Officers, Soldiers, Messengers, and other Attendants.

SCENE, SOMETIMES IN ENGLAND; SOMETIMES IN FRANCE.

In the original edition we have no Names of the Actors.

THE KING JOHN' of Shakspere was first printed in the folio collection of his plays, in 1623. We have followed the text of this edition almost literally. 'King John' is one of the plays of Shakspere enumerated by Francis Meres, in 1598.