B E A 



" Ille mctit bai-bam, crincm hie deponit araati ; 

 " Plena doiiiiis li'nis genialibus." 

 Slaves, among t'as Romans, wore their beard and hair long; 

 whtii manumitted t'uty fhaved the head in the temple of Fe- 

 ronia, and put on a cap, or " pileus," as a badge of Hbtrty. 

 Thofe who cicap-.d from fhipwreck, fhaved their heads ; and 

 pcrfons acquitted of a capital crime, cut their hair and (haved, 

 and went to the capitol to return thanks to Jupiter. 



Perfons of quality had their children fhaved the firfl time 

 by others of the fame, or greater quality, who by this means 

 became godfathers, or adoptive fathers of the children. An- 

 cientlv, indeed, a perftm became god-fathtr of the child by 

 barely touching liis beard; thus hillorians relate, that one of 

 the articles of the treaty between Alaric and Clovis was, that 

 Aiaric fhould touch the beard of Clovis to become his god- 

 father. 



As to ecclefiaflics, the difcipline has been very different 

 on the anic'e of beards : fometimes they have been enjoined 

 to wear them, from a notion of too much effeminacy in (hav- 

 ing, and that a long beard was more fiiilable to the ecclefi- 

 afiic gravity ; and fometimes again they were forbid .it, as 

 imagining pride to lurk beneath a venerable beard. The 

 Greek and Romifh churches have long difputed together 

 about thtir beards ; fince the time of their fcparatiun, the 

 Romanift s feem to have given more into the practice of fliav- 

 ing, by way of oppofition to the Greeks ; and have even made 

 fome exprefs conllitutions " de radendis barbis." The 

 Greeks, on the contrary, efpoufe veiy zealoufly the caufe 

 of long beardi, and are extremely fcandalized at the beard- 

 Icfs images of faints in the Roman churches. 



By the flatutes of fome monafteries, it appears, that the 

 lav-monks were to let their beards grow, and the priefts 

 among them to fhave ; and that the beards of all that were 

 received into the monatleries were bleffed with a great deal of 

 ceremony ; and there are ftill extant the prayers iifed in the 

 folemnity of confecrating the beard to God, when an eccle- 

 fiaftic was fhaven. 



Le Comte obferves, that the Chinefe affeft long beards ex- 

 travagantly; but nature hasbalked them, and only given them 

 verj' little ones, which, however, they cultivate with great 

 care : the Europeans are flrangely envied by them on this 

 account. 



The Ruffians wore their beards till within thefe few years, 

 when the czar Peter enjoined them all to fhave ; but, not- 

 ••withftanding his injunclion, he was obliged to keep on foot 

 a number of officers to cutoff by violence the beards of fuch as 

 would not otherwife part with them. For enforcing his 

 regulation, which was violently oppofed, he laid a tax on 

 long beards, and r-^ny fr.bmitted to it rather than part with 

 their beard, which was univerfally held to be an ornament 

 to the pcrfon. Superftitious Rufiians even thought it to be 

 an external charafteriftic of the orthodox faith ; and thofe 

 who were too poor, or too parfimoniouf, to pay the tax for 

 retaining the beard, religioufly preferved the beard that was 

 fliom off, and had it depofited in the coffin with them on 

 their deceafe, that they might prefent it to St. Nicholas, 

 on his refuling to admit them, as beardlefs chrillians, into 

 the kingdom of heaven. As a proof of the high eflimation 

 in which the beard was held in Ruffia in early times, it is a 

 law in the Novgorodian code, that whoever plucks hair from 

 another's beard fhall be mulcted four times as much as for 

 cutting off a finger. 



