Note. The stage-history of Henry IV, which failing health prevented him from actually completing, though he saw it in proof, was Harold Child's last contribution to this edition. He had been my colleague since its inception in June 1919, and constantly allowed me to consult him on all sorts of points, apart from those connected with the history of the stage; for he was as wise in Shakespeare as he was generous in friendship. Thoughtful and kind to the end, he sent me shortly before his death in November, 1945, a sheaf of notes for the stage-history of this and future plays; and with their help Mr C. B. Young and I must do what we can to uphold the high standard he set. ‘His life was gentle.’ J. D. W.

Apart from what we can infer about the original performances in 1599, discussed on pp. ix-x above, and referred to on the title-page of the Quarto of 1600, which describes the play as ‘sundry times playd by the Right honourable the Lord Chamberlaine his seruants’, no performance of Henry V known during Shakespeare's life except that of January 7, 1605, when, according to the Revels Accounts, it was given at Court by the King's Majesty's Players.

For the Restoration stage the record is equally scanty. On July 6, 1668, Pepys was ‘glad to see Betterton’, after his illness of 1667, act the King in Lincoln's Inn Fields (‘Duke's Old Theatre’).