According to Stow, they were introduced into
this country about the time of the Massacre of Paris, but they are not
often alluded to until the reign of Queen Elizabeth. The earliest
payment for one in the Privy Purse expenses occurs in December 1529, and
is for twenty shillings "for a perwyke for Sexton, the king's fool."
Some twenty years later wigs, or, to give the full title, periwigs,
became popular. In France the mania was at its height in the reign of
Louis XIV. We are told that in 1656 he had not fewer than forty court
perruquiers, and these, by an Order of Council, were declared artistes.
In addition to this, Le Gros instituted at Paris an Academie de France
des Perruquiers. Robinson records that a storm was gathering about their
heads. He tells us "the celebrated Colbert, amazed at the large sums
spent for foreign hair, conceived the idea of prohibiting the wearing of
wigs at Court, and tried to introduce a kind of cap." He lost the day,
for it was proved that more money reached the country for wigs than went
out to purchase hair.
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