gawdy night Bradley (N. E. D.) defines a ‘Gaudy-day’ as a ‘day of rejoicing, a festival or gala day; especially the day on which a college gaudy is held’; and refers to ‘Gaudy,’ a substantive, which is ‘an adaptation from the Latin gaudium, joy.’ Hence ‘gaudy-night.’—Wright (s. v. Gaudy, substantive, 2.) gives an instance of ‘gaudy-night’ in use at Oxford as late as 1861.
William Shakespeare. Horace Howard Furness. A New Variorum Edition of Shakespeare: The Tragedie of Anthonie, and Cleopatra. Philadelphia and London. J. B. Lippincott Company. 1907.
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