1S27.] Historical and Liiemry. 607 



the unsparing operation of the barber. Francis the First of France turned 

 the stir thus made among the priesthood to his own advantage. Under 

 pretence of carrying into effect the canons of the church, he, though a 

 restorer of the beard among the laity, issued an edict that the beard of 

 every churchman should be forthwith cut off. He gave them, however, to 

 understand that they might blunt the edge of this exterminating edict by 

 paying a certain sum into his exchequer ; and it is said that, by that device, 

 he brought from their coffers into his own a very considerable treasure. 

 The parsons of England displayed, at the same time, a similar partiality 

 for this secular vanity : for, at a visitation of Oriel College, Oxford, made 

 in 1531, Longland, Bishop of Lincoln, was obliged to order one of the 

 fellows, who was a priest, to abstain, under pain of expulsion, from wear- 

 ing a beard and pricked shoes like alaic, and from taking the liberty of insult- 

 ing the beardless chins of the venerable governor and fellows of the society. 

 The Reformation, however, shortly afterwards carne to England, and, 

 with the Reformation, the beards of the clergy. The bishops of James 

 the First's day paid as much attention to the points of their beards as to the 

 points of the puns and epigrams in their sermons ; and even the Assembly 

 of Divines, which sat at Westminster in the next reign, seemed impressed 

 with the opinion of the learned Dr. Bulwer, that, " as the beard is a sin- 

 gular gift of God, he who shaves it away aims at nothing more than to 

 become less than man." I can almost fancy that I see Philip Nye,* 

 shaking his thanksgiving-beard in approbation of the doctrine, and admo- 

 nishing the people that for man " to labour to extirpate so honest arid neces- 

 sary a work as the beard is, is an act not only of indecency and injustice, 

 but is also a practical blasphemy, most inexpiable against nature, and 

 God, the Author of nature, whose work the beard is."f 



It is worth while to observe how the Catholic priesthood endeavoured, at 

 different times, to revenge themselves upon the beard, which they were 

 forbidden to wear. In Turpin's Chronicles, they gave it to the Saracens, 

 to render them frightful and odious. In the old moralities and mysteries, 

 which were got up under their superintendence, they gave it to the devil 

 perhaps in imitation of Virgil, who has so equipped the infernal ferry- 

 man : 



" Terribili squallore Charon, cui plurima mento 



Canities inculta jacet." 



In the mystery of Mary Magdalene, one of the stage directions is " Here 

 enters the prynse of the devylls, with a berde, and with hell onderneth the 

 stage ;" an entree which must have been deeply interesting to those who 

 witnessed it. In the " Nigramansir, a moral Interlude and a pithy, writ- 

 ten by Maister Skelton, Laureate," and printed by Wynkin de Worde in 

 1504, there is a similar direction : " Enter Belzebub with a berde." And 

 yet, in spite of priests, and Saracens, and devils, the common people, both 

 in France and in England, retained their admiration for it, and parted with 

 it reluctantly, even when it was banished from the face of kings and 

 princes as I hope I shall be permitted to shew in another number. 



H. W. 



* Philip Nye was a friend of Hugh Peters and John Goodwin, and, like them, one of 

 the Assembly of Divines. He had exerted himself during the rebellion so actively against 

 Charles the First, that, at the restoration, it was once intended to exempt him from' the 

 act of amnesty. Hudibras, in his letter to the widow, makes memorable mention of the 

 " great art and cunning" displayed in the trimming of " Philip Nye's thanksgiving beard." 



f Vide Dr. Bulwer's " Artificial Changeling." 



