Chapter III: Historical Survey (1)

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EGYPTIANS.

HAVING seen that the Beard is a natural feature of the male face, and that the Creator intended it for distinction, protection, and ornament, let us turn lightly over the pages of history and examine the estimation in which it has been held at various times among the leading people, ancient and modern.

The first nation which suggests itself is the Egyptian, and very peculiar forms of Beard were assigned by them on their monuments to their gods, kings, and common people. That of the gods is curled and the length of the oval of the face: that of the kings is shaped like an Egyptian doorway, and three fourths of the same standard: of which the people’s is one fourth and nearly square. This appendage seems from the appearance of an attaching band to have been frequently artificial, and probably the Egyptians, who, as you may see by the wig in the British Museum, wore false hair, also wore false Beards. Some have supposed the forms alluded to, to be mere symbols of the male sex on the monuments; but this notion is disproved by male persons being represented without them. That they were occasionally so used, however, is clear from the kingly Beard on that symbol of royalty the Sphynx.

The priests of this ancient nation are stated to have removed every hair from the body thrice a week; and they ultimately compelled the people to shave both their heads and faces; and all slaves and servants, though foreigners, were obliged to do the same. That this arose from some superstitious notion of cleanliness, is confirmed by the remark of Herodotus, “that no Egyptian of either sex, would on any account kiss the lips of a bearded Greek, or make use of his knife, spit, or cauldron, or taste the meat of an animal which had been slaughtered by his hand.”

In times of mourning, however, the Egyptians allowed the hair of the head and Beard to grow in token of grief.

JEWS.

Such was the practice of the Egyptians; and it is highly important to take the Jews next, because at the period of our first knowledge of them as a people, they appear in bondage to the former nation; and it is now generally believed that most of the usages established by Moses had more or less reference to Egyptian customs, from which he was desirous of weaning them. As might be expected from the inspired Lawgiver, whose sublime books start with the grand assertion, that man was made “in the express image of God,” any attempt to alter the natural features of the “human face divine,” was denounced and emphatically interdicted. Twice is the commandment issued—first to the whole people, “thou shalt not mar the corners of thy Beard,” in other words, thou shalt not alter the form thereof, which I thy God have appointed! Then to the Priests, with the addition, that they should not make baldness upon their heads. It is of the utmost consequence to recall the superstitious practice of the Egyptian Priests, and to remember that Moses issued this command to the Aaronites, fresh from Egypt, because it most convincingly shews that the practice of shaving, even when resorted to with the view of pleasing the Deity, by an extreme degree of external purity, in approaching His mysterious presence, was directly and most absolutely forbidden. It is as if God had said, “What art thou, O man! who thinkest in thy vain imagination that I, thy Creator, knew not how to fashion thee! and blasphemously supposest that thou canst please me, by superstitiously sacrificing what I, in my Almighty wisdom, had endowed thee with, for protection and ornament!” And, as if to mark the distinction more strongly, Moses enjoined in the strictest manner every ordinary and natural method of purifying the person.

It cannot but be instructive to note, that thus on the very threshold of history, we have two customs so opposite brought into contrast—the one strongly condemned, the other most awfully sanctioned. And it is the more necessary to mark this, because there are many religious persons who have by custom acquired the Egyptian notion, and forgotten its emphatic condemnation. There are many who, though told that certain diseases to which the more active of the clergy are specially liable, might be prevented and may be cured, by simply wearing the Beard, will still insist upon their ministers paying the penalty invariably attaching to a violation of God’s laws, because their prejudices lead them to fancy a smooth face rather than a manly one.

As further confirmation of our idea that the object of this law of Moses was to prevent any of the natural features from being materially altered—he objected not to trimming the Beard, which was a common Jewish practice—is to be found in the first verse of the 14th chapter of Deuteronomy, where the people are commanded not to shave their eyebrows; which was a customary mark of grief among some bearded nations. The Jews too, unlike the Persians and others, instead of shaving the Beard in time of mourning—though in the violence of oriental grief they sometimes plucked it—usually left it merely untrimmed or veiled, till the days of mourning were passed.

You all remember the fearful vengeance David took when his ambassadors were disgraced by shaving their Beards.

The Beard continued to be worn in all its glory by these chosen people, and it would be impossible for us to imagine to ourselves the appearance of any of their patriarchs, judges, priests, prophets, or mature kings—or of the sublime founder of our religion—or of the chosen twelve—save the youthful John, without this venerable and venerated feature. What painter would dare such an offence to our most sacred associations, as to represent any of these with the smirking smoothness of razored neatness!

That in Mahomet’s time, the Jews still held to their primitive custom, is evident from that lawgiver’s command to his followers to clip the whiskers and Beard, in order to distinguish themselves from the Jews. Indeed the latter, in every way most remarkable people, have clung to the prescribed custom with all the force of religious feeling and firm conviction. And however in modern times some of the laity, impelled by a desire to mix unobserved amongst the populations of Western Europe, may have sacrificed conviction to convenience, their Rabbies have remained invariably consistent in their testimony to truth and nature; and one of the most enduring impressions of my youth is the remembrance of the Chief Rabbi Herschel treading the streets of London, like the last of the prophets, in dark robes, with long pale face and flowing Beard,

And eyes, whose deep mysterious glow,
Disdainful of each fleeting show,
Dwelt in the old and sacred past,
Or Seer-like scann’d the future, vast.

ASSYRIANS AND BABYLONIANS.

The Assyrians and Babylonians, as we know from the researches and discoveries of Layard and others, wore highly ornamental Beards, in which they were followed by the ancient Persians, and the bands appearing on them were of gold.

PERSIANS, ARABS, AND TURKS.

