Part 6

=M=urmurs and Tears are useless in the grave, =E=lse hee whole Vollies at his Tomb might have. =R=est in Peace; who like a faithful steward, =R=epair'd the Church, the Poore and needy cur'd; =E=ternall mansions do attend the Just, =T=o clothe with Immortality their dust, =T=ainted (whilst under ground) with wormes and rust."

Under the shadow of the ancient church of Bakewell, Derbyshire, is a stone containing a long inscription to the memory of John Dale, barber-surgeon, and his two wives, Elizabeth Foljambe and Sarah Bloodworth. It ends thus:--

"Know posterity, that on the 8th of April, in the year of grace 1757, the rambling remains of the above John Dale were, in the 86th yeare of his pilgrimage, laid upon his two wives.

This thing in life might raise some jealousy, Here all three lie together lovingly, But from embraces here no pleasure flows, Alike are here all human joys and woes; Here Sarah's chiding John no longer hears, And old John's rambling Sarah no more fears; A period's come to all their toylsome lives The good man's quiet; still are both his wives."

BYGONE BEARDS

The history of the beard presents many items of interest connected with our own and other countries. Its importance belongs more to the past than to the present, but even to-day its lore is of a curious character. We find in Leviticus xiii. 29, the earliest mention of our theme, where Moses gives directions for the treatment of a plague in the beard, and a little later he forbids the Israelites to "mar the corners" of it. David, himself bearded, tells us that Aaron possessed one going down to the skirts of his garments. In David's reign ambassadors were sent to the King of Ammon, who, treating them as spies, cut off half of each of their beards. We are told that they were greatly ashamed, and David sent out to meet them, saying, "Tarry at Jericho until your beards be grown, and then return." To shave off the beard was considered by the Jews as a mark of the deepest grief.

The above picture, showing two soldiers of William the Conqueror's army, is taken from the celebrated Bayeux tapestry.]

To turn to the annals of our own land, we find that the ancient Britons did not cultivate the beard. The Saxons wore the hair of the head long, and upon the upper lip, but the chin was clean shaven. Harold, in his progress towards the fateful field of Hastings, sent spies in advance to obtain an idea as to the strength of the enemy. On their return they stated among other things that "the host did almost seem to be priests, because they had all their face and both their lips shaven," a statement borne out by the representations of the Norman soldiers in the Bayeux tapestry. It is recorded that when the haughty victors had divided the broad lands of England among themselves, and when the Englishmen had been made to feel that they were a subdued and broken nation, the conquered people still kept up the old fashion of growing their hair long, so that they might resemble as little as possible their cropped and shaven masters.

Julius II., who ascended the Papal throne in 1503, was the first Pope to allow his beard to grow, "in order," as he said, "to inspire the greater respect among the faithful." A curious custom of the Middle Ages was that of imbedding three hairs from the king's beard in the wax of the seal, in order to give greater solemnity to the document. Another instance of the value placed on this adornment of nature by some nations comes to us in the story of the Eastern potentate to whom the King of England had sent a man without a beard as his ambassador. The Eastern monarch flew into a passion when the beardless visitor was presented. "Had my master measured wisdom by the beard," was the ready retort, "he would have sent a goat."

It is said that beards came into fashion in England in the thirteenth century, but by the nineteenth century they seem to have been given up by those holding leading positions in the land. Traces of beards do not appear on monumental brasses. A revival of the practice of wearing the beard occurred in the reign of Henry VIII., and in some quarters attempts were made to repress it. The authorities at Lincoln's Inn prohibited lawyers wearing beards from sitting at the great table, unless they paid double commons; but it is highly probable that this was before 1535, when the king ordered his courtiers to "poll their hair," and permit the crisp beard to grow. Taxing beards followed, and the amount was graduated according to the condition of the person wearing this hirsute adornment. An entry has often been reproduced from the Burghmote Book of Canterbury, made in the second year of the reign of Edward VI., to the effect that the Sheriff of Canterbury and another paid their dues for wearing beards, 3s. 4d. and 1s. 8d. During the next reign, Queen Mary does not appear to have meddled with the beard. She sent four agents to Moscow, and all were bearded; one of the number, George Killingworth, had an unusually long one, measureing 5ft. 2in. in length, the sight of which caused a smile to light up the face of Ivan the Terrible. It is described as a thick, broad, and yellow beard, and we are told that Ivan played with it after dinner as if it were a new toy. When Sir Thomas More laid his head on the block he carefully put his beard aside, saying, "It hath done no treason." John Knox (born 1505 and died 1572), the famous Scottish reformer, whose name figures so largely in the religious annals of his country, was remarkable for the length of his beard. The Rev. John More was a native of Yorkshire, and after being educated at Cambridge settled at Norwich. He was one of the worthiest clergymen in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, and gained the name of "the Apostle of Norwich." His beard was the largest and longest of any Englishman of his time. He used to give as his reason for wearing his beard of unusual size "that no act of his life might be unworthy of the gravity of his appearance." He died at Norwich in 1592.

