Why shave?, or, Beards v. barbery / by H.M.

  • H. M
Date:
[between 1880 and 1889?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Why shave?, or, Beards v. barbery / by H.M. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    thou needs must flatter, why dost not thou clip thy beard?” And Diogenes asked a smooth-chinned voluptuary whether he never quarrelled with nature for making him a man instead of a woman? The Greeks compelled their chief magistrates to shave their upper lips as indicating that they were the servants of the law which they administered. This rule was, of course, based upon the theory that shaving was the mark of servitude. The Goths and Dacians (as appears from ancient monuments) W'ere bearded, and the ancient Hungarians not only wore long beards, but adorned them with jewels and golden ornaments. The Catti also trimmed neither hair nor beard until they had justified their manhood by slaying an enemy in battle. The first Kings of the French monarchy showed a due veneration for the beard, and even followed the Hungarian practice as regards decoration. The common people rejoiced in their beards as distinguishing them from the degenerate Romans. Alaric touched the beard of Clovis as a solemn mode of confirming a treaty. The Merovingian dynasty cherished the beard. Some of the mouarchs who swore by their beards have already been mentioned, and the story is told of a peasant who having falsely sworn in this solemn form lost his beard on the instant. The whole came off in his hand! When the Northmen appeared under Rollo and settled in Normandy the practice of shaving was developed. William the Conqueror and many of his followers are represented with shaven chins and their back hair closely cropped, but, cn the other hand, they wore extensive moustaches. The beard of Henry IV., of France, “diffused over his counte¬ nance a majestic sweetness and amiable openness.” He died in 1G10, and his son Louis XIII. ascended the throne while still a minor. To keep him in countenance the courtiers began to shave, leaving merely the tuft called a mouche, or royal (modernized, “ a Charley.”) This was on the same principle which induced the flatterers of another French monarch—the Most Christian King, who had more than the normal number of toes—to imitate his deformity by wearing shoes of hideous shape. Sully flatly refused to cut off his beard in deference to servile custom. When mocked by the courtiers he turned to the youthful monarch and said, “ Sire, when your father of glorious memory did me the honour to hold a consultation on grave and important business, the first thing he did was to order out of the room all the buffoons and stage dancers of his court.” When Marshal Bassompierre was released at about the same period from a long imprisonment he noticed that “ the men had lost their beards and the horses their tails.” In the reign of Louis XIII. the cultivation of the whiskers was extensively developed, and this con¬ tinued during the reign of Louis XIV., who was largely whiskered, as also were the great men of his court. According to the Percy Anecdotes, in those days of gallantry it was no uncommon thing for