In the 1 oth century, king Robert of France, the rival of 

 Charles the fimple, was not mc re famous for his exploits than 

 for his long white beard, which he fufFcred to hang down on 

 the outfide of his cuirafs, to encourage the troops in battle, 

 and to rally them when defeated. Upon the death of the 



6 E A 



great Henry IV. of France, wlio was fucceeded by a beard- 

 lefs youth, the beard was profcribed. Louis XIII. afcend 

 cd the throne of his glorious anceflor witi.out a beard ; and 

 his courtiers immediately reduced thtir beards to whifl-ccrs, 

 and a fmall tuft of hair und.-r the lower lip. The duke of 

 Sully, ho'.vever, though he encountered rid cule, would never 

 adopt this effeminate cuflom. Whifkers continued in fafhion 

 in the commenccmeiit of the reign of Louis XIV. who, aj 

 well as his courtiers, were proud of wearing them ; fo that 

 thcv were the ornament of Turenne, Conde, Colbert, Cor- 

 neille, Moliere, &c. 



In Spain, Philip V. afcendtd the throne with a fhaved 

 chin ; and the courtiers imitated the prince, and their ex- 

 ample was followed by the people. The change, however, 

 produced lamentations and murmur. Hence arofe the 

 Spanifh proverb, denoting, " Since we have loft our beards, 

 we Lave lofl our fouls." The Portuguefe, whofe national 

 character is much the fame, have imitated them in this re- 

 fpeft. Accordingly we read, that in the reign of Catherine, 

 queen of Portugal, when the brave John dc Callro had taken 

 the caiile of Diu in India, he was under the necefTity of 

 borrowing from the inhabitants of Goa a thoufand pifloles 

 for the maintenance of his fleet ; and that as a fecurity for 

 the loan, he fent them one of his whiflters, telling them '• all 

 the gold in the world cannot eqiral the value of this n-tional 

 ornament of my valour ; and I depofit it in your hands as a 

 fecurity for the money." The inhabitants of Goa, it is faid, 

 generoufly returned both the money and his whi/lcers. 



We have already obferved, that the ancient Britons, in 

 the tim.e of Casfar, fhaved the body, except the head and the 

 upper lip ; the hair of which they, as well as the Gauls, al- 

 lowed to grow to a very inconvenient length. The Anglo- 

 Saxons, on their an-ival in Britain, and for a conCderable 

 time after, allowed their beaads to grow, as well as their 

 near neighbours the Longobards, to whom in every refpeft 

 they bore a near rcfemblance. After the introduftiou of 

 Chriftianity, their clergy were obliged to fhave their beards, in 

 obedience to the laws, ar.d in imitation of all the wefteni 

 churches. This diflinclion between the clergy and the laity 

 fubfilled for fome time ; and a writer of the feventh century 

 coinplains, that the manners of the clergy were fo corrupted, 

 that they could not be diftinguiflied from the laity by their ac- 

 tions, but only by their want of beards. By degrees the 

 Englifh laity began to imitate the clergy fo far as to fhave all 

 their bea.ds except their upper lips, on each of which they 

 left a lock of hair ; by which they were dilHnguiflied from 

 the French and Normans, who fhaved their whole beards. 

 The Normans had as great an averCon to beards as th.ey had 

 a fondnefs for long hair. Among thera, to allow the beard 

 to grow, was an indication of the deepeft diftrefs and mifery. 

 They not only fhaved their beard-^ thtmfeivts, but when they 

 had authority, they obliged others to imitate their example. 

 It is mentioned bv fome of our ancient hitloi ians, as one of 

 the moft wanton acls of tyranny in Wilham the Conqueror, 

 that he compelled the Englifli, who had been accuftomed to 

 allow the hair of their upper lips to grow, to fhaVe their 

 whole beards. This was fo difagrecable to fome of that peo- 

 ple, that they chofe rather to abandon their country than 

 refign their whifliers. In the fourteenth century long beards 

 were in fafhion, and continued to the fixtecnth centur)' ; fo 

 that in the reign of Mary I. the beards of bifhop Gard'.ner 

 and cardinal Pole, appear in their portraits to be of a mofl 

 uncommon fize. The lawyers, however, had a regulation 

 impofed upon this important feature. Towards the clofe of 

 the t'lxteenth centur)', the beard was much leffened, and gradu- 

 ally dwindled into muftachios or whifkers : and in procefs of 

 time the praftice of fhaving the whole face became univerfal. 

 2 ^ Among 