The ancient Arabs, like their kindred, the Jews, were Bearded, and like them also they have preserved their Beards intact, though their faith has more than once changed. From Mahomet’s time we may class them for our purpose with the Turks and Persians, since all have manifested the same respect for the Beard, looking upon it as the perfection and completion of man’s countenance and the type of freedom; and shaving as a mark of debasement and slavery.[5] Mahomet, who sanctioned dyeing the Beard, preferred that it should be of a cane colour, which was the hue assigned by tradition to Abraham’s. One of the points of Persian heresy is preferring a black Beard, and a particular cut; and about this hair-splitting difference, they once waged a cruel war with the Uzbec Tartars, in which they were accustomed to lay their enemies’ Beards as trophies at the feet of the Shah.

Footnote 5:

“It is customary to shave the Ottoman Princes as a mark of subjection
to the reigning Sultan; and those who serve in the Seraglio have their
Beards shaven as a sign of servitude, and do not suffer it to grow
till the Sultan has set them at liberty.”—_Burder’s Oriental Customs._
Volney says, “At length Ibrahim Bey suffered Ali his page to let his
Beard grow, _i.e._, gave him his freedom, for among the Turks to want
the Beard is thought only fit for slaves and women.”

As instances of respect paid to the Beard, we may cite the common Mahomedan oath “by the Beard of the Prophet!” and the form of supplication, “by your Beard, or the life of your Beard.” The Turks will point to theirs and say, “do you think this venerable Beard could lie?” And a man’s testimony used to be so much measured by his Beard, that in hiring a witness, length of this appendage was an indispensable qualification. To touch another’s Beard, unless to kiss it respectfully, is considered by all these people a great insult. When two friends meet, to kiss it, sometimes on both sides, answers to our shake of the hand—how are you? and “may God preserve your Beard!” is a form of invoking a blessing on a friend. In the bosoms of their families the Beard is treated as an object of reverential fondness—wife and children kissing it with the most tender and respectful affection. To express high value for a thing, they say, “it is worth more than one’s Beard.”[6]

Footnote 6:

Dr. Wolff says, Mahomed Effendi told him “that the Mahomedans believed
that though Noah lived 1000 years, no hair of his blessed Beard fell
off, or became white; while that of the Devil consists only of one
long hair;” and the same Mahomed, wishing to compliment two
midshipmen, “hoped they would some day have fine long Beards like
himself.”

“Shame on your Beard!” is a term of reproach, and “I spit on your Beard!” an expression of the most profound contempt. When the Shah of Persia, in 1826, was speaking to our Ambassador, (Sir J. Malcolm,) concerning the Russians, to shew how low he esteemed them, he exclaimed, “I spit on their Beards!”[7]

Footnote 7:

Niebuhr says, “I once saw, in a caravan, an Arab highly offended at a
man who had accidentally bespattered his Beard. It was with difficulty
he could be appeased, even though the offender humbly asked his
pardon, and kissed his Beard in token of submission.” Though I avoided
breaking the argument by its insertion under the account of the Jews,
it may be interesting to state, that Moses, in Numbers, orders a man
to be considered unclean for seven days, whose Beard has been defiled
in this way: and that David could scarcely have devised a more
efficient means to convince Achish of his madness, than the expedient
he adopted of allowing his saliva to descend upon his Beard.

To cut off the Beard is considered a deep disgrace and degradation. The noted Wahahee Chief Saoud was accustomed to shave the Beard as a punishment for the gravest offences. He had long wished to purchase the mare of a Sheikh of the Shahmanny tribe, but all his offers were rejected. A Sheikh of the Kahtans, however, having been sentenced to lose his hairy honors, when the barber appeared, exclaimed, “O Saoud, take the mare of the Shahmanny as a ransom for my Beard!” The offer was accepted, and a bargain struck with the owner of the mare for 2,500 dollars, which he declared he would not have taken, nor any other sum, had it not been to save the Beard of a noble Kahtan.

Even when disease or accident renders necessary the removal of the whole or part of the Beard, it is only at the last extremity that an Arab will yield; and then he lives secluded, or if obliged to go out, wears a thick black veil, until his chin can reappear “with all its pristine honours blushing thick upon it.”

Almost every Mahomedan carries a comb with him for the sole purpose of arranging his Beard: this is often done, especially after prayers; when the devotee usually remains sitting on his heels and industriously using the comb. The hairs which fall are carefully collected, to be either buried with the owner, or deposited previously in his tomb, after having been first separately broken in order to release the guardian angels.

To perfume and fumigate the Beard with incense is a common eastern custom.

In mourning, the Persians shave themselves; and Herodotus relates one instance when they also cropped the manes and tails of their horses in honor of their leader Mardonius.

One wiseacre of a Sultan is said to have shaved his Beard, saying “his councillors should never lead him by it, as they had done his forefathers!” forgetting that he had still left them the convenient handle of his nose—by which, as you know, ladies and gentlemen, people have been led from time immemorial. Let me hope, therefore, no one will cite this as an historical precedent for shaving.

He was fortunately succeeded by wiser men, and the Sultan is yet distinguished by a goodly Beard:[8] as is also the Shah of Persia, and all the Arabs and their Chiefs.

Footnote 8:

It used to be considered one of the almost impossible feats of
Chivalry to pluck a hair from the Sultan’s Beard.—(May the Russians
find it quite so!) The romance of Oberon is founded on this notion,
and Shakspeare makes Benedict say in a spirit of bravado, “I’ll fetch
you a hair off the great Cham’s Beard.” (_i.e._ Khan of Tartary’s
Beard.)

GREEKS.

