[225] This is the reading of a common stall copy. Chappell reads—
‘For at Tottenham-court,’
which is no doubt correct, though inapplicable to a rural assembly in our days.
[226a] Brew, or broo, or broth. Chappell’s version reads, ‘No state you can think,’ which is apparently a mistake. The reading of the common copies is to be preferred.
[226b] No doubt the original word in these places was sack, as in Chappell’s copy—but what would a peasant understand by sack? Dryden’s receipt for a sack posset is as follows:—
‘From fair Barbadoes, on the western main,
Fetch sugar half-a-pound: fetch sack, from Spain,
A pint: then fetch, from India’s fertile coast,
Nutmeg, the glory of the British toast.’
Miscellany Poems, v. 138.
[234] Corrupted in modern copies into ‘we’ll range and we’ll rove.’ The reading in the text is the old reading. The phrase occurs in several old songs.
[237] We should, probably, read ‘he.’
[243] Peer—equal.