MRS. DELANY.
[TO THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."] doubt if " nightgown " in eighteenth-century parlance meant "evening-dress." At all events, it can scarcely do so in the following passages, which I select from my notes :— "Mr. Trulliber, being informed that somebody wished to speak with him clothed himself in an old Night-Gown" (" Joseph Andrews," 2nd Ed., 1742, Bk. II., chap. 14). "He was sitting [1755] in his counting-house in his night-gown" (Prior's "Life of Malone," 1860, p. 410). "A character cf this kind generally receives company in his study, in all the pensive formality of slippers, night-gown, and easy-chair" (" Citizen of the World," 1762,11., 154). "He was wrapped in a rich night-gown like that which he always wore in Lusignan " (Davies's "Life of Garrick," 2nd Ed., 1780, II., pp. 347-48). I have other examples from Swift and the Spectator, but these will suffice,—as far as men are concerned. They indicate that "nightgown" in the last century meant "dressing-gown" or "morning-gown?' This accords with Johnson's definition of "night-gown" as "a loose gown used
for an undress."—I am, Sir, &c., AUSTIN DOBSON. 75 Eaton Rise, Ealing, W.
Previous page
