When Orpheus charm’d the vig’rous powers of hell
Or thus hung Glaucus beard, with briny dew
Clotted and straight, when first his am’rous view
Surprised the bathing fair.”
Swift, in the “City Shower,” laughs at the distressed wigs:
“Here various kinds, by various fortunes led Commence acquaintance underneath a shed. Triumphant Tories and desponding Whigs Forget their feuds, and join to save their wigs.”
To be caught in the rain was a terrible ordeal for the curls; but accidents by fire were still more calamitous. At a display of fireworks, an old writer says, the spectators screwed themselves up in the balconies to avoid the fireworks, “which instantly assaulted the perukes of the gallants and the merkins of the madams.” Wigs, too, being of considerable value, were frequently stolen from the head. Gay gives an instance of a very artful dodge:
“Where the mob gathers swiftly shoot along,
Nor idly mingle in the noisy throng.
*****