2 sconce brain, intellect (literally, head)

3 let… apple don’t let him make a fool of you. To bob someone off was to get rid of them (fob them off) with a trifling bribe, as an ape will be easily satisfied with an apple (supposedly its favourite food; bananas were little known in England at the time).

4 ’Sfoot a strong oath, contracted from ‘by God’s foot’ the wench Philotis, not Annabella

6–9 prose ed. (Hold … ground, / Shee … already. / True… ’ … Doctor / Swore … her Q)

8 s.p. BERGETTO ed. (line attributed to Poggio in Q)

11 codpiece-point a lace for fastening a codpiece (a decorative pouch worn by a man over his genitals; no longer fashionable when the play was written)

12 box a small receptacle marmalade any kind of fruit preserve; commonly made with plums, dates, and quinces

13 chops mouth. The word usually referred to the outside of the mouth, so not only salivation but drooling is probably implied.

14 clap up arrange hastily

14–15 in hugger-mugger secretly

21 constables local officers of justice. Bergetto takes literally the usually ironic proverb (Tilley, C. 616) that they were especially intelligent. Since his name as Ford originally found it was spelt Bargetto (see Introduction), it may be relevant that the Italian equivalent of a constable was called a bargello (defined in World as ‘a captain of sergeants’).

21–22 car… charges administer justice to prostitutes at their own expense (rather than having it paid for out of the public purse; a sign of a rich man’s public-spirited munificence). Public exhibition in a cart drawn through the streets was a common punishment for whores.