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Title: At the Sign of the Barber's Pole - Studies In Hirsute History
Author: Andrews, William, 1848-1908
Language: English
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[Illustration: The House of Commons in the time of Sir Robert Walpole.
Wigs in Parliament.]
AT THE SIGN
OF THE BARBER'S POLE
STUDIES IN HIRSUTE HISTORY
BY
WILLIAM ANDREWS
AUTHOR OF "BYGONE ENGLAND"
ETC.
COTTINGHAM, YORKSHIRE
J.R. TUTIN
1904
PREFACE
Connected with the barber and his calling are many curiosities of
history. In the following pages, an attempt has been made, and I trust
not without success, to bring together notices of the more interesting
matters that gather round the man and his trade.
In the compilation of this little book many works have been consulted,
and among those which have yielded me the most information must be
mentioned the following:--
"Annals of the Barber-Surgeons of London," by Sidney Young, London,
1890.
"An Apology for the Beard," by Artium Magister, London, 1862.
"Barbers' Company," by G. Lambert, F.S.A., London, 1881.
"Barber-Surgeons and Chandlers," by D. Embleton, M.D.,
Newcastle-on-Tyne, 1891.
"Barber's Shop," by R.W. Proctor, edited by W.E.A. Axon,
Manchester, 1883.
"Philosophy of Beards," by T.S. Cowing, Ipswich.
"Some Account of the Beard and the Moustachio," by John Adey
Repton, F.S.A., London, 1839.
"Why Shave?" by H.M., London.
_Notes and Queries_, and other periodicals, as well as encyclopædias,
books on costume, and old plays, have been drawn upon, and numerous
friends have supplied me with information. I must specially mention with
gratitude Mr Everard Home Coleman, the well-known contributor to _Notes
and Queries_.
Some of my chapters have been previously published in the magazines, but
all have been carefully revised and additions have been made to them.
In conclusion, I hope this work will prove a welcome contribution to the
byways of history.
WILLIAM ANDREWS.
ROYAL INSTITUTION, HULL,
_August 11th_, 1904.
CONTENTS
PAGE
THE BARBER'S POLE 1
THE BARBER'S SHOP 8
SUNDAY SHAVING 21
FROM BARBER TO SURGEON 26
BYGONE BEARDS 33
TAXING THE BEARD 56
POWDERING THE HAIR 59
THE AGE OF WIGS 71
STEALING WIGS 93
THE WIG-MAKERS' RIOT 95
THE MOUSTACHE MOVEMENT 96
INDEX 117
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
PAGE
The House of Commons in the time of Sir Robert Walpole.
Wigs in Parliament _Frontispiece_
The Barber's Shop, from "Orbis Pictus" 3
A Barber's Shop in the time of Queen Elizabeth 10
William Shakespeare (the Stratford Portrait) 15
Henry VIII. receiving the Barber-Surgeons 29
Bayeux Tapestry 34
John Knox, born 1505, died 1572 37
John Taylor, the Water Poet, born 1580, died 1654 38
The Lord Mayor of York escorting Princess Margaret
through York in 1503. Shows the Beard of the Lord
Mayor 39
Beards in the Olden Time 42
The Gunpowder Conspirators, from a print published
immediately after the discovery. Shows the Beards in
Fashion in 1605 45
Geoffrey Chaucer, born about 1340, died 1400 52
Russian Beard Token, A.D. 1705 58
Egyptian Wig (probably for female), from the British
Museum 72
The Earl of Albemarle 78
Man with Wig and Muff, 1693 (_from a print of the period_) 80
Campaign Wig 81
Periwig with Tail 82
Ramillie Wig 83
Pig-tail Wig 84
Bag-Wig 84
Heart-Breakers 89
With and Without a Wig 90
Lord Mansfield 93
Stealing a Wig 94
George Frederick Muntz, M.P. 100
Charles Dickens, born 1812, died 1870 106
THE BARBER'S POLE
In most instances the old signs which indicated the callings of
shopkeepers have been swept away. Indeed, the three brass balls of the
pawn-broker and the pole of the barber are all that are left of signs of
the olden time. Round the barber's pole gather much curious fact and
fiction. So many suggestions have been put forth as to its origin and
meaning that the student of history is puzzled to give a correct
solution. One circumstance is clear: its origin goes back to far distant
times. An attempt is made in "The Athenian Oracle" (i. 334), to trace
the remote origin of the pole. "The barber's art," says the book, "was
so beneficial to the publick, that he who first brought it up in Rome
had, as authors relate, a statue erected to his memory. In England they
were in some sort the surgeons of old times, into whose art those
beautiful leeches, [Footnote: This is the old word for doctors or
surgeons.] our fair virgins, were also accustomed to be initiated. In
cities and corporate towns they still retain their name
Barber-Chirurgeons. They therefore used to hang their basons out upon
poles to make known at a distance to the weary and wounded traveller
where all might have recourse. They used poles, as some inns still
gibbet their signs, across a town." It is a doubtful solution of the
origin of the barber's sign.
[Illustration: The Barber's Shop, from "Orbis Pictus."]
A more satisfactory explanation is given in the "Antiquarian Repertory."
"The barber's pole," it is there stated, "has been the subject of many
conjectures, some conceiving it to have originated from the word poll or
head, with several other conceits far-fetched and as unmeaning; but the
true intention of the party coloured staff was to show that the master
of the shop practised surgery and could breathe a vein as well as mow a
beard: such a staff being to this day by every village practitioner put
in the hand of the patient undergoing the operation of phlebotomy. The
white band, which encompasses the staff, was meant to represent the
fillet thus elegantly twined about it." We reproduce a page from
"Comenii Orbis Pictus," perhaps better known under its English title of
the "Visible World." It is said to have been the first illustrated
school-book printed, and was published in 1658. Comenius was born in
1592, was a Moravian bishop, a famous educational reformer, and the
writer of many works, including the "Visible World: or a Nomenclature,
and Pictures of all the chief things that are in the World, and of Men's
Employments therein; in above an 150 Copper Cuts." Under each picture
are explanatory sentences in two columns, one in Latin, and the other in
English, and by this means the pupil in addition to learning Latin, was
able to gain much useful knowledge respecting industries and other
"chief things that are in the World." For a century this was the most
popular text-book in Europe, and was translated into not fewer than
fourteen languages. It has been described as a crude effort to interest
the young, and it was more like an illustrated dictionary than a child's
reading-book. In the picture of the interior of a barber's shop, a
patient is undergoing the operation of phlebotomy (figure 11). He holds
in his hand a pole or staff having a bandage twisted round it. It is
stated in Brand's "Popular Antiquities" that an illustration in a missal
of the time of Edward the First represents this ancient practice.
In a speech made in the House of Peers by Lord Thurlow, in support of
postponing the further reading of the Surgeons' Incorporation Bill, from
July 17th, 1797, to that day three months, the noble lord said that by a
statute still in force, the barbers and surgeons were each to use a
pole. The barbers were to have theirs blue and white, striped, with no
other appendage; but the surgeon's pole, which was the same in other
respects, was likewise to have a galley-pot and a red rag, to denote the
particular nature of their vocation.
A question is put in the _British Apollo_ (London, 1708):--
"... Why a barber at port-hole
Puts forth a party-coloured pole?"
This is the answer given:--
"In ancient Rome, when men lov'd fighting,
And wounds and scars took much delight in,
Man-menders then had noble pay,
Which we call surgeons to this day.
'Twas order'd that a hughe long pole,
With bason deck'd should grace the hole,
To guide the wounded, who unlopt
Could walk, on stumps the others hopt;
But, when they ended all their wars,
And men grew out of love with scars,
Their trade decaying; to keep swimming
They joyn'd the other trade of trimming,
And on their poles to publish either,
Thus twisted both their trades together."
During his residence at his living in the county of Meath, before he was
advanced to the deanery of St Patrick's, Dean Swift was daily shaved by
the village barber, who gained his esteem. The barber one morning, when
busy lathering Swift, said he had a great favour to ask his reverence,
adding that at the suggestion of his neighbours he had taken a small
public-house at the corner of the churchyard. He hoped that with the two
businesses he might make a better living for his family.
"Indeed," said the future Dean, "and what can I do to promote the happy
union?"
"And please you," said the barber, "some of our customers have heard
much about your reverence's poetry; so that, if you would but condescend
to give me a smart little touch in that way to clap under my sign, it
might be the making of me and mine for ever."
"But what do you intend for your sign?" inquired the cleric.
"The 'Jolly Barber,' if it please your reverence, with a razor in one
hand and a full pot in the other."
"Well," rejoined Swift, "in that case there can be no great difficulty
in supplying you with a suitable inscription." Taking up a pen he
instantly wrote the following couplet, which was duly painted on the
sign and remained there for many years:--
"Rove not from pole to pole, but step in here,
Where nought excels the shaving but--the beer."