The ancient Greeks were world-famous for their Beards. All Homer’s heroes are bearded, and Nestor the Sage is described as stroking his as a graceful prelusion to an oration. Saturn, Jupiter, Neptune, Pluto, Mars, Vulcan, Mercury, are represented with Beards. Apollo is without, as an emblem of perpetual youth. Hercules and the demigods are also well furnished. And Æsculapius the God of Health,—significant fact!—is most abundantly endowed. The mother of Achilles, when supplicating Jupiter, touches his Beard with one hand, with the other his knee.

As might be supposed from their hardy characteristics, the Spartans especially cherished the Beard. When one Nicander was asked why? he replied, “because we esteem it the ornament that preeminently distinguishes man.” It being demanded of another why he wore so _long_ a Beard? his noble reply was, “Since it is grown white, it incessantly reminds me not to dishonor my old age.”[9] Plutarch, after mentioning the bushy hair and Beard of the Spartan commander Lysander, says, “that Lycurgus was of opinion that abundance of hair and Beard made those who were fair, more so, and those who were ugly, more terrible to their enemies.” Regarding shaving as a mark of slavish servitude, they compelled their chief magistrates to shave their upper lips during their term of office, to remind them that though administrators of the laws, they were still subject to them.

Footnote 9:

The Rev. John More, of Norwich, a worthy clergyman in Elizabeth’s
reign, who is said to have had the longest and largest Beard of any
Englishman of his time, seems to have chosen this Spartan for his
model; since when asked to give a reason for it he replied, “that no
act of his life might be unworthy of the gravity of his appearance.”
And Baudinus, quoted by Pagenstecher, says, Frederick Taubman, the
celebrated German wit, humourist, and theologian, being asked the same
question answered, “in order that whenever I behold these hairs, I may
remember that I am no vile coward or old woman, but a man, called
Frederick Taubman.”

The Greeks in general continued to wear the Beard till the decay of Athenian virtue brought that free state into subjection to the Macedonian Conqueror, who, according to Plutarch, ordered his soldiers to shave, lest their Beards should afford a handle to their enemies. This must have been when he was in one of his drunken fits, or he might have had them trimmed like the old Greek warriors.[10] Be that as it may, Greek freedom and Greek Beards expired together.

Footnote 10:

That the Beard, however, sometimes afforded a handle to an enemy in
ancient times, when swords, especially the Greek, were very short, is
admitted. And I possess an engraving from one of Raphael’s Vatican
Cartoons, where one soldier is represented in the act of cutting down
another whom he has seized by the Beard. He must be a poor master of
his weapon, however, who in modern times would allow a man to grasp
his Beard without being hewn down or run through in the process.

Diogenes, cotemporary with Alexander, once asked a smooth-chinned voluptuary whether he quarrelled with nature for making him a man instead of a woman? And Phocion rebuking one who courted the people and affected a long Spartan Beard, said to him, “if thou needs must flatter, why didst thou not clip thy Beard?”

It is a curious fact for those who resolve civilization into shaving, that the only parties in ancient Greece who retained their Beards under all changes were the Philosophers, or lovers of wisdom—they with whom all that distinguished Greek intellect was a special study and profession; who were in fact the most civilized portion of the community.

From the time of the Emperor Justinian the Greeks resumed the Beard, which was worn by all the Greek Emperors down to the last, the unfortunate Paleologus, who died fighting bravely at the taking of Constantinople by the Turks. It was by these Emperors regarded as an ensign of royalty—an attribute of kingly majesty.

ETRUSCANS—ROMANS.

The Etruscans represented their gods with Beards, and wore them themselves; as did the Romans. Every schoolboy recollects the awe inspired to the invading Gauls when, on entering the Senate-house, they saw the conscript Fathers sitting calm and immovable as the gods, for which the Barbarians at first view took them, till one bolder than the rest plucked at the Beard of the noble Marcus Papirius, who by indignantly raising his staff, unconsciously gave the signal for the murder of himself, and his venerable compatriots.

During all the best ages of the Republic, while the old Roman virtue retained something of its original vigour, and before it had been sapped and undermined by the imported vices and effeminate customs of conquered nations, Rome’s statesmen, heroes, priests and people all wore, and all reverenced, the virile glories of the Beard!

It was not till the year of Rome 454, about three centuries before our era, that one of those corrupt Prætors, who usually returned laden with foreign gold, and pampered with foreign luxury, imported a stock of Barbers from Sicily; and that credulous gossip Pliny libels the younger Scipio Africanus by stating—calumnious on dit!—“that he was the first who shaved his whole Beard.” This is just one of those instances where a foolish custom, like a bad piece of wit, is sought to be fathered on some world-renowned name.

Long after the above date, the Beard was only partially shaved or trimmed; and the same word (tondere) is sometimes used to mean either. Of course when once the fashion had set in, it was, as with us, considered unbecoming to wear a Beard; and Marcus Livius on his return from banishment, was compelled by the Censors to shave, before appearing in the Senate.

With the increasing growth of vice and effeminacy among this once hardy race, the decreasing Beard kept pace.[11] Cæsar, the real founder of the empire, by whom every kind of foppery and debauchery was indulged in as a mask to deep schemes of ambition, of course shaved;[12] and having done so, shaving continued to be the imperial fashion down to the time of Hadrian, (whose bold Roman head I exhibited, as the first restorer of manly beauty.) From his time most of the Emperors[13] wore it till Constantine, who shaved out of superstition. His father had a noble Beard.

Footnote 11:

Suetonius says, “he was excessively nice about his body, that he was
not only sheered and shaved, but plucked.”

Footnote 12:

Besides shaving, the Romans as they progressed in luxurious
effeminacy, used depilatories, tweezers and all sorts of contrivances
to make themselves as little like men and as much like women as
possible; and their satirists abound with passages impossible to quote
with decency on the causes and consequences of this abrogation of the
distinctive peculiarities of the two sexes.

