He was
displaying to the admiring crowd a mighty fine waistcoat of
embroidered satin, worked in gold and colours very cunningly, and
trimmed with a frosted-gold cord of new design and workmanship. It
was this waistcoat, which the young man called the Blenheim vest,
that had attracted the crowd, and Tom could not at first get near
the door, so much chaffering and laughing and rough play was going
on round it.
So he filled up the time by seeking to understand the extraordinary
jargon which was spoken by the young dandies, in which he was not
particularly successful (for in addition to a marvellous assortment
of oaths, they talked a mixture of bad English, worse French, and
vilest Latin), and in examining the signboard which hung out over
the doorway of Master Cale's abode.
This sign had been painted to the perruquier's own design, at a
time when there threatened to be a reaction in favour of natural
hair in place of the monstrous perukes so long worn. The picture
represented a young man clad in all the finery of a fop of Charles
the Second's court, save only the peruke, hanging by his hair from
the limb of a giant oak, with three javelins in his heart, whilst
below sat weeping a man in royal crown and robes; and below this
picture there ran the following legend:
"O Absalom! O Absalom!
O Absalom! my son,
If thou hadst worn a periwig
Thou hadst not been undone.
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