Another barber headed his advertisement with a parody on a couplet from
Goldsmith as follows:--
"Man wants but little beard below,
Nor wants that little long."
A witty Parisian hairdresser on one of the Boulevards put up a sign
having on it a portrait of Absalom dangling by his hair from a tree, and
Joab piercing his body with a spear. Under the painting was the
following terse epigram:--
"Passans, contemplez le malheur
D'Absalom pendu par la nuque;
Il aurait évité ce malheur,
S'il eut porté une perruque."
The lines lose some of their piquancy when rendered into English as
follows:--
"The wretched Absalom behold,
Suspended by his flowing hair:
He might have 'scaped this hapless fate
Had he chosen a wig to wear."
THE BARBER'S SHOP
The old-fashioned barber has passed away. In years agone he was a
notable tradesman, and was a many-sided man of business, for he shaved,
cut hair, made wigs, bled, dressed wounds, and performed other offices.
When the daily papers were not in the hands of the people he retailed
the current news, and usually managed to scent the latest scandal, which
he was not slow to make known--in confidence, and in an undertone, of
course. He was an intelligent fellow, with wit as keen as his razor;
urbane, and having the best of tempers. It has been truthfully said of
this old-time tradesman that one might travel from pole to pole and
never encounter an ill-natured or stupid barber.
Long days are usually worked in the barber's shop, and many attempts
have been made to reduce the hours of labour. We must not forget that
compulsory early closing is by no means a new cry, as witness the
following edict, issued in the reign of Henry VI., by the Reading
Corporation: "Ordered that no barber open his shop to shave any man
after 10 o'clock at night from Easter to Michaelmas, or 9 o'clock from
Michaelmas to Easter, except it be any stranger or any worthy man of the
town that hath need: whoever doeth to the contrary to pay one thousand
tiles to the Guildhall."
[Illustration: A Barber's Shop in the Time of Queen Elizabeth.]
In the reign of Queen Elizabeth the rich families from the country
thought it no disgrace in that simple age to lodge in Fleet Street, or
take rooms above some barber's shop. At this period, indeed, the
barber-surgeon was a man of considerable importance. His shop was the
gathering-place of idle gallants, who came to have their sword-wounds
dressed after street frays. The gittern, or guitar, lay on the counter,
and this was played by a customer to pass away the time until his turn
came to have his hair trimmed, his beard starched, his mustachios
curled, and his love-locks tied up. We give a picture of a barber's shop
at this period; the place appears more like a museum than an
establishment for conducting business. We get a word picture of a
barber's shop in Greene's "Quip for an Upstart Courtier," published in
1592. It is related that the courtier sat down in the throne of a chair,
and the barber, after saluting him with a low bow, would thus address
him: "Sir, will you have your worship's hair cut after the Italian
manner, short and round, and then frounst with the curling irons to make
it look like a half-moon in a mist; or like a Spaniard, long at the ears
and curled like to the two ends of an old cast periwig; or will you be
Frenchified with a love-lock down to your shoulders, whereon you may
wear your mistress's favour? The English cut is base, and gentlemen
scorn it; novelty is dainty. Speak the word, sir, my scissors are ready
to execute your worship's will." A couple of hours were spent in combing
and dressing the ambrosial locks of the young Apollo; then the barber's
basin was washed with camphor soap. At last the beard is reached, and
with another congee the barber asks if his worship would wish it to be
shaven; "whether he would have his peak cut short and sharp, and amiable
like an inamorato, or broad pendent like a spade, to be amorous as a
lover or terrible as a warrior and soldado; whether he will have his
crates cut low like a juniper bush, or his subercles taken away with a
razor; if it be his pleasure to have his appendices primed, or his
moustachios fostered to turn about his ears like vine tendrils, fierce
and curling, or cut down to the lip with the Italian lash?--and with
every question a snip of the scissors and a bow." If a poor man entered
the shop he was polled for twopence, and was soon trimmed around like a
cheese, and dismissed with scarce a "God speed you."
The Puritans looked askance at the fashions introduced by the barbers.
No wonder when the talk in the shop was about the French cut, the
Spanish cut, the Dutch and the Italian mode; the bravado fashion, and
the mean style. In addition to these were the gentleman's cut, the
common cut, the Court cut, and county cut. "And," wrote Stubbes with
indignation, "they have other kinds of cuts innumerable, and, therefore,
when you come to be trimmed they will ask you whether you will be cut to
look terrible to your enemy, or amiable to your friend; grim and stern
in countenance, or pleasant and demure; for they have diverse kinds of
cuts for all these purposes, or else they lie! Then when they have done
all their feats, it is a world to consider how their mowchatows must be
preserved and laid out from one cheek to another; yea, almost from one
ear to another, and turned up like two horns towards the forehead.
Besides that, when they come to the cutting of the hair, what tricking
and trimming, what rubbing, what scratching, what combing and clawing,
what trickling and toying, and all to tawe out money, you may be sure.
And when they come to washing--oh, how gingerly they behave themselves
therein! For then shall your mouth be bossed with the lather or foam
that riseth of the balls (for they have their sweet balls wherewith they
use to wash), your eyes closed must be anointed therewith also. Then
snap go the fingers full bravely, God wot. Thus this tragedy ended,
comes the warm clothes to wipe and dry him withall; next the ears must
be picked, and closed together again, artificially, forsooth! The hair
of the nostrils cut away, and everything done in order, comely to
behold. The last action in the tragedy is the payment of money; and lest
these cunning barbers might seem unconscionable in asking much for their
pains, they are of such a shameful modesty as they will ask nothing at
all, but, standing to the courtesy and liberality of the giver, they
will receive all that comes, how much soever it be, not giving any
again, I warrant you; for take a barber with that fault, and strike off
his head. No, no; such fellows are rarae aves in terris, nigrisque
simillimæ cygnis--rare birds on the earth, and as scarce as black swans.
You shall have also your fragrant waters for your face, wherewith you
shall be all besprinkled; your musick again, and pleasant harmony shall
sound in your ears, and all to tickle the same with rare delight, and in
the end your cloak shall be brushed, and 'God be with you, gentlemen!'"
John Gay issued in 1727 the first series of his "Fables," and in the one
entitled "The Goat Without a Beard" we get a description of the barber's
shop of the period:--
"His pole, with pewter basins hung,
Black, rotten teeth in order strung,
Rang'd cups that in the window stood,
Lin'd with red rags, to look like blood,
Did well his threefold trade explain,
Who shav'd, drew teeth, and breath'd a vein."
The wooden chair is next referred to, and then it is stated:--
"Mouth, nose, and cheeks, the lather hides:
Light, smooth, and swift, the razor glides."
Old barbers' shops had their regulations in poetry and prose. Forfeits
used to be enforced for breaches of conduct as laid down in laws which
were exhibited in a conspicuous manner, and might be read while the
customer was awaiting his turn for attention at the hands of the knight
of the razor. Forfeits had to be paid for such offences as the
following:--
For handling the razors,
For talking of cutting throats,
For calling hair-powder flour,
For meddling with anything on the shop-board.
Shakespeare alludes to this custom in "Measure for Measure," Act v. sc.
1, as follows:--
"The strong statutes
Stand like the forfeits in a barber's shop,
As much in mock as mark."
[Illustration: William Shakespeare (the Stratford Portrait).]
Half a century ago there was hanging a code of laws in a barber's shop
in Stratford-on-Avon, which the possessor mounted when he was an
apprentice some fifty years previously. His master was in business as a
barber at the time of the Garrick Jubilee in 1769, and he asserted that
the list of forfeits was generally acknowledged by all the fraternity to
have been in use for centuries. The following lines have found their
way into several works, including Ingledew's "Ballads and Songs of
Yorkshire" (1860). In some collections the lines are headed "Rules for
Seemly Behaviour," and in others "The Barber of Thirsk's Forfeits." We
draw upon Dr Ingledew for the following version, which is the best we
have seen:--
"First come, first served--then come not late,
And when arrived keep your sate;
For he who from these rules shall swerve
Shall pay his forfeit--so observe.
"Who enters here with boots and spurs
Must keep his nook, for if he stirs
And gives with arm'd heel a kick,
A pint he pays for every prick.
"Who rudely takes another's turn
By forfeit glass--may manners learn;
Who reverentless shall swear or curse
Must beg seven ha'pence from his purse.
"Who checks the barber in his tale,
Shall pay for that a gill of yale;
Who will or cannot miss his hat
Whilst trimming pays a pint for that.
"And he who can but will not pay
Shall hence be sent half-trimmed away;
For will he--nill he--if in fault,
He forfeit must in meal or malt.
