Note BW — No. XI.
Reading edition
A ruffler seems to have been a bully as well as a beggar, he is thus described in the Fraternitye of Vacabondes; (see p. 228.) "A ruffeler goeth wyth a weapon to seeke seruice, saying he hath bene a seruitor in the wars, and beggeth for his reliefe. But his chiefest trade is to robbe poore way-faring men and market-women." In New Custome a morality, 1573, Creweltie, one of the characters, is termed a ruffler. See also Decker's Belman of London. Sign. C. iv.