Footnote 13:

Pagenstecher says, “one of the Emperors of Rome refused to admit to an
audience certain Ambassadors of the Veneti, because they had no
Beards.”

Even after the custom of shaving was introduced, the first appearance of the Beard was hailed with joy, and usually about the time of assuming the toga; the “first fruits” of hair were solemnly consecrated—relict of previous respect—to some god, as in the case of Nero,[14] who presented his in a golden box, set with jewels, to the Capitoline Jupiter.[15]

Footnote 14:

The branch of the Roman family to which Nero belonged was called
Enobarbus, copper-coloured or red Beard; and the legend of the family
was, that the Dioscuri announced to one of their ancestors a victory,
and to confirm the truth of what was said, stroked his black hair and
Beard, and turned them red. Cn. Domitius, who was Censor with L.
Crassus the orator, “took” says Pagenstecher, “too much pride in his,”
and Crassus fired away the following epigram upon it. “Quid mirum si
barbam habet aeneam Domitius cum et os ferreum et cor habet plumbeum.”
(Where’s the wonder Domitius has a brazen Beard, when he has bones of
iron and a heart of lead.) Shakspeare (the _unlearned_!) who never
loses a characteristic, makes his Enobarbus, (who was great
grandfather of Nero, wore a Beard, as seen on his medals, and was a
fine bold warrior,) speak thus of Antony, under the fascination of
Cleopatra:—

LEP. “Good Enobarbus, ’Tis a worthy deed,
And shall become you well, to entreat your Captain
To soft and gentle speech.”

ENOB. “I shall entreat him
To answer like himself: if Cæsar move him,
Let Antony look over Cæsar’s head,
And speak as loud as Mars. _By Jupiter,
Were I the wearer of Antonius’ Beard,
I would not shave’t to-day._”

This passage evidently associates the Beard with manly determination,
and shaving with the want of it, for subsequently Enobarbus speaks of
Antony’s effeminacy in these words:—

“Our courteous Antony,
Whom ne’er the word of No woman heard speak,
_Being barber’d ten times o’er_, goes to the feast,
And for his ordinary pays his heart
For what his eyes eat only.”

Footnote 15:

Arcite in Chaucer’s Knight’s Tale thus devotes his Beard to Mars:—

“And eke to this avow I wol me bind,
My Berd, my here that hangeth low adoun,
That never yet felt non offensioun
Of rasour, ne of shere, I wol thee yeve.”

Shaving in token of grief was the custom of the early Romans; when, however, that which had been considered a deprivation became a general fashion, the Beard was allowed to grow in time of sorrow, to denote personal neglect.

The Roman Philosophers, like the Greek, cherished a long Beard as the emblem of wisdom. The following anecdote shews that it was sometimes a fallacious sign. One of the Emperors being pestered by a man in a long robe and Beard, asked him what he was. “Do you not see that I am a philosopher?” was the reply. “The cloak I see, and the Beard I see,” said the Emperor, “but the philosopher, where is he?”

I must not conclude this notice of Roman customs without mentioning the instructive fact, that the slaves of the early Romans were shaved as a mark of servitude, and not allowed to wear the distinctive sign of a free man until emancipated. At a later period the slaves, as the most manly, wore the Beard, and only shaved when entitled to be put on a level with their debased and vicious masters!

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ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY.

A BRIEF glance at Ecclesiastical History will furnish one or two interesting matters. Most of the Fathers of the Church both wore and approved of the Beard. Clement, of Alexandria, says, “nature adorned man like the lion, with a Beard, as the index of strength and empire.” Lactantius, Theodoret, St. Augustine, and St. Cyprian, are all eloquent in praise of this natural feature: about which many discussions were raised in the early ages of the Church, when matters of discipline necessarily engaged much of the attention of its leaders. To settle these disputes, at the 4th Council of Carthage, held A.D. 252, canon 44, it was enacted “that a clergyman shall _not cherish his hair nor shave his Beard_.” (Clericus nec comam nutriat nec barbam radat.) And Bingham quotes an early letter, in which it is said of one who from a layman had become a clergyman, “his habit, gait, modesty, countenance, and discourse, were all _religious_, and _agreeably to these his hair was short and his Beard long_;” shewing that in those early times St. Paul was better understood than at a later date.

Subsequently the Beard was alternately commended to the clergy for its becoming gravity, or condemned from the ascetic notion that pride was apt to lurk in a fine Beard. In some of the monasteries lay members wore the Beard, while those in orders were shaved, and the hairs, remnant of an earlier superstition, devoutly consecrated to God with special prayers and imposing ceremonies.

One order of the Cistercians were specially allowed to wear their Beards, and were hence called “fratres barbati” or Bearded brethren.

The military orders of the Church, as the Knights of St. John and the Templars, were always full Bearded.

To touch the Beard, was at one time a solemnity by which a godfather acknowledged the child of his adoption.

One of the fertile sources of dispute between the Roman and Greek Churches has been this subject of wearing or not wearing the Beard. The Greek Church, with a firm faithfulness which does credit to its orthodoxy, has stood manfully by the early Church decisions and refused to admit any shaven saint into its calendar, heartily despising the Romish Church for its weakness in this respect. On the other hand, the Popes, to mark the distinction between Eastern and Western christianity, early introduced statutes “de radendis barbis,” or concerning shaving the Beard. Here and there, however, a manly old fellow, like Pope Julius II, who made Michael Angelo sculpture him with a drawn sword in his hand, or a Cardinal, like Pole or Allen, and many Bishops, managed to believe that faith and nature might be reconciled by taking a comprehensive and truly Catholic view of both.