"But mark, the man who is in drink
Must the cannikin, oh, never, never clink."
The foregoing table of forfeits was published by Dr Kenrick in his
review of Dr Johnson's edition of Shakespeare in 1765, and it was stated
that he had read them many years before in a Yorkshire town. This matter
has been discussed at some length in _Notes and Queries_, and it is
asserted that the foregoing is a forgery. Some interesting comments on
the controversy appeared in the issue of March 20th, 1869.
Women barbers in the olden time were by no means uncommon in this
country, and numerous accounts are given of the skilful manner they
handled the razor. When railways were unknown and travellers went by
stage-coach it took a considerable time to get from one important town
to another, and shaving operations were often performed during the
journey, and were usually done by women. In the byways of history we
meet with allusions to "the five women barbers who lived in Drury-lane,"
who are said to have shamefully maltreated a woman in the days of
Charles II. According to Aubrey, the Duchess of Albemarle was one of
them.
At the commencement of the nineteenth century a street near the Strand
was the haunt of black women who shaved with ease and dexterity. In St
Giles'-in-the-Fields was another female shaver, and yet another woman
wielder of the razor is mentioned in the "Topography of London," by J.T.
Smith. "On one occasion," writes Smith, "that I might indulge the humour
of being shaved by a woman, I repaired to the Seven Dials, where in
Great St Andrew's Street a female performed the operations, whilst her
husband, a strapping soldier in the Horse Guards, sat smoking his pipe."
He mentions another woman barber in Swallow Street.
Two men from Hull some time ago went by an early morning trip to
Scarborough, and getting up rather late the use of the razor was
postponed until they arrived at the watering-place. Shortly after
leaving the station they entered a barber's shop. A woman lathered their
faces, which operation, although skilfully performed, caused surprise
and gave rise to laughter. They fully expected a man would soon appear
to complete the work, but they were mistaken. The female took a piece of
brown paper from a shelf, and with this she held with her left hand the
customer's nose, and in an artistic manner shaved him with her right
hand. Some amusement was experienced, but the operation was finished
without an accident. The gentlemen often told the story of their shave
at Scarborough by a woman barber.
At Barnard Castle a wife frequently shaved the customers at the shop
kept by her husband, who was often drunk and incapable of doing his
work. Louth (Lincolnshire) boasted a female barber, who is said to have
shaved lightly and neatly, and much better than most men.
Many stories, which are more or less true, are related respecting
barbers. The following is said to be authentic, and we give it as
related to us. The Duke of C---- upon one occasion entered a small
barber's shop in Barnard Castle, and upon inquiring for the master was
answered by an apprentice of fourteen that he was not at home. "Can you
shave, then?" asked the duke. "Yes, sir, I always do," was the reply.
"But can you shave without cutting?" "Yes, sir, I'll try," answered the
youth. "Very well," said the duke, while seating himself, and loading
his pistol; "but look here, if you let any blood, as true as I sit here
I'll blow your brains out! Now consider well before you begin." After a
moment's reflection, the boy began to make ready, and said, "I'm not
afraid of cutting you, sir," and in a short time had completed the feat
without a scratch, to the complete satisfaction of the duke. In gentle
tones his grace asked, "Were you not afraid of having your brains blown
out, when you might have cut me so easily?"
"No, sir, not at all; because I thought that as soon as I should happen
to let any blood, before you could have time to fire I would cut your
throat."
The smart reply won from the duke a handsome reward. It need scarcely to
be added he never resumed his dangerous threats in a barber's shop. A
lesson was taught him for life.
The barber of an English king boasted, says a story, that he must be the
most loyal man in the realm, as he had every day the regal throat at his
mercy. The king was startled at the observation, and concluded that the
barbarous idea could never have entered an honest head, and for the
future he resolved to grow a beard as a precautionary measure against
summary execution.
With a barber's shop in Lichfield is associated an amusing story, in
which the chief figure was Farquhar, a dramatist, who attained a measure
of success in the eighteenth century. His manner was somewhat pompous,
and he resented with a great show of indignation the dalliance of the
master of the shop. Whilst he was fuming, a little deformed man came up
to him and performed the operation satisfactorily. The same day Farquhar
was dining at the table of Sir Theophilus Biddulph, when he noticed the
dwarf there. Taking the opportunity of following his host out of the
room, he asked for an explanation of his conduct, and said that he
deemed it an insult to be seated in such inferior company. Amazed at the
charge, Sir Theophilus assured the dramatist that every one of the
guests was a gentleman, and that they were his particular friends.
Farquhar was not satisfied. "I am certain," he said, "that the little
humpbacked man who sat opposite me is a barber who shaved me this
morning." The host returned to the room and related the story which he
had just heard. "Ay, yes," replied the guest, who was a well-born
gentleman, "I can make the matter clear. It was I who was in the
barber's shop this morning, and as Farquhar seemed in such a hurry, and
the barber was out, I shaved him."
The works of the old dramatists and other publications contain allusions
to barbers' music. It was the practice, as we have said, when a
customer was waiting for his turn in a barber's shop to pass his time
playing on the gittern. Dekker mentions a "barber's cittern for every
serving-man to play upon." Writing in 1583, Stubbes alludes to music at
the barber's shop. In the "Diary of Samuel Pepys" we read: "After supper
my Lord called for the lieutenant's cittern, and with two candlesticks
with money in them for symballs, we made barber's music, with which my
lord was well pleased." "My Lord was easily satisfied," says a
well-known contributor to _Punch_, "and in our day would probably have
enjoyed 'the horgans.'" We may rest assured that barber's music was of
questionable melody.
SUNDAY SHAVING
In bygone England, the churchyard was a common place for holding fairs
and the vending of merchandise, and it was also customary for barbers to
shave their customers there. In 1422, by a particular prohibition of
Richard Flemmyng, Bishop of Lincoln, the observance of the custom was
restrained.
The regulations of the Gild of Barber-Surgeons of York deal with Lord's
Day observance. In 1592 a rule was made, ordering, under a fine of ten
shillings, "that none of the barbers shall work or keep open their shop
on Sunday, except two Sundays next or before the assize weeks." Another
law on the question was made in 1676 as follows:--"This court, taking
notice of several irregular and unreasonable practices committed by the
Company of Barber-Surgeons within this city in shaving, trimming, and
cutting of several strangers' as well as citizens' hair and faces on the
Lord's Day, which ought to be kept sacred, it is ordered by the whole
consent of this court, and if any brother of the said Company shall at
any time hereafter either by himself, servant, or substitute, tonse,
barb, or trim any person on the Lord's Day, in any Inn or other public
or private house or place, or shall go in or out of any such house or
place on the said day with instruments used for that purpose, albeit the
same cannot be positively proved, or made appear, but in case the Lord
Mayor for the time being shall upon good circumstances consider and
adjudge any such brother to have trimmed or barbed as is aforesaid, that
then any such offender shall forfeit and pay for every such offence
10s., one half to the Lord Mayor, and the other to the use of the said
Company, unless such brother shall voluntarily purge himself by oath to
the contrary; and the searchers of the said Company for the time being
are to make diligent search in all such as aforesaid public or private
places for discovery of such offenders."
The following abstract of an order of the Barber-Surgeons of Chester
shows that the members of the Company were strict Sabbatarians:--
"1680, seconde of July, ordered that no member of the Company or his
servant or apprentice shall trim any person on the Lord's Day commonly
called Sunday."
In the Corporation records of Pontefract under the year 1700 it is
stated: "Whereas divers complaints have been made that the barbers of
the said borough do frequently and openly use and exercise their
respective trades upon the Lord's Day in profanation thereof, and to the
high displeasure of Almighty God. To prevent such evil practices for the
future it is therefore ordered that no barber shall ... use or exercise
the trade of a barber within the borough of Pontefract upon the Lord's
Day, commonly called Sunday, nor shall trim or shave any person upon
that day, either publicly or privately." We have in the last clause an
indication of public shaving performed in the churchyard or the market
place.
The churchwardens of Worksop parish, Nottinghamshire, in 1729 paid
half-a-crown for a bond in which the barbers bound themselves "not to
shave on Sundays in the morning."
At a meeting of the barber-surgeons of Newcastle-on-Tyne held in 1742 it
was ordered that no one should shave on a Sunday, and that "no brother
should shave John Robinson till he pays what he owes to Robert Shafto."
The operation was in bygone Scotland pronounced sinful if performed on a
Sunday. Members of congregations are entitled to object to the
settlement of ministers, says the Rev. Dr Charles Rogers, provided they
can substantiate any charge affecting their life or doctrine. Mr
Davidson, presentee to Stenton in 1767, and Mr Edward Johnstone,
presentee to Moffat in 1743, were objected to for desecrating the
Sabbath by shaving on that day. The settlement of Mr Johnstone was
delayed four years, so persistent were the objectors in maintaining what
they regarded as the proper observance of the Sabbath.
