Note 783 — ACT IV. SCENE I.

bronstrops] In A Cure for a Cuckold, by Webster and W. Rowley (first printed in 1661), is the following passage, which appears to contain an allusion to A Fair Quarrel;

“Pettifog. ...This informer comes into Turnbull street to a victualling-house, and there falls in league with a wench.

Compass. A tweak or bronstrops? I learned that name in a play.”

See my ed. of Webster’s Works, iii. 327.

Both tweak and bronstrops (the former being a word of more frequent occurrence than the latter) seem to be equivalent to punk; but in act iv. sc. 4 of the present play, a distinction is made between them: “mayst thou first serve out thy time as a tweak [harlot], and then become a bronstrops [bawd] as she is.”