[ 248 ] [MARCH, 



A DISSERTATION ON BEARDS, HISTORICAL AND LITERARY ; 

 BY AN EMERITUS PROFESSOR OF SHAVING. 



No. II. 



Barbfle ratio Incredlbile est, quantum conferat ad dignoscendam corporum maturitatem, vel ad diffe- 

 rentiam sexus, vel ad decorem virilitatis ac roboris, ut videatur omuino non constatura fuisse totiui 

 corporis ratio, si quicquam alitcr cssct effectum. LA CT ANTICS. 



IF any of the readers of the Monthly Magazine will do me the favour 

 to refer to an article in a former number, bearing the same title as the 

 present, they will see that I had traced the history of the human beard 

 regularly down from the earliest times to those of Julian the Apostate. 

 I then attempted to give some account of the wide spreading controversy 

 which sprung up in the different churches of Christendom respecting 

 the beards* of their priests ; and, in so doing, I lost sight of the strict 

 chronological arrangement, by which, at the commencement of my 

 labours, I intended to regulate my future progress. I now propose to 

 adopt a more desultory mode of discussion, which, independent of its 

 other advantages, will enable me to whisk without any circumlocution 

 from England to Constantinople, and from Constantinople to Morocco, 

 and from Morocco to China, or to Russia, or to any other part of the 

 world, where the beard either is, or has been, in veneration and honour. 



The successors of Julian, with the exception of Justinian, were all, 

 from Jovian down to the last and bravest of the Palaeologi, bearded 

 monarchs ; and under their fostering patronage the beard acquired its 

 highest estimation. Any insult or injury offered to the slightest hair of 

 it constituted a mortal offence ; and to destroy it entirely was considered 

 equivalent to the destruction of a man's honour and life. A public 

 shaving was even held by the law to be a sufficient expiation for the 

 heinous crimes of rape and murder. In the Chronicles of Savoy, written 

 by Maitre Guillaume Paradin, canon of Beau-jeu, there is a story which 

 illustrates this point very ludicrously. It will be in the recollection of 

 the readers of Gibbon, that one of the Counts of Savoy rescued the 

 Greek Emperor Alexis, by force of arms, from captivity and thraldom. 

 " Whilst the Count," says the honest canon, in the homely language of 

 the times, " whilst the Count was at Constantinople, in high honour 

 and congratulation, reaping the fruits of his victory, it fell out, that one 

 of his gentlemen dishonoured by violence the daughter of his host. In 

 consequence of the complaints, which the father made to the aforesaid 

 lord, he instituted inquiries into the manner, in which the Greeks were 

 accustomed to punish those, who were convicted of such offences. His 



* A friend has shewn me, since the publication of my first dissertation on sacerdotal 

 beards, an anecdote, which indicates very strongly the bitterness of feeling which this con- 

 troversy generated among the Catholic Clergy of France. Guillaume Duprat, Bishop of 

 Clermont, who built the College of the Jesuits at Paris, had the finest beard that was ever 

 seen. The canons of his church thought it too fine a beard for a bishop ; and, in conse- 

 ^quence, came to the barbarous resolution of shaving him in a full chapter. Accordingly, 

 "when next he came to the choir, the dean, the prevot, and the chantre, approached with 

 scissors and razors, soapbasin and warm water. He took to his heels at ' the sight, and 

 escaped to his castle of Beau-regard, about two leagues from Clermont, where he fell sick, 

 and died of vexation. Tantosne animis ccelestibus ires ? 



