Forms: see TWELFTH and NIGHT. The evening before Twelfth-day, formerly observed as a time of merry-making. Also attrib.
c. 900. O. E. Chron., an. 878. Her hiene bestæl se here on midne winter ofer tuelftan niht to Cippanhamme.
13[?]. K. Alis. (Laud MS.), 6388. Of þat cite comen … þe kynges thre, Þat foloweden goddis sterre … In cristemasse, on þe twelueþ niȝth.
1601. Shaks. (title), Twelfe Night, Or what you will.
1649. Milton, Eikon., Pref., Wks. 1851, III. 333. Quaint Emblems … begg’d from the olde Pageantry of some Twelfe-nights entertainment.
1764. Chron., in Ann. Reg., 45/1. The ancient custom of public hazard playing at court on twelfth night.
1826. Twelfth-night-cake [see TWELFTH-CAKE].
1854. Thackeray, Rose & Ring, Prel. (1866), 3. Twelfth-Night characters—those funny painted pictures of the King, the Queen, the Lover, the Lady, the Dandy, the Captain, and so on—with which our young ones are wont to recreate themselves at this festive time.
1863. Chambers’ Bk. Days, I. 64/1. In the last century, Twelfth-Night cards represented ministers, maids of honour, and other attendants of a court.