The Rev. Patrick Brontë, father of the famous novelists, was Perpetual
Curate of Thornton in Bradford Dale, from 1815 to 1820. Although a sense
of decency was sadly deficient among the majority of the inhabitants of
the district, they kept watch on the clergy, and were ever ready to make
known to the world their presumed as well as their real offences and
failings. The mistakes of some of them are well illustrated in an
anecdote related by Mr Abraham Holroyd, a well-known collector of local
lore. When Mr Brontë resided at Thornton it was rumoured in the village
that he had been seen by a Dissenter, through a chamber window, shaving
himself on a Sunday morning, which was considered to be a very serious
disregard of the obligation of Sabbath observance on the part of a
clergyman. Mrs Ackroyd, a lady residing in the parish, had an interview
with Mr Brontë on the subject. On his hearing what she had to say, he
observed: "I should like you to keep what I say in your family; but I
never shaved myself in all my life, or was ever shaved by any one else.
I have so little beard that a little clipping every three months is all
that is necessary."
Occasionally, at the present day, barbers are brought before the
magistrates for working on Sunday. They are summoned under an old Act of
Charles II., for shaving on the Lord's Day. The maximum fine is five
shillings, and the costs of a case cannot be recovered from the
defendant. Generally the local hairdressers' association institutes the
action.
FROM BARBER TO SURGEON
From the ancient but humble position of the barber is evolved the
surgeon of modern times. Perhaps some members of the medical profession
would like to ignore the connection, but it is too true to be omitted
from the pages of history. The calling of a barber is of great
antiquity. We find in the Book of the Prophet Ezekiel (v. 1) allusions
to the Jewish custom of the barber shaving the head as a sign of
mourning. In the remote past the art of surgery and the trade of barber
were combined. It is clear that in all parts of the civilised world, in
bygone times, the barber acted as a kind of surgeon, or, to state his
position more precisely, he practised phlebotomy, the dressing of
wounds, etc. Their shops were general in Greece about 420 B.C.,
and then, as now, were celebrated as places where the gossips met.
Barbers settled in Rome from Sicily in B.C. 299.
The clergy up to about the twelfth century had the care of men's bodies
as well as their souls, and practised surgery and medicine. Barbers
gained much experience from the monks, whom they assisted in surgical
operations. The practice of surgery involved the shedding of blood, and
it was felt that this was incompatible with the functions of the
clergy. After much consideration and discussion, in 1163, the Council of
Tours, under Pope Alexander III., forbade the clergy to act as surgeons,
but they were permitted to dispense medicine.
The Edict of Tours must have given satisfaction to the barbers, and they
were not slow to avail themselves of the opportunities the change
afforded them. In London, and it is to be feared in other places, the
barbers advertised their blood-letting in a most objectionable manner.
It was customary to put blood in their windows to attract the attention
of the public. An ordinance was passed in 1307 directing the barbers in
London to have the blood "privately carried into the Thames under the
pain of paying two shillings to the use of the Sheriffs."
At an early period in London the barbers were banded together, and a
gild was formed. In the first instance it seems that the chief object
was the bringing together of the members at religious observances. They
attended the funerals and obits of deceased members and their wives.
Eventually it was transformed into a semi-social and religious gild, and
subsequently became a trade gild. In 1308 Richard le Barber, the first
master of the Barbers' Company, was sworn at the Guildhall, London. As
time progressed the London Company of Barbers increased in importance.
In the first year of the reign of Edward IV. (1462) the barbers were
incorporated by a Royal Charter, and it was confirmed by succeeding
monarchs.
A change of title occurred in 1540, and it was then named the Company of
Barber-Surgeons. Holbein painted a picture of Henry VIII. and the
Barber-Surgeons. The painting is still preserved, and may be seen at the
Barber-Surgeons' Hall, Monkwell Street, London. Pepys pronounces this
"not a pleasant though a good picture." It is the largest and last work
of Holbein.
The date assigned for its commencement was 1541, and it was completed
after the death of the artist in 1543. It is painted on vertical oak
boards, 5 ft. 11 in. high, and 10 ft. 2 in. long. It has been slightly
altered since it was delivered to the Barber-Surgeons. The figures
represent notable men belonging to the company and leaders of the
healing art of the period at which it was painted.
[Illustration: Henry VIII. receiving the Barber-Surgeons.]
In the reign of Henry VIII., not a few disputes occurred between the
barbers and the surgeons. The following enactment was in force: "No
person using any shaving or barbery in London shall occupy any surgery,
letting of blood, or other matter, except of drawing teeth." Laws were
made, but they could not, or at all events were not, enforced. The
barbers acted often as surgeons, and the surgeons increased their
income by the use of the razor and shears. At this period, however,
vigorous attempts were made to confine each to his legitimate work.
The Rev. J.L. Saywell has a note on bleeding in his "History and Annals
of Northallerton" (1885). "Towards the early part of the nineteenth
century," observes Mr Saywell, "a singular custom prevailed in the town
and neighbourhood of Northallerton (Yorkshire). In the spring of the
year nearly all the robust male adults, and occasionally females,
repaired to a surgeon to be bled--a process which they considered
essentially conduced to vigorous health." The charge for this operation
was one shilling.
Parliament was petitioned, in 1542, praying that surgeons might be
exempt from bearing arms and serving on juries, and thus be enabled
without hindrance to attend to their professional duties. The request
was granted, and to the present time medical men enjoy the privileges
granted so long ago.
In 1745, the surgeons and the barbers were separated by Act of
Parliament. The barber-surgeons lingered for a long time, the last in
London, named Middleditch, of Great Suffolk Street, Southwark, only
dying in 1821. Mr John Timbs, the popular writer, left on record that he
had a vivid recollection of Middleditch's dentistry.
Over the last resting-places of some barber-surgeons are curious
epitaphs. At Tewkesbury Abbey one in form of an acrostic is as
follows:--
"Here lyeth the body of Thomas Merrett, of Tewkesbury,
Barber-chirurgeon, who departed this life the 22nd day of October
1699.
=T=hough only Stone Salutes the reader's eye,
=H=ere (in deep silence) precious dust doth lye,
=O=bscurely Sleeping in Death's mighty store,
=M=ingled with common earth till time's no more.
=A=gainst Death's Stubborne laws, who dares repine,
=S=ince So much Merrett did his life resigne.
=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.
[Illustration: Bayeux Tapestry.
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.
[Illustration: John Knox, born 1505, died 1572.]
[Illustration: John Taylor, the Water Poet, born 1580, died 1654.]
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 "Superbiæ 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."
[Illustration: Lord Mayor of York escorting Princess Margaret through
York in 1503. Shows the Beard of the Lord Mayor.]
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.
[Illustration: Beards in the Olden Time]
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."
Charles I. wore the Vandyke-beard, made familiar to us by the great
artist. This fashion, set by the king, was followed by nearly the whole
of his Cavaliers. It has been thought by some students of this subject
that with the tragic death of the king the beard disappeared, but if we
are to put our faith in an old song, dated 1660, we must conclude that
with the Restoration it once more came into fashion. It says:--
"Now of beards there be such company,
Of fashions such a throng,
That it is very hard to treat of the beard,
Tho' it be never so long."
It did not remain popular for any length of time, the razor
everywhere keeping down its growth.
[Illustration: The Gunpowder Conspirators, from a print published
immediately after the discovery. Shows the Beards in Fashion in 1605.]
Sir Walter Scott's great grandsire was called "Beardie." He was an
ardent Jacobite, and made a vow that he would never shave his beard
until the Stuarts were restored. "It would have been well," said the
novelist, "if his zeal for the vanished dynasty had stopped with letting
his beard grow. But he took arms and intrigued in their cause, until he
lost all he had in the world, and, as I have heard, ran a narrow risk of
being hanged, had it not been for the interference of Anne, Duchess of
Buccleuch and Monmouth." Sir Walter refers to him in the introduction to
Canto VI. of "Marmion":--
"With amber beard and flaxen hair,
And reverend apostolic air.
Small thought was his, in after time
E'er to be pitched into a rhyme.
The simple sire could only boast
That he was loyal to his cost;
The banish'd race of kings revered,
And lost his land--but kept his beard."
He died in 1729 at Kelso. "Beardie's" second son, named Robert, was a
farmer at Sandyknowe, and was Sir Walter Scott's grandfather.
