"come,
Let's have one other gaudy night: call to me
All my sad captains; fill our bowls once more;
Let's mock the midnight bell."

They were so called, says Blount, "from _gaudium_, because, to say
truth, they are days of joy, as bringing good cheer to the hungry
students."

_Glove._ As an article of dress the glove held a conspicuous place in
many of our old customs and ceremonies. Thus, it was often worn in the
hat as a favor, and as a mark to be challenged by an enemy, as is
illustrated by the following dialogue in "Henry V." (iv. 1):

"_King Henry._ Give me any gage of thine, and I will wear it
in my bonnet: then, if ever thou darest acknowledge it, I will
make it my quarrel.

_Williams._ Here's my glove: give me another of thine.

_King Henry._ There.

_Williams._ This will I also wear in my cap: if ever thou come
to me and say, after to-morrow, 'This is my glove,' by this
hand, I will take thee a box on the ear.

_King Henry._ If ever I live to see it, I will challenge it.

_Williams._ Thou darest as well be hanged."

Again, in "Troilus and Cressida" (v. 2), Diomedes, taking the glove from
Cressida, says:

"To-morrow will I wear it on my helm,
And grieve his spirit that dares not challenge it."

And in "Richard II." (v. 3), Percy narrates how Prince Henry boasted
that--

"he would unto the stews,
And from the common'st creature pluck a glove,
And wear it as a favour; and with that
He would unhorse the lustiest challenger."

The glove was also worn in the hat as the memorial of a friend, and in
the "Merchant of Venice" (iv. 1), Portia, in her assumed character, asks
Bassanio for his gloves, which she says she will wear for his sake:

"Give me your gloves, I'll wear them for your sake."

When the fashion of thus wearing gloves declined, "it fell into the
hands of coxcombical and dissolute servants."[982] Thus Edgar, in "King
Lear" (iii. 4), being asked by Lear what he had been, replies: "A
serving-man, proud in heart and mind; that curled my hair; wore gloves
in my cap."

[982] Nares's "Glossary," vol. i. p. 371.

To throw the glove, as the signal of a challenge, is alluded to by
Troilus (iv. 4), who tells Cressida:

"For I will throw my glove to Death himself,
That's there's no maculation in thy heart"

--the meaning being, says Johnson: "I will challenge Death himself in