" Cibber narrates how he sold a superb fair
full-bottomed periwig he had worn in 1695 in his first play, "The Fool
in Fashion," to Colonel Brett, so that the officer might appear to
advantage in his wooing of the Countess of Macclesfield, the lady
whom, upon unsatisfactory evidence, the poet Savage persistently
claimed as his mother.
But if the heroes of the theatre delighted in long flaxen hair, it was
always held necessary that the stage villain's should appear in
jet-black periwigs. For many years this continued to be an established
law of the drama. "What is the meaning," demanded Charles II., "that
we never see a rogue in the play but, odds-fish! they always clap him
on a black periwig, when it is well known one of the greatest rogues
in England always wears a fair one?" The king was understood to refer
to Titus Oates. But this custom was of long life. Davies describes
"certain actors who were cast into the parts of conspirators,
traitors, and murderers, who used to disguise themselves in large
black wigs, and to distort their features in order to appear terrible.
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