A contributor to _Notes and Queries_, for October 1st, 1859, gives the
following interesting particulars of a Shaving Statute relating to
Ireland:--"In a parliament held at Trim by John Talbot, Earl of
Shrewsbury, then Lord-Lieutenant, anno 1447, 25 Henry VI., it was
enacted 'That every Irishman must keep his upper lip shaved, or else be
used as an Irish enemy.' The Irish at this time were much attached to
the national foppery of wearing mustachios, the fashion then throughout
Europe, and for more than two centuries after. The unfortunate Paddy who
became an enemy for his beard, like an enemy was treated; for the
treason could only be pardoned by the surrender of his land. Thus two
benefits accrued to the king: his enemies were diminished, and his
followers provided for; many of whose descendants enjoy the confiscated
properties to this day, which may appropriately be designated
Hair-breadth estates." The effects of this statute became so alarming
that the people submitted to the English revolutionary razor, and found
it more convenient to resign their beards than their lands. This
agrarian law was repealed by Charles I., after existing two hundred
years.
The Macedonian soldiers were ordered by Alexander to shave, lest their
beards should be handles for the enemy to capture them by. The smooth
chin was adopted in the Greek army. To pull a person's beard has from
remote times been regarded as an act of most degrading insult. Dr Doran
tells a tragic story bearing on this usage. "When the Jew," says the
doctor, "who hated and feared the living Cid Rui Dios, heard that the
great Spaniard was dead, he contrived to get into the room where the
body lay, and he indulged his revengeful spirit by contemptuously
plucking at the beard. But the 'son of somebody' (the hidalgo) was
plucked temporarily into life and indignation by the outrage; and
starting up, endeavoured to get his sword, an attempt which killed the
Jew by mere fright which it caused." In Afghanistan "the system of
administering justice was such," says the "Life of Abdur Rahman"
(London, 1890) "that the humble were able to bring their claims before
the sovereign by the simple process of getting hold of the sovereign's
beard and turban, which meant to throw one's complaints on the shame of
his beard, to which he was bound to listen. One day I was going to the
Hum-hum (Turkish bath) when a man and his wife, running fast, rushed
into the bathroom after me, and the husband, having got hold of my beard
from the front, the wife was pulling me at the same time from behind. It
was very painful, as he was pulling my beard rather hard. As there was
no guard or sentry near to deliver me from their hands, I begged them to
leave my beard alone, saying that I could listen without my beard being
pulled, but all in vain. I was rather sorry that I had not adopted the
fashion of the Europeans, whose faces are clean shaven. I ordered that
in future a strong guard should be placed at the door of the Hum-hum."
Some of the ancient faiths regarded the beard as an appendage not to be
touched with the razor, and a modern instance bearing on the old belief
will be read with interest. Mr Edward Vizetelly, in his entertaining
volume "From Cyprus to Zanzibar" (London, 1901), tells some good stories
about the priests in Cyprus. Mr Vizetelly went to the island as soon as
it passed into the hands of the British Government, and remained there a
few years. "On one occasion," he says, "when I happened to be in the
bazaar at Larnaca in the early afternoon, I was amazed to witness all
the shopkeepers, apart from the Maltese, suddenly putting up their
shutters, as if panic-stricken, but without any apparent cause.
Inquiring the reason, it was only vouchsafed to me that someone had
shaved off a priest's beard." The priest had been imprisoned for felling
a tree in his own garden, which was against the laws of the land then in
force. When in gaol the recalcitrant priest had his unclean hair and
beard shorn off, in accordance with the prison regulations. The
authorities were not aware that the hirsute adornments of the Orthodox
Catholic faith were sacred. The act roused the Cyprist ire, and the High
Commissioner had to issue orders that if any priest was locked up in
future his hair and beard were to be left alone.
Respecting the beard are some popular sayings, and we deal with a few as
follows.
A familiar example is "To pull the devil by the beard." When Archbishop
Laud was advised to escape from this country he said, "If I should get
into Holland, I should expose myself to the insults of those sectaries
there, to whom my character is odious, and have every Anabaptist come to
pull me by the beard." This insulting saying is by no means confined to
England. To demand a person's beard was regarded as a still greater
insult. King Ryons, when he sent a messenger to King Arthur to demand
his beard, received the following answer:--
"Wel, sayd Arthur, thou hast said thy message, ye whiche is ye
most vylaynous and lewdest message that ever man herd sent unto a kynge.
Also thou mayst see, my berd is ful yong yet to make a purfyl of hit.
But telle thou thy kynge this, I owe hym none homage, ne none of myn
elders, but, or it be longe to, he shall do me homage on bothe his
kneys, or else he shall lese his hede by ye feith of my body, for
this is ye most shamefullest message that ever I herd speke of. I
have aspyed, thy kyng met never yet with worshipful men; but tell hym, I
wyll have his hede without he doo me homage. Thenne ye messager
departed." ("The Byrth, Lyf and Actes of Kyng Arthur," edit, by Caxton,
1485, reprinted 1817.)
"To make any one's beard" is an old saying, which means "to cheat him,"
or "to deceive him." We read in Chaucer's _Prologue to the Wife of
Bath_ thus:--
"In faith he shal not kepe me, but me lest:
Yet coude I make his berd, so mete I the"
[Illustration: Geoffrey Chaucer, born about 1340, died 1400.]
And again, in the "Reve's Tale," the Miller said:--
"I trow, the clerkes were aferde
Yet can a miller make a clerkes bearde,
For all his art."
A more familiar saying is "To beard a person," meaning to affront him,
or to set him at defiance. Todd explains the allusion in a note in his
edition of Spenser's _Faerie Queene_--"did beard affront him to his
face"; so Shakespeare's _King Henry IV._, Part I. Act i.: "I beard thee
to thy face"--Fr. "Faire la Barbe à quelqu'un." Ital. "Fa la barbe ad
uno" (Upton.)
See Steevens's note on the use of the word Beard in _King Henry IV._,
which is adopted, he says, "from romances, and originally signified to
'cut off the beard.'" Mr John Ady Repton, F.S.A., to whom we are mainly
indebted for our illustrations of these popular sayings, directs
attention to a specimen of defiance expressed in Agamemnon's speech to
Achilles, as translated by Chapman:--
--"and so tell thy strength how eminent
My power is, being compared with thine;
all other making feare
To vaunt equality with me, or in this
proud kind beare
Their beards against me."
In Shirley's play, _A Contention for Honour and Riches_, 1633:--
"You have worn a sword thus long to show ye hilt,
Now let the blade appear.
COURTIER.--Good Captain Voice,
It shall, and teach you manners; I have yet
No ague, I can look upon your buff,
And punto beard, and call for no strong waters."
"It is difficult to ascertain," says Repton, "when the custom of pulling
the nose superseded that of pulling the beard, but most probably when
the chin became naked and close shaven, affording no longer a handle for
insult." In the reign of James II., William Cavendish, Earl of
Devonshire, paid £30,000 for offering this insult to a person at Court.
An earlier instance of pulling the nose may be found in Ben Jonson's
_Epicæne, or the Silent Woman_, Act iv. sc. 5.
In "Aubrey's Letters" is an allusion to wiping the beard. "Ralph Kettle,
D.D.," we read, "preached in St Mary's Church at Oxford, and, in
conclusion of a sermon, said, 'But now I see it is time for me to shutt
up my booke, for I see the doctors' men come in wiping their beards from
the ale-house' (he could from the pulpit plainly see them, and 't was
their custome to go there, and, about the end of the Sermon, to return
to wayte on their masters)." An old play by Lyly, entitled _Mother
Bombie_ (1597-98), Act i. sc. 3, contains the following passage:--
"Tush, spit not you, and I'll warrant I, my beard is as good as a
handkerchief."
Our quotations from old plays are mainly drawn from Repton's little
book, "Some account of the Beard and Moustachio," of which one hundred
copies were printed for private circulation in 1839.
The extracts which we have reproduced are not such as to cause the beard
to find favour with the ladies. In Marston's _Antonio and Melida_,
(1602), Act v., we read as follows:--
"PIERO.--Faith, mad niece, I wonder when thou wilt marry?
"ROSSALINE.--Faith, kind Uncle, when men abandon jealousy,
forsake taking tobacco, and cease to wear their beards so rudely long.
Oh! to have a husband with a mouth continually smoking, with a bush of
furze on the ridge of his chin, ready still to flop into his foaming
chaps; ah! 't is more than most intolerable."
In another part of the same play are other objections to the mustachios.
We find in other old plays allusions to women combing and stroking
beards. "There is no accounting," says Repton, "for the taste of ladies.
Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk, with his large massive beard, won the
heart of the fair sister of Henry VIII. Although the 'Cloth of friez may
not be too bold,' the courtship was most probably begun by the lady
(_i.e._ the Cloth of Gold). Although ladies do not speak out, they have
a way of expressing their wishes by the 'eloquence of eyes.' That the
fair princess ever amused herself in combing or brushing her husband's
beard is not recorded in the history of England." Many references find a
place in bygone plays relating to combs and brushes for the beard.