The leading English and German Reformers wore their Beards; (if Luther confined himself to a moustache, it was because his Monkish habit of shaving was too strong for him,) and most of the Martyrs to the Protestant Faith were burnt in their Beards.

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MODERN HISTORY.

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BRITONS.

THE Britons “like their neighbours the Gauls”[16] (two of whose heads were shewn copied from Roman monuments,) were Bearded, though, probably, for some purpose of distinction, their Chiefs, as stated by Cæsar and others, had merely an enormous twisted moustache. The Druids and their successors, the native British Clergy, regarded this natural covering as adding to their dignity and gracing their office and their age.[17]

Footnote 16:

The Goths and Dacians, as seen on the Roman monuments, were Bearded;
and the ancient Hungarians, Raumer states, wore long Beards adorned
with gold and jewels. The Catti also were accustomed not to trim the
hair of the head or Beard till they had proved their manliness by
slaying an enemy in battle.

Footnote 17:

One of the Legends of King Arthur mentions a giant who made “a great
exhibition of domestic manufacture,” consisting of a “cloak fringed
with the Beards of kings.”

SAXONS.

The Anglo-Saxons brought their Beards with them which they preferred of the forked shape, and this again might be either two-pronged, or three-pronged, or plutonian and neptunian.

St. Augustine is figured with his Beard on his appearance to convert these Islands in the sixth century. His followers must soon have shaved, because a writer of the seventh century, complains that “the Clergy had grown so corrupt as to be distinguished from the Laity less by their actions than by their want of Beards.” The illustrious Alfred was so careful of the Beards of his subjects, that he inflicted the then heavy fine of twenty shillings on any one maliciously injuring the Beard of another. The Danes who invaded this country were Bearded. Fosbrooke says, some of them wore Beards with six forks, and history mentions Sueno the fork-beard.[18]

Footnote 18:

Many princes have borne the title of Bearded—as the Greek Emperor
Constantine Pogonatus, Count Godfrey, the Emperor Barbarossa, and
Eberhard Duke of Wirtemberg in the reign of Maximilian, whose wisdom
might truly be said to have grown with his Beard, and on whom the
following verse was made:—

“Hic situs est cui _barba_ dedit cognomina Princeps,
Princeps Teutonici gloria magna soli.”
(Here is a Prince whose Beard gave his surname,
A Prince the glory of the land Almayne.)

During this period, the French monarchy was growing. Its first kings held the Beard as sacred, and ornamented it with gold. Their subjects were proud of it as marking them out to be free men in contradistinction to the degenerate Roman population. Alaric touched the Beard of Clovis as a solemn mode of confirming a treaty, and acknowledging Clovis as his godfather. The Merovingian Dynasty were Bearded. Then came Charlemagne who swore by his Beard, as did Otho the Great and Barbarossa, Emperors of Germany, after him. The following story shows the faith of those early times in the sacredness of this form of adjuration. A peasant, who had sworn a false oath on the relics of two holy Martyrs, having taken hold of his Beard, as further confirmation, heaven to punish him, caused the whole to come off in his hand!

Charlemagne also enacted that any one who should call another red beard or red-fox, should pay a heavy fine; a law explained by a prejudice embodied in two German proverbs.[19]

Footnote 19:

Rothbart nie gut wart
Rothbart Schelmen art.

Of red beard no good heard
Red beard—a knave to be feared;

and carried to its climax in the anecdote of a Spanish nobleman, who, having accused a man of some crime, and the latter being proved innocent, exclaimed, “if he did not do it he was plotting it, for the rascal has a red beard!” Those who need consolation under this calumny, traceable probably to an old notion, derived from his name, that Judas Iscariot had a red beard, I am fortunately able to refer to a sermon[20] on that Arch-Traitor, full of wit, humor, pathos, and imagination, by the celebrated Abraham St. Clara, where red beards are nobly vindicated, and the following noted instances cited:—

Footnote 20:

Judas der Ertz. Schelm.

Several illustrious Romans,
The Emperor Barbarossa;
Hanquinus Rufus, King of the Goths;
Bishops Gaudentius and Gandulfius;
The Martyrs Dominicus, Maurinus, and Savinianus.

During the distractions to which Charlemagne’s empire was subject after his decease, the Northmen appeared, and a band, under Rollo, having been converted and settled in what is now Normandy, became known in English History as the Normans; with whom an increasing intimacy having sprung up in the reign of Edward the Confessor, (whose head was shewn from the Bayeux tapestry,) a Norman party was gradually formed at court and Norman customs, one of which was shaving, partially adopted. Harold, as representative of the real old English party, wore his Beard as shown by a cotemporary MSS. illuminator; but William the Conqueror, and most of his followers, are figured only with a moustache and their back hair close cropped or shaven. It was this _barbarous_ fashion that induced Harold’s spies to report to their master that the invaders were an army of Priests.

William is said to have attempted to compel the sturdy Saxons to shave, but many of them left the kingdom rather than part with their Beards. In this, as in other matters, Anglo-Saxon firmness ultimately conquered the conquerors, and the Norman sovereigns gave in to the national custom. As early as Henry I, that is _only 44 years from William’s landing_, we learn that Bishop Serlo met that monarch on his arrival in Normandy, and made a long harangue on the enormities of the times, especially long hair and bushy Beards, which he said they would not clip, lest the stumps should wound the ladies’ faces. Henry, with repentant obedience, submitted his hairy honors to the Bishop, who with pious zeal, taking a pair of shears from his trunk, trimmed king and nobles with his own hand. This conduct of the Bishop is curiously illustrated by a cotemporary decree of the Senate of Venice, of the year 1102, commanding all long Beards to be cut off in consequence of a Bull of Pope Paschal II, denouncing the vanity of long hair, founded on a misinterpretation of 1st Corinthians, xii, 14,[21] which applies only to the hair of the head. On this text a sermon might be written though scarcely preached, which would “a tale unfold, would harrow up the soul.”[22]

Footnote 21:

A writer in Dickens’ Household Words says Pope Anacletus, (query 1st
or 2nd) was the first who introduced the custom of shaving.

