[1029] For fear of ...
[1030] A crab-apple. The pulp was mixed with ale, 'lamb's wool.'
[1031] Collier gave Dyce the following quotation from Martin's Month's Minde: "leaving the ancient game of England (Trumpe), where every coate and sute are sorted in their degree, are running to Ruffe, where the greatest sorte of the sute carrieth away the game."
[1032] The familiar motif of the contented peasant as entertainer of royalty or what not.
[1033] According to the Jests (Bullen, II. 314), George Peele had no skill in music, and must have been a conspicuous exception; witness the well-known statement of Chappell, Popular Music, p. 98. The barber kept "lute or cittern" in his shop for the amusement of waiting customers; and England had been a land of song from Cædmon's time down. The "man in the street" was expected to know how to join in a part song. The rural song, such as they sing here, was a great favorite with the dramatists.
[1034] Chopcherry: "a game in which one tries to catch a suspended cherry with the teeth; bob-cherry." ... New Engl. Dict.
[1035] A version of Childe Rowland?
[1036] Peele was probably of a Devonshire family.
[1037] A Dogberrian touch, evidently beloved by the pit, and a fine makeweight to those pompous experiments with word and phrase which delighted the serious playgoer.
[1038] Below 'extempore,' Sig. B.