Starching the beard was an operation which occupied some time if
carefully performed. It is stated in the "Life of Mrs Elizabeth Thomas,"
published in 1731, of Mr Richard Shute, her grandfather, a Turkey
merchant, that he was very nice in the mode of that age, his valet
being some hours every morning in starching his beard, and curling his
whiskers, during which time a gentleman, whom he maintained as a
companion, always read to him upon some useful subject. In closing, we
have to state that cardboard boxes were worn at night in bed to protect
the beard from being disarranged.
TAXING THE BEARD
Beards, in some instances, were taxed in bygone England, but not to the
same extent as in Russia, which had numerous singular laws in force for
nearly sixty years. In nearly all parts of Europe, by the commencement
of the eighteenth century, the custom of wearing beards had been given
up. Peter the Great was wishful that his subjects should conform to the
prevailing fashion. In 1705 he imposed a tax upon all those who wore
either a beard or a moustache, varying from thirty to one hundred
roubles per annum. It was fixed according to the rank of the taxpayer. A
peasant, for instance, was only required to pay two dengops, equal to
one copeck, whenever he passed through the gate of a town. This tax gave
rise to much discontent, and in enforcing it the utmost vigilance had
to be exercised to prevent an outbreak in the country. Notwithstanding
this, the law was, in 1714, put into operation in St Petersburg, which
had previously been exempt. In 1722 it was ordered that all who retained
their beards should wear a particular dress and pay fifty roubles
annually. If a man would not shave, and was unable to pay, he was
sentenced to hard labour. This law was extended to the provinces, but in
1723 peasants bringing produce into towns were wholly relieved from this
tax. Peter passed away in 1725, and Catherine I. confirmed all the
edicts relating to the beard in the ukase dated 4th August 1726.
A decree was issued by Peter II. in 1728 permitting peasants employed in
agriculture to wear their beards. Fifty roubles had to be paid by all
other persons, and the tax was rigidly enforced. The Empress Anne took a
firm attitude against the beard. In 1731 she promulgated a ukase by
which all persons not engaged in husbandry retaining their beards were
entered in the class of Raskolnicks, in addition to paying the beard tax
of fifty roubles, double the amount of all other taxes.
In 1743 the Empress Elizabeth confirmed the existing decrees in all
their force. Peter III., on his accession to the throne in 1762,
intended to strengthen the laws of his predecessors, and prepared some
stringent measures; but his sudden death prevented them from being put
into force. His widow, Catherine II. (1762), did not share his feelings
in this matter, and immediately on obtaining sovereign power she removed
every restriction relating to the beard. She invited the Raskolnicks,
who had fled from the country to avoid the objectionable edicts, to
return, and assigned land to them for their settlement.
[Illustration: Russian Beard Token, A.D. 1705.]
During thirty-eight years in Russia, the beard-token or Borodoráia (the
bearded), as it was called, was in use. As we write we have one of these
tokens before us, and on one side are represented a nose, mouth,
moustaches, and a large flowing beard, with the inscription "dinge
vsatia," which means "money received"; the reverse bears the year in
Russian characters (equivalent to "1705 year"), and the black eagle of
the empire.
Our facts are mainly drawn from a paper by Mr Walter Hawkins in the
"Numismatic Chronicle," volume vii., 1845. He says that beard-tokens
are rare, and he thinks that the national aversion to their origin
probably caused their destruction or dispersion after they had served
their purpose for the year.
POWDERING THE HAIR
In the olden days hair-powder was largely used in this country, and many
circumstances connected with its history are curious and interesting. We
learn from Josephus that the Jews used hair-powder, and from the East it
was no doubt imported into Rome. The history of the luxurious days of
the later Roman Empire supplies some strange stories. At this period
gold-dust was employed by several of the emperors. "The hair of
Commodus," it is stated on the authority of Herodian, "glittered from
its natural whiteness, and from the quantity of essences and gold-dust
with which it was loaded, so that when the sun was shining it might have
been thought that his head was on fire."
It is supposed, and not without a good show of reason, that the Saxons
used coloured hair-powder, or perhaps they dyed their hair. In Saxon
pictures the beard and hair are often painted blue. Strutt supplies
interesting notes on the subject. "In some instances," he says, "which,
indeed, are not so common, the hair is represented of a bright red
colour, and in others it is of a green and orange hue. I have no doubt
existing in my own mind, that arts of some kind were practised at this
period to colour the hair; but whether it was done by tingeing or dyeing
it with liquids prepared for that purpose according to the ancient
Eastern custom, or by powders of different hues cast into it, agreeably
to the modern practice, I shall not presume to determine."
It was customary among the Gauls to wash the hair with a lixivium made
of chalk in order to increase its redness. The same custom was
maintained in England for a long period, and was not given up until
after the reign of Elizabeth. The sandy-coloured hair of the queen
greatly increased the popularity of the practice.
The satirists have many allusions to this subject, more especially those
of the reigns of James and Charles I. In a series of epigrams entitled
"Wit's Recreations," 1640, the following appears under the heading of
_Our Monsieur Powder-wig_:--
"Oh, doe but marke yon crisped sir, you meet!
How like a pageant he doth walk the street!
See how his perfumed head is powdered ore;
'Twou'd stink else, for it wanted salt before."
In "Musarum Deliciæ," 1655, we read:--
"At the devill's shopps you buy
A dresse of powdered hayre,
On which your feathers flaunt and fly;
But i'de wish you have a care,
Lest Lucifer's selfe, who is not prouder,
Do one day dresse up your haire with a powder."
From the pen of R. Younge, in 1656, appeared "The Impartial Monitor."
The author closes with a tirade against female follies in these words:
"It were a good deed to tell men also of mealing their heads and
shoulders, of wearing fardingales about their legs, etc.; for these
likewise deserve the rod, since all that are discreet do but hate and
scorn them for it." A _Loyal Litany_ against the Oliverians runs thus:--
"From a king-killing saint,
Patch, powder, and paint,
Libera nos, Domine."
Massinger, in the "City Madam," printed in 1679, describing the dress of
a rich merchant's wife, mentions powder thus:--
"Since your husband was knighted, as I said,
The reverend hood cast off, your borrowed hair
Powdered and curled, was by your dresser's art,
Formed like a coronet, hanged with diamonds
And richest orient pearls."
John Gay, in his poem, "Trivia, or the Art of Walking the Streets of
London," published in 1716, advises in passing a coxcomb--
"Him like the Miller, pass with caution by,
Lest from his shoulder clouds of powder fly."
We learn from the "Annals of the Barber-Surgeons" some particulars
respecting the taxing of powder. On 8th August 1751, "Mr John Brooks,"
it is stated, "attended and produced a deed to which he requested the
subscription of the Court; this deed recited that by an Act of
Parliament passed in the tenth year of Queen Anne, it was enacted that a
duty of twopence per pound should be laid upon all starch imported, and
of a penny per pound upon all starch made in Great Britain, that no
perfumer, barber, or seller of hair-powder should mix any powder of
alabaster, plaster of Paris, whiting, lime, etc. (sweet scents
excepted), with any starch to be made use of for making hair-powder,
under a pain of forfeiting the hair-powder and £50, and that any person
who should expose the same for sale should forfeit it and £20." Other
details were given in the deed, and the Barber-Surgeons gave it their
support, and promised twenty guineas towards the cost of passing the
Bill through Parliament.
A few years prior to the above proceeding we gather from the
_Gentleman's Magazine_ particulars of some convictions for using powder
not made in accordance with the laws of the land. "On the 20th October,
1745," it is recorded, "fifty-one barbers were convicted before the
commissioners of excise, and fined in the penalty of £20, for having in
their custody hair-powder not made of starch, contrary to Act of
Parliament: and on the 27th of the same month, forty-nine other barbers
were convicted of the same offence, and fined in the like penalty."
Before powder was used, the hair was generally greased with pomade, and
powdering operations were attended with some trouble. In houses of any
pretension was a small room set apart for the purpose, and it was known
as the powdering-room. Here were fixed two curtains, and the person went
behind, exposing the head only, which received its proper supply of
powder without any going on the clothes of the individual dressed. In
the _Rambler_, No. 109, under date 1751, a young gentleman writes that
his mother would rather follow him to his grave than see him sneak about
with dirty shoes and blotted fingers, hair unpowdered, and a hat
uncocked.
