I have rescued many lines from the violations of temerity, and secured many scenes from the inroads of correction.

I have adopted the _Roman_ sentiment, that it is more honourable to save a citizen, than to kill an enemy, and have been more careful to protect than to attack.
I have preserved the common distribution of the plays into acts, though I believe it to be in almost all the plays void of authority.
Some of those which are divided in the later editions have no division in the first folio, and some that are divided in the folio have no division in the preceding copies.

The settled mode of the theatre requires four intervals in the play, but few, if any, of our authour's compositions can be properly distributed in that manner.

An act is so much of the drama as passes without intervention of time or change of place.

A pause makes a new act.