or Dunkirk-cloak, subs. phr. (old).—A cudgel.
1602. DEKKER, The Honest Whore, ii. Shall I walk in a PLYMOUTH CLOAK (that’s to say) like a rogue, in my hose and doublet, and a crab-tree cudgel in my hand.
1629. L. OWEN, Speculum Jesuiticum (1629), 10. I would haue soone recall’d him, with a PLYMOUTH CLOAKE (margin A Cudgell).
1631. F. LENTON, Characterismi, Char. 30. Reserving still the Embleme of a Souldier (his Sword) and a PLIMMOUTH CLOAKE, otherwise called a battoone.
1628. MASSINGER, A New Way to Pay Old Debts, i. 1.
| Wellborn. How, dog! (Raising his cudgel.) | |
| Tapwell. … Advance | |
| Your PLYMOUTH CLOAK you shall be soon instructed | |
| There dwells, and within call, if it please your worship, | |
| A potent monarch, called the constable, | |
| That doth command a citadel called the stocks. |
c. 1668. DAVENANT [NARES], fol. p. 229. Whose CLOAKE (at PLIMOUTH spun) was crab-tree wood.
d. 1669. J. DENHAM, Poems [CHALMERS, English Poets, vii. 245], ‘To Sir John Mennis.’
| He being proudly mounted, | |
| Clad in CLOAK OF PLYMOUTH. |
1742. RAY, Proverbs, 238. That is a cane, a staff; whereof this is the occasion. Many a man of good extraction, coming home from far voyages, may chance to land here, and being out of sorts, is unable for the present time and place to recruit himself with clothes. Here (if not friendly provided) they make the next wood their draper’s shop, where a staff cut out serves them for a covering. For we use, when we walk in cuerpo, to carry a staff in our hands, but none when in a cloak.