We have seen that hair-powder was taxed, and on the 5th of May, 1795, an
Act of Parliament was passed taxing persons using it. Pitt was in power,
and being sorely in need of money, hit upon the plan of a tax of a
guinea per head on those who used hair powder. He was prepared to meet
much ridicule by this movement, but he saw that it would yield a
considerable revenue, estimating it at as much as £200,000 a year. Fox,
with force, said that a fiscal arrangement dependent on a capricious
fashion must be regarded as an absurdity, but the Opposition were
unable to defeat the proposal, and the Act was passed. Pitt's powerful
rival, Charles James Fox, in his early manhood, was one of the most
fashionable men in London. Here are a few particulars of his "get up"
about 1770, drawn from the _Monthly Magazine_: "He had his chapeau-bas,
his red-heeled shoes, and his blue hair-powder." Later, when Pitt's tax
was gathered, like other Whigs, he refused to use hair-powder. For more
than a quarter of a century it had been customary for men to wear their
hair long, tied in a pig-tail and powdered. Pitt's measure gave rise to
a number of Crop Clubs. The _Times_ for April 14th, 1795, contains
particulars of one. "A numerous club," says the paragraph, "has been
formed in Lambeth, called the Crop Club, every member of which, on his
entrance, is obliged to have his head docked as close as the Duke of
Bridgewater's old bay coach-horses. This assemblage is instituted for
the purpose of opposing, or rather evading, the tax on powdered heads."
Hair cropping was by no means confined to the humbler ranks of society.
The _Times_ of April 25th, 1795, reports that: "The following noblemen
and gentlemen were at the party with the Duke of Bedford, at Woburn
Abbey, when a general cropping and combing out of hair-powder took
place: Lord W. Russell, Lord Villiers, Lord Paget, etc., etc. They
entered into an engagement to forfeit a sum of money if any of them
wore their hair tied, or powdered, within a certain period. Many
noblemen and gentlemen in the county of Bedford have since followed the
example: it has become general with the gentry in Hampshire, and the
ladies have left off wearing powder." Hair powder did not long continue
in use in the army, for in 1799 it was abolished on account of the high
price of flour, caused through the bad harvests. Using flour for the
hair instead of for food was an old grievance among the poor. In the
"Art of Dressing the Hair," 1770, the author complains:--
"Their hoarded grain contractors spare,
And starve the poor to beautify the hair."
Pitt's estimates proved correct, for in the first year the tax produced
£210,136. The tax was increased from a guinea to one pound three
shillings and sixpence. Pitt's Tory friends gave him loyal support. The
Whigs might taunt them by calling them "guinea-pigs," it mattered
little, for they were not merely ready to pay the tax for themselves,
but to pay patriotic guineas for their servants. A number of persons
were exempt from paying the tax, including "the royal family and their
servants, the clergy with an income of under £100 per annum, subalterns,
non-commissioned officers and privates of the yeomanry and volunteers
enrolled during the past year. A father having more than two unmarried
daughters might obtain on payment for two, a licence for the remainder."
A gentleman took out a licence for his butler, coachman, and footman,
etc., and if he changed during the year it stood good for the newly
engaged servants.
Powder was not wholly set aside by ladies until 1793, when with
consideration Queen Charlotte abandoned its use, swayed no doubt by her
desire to cheapen, in that time of dearth, the flour of which it was
made. It has been said its disuse was attributable to Sir Joshua
Reynolds, Angelica Kauffmann, and other painters of their day, but it is
much more likely that the artists painted the hair "full and flowing"
because they found it so, not that they as a class dictated to their
patronesses in despite of fashion. The French Revolution had somewhat to
do with the change; a powdered head or wig was a token of aristocracy,
and as the fashion might lead to the guillotine, sensible people
discarded it long before the English legislature put a tax upon its use.
With reference to this Sir Walter Scott says, in the fifth chapter of
"The Antiquary:" "Regular were the Antiquary's inquiries at an
old-fashioned barber, who dressed the only three wigs in the parish,
which, in defiance of taxes and times, were still subjected to the
operation of powdering and frizzling, and who for that purpose divided
his time among the three employers whom fashion had yet left him.
"'Fly with this letter, Caxon,' said the senior ('The Antiquary'),
holding out his missive, 'fly to Knockwinnock, and bring me back an
answer. Go as fast as if the town council were met and waiting for the
provost, and the provost was waiting for his new powdered wig.' 'Ah,
sir,' answered the messenger, with a deep sigh, 'thae days hae lang gane
by. Deil a wig has a provost of Fairport worn sin' auld Provost Jervie's
time--and he had a quean of a servant lass that dressed it hersel', wi'
the doup o' a candle and a dredging box. But I hae seen the day,
Monkbarns, when the town council of Fairport wad hae as soon wanted
their town-clerk, or their gill of brandy owerhead after the haddies, as
they wad hae wanted ilk ane a weel-favoured, sonsy, decent periwig on
his pow. Hegh, sirs! nae wonder the commons will be discontent, and rise
against the law, when they see magistrates, and bailies, and deacons,
and the provost himsel', wi' heads as bald an' as bare as one o' my
blocks.'" It was not in Scotland alone that the barber was peripatetic.
"In the eighteenth century," says Mrs G. Linnæus Banks, author of the
"Manchester Man" and other popular novels, "he waited on his chief
customers or patrons at their own homes, not merely to shave, but to
powder the hair or the wig, and he had to start on his round betimes.
Where the patron was the owner of a spare periwig it might be dressed in
advance, and sent home in a box or mounted on a stand, such as a
barrister keeps handy at the present day. But when ladies had powdered
top-knots, the hairdresser made his harvest, especially when a ball or a
rout made the calls for his services many and imperative. When at least
a couple of hours were required for the arrangement of a single toupée
or tower, or commode, as the head-dress was called, it may be well
understood that for two or three days prior to the ball the hairdresser
was in demand, and as it was impossible to lie down without disarranging
the structure he had raised on pads, or framework of wire, plastering
with pomatum and disguising with powder, the belles so adorned or
disfigured were compelled to sit up night and day, catching what sleep
was possible in a chair. And when I add that a head so dressed was
rarely disturbed for ten days or a fortnight, it needs no stretch of
imagination to realise what a mass of loathsome nastiness the fine
ladies of the last century carried about with them, or what strong
stomachs the barbers must have had to deal with them."
When the eighteenth century was drawing to a close the cry for bread was
heard in the land. In 1795 the price of grain rose very high on account
of the small supplies coming into the market. Bakers in many instances
sold bread deficient in weight, and to check the fraud many shopkeepers
were fined sums from £64, 5s. to £106, 5s. The Privy Council gave the
matter serious consideration, and strongly urged that families should
refrain from having puddings, pies, and other articles made of flour.
King George III. gave orders in 1795 for the bread used in his household
to be made of meal and rye mixed. He would not permit any other sort to
be baked, and the Royal Family partook of the same quality of bread as
was eaten by the servants.
A great deal of flour was used as hair powder, and an attempt was made
to check its use. The following is a copy of a municipal proclamation
issued at Great Yarmouth, the original of which is preserved in the
office of the Town Clerk:--
"DISUSE OF HAIR POWDER.
"Owing to the present enormous price of corn, and the alarming
approach of a scarcity in that most necessary article, many towns
throughout the kingdom have set the laudable example of leaving off
for a time the custom of wearing powder for the hair; by which
means a great quantity of wheat must infallibly be saved to the
nation; and if the price be not reduced, it may at least be
prevented from increasing. We, therefore, the Mayor, Justices, and
principal inhabitants of Great Yarmouth, do recommend this example
as worthy to be imitated; and we flatter ourselves the Military
will not hesitate to adopt it, being fully convinced that
appearances are at all times to be sacrificed to the public weal,
and that in doing this they really do good.
"W. TAYLOR, Mayor.
"January 27th, 1795."
Lord Hawkesbury, on February 20th, 1800, presented a bill in the House
of Commons prohibiting bakers from vending bread that had not been baked
a certain number of hours. The bill was read a first and second time,
and immediately went into Committee. It passed this stage, and went to
the House of Lords, where it was at once passed. Subsequently it
received the royal assent.
We find in a local paper, dated March 31st, 1800, that a baker in Hull
was fined £10 for selling bread within twenty-four hours of its having
been baked, agreeable to Act of Parliament for that purpose.
The Tories often regarded with mistrust any persons who did not use
hair-powder. The Rev. J. Charles Cox, LL.D., F.S.A., the eminent
antiquary, relates a good story respecting his grandfather. "So late as
1820," says Dr Cox, "Major Cox of Derby, an excellent Tory, declined for
some time to allow his son Edward to become a pupil of a well-known
clerical tutor, for the sole reason that the clergyman did not powder,
and wore his hair short, arguing that he must therefore be a dangerous
revolutionist." In 1869 the tax on hair-powder was repealed, when only
some 800 persons paid it, producing about £1000 per year.
