Alexander Dyce, A General Glossary to Shakespeare's Works

bully-rook THE MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR, i. 3. 2; ii. 1. 174, 179, 183. “Messrs. Steevens and Whalley maintain that the above term (a cant one) derives its origin from the rook in the game of chess; but it is very improbable that that noble game, never the amusement of gamblers, should have been ransacked on this occasion. It means a hectoring, cheating sharper, as appears from A new dictionary of the terms of the canting crew, no date, 12mo, and from the lines prefixed to The compleat gamester, 1680, 12mo, in both which places it is spelt bully-rock. Nor is Mr. Whalley correct in stating that rock and not rook is the true name of the chess-piece, if he mean that it is equivalent to the Latin rupes” (DOUCE) . But in the above passages the Host uses bully-rook jocularly, certainly not as a term of reproach; and Coles has “A Bully Rock, Fellow, Vir fortis et animosus.” Lat. and Engl. Dict. (I may observe that“Bully-rock” occurs over and over again in Shadwell's Sullen Lovers. See hisWorks, vol. i. pp. 26, 37, 45, 46, 62, 69, 74, 83, 84, 101, 102, 108.)