Footnote 22:

In this and in other places I am obliged to leave under a veil of
obscure allusion, arguments of thrilling force, not only from ancient
but from our own history: matters not to be met with in ordinary
histories; but too abundant in the pages of satirists and moralists,
who were hardy enough to lash the prevalent follies and vices of the
times in which they lived.

The stout king Stephen wore his Beard, and a Saxon chronicler complains that in the civil wars of his time, in order to extort the wealth of peaceable people, they were “hung up by their Beards;” a proof the latter were long and strong. Stephen’s cotemporary, Frederick the 1st of Germany, to prevent quarrelling, laid a very heavy fine on any one who pulled another’s Beard.

Henry II, is said to have had a vision in which all classes of his subjects reproached him in his sleep for his tyranny and oppression. A cotemporary MSS. illuminator, having fortunately designed several cartoons, really much more expressive than some in the New Houses of Parliament, from which we learn that the faces of all classes of the people and of the Clergy then appeared as nature made them, I selected one, representing the leaders of the distressed agriculturalists of that remote period, because while it illustrated my subject, it seemed to possess great interest for that patient and much enduring class. One could almost imagine the stout fellow with the one-sided Saxon spade, to be urging on the heroes with the pitchfork and scythe, nearly in the words of Marmion,

“Charge, Sibthorp,[23] charge! On, Stanley, on!”

Footnote 23:

I trust my honest and uncompromising brother Beard will pardon the
liberty I have taken with his name. No one can be a more sincere
admirer than myself of the manly way in which he maintains his
opinions on all occasions, and the humorous kindness of disposition
which renders him beloved in private and in public. I should always
esteem him as a public man, were it only for his long and
single-handed fight against that economical iniquity—that suicidal tax
on prudence and foresight, and bounty on improvidence—the Fire
Insurance Duty!

Henry’s Queen Eleanor had been previously the wife of Louis VII, of France, who having been persuaded by his Priests to shave off his Beard, so disgusted Eleanor that she obtained a divorce.[24]

Footnote 24:

“She had,” says D’Israeli, “for her marriage dower the rich province
of Poitou and Guyenne; and this was the origin of those wars which for
300 years ravaged France, and cost the French three million of men.
All which probably had never occurred had Louis VII not been so rash
as to crop his head and shave his Beard, by which he became so
disgustful in the eyes of our Queen Eleanor.”

Richard the Lion-hearted was Bearded like a lion, and though he was so absorbed in the Crusades that he did not redress, yet he acknowledged the justice of the complaints of the celebrated Longbeard, “Earl of London and King of the Poor,” who did honor to his Beard by resisting oppression, and perished, after an heroic struggle, the victim of cowardice and treachery. The monuments of Roger, Bishop of Sarum, and Andrew, Abbot of Peterborough, shew that Bishops wore the Beard, and Abbots and Monks shaved in this reign.

John had what was called “a Judas’ Beard,” of which his actions were every way worthy. Fortunately, the bold Barons outbearded him, and Magna Charta was the result. His son, Henry III, had a moderate Beard, and the longest reign till George III. Edward I, shewed the Scots what a long Beard could do with long shanks, and a long head to back it.[25] This king has been called the English Justinian, both he and the Roman Emperor being noted for improving the laws, and cherishing their Beards. Edward the 2nd’s Beard, like his character, was more ornamental than strong, and his reign is chiefly memorable for the composition of that favorite old song quoted by Shakspeare, “’Tis merry in hall, when Beards wag all!”

Footnote 25:

No true Scotchman would pardon me if I omitted to note that the brave
Wallace had “a most brave Beard.”

Edward the 3rd’s bold Beard spread terror in Scotland and France, and that of his son, the Black Prince—young as he died—was an apt type of his “prowess in the tented field.”

Richard the 2nd, with all his faults, was neither deficient in Beard nor in courage—the latter shewn in his meeting with Wat Tyler, and his defence against his assassins. Henry IV, the crafty Bolingbroke, had a chin cover, in whose every curl lurked an intrigue, of which his son, Henry V, who was made of other metal, was so ashamed, we presume, that he wore in penitence a shaven chin throughout his ten years’ reign, as may be seen by his monument in Westminster Abbey, the remains of which still exist.

Shaving continued partially in fashion in Henry the 6th’s reign, who himself in later life was Bearded like a Philosopher, accustomed to moralize over the ups and downs of life, of which he had no common share. Edward the 4th shaved out of foppery; as did that smooth-faced rascal, Richard III, who “could smile and smile and be a villain.” Henry the 7th shaved himself and fleeced his people.

As may be seen in MSS. illuminations, and as we read in Chaucer and elsewhere, the majority of the people stuck to their Beards, uninfluenced by the fluctuations of court fashions. The poet, who was born in Edward the 3rd’s time, and died in Henry the 4th’s, speaks of “the merchant’s forked Beard;” “the Franklin’s white as a daisy;” “the shipman’s shaken by many a tempest;” “the miller’s red as a fox, and broad as though it were a spade;” the Reeve’s close trimmed; the Sompnour’s piled; and ends by a contemptuous allusion to the Pardonere with his small voice:

“No Beard had he, nor never none should have,
As smooth it was as it were newe shave, &c.”

