BEARD. 



367 



Beard. 454, when P. Ticinius brought over a number of 

 v ' barbers from SVily ; and he adds, that Scipio Afri- 

 canus was the first that introduced the mode of sha- 

 ving every day. The first fourteen Roman empe- 

 rors shaved ; but Adrian wore his beard, in order, as 

 Plutarch informs us, to hide the scars on his face. 

 Antoninus Pius, and Marcus Aurelius, wore a beard, 

 under the character of philosophers. 



The first shaving of the beard was a matter of great 

 solemnity among the Romans, and was generally per- 

 formed when the toga viri/is was assumed. The first 

 growth of the chin was consecrated to some god, 

 usually to the Lares ; visits of ceremony were paid on 

 the occasion ; and persons of quality had their chil- 

 dren shaved, for the first time, by others of the same, 

 or of greater quality ; who, in this manner, became 

 the adoptive fathers of the children. Nero consecra- 

 ted his beard, when first shaved, to Jupiter Capitoli- 

 nus, in a gold box set with pearls. For the sake of 

 distinction, the Roman slaves wore their beard and 

 hair long ; and, when manumitted, they shaved the 

 head in the temple of Feronia, and put on a cap, or 

 pileus, as a badge of liberty. The Roman soldiers, 

 however, seem to have worn their beards short, and 

 frizzled, as we find upon ancient monuments. 



In time of grief and affliction, the Romans suffered 

 their beard and hair to grow ; whereas the Greeks, 

 in time of sorrow, shaved themselves, and cut their 

 hair, (Senec. Bene/, v. 6.) ; which was also the cus- 

 tom among some barbarous nations. On like prin- 

 ciples, the custom of letting the beard grow is a to- 

 ken of mourning in some countries, as that of shaving 

 is in others. 



III. Among the inhabitants of modern Europe, 

 the fashion of wearing the beard, like all other 

 fashions, has undergone a variety of vicissitudes. 

 Most of our Gothic ancestors shaved, or wore hair 

 only on the upper lip, or in the form of mustaches. 

 The Lombards, however, who invaded Italy, were 

 remarkable for the length of their beards ; and hence 

 their name of Longobardi. Among the Franks, who 

 wrested Gaul from the Romans, a long beard became 

 a characteristic of nobility ; as, under the Roman 

 authority in that country, none but nobles and 

 Christian priests were permitted to wear it. The 

 Merovingian, or first race of kings in France, were, 

 on this account, particularly solicitous of copious 

 beards and flowing hair. Th-y are described by 

 Eginhard, the secretary of Charlemagne, as coming 

 to the assemblies of the people, in the field of Mars, 

 seated on a throne, in a carriage, or waggon, drawn 

 by oxen, with long beards and dishevelled hair : 

 erine prope.so, barba tubmiua, so/io residerent, et 

 speciem dominantcr ijjtugcreut. 



The ancient Britons, in the time of Cxsar, wore 

 no beards, except on the upper lip. But the Anglo- 

 Saxons, on their arrival in Britain, and for a consi- 

 derable time after, allowed their beards to grow. 

 When, however, the Normans possessed themselves 

 of the country, the benrd had been reduced to its 

 ancient standard, and was entirely proscribed by that 

 people, who held beards in abhorrence. It is men- 

 tioned by some of our ancient historians, as one of 

 the most wanton acts of tyraiiny in William the Con- 

 queror, that he compelled the English, who had 



been accustomed to allow the hair of thoir upper lips 

 to grow, to shave their whole beards. This was so 

 disagreeable to some of the people, that, rather than 

 relinquish their whiskers, they chose to abandon 

 their country. The Russians, it is well known, 

 shewed an equal repugnance to be shaved, when 

 they were ordered to part with those beards, oi 

 which their ancestors had enjoyed the undisturbed 

 possession, by an edict of Peter the Great. Many 

 of them chose rather to pay a fine, or tax, than sub- 

 mit to this degradation ; and those who were too 

 poor, or too parsimonious to comply with this alter- 

 native, religiously preserved the beard that was shorn 

 off, and had it deposited in their coffins, that they 

 might present it to St Nicholas, on his refusing to 

 admit them into heaven as beardless Christians. 



In the middle ages of Europe, the beard was oc- 

 casionally in high repute : Thus, in the 10th centu- 

 ry, King Robert of France, the rival of Charles the 

 Simple, was not more famous for his exploits than 

 for his long white beard, which he suffered to hang 

 down on the outside of his cuirass, to encourage his 

 troops in battle, and rally them when defeated. In 

 the 14th century long beards were much in fashion, 

 and continued to be the mode till the close of the 

 loth century. The Emperor Charles V., Pope Ju- 

 lius II., and Francis 1. of France, were all great ad- 

 mirers of long and bushy beards. At this period, 

 John Mayo, a celebrated painter in Germany, had 

 so vast a beard, that he was nick-named John the 

 Bearded. Though he was a tall man, it was so long 

 that it would hang upon the ground when he stood 

 upright ; so that he usually wore it fastened to his 

 girdle. The Emperor Charles used to take great 

 pleasure in seeing this extraordinary beard unfasten- 

 ed, and the wind blowing it against the faces of the 

 lords of his court. The beard of Sir Thomas More 

 is honourably noticed in history ; and we find, from 

 the portraits of Bishop Gardener, Cardinal Pole, &c. 

 that beards were of an uncommon size in England in 

 the reign of Mary I. 



The beard of Henry IV. of France, which was 

 square in form, was an object of much admiration on 

 account of the majesty which it communicated to the 

 fine open countenance of that amiable monarch. 

 Beards, therefore, were in the zenith of their reputa- 

 tion during this auspicious reign. But no sooner 

 was the throne occupied by the successor of this mo- 

 narch, Louis XIII. then a beardless youth, than, 

 such is the instability of all human greatness ! beards 

 were entirely proscribed, or reduced to the insignifi- 

 cant size of whiskers. The duke of Sully, however, 

 evinced his attachment to the memory of his master, 

 by wearing the beard of the ancient court, notwith- 

 standing the ridicule it brought upon him. Whiskers 

 continued to prevail during the early part of the 

 reign of Louis XIV. They were the ornament of 

 Turenne, Conde, Colbert, Corneille, Moliere, &c. ; 

 and the king himself took a pride in wearing them. 

 Much pains was bestowed in rendering them capti- 

 vating during this age of gaiety and gallantry ; and 

 the beauty of a lover's whiskers was then a subject 

 of exultation to a favourite fair. 



The Spanish beard suffered degradation from a 

 cause similar to that which occasioned its dishonour 



Beard. 



