Note 52 — TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE JAMES EARL OF SALISBURY, &c.[49],
Reading edition
This attitude and employment, however inconsistent with our modern ideas of good breeding, seems to have been an air frequently assumed by the beaus of the seventeenth century. In a play by Killigrew, called the "Parson's Wedding," we have this direction: "Enter Jack Constant, Will Sad, Jolly, and a footman: they comb their heads, and talk." Our author alludes to the same fashion, in the Prologue to the "Conquest of Grenada," Part II.
Straight every man who thinks himself a wit, Perks up, and, managing his comb with grace, With his white wig sets off his nut-brown face.
The same custom is alluded to by Congreve, and is supposed to have remained fashionable during Queen Anne's time.