I. 1. 2. _Band_ is given by Minsheu with the sense of 'obligation' (_Guide into Tongues_, 1617). Both words _band_ and _bond_ were concurrently in use with the same sense. In this play, V. 2. 65, the first four Quartos read _band_, the Folios and the fifth Quarto _bond_, while in the 67th line both Quartos and Folios agree in _bond_.
I. 1. 149. In this place and in several others Capell in his _Various Readings_ has attributed the reading of the fourth Quarto to the third. The same error is found 34. 5, _Brittaine_; 46. 22, _two_; 46. 31, _profession_; 47. 11, _impresse_; 48. 21, _from my_; 49. 26, _can cannot_; 78. 17, _night_; 88. 30, _the how_; 92. 18, _have holp_.
SCENE II. As usual, there is no division into Acts and Scenes in the Quartos. We follow generally the Folios in their arrangement, carefully noting the exceptions.
I. 2. 1. We retain here the reading of the Quartos which is doubtless what Shakespeare wrote. Probably it was altered for the stage, because 'Thomas of Woodstock' was better known to the audience by his title 'Duke of Gloucester.'
I. 2. 70. Notwithstanding the paramount authority of the first Quarto we conceive that the antithesis between _there see_, line 67, and _hear there_, is too marked to admit of a doubt that the reading of the second is to be preferred in this place.
I. 3. 7. The stage direction in the text is made up of those given in the Quartos and Folios. The first Quarto has: _The trumpets sound and the King enters with his nobles; when they are set, enter the Duke of Norfolke in armes defendant_.
The first Folio has: _Flourish. Enter King, Gaunt, Bushy, Bagot, Greene, and others: Then Mowbray in Armor, and Harrold._
At I. 3. 25, the first Quarto gives as the stage direction, _The trumpets sound. Enter Duke of Hereford appellant in armour_. The first Folio has simply, _Tucket. Enter Hereford, and Harold._
I. 3. 20. Notwithstanding that the emendation of the Folios yields an easier sense, we follow the reading of the Quartos, which may be explained, inasmuch as the Duke of Norfolk's 'succeeding issue' would be involved in the forfeiture incurred by disloyalty to his king. It may also be noted that King Richard had never any issue.
I. 3. 127. Capell's copy of the first Quarto has _cruell_. Another copy is said, in the Variorum edition of 1821, to have the reading _civil_ (or _civill_), but we have been unable to trace it. Mr George Daniel, who possesses the only known copy besides Capell's, informs us that it has _cruell_.