ABSTRACT
In Barnaby Rudge (1841), Dickens describes a housemaid’s ‘turbulent’ feelings on the departure of her beloved. It is her hair – as well as the violence of her embrace – that gives her away:
[Miggs’] nightcap had been knocked off in the scuffle, and she was on her knees upon the floor making a strange revelation of blue and yellow curl-papers, straggling locks of hair, tags of staylaces, and strings of it’s impossible to say what; panting for breath, clasping her hands, turning her eyes upwards, shedding an abundance of tears, and exhibiting various other symptoms of the acutest mental suffering. 1
