Reference > Brewer’s Dictionary > Clerk.

 Cler’imond.Clerk-ale and Church-ale. 
CONTENTS · BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD
E. Cobham Brewer 1810–1897. Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. 1898.
 
Clerk.
 
A scholar. Hence, beau-clerc. (See above, CLERICAL TITLES.)   1
       
“All the clerks,
       
I mean the learned ones, in Christian kingdoms,
Have their free voices.”
       
Shakespeare: Henry VIII., ii. 2.
   St. Nicholas’s Clerks. Thieves. An equivoque on the word Nick.   2
        “I think there came prancing down the hill a couple of St. Nicholas’s clerks.”—Rowley: Match at Midnight, 1633.
 


 Cler’imond.Clerk-ale and Church-ale. 

 
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