Note 890 — ACT IV. SCENE I.
Reading edition
Phoenix] How happens Proditor to address the pretended assassin by his real name, not only here but also at the commencement of act v., where the word, forming part of a line, cannot be thrown out as a printer’s interpolation?
“Prod. Now, Phœnix.
Phœ. Now, my lord.
Prod. Let princely blood
Nourish our hopes,” &c.
That Proditor knew the prince by the name of Phœnix appears from act i. sc. 2, where he says,
“Not many months Phœnix shall keep his life.”
Perhaps Middleton committed this oversight in the haste of composition.