Henry VIII, as you may still see on many sign boards, for which his bluff, bloated face is so well adapted, had his Beard close clipped. Once he swore to Francis the 1st that he would never cut it till he had visited the latter, who swore the same; and when long Beards had become the fashion at the French Court, Sir Thomas Bulleyn was obliged to excuse Henry’s bad faith, by alleging that the Queen of England felt an insuperable antipathy to a bushy chin, which, from the known considerate conduct of Henry to his wives, must have been a very plausible plea! Sir T. Moore shaved previous to his imprisonment. His Beard being then allowed to grow, he conceived such an affection for it, that before he laid his head on the block he carefully put it on one side, remarking “that it at least was guiltless of treason, and ought not to be punished.”

Although Francis I, and his Court, cherished their Beards, the Chancellor Duprat advised the imposition of a tax on the Beards of the clergy, and promised the king a handsome revenue. The bishops and wealthier clergy paid the tax and saved their Beards; but the poorer ministers were not so fortunate. In the succeeding reign, the clergy determined on revenge; so when Duprat (son of the Chancellor) was returning in triumph from the council of Trent, to take possession of the bishopric of Claremont, the dean and canons closed the brass gates of the chancel, through which they were seen armed with shears and razor, soap and basin, and pointing to the statutes, “de radendis barbis.” Notwithstanding his remonstrances, they refused to induct him unless he sacrificed his Beard, which was the handsomest of his time. He is said to have retired to his castle, and died of vexation.

In the same reign, John de Morillers was also objected to by the Chapter of Orleans; but the cunning fellow produced a letter from the king stating, that the statutes must be dispensed with in his case, as his majesty intended to employ him in countries where he could not appear without a Beard.

At the court of the rival of Francis, Charles the 5th, who had himself a right royal covering to his chin, lived John Mayo, his painter, a very tall man, but with a Beard so long, that he could stand upon it; and in which he took much pride, suspending it by ribbons to his button-hole. Sometimes this mass of hair, by command of the Emperor, was unfastened at table, and doors and windows being thrown open, the imperial mind took intense delight in seeing it blown into the faces of his grimacing courtiers. Another noted German Beard was that of a merchant of Braunau in Bavaria, which was so long, that it would have draggled on the ground, had it not been incased by its proud owner in a beautiful velvet bag.[26]

Footnote 26:

Southey in “The Doctor” mentions the Beard of Dominico d’Ancona, as
the crown or King of Beards,

A Beard the most singular
Man ever described in verse or prose;

and of which Berni says, “that the Barber ought to have felt less
reluctance in cutting the said Dominico’s throat, than in cutting off
so incomparable a Beard.” But Southey is outdone by a story told by
Dr. Ehle in his work on the hair, where mention is made of two
seven-foot giants with Beards down to their toes, at the court of one
of the German sovereigns. They both fell in love with the same woman,
and their master decided that whichever should succeed in putting his
rival into a sack, should have the maiden. One of them sacked the
other after a long duel before the whole court, and married the girl.
That the pair lived happily afterwards, as the Novelists say, is
proved by their having as many signs of affection as there are in the
Zodiac; and it is worthy of remark, both physiologically and
astrologically, that the whole twelve were born under one sign,
Gemini.

The promising Edward the 6th died before his Beard developed; his sister Mary’s husband had one of the true Spanish cut.

In the time of “good Queen Bess,” when

“The grave Lord Chancellor[27] led the dance,
And seal and mace tripped down before him,”

Footnote 27:

It surely will not be denied by any Judge of taste, that the
Chancellor and other legal dignitaries would look more dignified in
their own hair and with Beards of “reverend grey,” than in the present
absurd, fantastic, unnatural and unbecoming frosted ivy bushes, with a
black crow’s nest in the centre, in which Minerva might more readily
mistake them for stray specimens of her favorite bird, the owl, than
for learned, intelligent, and logical “sages of the law.”

she, who was no prude, and had a right royal sympathy with every thing manly and becoming, surrounded herself with men, who to the most punctilious courtesy, joined the most adventurous spirit; and the Beard, as might have been expected, grew and flourished mightily. Hence we are not surprised at the wonderful efforts made by her subjects in arms, and arts, and literature, so as to make her reign an era to which we look back with patriotic pride, and from which our best writers still draw as from a well of deep perennial flow.[28]

Footnote 28:

Although an attempt was made in this reign to restrain the growth of
legal Beards by some pragmatical heads of Lincoln’s Inn, who passed a
resolution “that no fellow of that house should wear a Beard of above
a fortnight’s growth;” and although transgression was punished with
fine, loss of commons, and final expulsion, such was the vigorous
resistance to this act of tyranny, that in the following year all
previous orders respecting Beards were repealed. _Percy Anecdotes._

About the same time also in Germany the moustache was partially
substituted for the Beard, as appears by Berckemej’s Europ. Antiq. p.
294, who under the year 1564 says, the Archbishop Sigismund introduced
in Magdeburgh the custom of shaving off the full Beard and wearing
instead a moustache. The year in which this Beard-reformation
(de-formation?) happened, was contained in this pentameter—

“Longa sIgIsMVnDo barba IVbente perIt.”
“Sigismund commanding, the long Beard perished in
MDLVV (= X) IIII. or 1564.”

A feeble reflection of some of the heads of this period were exhibited on the walls of the lecture room, as the sagacious Burleigh; the adventurous Raleigh; the rash but brave Essex; Nottingham, the High Admiral who scattered the Armada; Gresham the Merchant Prince, who found his Beard no hindrance to business; and the Poet of Poets, whether ancient or modern, Shakspeare.

