Cranbroke, Kent.
_Cassock_ (Vol. ix., pp. 101. 337.).--A note in Whalley's edition of _Ben
Jonson_ has the following remark on this word:
"_Cassock_, in the sense it is here used, is not to be met with in our
common dictionaries: it signifies a soldier's loose outward coat, and
is taken in that acceptation by the writers of Jonson's times. Thus
Shakspeare, in _All's Well that Ends Well:_
'Half of the which dare not shake the snow from their _cassocks_.'"
This is confirmed in the passage of _Jonson_, on which the above is a note.
"This small service will bring him clean out of love with the soldier.
He will never come within the sign of it, the sight of a
_cassock_."--_Every Man in his Humour_, Act II. Sc. 5.
The cassock, as well as the gown and band, seem to have been the usual
attire of the clergy on all occasions in the last century, as we find from
the paintings of Hogarth and the writings of Fielding, &c. When did this
custom cease? Can any reader of "N. & Q." supply traditional proof of
clergymen appearing thus apparelled in ordinary life?