uest of his fortune, came this
gentleman-errant, not doubting but the fickle dame, while he was thus
qualified to receive her, might be tempted to fall into his lap. And
though possibly the charms of our theatrical nymphs might have their
share in drawing him thither, yet in my observation the most visible
cause of his first coming was a more sincere passion he had conceived,
for a fair full-bottom'd perriwig which I then wore in my first play
of the 'Fool in Fashion' in the year 1695."

* * * * *

This love affair would suggest what Mr. Gilbert calls:

"A Passion a la Plato
For a bashful young potato."

were we not to remember that in Anne's time handsome full-bottomed
periwigs were regarded with an enthusiasm far too fervid to be called
Platonic. Actors made it a point to have this indispensable headgear
as elaborate as possible, and it is even related that Barton Booth and
Wilks actually paid forty guineas each "on the exorbitant thatching of
their heads."

* * * * *

But let loquacious Colley have his say: "For it is to be noted that
the _Beaux_ of those days were of a quite different cast from the
modern stamp, and had more of the stateliness of the peacock in their
mein than (which now seems to be their highest emulation) the pert air
of a lap-wing. Now, whatever contempt philosophers may have for a fine
perriwig, my friend, who was not to despise the world, but to live in
it, knew very well that so material an article of dress upon the head
of a man of sense if it became him, could never fail of drawing to him
a more partial regard and benevolence than could possibly be hoped for
in an ill-made one."

* * * * *

Brett expresses such an admiration for this particular full-bottomed
periwig that Cibber is highly flattered, and the two are soon
laughing themselves into the best of terms. Nay, they spend the night
roistering over a bottle or two of wine, and dear, vain Colley, like
many who come after him, falls into the belief that he is a bold,
fast man. With an air of conscious rakishness that is charmingly
ridiculous, he writes: "If it were possible the relation of the happy
indiscretions which passed between us that night could give the tenth
part of the pleasure I then received from them, I could still repeat
them with delight."

Instead of pausing, however, to relate those happy indiscretions,
Cibber pr