We are not without testimony on this point, however, and that, too, of no less authority than Walter Scott, which is literally to the point:
“The identical Peter wears a huge great-coat, threadbare and patched. His hair, half gray half black, escaped in elf-locks around a huge wig made of tow, as it seemed to me.”[95]
Addison also tells us, in a paper of the Spectator, as quoted by Johnson:
“I bought a fine flaxen long wig.”
It is true, Dr. Johnson cites this example in his Dictionary as only meaning something “fair, long, and flowing, as if made of flax”; but we are far from thinking the qualification of his definition inevitably correct, any more than in some other well-known instances. The great lexicographer imagines a wig of hair as presenting the appearance of one made of flax; but we see no reason why the excellent Spectator should not be taken literally according to his expression; nor why he may not have appeared upon the occasion to which he refers in a veritable wig of flax, especially since such an object of manufacture was common, could be made to bear so close a resemblance to hair, probably looked better, and was of much less cost. We find a still more decisive example in the Spectator, which scarcely admits of any other than the most literal interpretation:
“The greatest beau at our next county sessions was dressed in a most monstrous flaxen periwig that was made in King William’s reign.”[96]
The following example is equally pertinent:
“A fair, flaxen, full-bottomed periwig.”[97]
In this instance, the word “fair” would seem clearly to apply to the color, and “flaxen” to the material, for otherwise the use of both expressions would be tautological.