In the first year of the reign of Queen Elizabeth an attempt was made to add to the revenue by taxing at the rate of 3s. 4d. every beard of above a fortnight's growth. It was an abortive measure, and was not taken seriously. It was never enforced, and people laughed at the Legislature for attempting to raise money by means of the beard. In Elizabeth's reign it was considered a mark of fashion to dye the beard and to cut it into a variety of shapes. In the reigns of the first James and the first Charles these forms attracted not a little attention from the poets of the period. The rugged lines of Taylor, "the Water Poet," are among the best known, and if not of great poetical merit, they show considerable descriptive skill, and enable us to realise the fashions of his day. In his "Superbiae Flagellum," he describes a great variety of beards in his time, but omitted his own, which is that of a screw:--

"Now a few lines to paper I will put, Of men's beards strange, and variable cut, In which there's some that take as vain a pride As almost in all other things beside; Some are reap'd most substantial like a brush, Which makes a nat'rel wit known by the bush; And in my time of some men I have heard, Whose wisdom have been only wealth and Beard; Many of these the proverb well doth fit, Which says, bush natural, more hair than wit: Some seem, as they were starched stiff and fine, Like to the bristles of some angry swine; And some to set their love's desire on edge, Are cut and prun'd like a quickset hedge; Some like a spade, some like a fork, some square, Some round, some mow'd like stubble, some stark bare; Some sharp, stiletto fashion, dagger-like, That may with whisp'ring, a man's eyes outpike; Some with the hammer cut, or roman T, Their Beards extravagant, reform'd must be; Some with the quadrate, some triangle fashion, Some circular, some oval in translation; Some perpendicular in longitude; Some like a thicket for their crassitude; That heights, depths, breadths, triform, square, oval, round, And rules geometrical in Beards are found."

Some curious lines appear in "Satirical Songs and Poems on Costume," edited by Frederick W. Fairholt, F.S.A., printed for the Percy Society, 1849. The piece which is entitled "The Ballad of the Beard," is reprinted from a collection of poems, entitled "Le Prince d'Amour," 1660, but it is evidently a production of the time of Charles I., if not earlier. "The varied form of the beard," says Fairholt, "which characterised the profession of each wearer, is amusingly descanted on, and is a curious fact in the chronicle of male fashions, during the first half of the seventeenth century." Taylor, the Water Poet, has alluded to the custom at some length; and other writers of the day have so frequently mentioned the same thing, as to furnish materials for a curious (privately-printed) pamphlet, by J.A. Repton, F.S.A., on the various forms of the beard and mustachio. The beard, like "the Roman T," mentioned in the following ballad, is exhibited in our cut--Fig. 1--from a portrait of G. Raigersperg, 1649, in Mr Repton's book.

The stiletto-beard, as worn by Sir Edward Coke, is seen in Fig. 2. The needle-beard was narrower and more pointed. The soldier's, or spade-beard, Fig. 3, is from a Dutch portrait, also in Mr Repton's book. The stubble, or close-cropped beard of a judge, requires no pictorial illustration. The bishop's-beard, Fig. 4, is given in Randle Holme's "Heraldry." He calls it "the broad, or cathedral-beard, because bishops, and grave men of the church, anciently did wear such beards." "The beard of King Harry may be seen in any portrait of Henry VIII. and the amusing accuracy of the description tested. The clown's beard, busy and not subject to any fashionable trimming, is sufficiently described in the words of the song." We quote nearly the whole of this old ballad, in fact all that has a real bearing on the subject of the beard:--

"The beard, thick or thin, on the lip or chin, Doth dwell so near the tongue, That her silence on the beard's defence May do her neighbour wrong.

Now a beard is a thing that commands in a king, Be his sceptres ne'er so fair: Where the beard bears the sway, the people obey, And are subject to a hair.

'Tis a princely sight, and a grave delight, That adorns both young and old; A well thatcht face is a comely grace, And a shelter from the cold.

When the piercing north comes thundering forth, Let barren face beware; For a trick it will find, with a razor of wind, To shave the face that's bare.

But there's many a nice and strange device, That doth the beard disgrace; But he that is in such a foolish sin, Is a traitor to his face.

Now the beards there be of such a company, And fashions such a throng, That it is very hard to handle a beard, Tho' it never be so long.

The Roman T, in its bravery, Doth first itself disclose, But so high it turns, that oft it burns With the flames of a too red nose.

The stiletto-beard, oh! it makes me afeared, It is so sharp beneath, For he that doth place a dagger in 's face, What wears he in his sheath?

But, methinks, I do itch to go thro' stich The needle-beard to amend, Which, without any wrong, I may call too long, For man can see no end.

The soldier's-beard doth march in shear'd In figure like a spade, With which he'll make his enemies quake, And think their graves are made.

The grim stubble eke on the judge's chin, Shall not my verse despise; It is more fit for a nutmeg, but yet It grates poor prisoners' eyes.

What doth invest a bishop's breast But a milk-white spreading hair? Which an emblem may be of integrity, Which doth inhabit there.

But, oh! let us tarry for the beard of King Harry, That grows about the chin, With his bushy pride, and a grove on each side, And a champion ground between.

Last, the clown doth rush, with his beard like a bush, Which may be well endur'd."