As might be expected, the dramatic literature of the time is full of allusions to that feature which men still honored and admired. Lear can find no more pathetic outburst of insulted majesty, in addressing his vile daughter Goneril, than the words—

“Art not ashamed to look upon this Beard?”

and when Regan insults the faithful Gloster, the latter exclaims—

“By the kind Gods! ’Tis most ignobly done
To pluck me by the Beard!”

In a more mocking humour, Shakspeare makes Cressida say of Troilus’s chin, “alas poor chin! many a wart is richer!” And Rosalind to Orlando, “I will pardon you for not having a neglected Beard, for truly your having in Beard is a younger brother’s revenue.”

Then as characteristics, we have the black, white, straw-colored, orange-tawney, purple-in-grain, and perfect yellow. The soldier Bearded like a pard; the justice with Beard of formal cut; the sexton’s hungry Beard; and the Beard of the general’s cut; and that fine passage, which you will pardon my quoting, if only to supply an obvious correction naturally lost sight of by _Beardless_ commentators. If instead of the puerile conceit, _stairs_ of sand, we read _layers_ of sand, we not only restore metaphorical beauty but literal truth; for what is more deceitful than a layer of sand, and the Beard is “a layer of hair.”

“There is no one so simple but assumes
Some mark of virtue on his outward parts;
How many cowards, whose hearts are all as false
As _layers_ of sand, wear yet upon their chins
The Beards of Hercules and frowning Mars,
Who, inward searched, have livers white as milk:
And these assume but valour’s excrement
To make themselves redoubted.”[29]

Footnote 29:

Pagenstecher asks “which was the city where Beard and foot made the
magistrate?” and then proceeds gravely to relate that the inhabitants
of Hardenberg had formerly the singular custom of electing their
mayors or burgomasters by assembling at a round table, where while
some of the town council were employed in inspecting their Beards,
others were engaged in estimating their feet—the biggest Beard and
largest foot being “called to the scarlet.” And rightly too! for the
Beard denoted authority and wisdom, and the large foot an
understanding likely to take grave steps when needed. As containing a
valuable hint to modern corporations to look well to the essential
points of a mayor—too often overlooked—I trust, this note upon note
will be pardoned.

The witty Robert Green, published in 1592, a curious dialogue,[30] from which we get a glimpse into a Barber’s shop of Queen Elizabeth’s time. Cloth-breeches complains of the Barber’s attention to Velvet-breeches in these terms. “His head being once dressed, which requires in combing and brushing some two hours; then being curiously washed with no worse than a camphor ball, you descend as low as his Beard, and ask whether he please to be shaven or no? whether he will have his peake cut short and sharp, amiable like an innamorato, or broad pendant like a spade, or le terrible, like a warrior or soldado? whether he will have his crates cut low like a juniper bush, or his subercles taken away with a razor? If it be his pleasure to have his appendices pruned, or his moustaches fostered to turn about his ears like the branches of a vine, or cut down to the lip with the Italian lash, to make him look like a half-faced bauby in brass. These quaint terms Master Barber, you greet Master Velvet-breeches withal, and at every word a snap with your scissors and a cringe with your knee; whereas, when you come to poor Cloth-breeches, you either cut his Beard at your own pleasure, or else in disdain ask him if he will be trimmed with Christ’s cut, round like the half of a Holland cheese, mocking both Christ and us.”[31]

Footnote 30:

“Quip for an Upstart Courtier.”

Footnote 31:

A Ben Jonson, among other allusions to the Beard, has the following:—

I am heartily grieved a Beard of your grave length
Should be so over-reach’d. (“The Fox.”)

In his Alchemist _Subtle_ telling _Drugger’s_ fortune says—

——“This summer
He will be of the clothing of his company,
And next spring called to the scarlet.”

FACE. _What and so little Beard!_[32]

Footnote 32:

Lilly in one of his Dramas makes a Barber say to his customer, “How,
sir, will you be trimmed? Will you have a Beard like a spade or a
bodkin? A penthouse on your upper lip or an ally on your chin? Your
moustaches sharp at the ends like shoemaker’s awls, or hanging down to
your mouth like goat’s flakes?”

In the reign of James the 1st, Beards continued in fashion, and I extract two out of many passages from Beaumont and Fletcher’s plays; the first being, not excepting even that of Butler’s Hudibras, the most humourous description of a Beard in the language. A banished prince in disguise, having been elected “King of the Beggars” on account of his Beard; Higgen the Orator of the Troop proceeds in this fashion:—

“I then presaged thou shortly wouldst be king,
And now thou art so. But what need presage
To us, that might have read it in thy Beard,
As well as he that chose thee! By the Beard
Thou wert found out and marked for sovereignty.
O happy Beard! but happier Prince, whose Beard
Was so remarked as marked out our Prince
Not bating us a hair. Long may it grow,
And thick and fair, that who lives under it
May live as safe as under Beggar’s Bush,
Of which _it_ is the thing—_that_ but the type.
This is the Beard—the bush—or bushy Beard,
Under whose gold and silver reign ’twas said,
So many ages since, we all should smile!
No impositions, taxes, grievances,
Knots in a state, and whips unto a subject,
Lie lurking in this Beard, but all combed out.”

In his Queen of Corinth we learn that—

“The Roman T, your T-Beard is the fashion,
And twifold doth express the enamoured courtier
As full as your _fork carving_ doth the traveller.”

The last line alluding to Coryate the traveller’s recent introduction of the dinner-fork from Italy.

Of this Roman T-Beard another writer humorously says—

“The Roman T,
In its bravery,
Doth first itself disclose:

But so high it turns,
That oft it burns
With the flame of a torrid nose.”

and then adds—

“The soldier’s Beard
Doth match in this herd
In figure like a spade;

With which he will make
His enemies quake
To think their grave is made.”