Becket would transpose the sentences and read thus:
'... level. This she delivered ... exclaim in.--Queen of Virgins! that ... afterward. This I held....'
We take this opportunity of saying that many of Becket's proposed changes are so sweeping that we found it impossible to record them in the compass of a foot-note, and at the same time so improbable, that we did not think it worth while to record them separately at the end.
I. 3. 118. We have followed the Folios in placing Helena's entry after line 118, rather than after 126, as most recent editors have done. The Countess may be supposed to be observing Helena earnestly as she enters with slow step and downcast eyes. Her words have thus more force and point.
II. 1. 1, 2. The editors have for the most part followed Hanmer's correction 'lord ... lord' for 'lords ... lords,' the reading of the Folios, on the ground that there is no reason why the lords who are taking leave should be divided into two sections. But from the stage direction 'divers young Lords,' it is clear that there are more than two. Mr Staunton thinks that the king first addresses himself to the young lords in general, and then turns to the two who are spokesmen in the scene and bids them share in the advice just given to their companions.
We rather incline to think that the young lords are divided into two sections according as they intended to take service with the 'Florentines' or the 'Senoys.' The king had said, I. 2. 13-15]
Yet, for our gentlemen that mean to see The Tuscan service, freely have they leave To stand on either part.
Throughout this scene the two speakers whom Rowe and all subsequent editors have called 'First' and 'Second Lord' are called in the Folios 'Lord G.' and 'Lord E.' In all likelihood, as Capell has suggested, the parts were originally played by two actors whose names began respectively with G and E; and, in fact, in the list of 'Principall Actors' prefixed to the first Folio we find the names 'Gilburne,' 'Goughe' and 'Ecclestone.' The same actors doubtless took the parts of the two gentlemen who bring the letter to Helena in the 2nd scene of Act III., and who in the stage directions of the Folio are termed '_Fren. G._' and '_Fren. E._' Mr Collier indeed interprets these words to mean 'French Envoy' and 'French Gentleman,' but they are spoken of as 'two gentlemen' in the stage direction at line 41, and one was as much an 'envoy' as the other. This interpretation moreover leaves the 'G.' and 'E.' of the former scene and of subsequent scenes quite unexplained. Some have supposed the 'two gentlemen' of III. 1, to be the same as the 'two lords' of II. 1, and as far as the action of the Drama is concerned, there is no reason why they should not be, but when the two lords reappear in III. 6 they are introduced thus; 'Enter Count Rossillion and the Frenchmen, as at first:' which seems to prove that the two gentlemen were different persons though played by the same actors. In this latter scene the two lords are called Cap. G. and Cap. E. according to their rank in the Florentine service. The confusion of speakers in the dialogue at the close of this scene will be remedied if we suppose the Folio to have printed _Cap. G._ by mistake for _Cap. E._ in line 97 and _Cap. E._ for _Cap. G._ in lines 99, 105. 'Lord E.' appears again in IV. 1, and 'Cap. G.' and 'Cap. E.' in IV. 3.