Cloak and Sword Plays
Preserved but no longer current.
Swashbuckling plays, full of fighting and adventure. The name comes from the Spanish comedies of the 16th- century dramatists, Lope de Vega and Calderon — the Commedia de capay espada; but whereas with them it signified merely a drama of domestic intrigue and was named from the rank of the chief characters, in France — and, through French influence, in England — it was applied as above.
Era: ca. 1898 (Victorian)
Sources & notes
Reproduced from Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable (1898 edition, public domain; archive.org, retrieved 2026-07-31; OCR text, minor errors possible). Reflects the scholarship and attitudes of its era.
Common questions
What does “Cloak and Sword Plays” mean?
Swashbuckling plays, full of fighting and adventure. The name comes from the Spanish comedies of the 16th- century dramatists, Lope de Vega and Calderon — the Commedia de capay espada; but whereas with them it signified merely a drama of domestic intrigue and was named from the rank of the chief characters, in France — and, through French influence, in England — it was applied as above.
Is “Cloak and Sword Plays” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.