THE AGE OF WIGS
At the present time, when the wig is no longer worn by the leaders of
fashion, we cannot fully realise the important place it held in bygone
times. Professional as well as fashionable people did not dare to appear
in public without their wigs, which vied with each other in size and
style.
[Illustration: Egyptian Wig (probably for female), from the British
Museum.]
To trace the origin of the wig our investigations must be carried to far
distant times. It was worn in Egypt in former days, and the Egyptians
are said to have invented it, not merely as a covering for baldness, but
as a means of adding to the attractiveness of the person wearing it. On
the mummies of Egypt wigs are found, and we give a picture of one now in
the British Museum. This particular wig probably belonged to a female,
and was found near the small temple of Isis, Thebes. It was customary in
Egypt to shave the head, and the wig was an excellent covering for the
head, much better than a turban, for the wig protected it from the rays
of the sun, and its texture allowed the transpiration of the head to
escape. The wigs were worn both within the house and out of doors. The
specimens of Egyptian wigs in the British Museum consist of curled hair
in the upper portions, and the lower parts and sides are made of plaited
hair. Ointment was used at the top of the wig in the same manner as if
it had been hair growing on the head.
Assyrian sculptures frequently represent the wig, and its use is
recorded among ancient nations including Persians, Medes, Lydians,
Carians, Greeks, and Romans. _Galerus_, a round cap, was the common name
among the Romans for a wig.
The early fathers of the Church denounced the wig as an invention of the
Evil One. St Gregory of Nazianzus, as a proof of the virtue of his
simple sister Gorgonia, said "she neither cared to curl her own hair,
nor to repair its lack of beauty by the aid of a wig." St Jerome
pronounced these adornments as unworthy of Christianity. The matter
received consideration, or perhaps, to put it more correctly,
condemnation, at many councils, commencing at Constantinople, and coming
down to the Provincial Council at Tours. The wig was not tolerated, even
if worn as a joke. "There is no joke in the matter," said the enraged St
Bernard: "the woman who wears a wig commits a mortal sin." St John
Chrysostom pleaded powerfully against this enormity; and others might be
mentioned who spoke with no uncertain sound against this fashion.
Dr Doran relates a strange story, saying that St Jerome vouches for its
authenticity, and that by him it was told to deter ladies from wearing
wigs. "Prætexta," to use Doran's words, "was a very respectable lady,
married to a somewhat paganist husband, Hymetius. Their niece,
Eustachia, resided with them. At the instigation of the husband,
Prætexta took the shy Eustachia in hand, attired her in a splendid dress
and covered her fair neck with ringlets. Having enjoyed the sight of the
modest maiden so attired, Prætexta went to bed. To that bedside
immediately descended an angel, with wrath upon his brow, and billows
of angry sounds rolling from his lips. 'Thou hast,' said the spirit,
'obeyed thy husband rather than the Lord, and hast dared to deck the
hair of a virgin, and make her look like a daughter of earth. For this
do I wither up thy hands, and bid them recognise the enormity of thy
crime in the amount of thy anguish and bodily suffering. Five months
more shalt thou live, and then Hell shall be thy portion; and if thou
art bold enough to touch the head of Eustachia again, thy husband and
thy children shall die even before thee.'"
Church history furnishes some strange stories against wearing wigs, and
the following may be taken as a good example. Clemens of Alexandria, so
runs the tale, surprised wig-wearers by telling those who knelt at
church that to receive the blessing, they must please to bear in mind
that the benediction remained on the wig, and did not pass through to
the wearer! Some immediately removed their wigs, but others allowed them
to remain, no doubt hoping to receive a blessing.
History supplies many interesting passages bearing on our present
investigations. The Lycians, having been engaged in war, were defeated.
Mausoleus, their conqueror, ruthlessly directed the subdued men to have
their heads shaven. This was humiliating in the extreme, and the Lycians
were keenly alive to their ridiculous appearance. The king's general
was tempted with bribes, and finally yielded, and allowed wigs to be
imported for them from Greece, and thus the symbol of degradation became
the pink of Lycian fashion.
Hannibal, the brave soldier, is recorded to have worn two sorts of wigs,
one to improve, and the other to disguise his person.
Wigs are said to have been worn in England in the reign of King Stephen,
but their palmy days belong to the seventeenth and the earlier part of
the eighteenth centuries. According to Stow, they were introduced into
this country about the time of the Massacre of Paris, but they are not
often alluded to until the reign of Queen Elizabeth. The earliest
payment for one in the Privy Purse expenses occurs in December 1529, and
is for twenty shillings "for a perwyke for Sexton, the king's fool."
Some twenty years later wigs, or, to give the full title, periwigs,
became popular. In France the mania was at its height in the reign of
Louis XIV. We are told that in 1656 he had not fewer than forty court
perruquiers, and these, by an Order of Council, were declared artistes.
In addition to this, Le Gros instituted at Paris an Académie de France
des Perruquiers. Robinson records that a storm was gathering about their
heads. He tells us "the celebrated Colbert, amazed at the large sums
spent for foreign hair, conceived the idea of prohibiting the wearing of
wigs at Court, and tried to introduce a kind of cap." He lost the day,
for it was proved that more money reached the country for wigs than went
out to purchase hair. The fashion increased; larger wigs were worn, and
some even cost £200 apiece.
Charles II. was the earliest English king represented on the Great Seal
wearing a large periwig. Dr Doran assures us that the king did not bring
the fashion to Whitehall. "He forbade," we are told, "the members of the
Universities to wear periwigs, smoke tobacco, or to read their sermons.
The members did all three, and Charles soon found himself doing the
first two."
Pepys' "Diary" contains much interesting information concerning wigs.
Under date of 2nd November, 1663, he writes: "I heard the Duke say that
he was going to wear a periwig, and says the King also will. I never
till this day observed that the King is mighty gray." It was perhaps the
change in the colour of his Majesty's hair that induced him to assume
the head-dress he had previously so strongly condemned.
As might be expected, Pepys, who delighted to be in the fashion, adopted
the wig. He took time to consider the matter, and had consultations with
Mr Jervas, his old barber, about the affair. Referring in his "Diary" to
one of his visits to his hairdresser, Pepys says, "I did try two or
three borders and periwigs, meaning to wear one, and yet I have no
stomach for it; but that the pains of keeping my hair clean is great. He
trimmed me, and at last I parted, but my mind was almost altered from my
first purpose, from the trouble which I foresee in wearing them also."
Weeks passed before he could make up his mind to wear a wig. Mrs Pepys
was taken to the periwig-maker's shop to see the one made for Mr Pepys,
and expressed her satisfaction on seeing it. We read of the wig being at
Jervas's under repair in April 1665. Early in May, Pepys writes in his
"Diary," that he suffered his hair to grow long, in order to wear it;
but he said, "I will have it cut off all short again, and will keep to
periwigs." Later, under date of September 3rd, he writes: "Lord's day.
Up; and put on my coloured silk suit, very fine, and my new periwig,
bought a good while since, but durst not wear, because the plague was in
Westminster when I bought it; and it is a wonder what will be in
fashion, after the plague is done, as to periwigs, for nobody will dare
to buy any hair, for fear of the infection, that it had been cut off the
heads of people dead of the plague."
We learn from an entry in the "Diary" for June 11th, 1666, that ladies,
in addition to assuming masculine costume for riding, wore long wigs.
"Walking in the galleries at Whitehall," observes Mr Pepys, "I find the
ladies of honour dressed in their riding garbs, with coats and doublets
with deep skirts, just for all the world like mine, and buttoned their
doublets up the breast, with periwigs and with hats, so that, only for
long petticoats dragging under their men's coats, nobody could take them
for women in any point whatever." Pepys, we have seen, wondered if
periwigs would survive after the terrible plague. He thought not, but he
was mistaken. Wigs still remained popular. The plague passed away, and
its terrors were forgotten. The world of folly went on much as of yore,
perhaps with greater gaiety, as a reaction to the lengthened time of
depression.
[Illustration: The Earl of Albemarle.]
In some instances the wig appears much out of place, and a notable
example is that given in the portrait by Kneller, of George, Earl of
Albemarle. He is dressed in armour, and wearing a long flowing wig.
Anything more absurd could scarcely be conceived.
The beau of the period when the wig was popular carried in his pocket
beautifully made combs, and in his box at the play, or in other places,
combed his periwig, and rendered himself irresistible to the ladies.
Making love seems to have been the chief aim of his life. Sir John
Hawkins, in his "History of Music," published in 1776, has an informing
note on combing customs. "On the Mall and in the theatre," he tells us,
"gentlemen conversed and combed their perukes. There is now in being a
fine picture by the elder Laroon of John, Duke of Marlborough, at his
levée, in which his Grace is represented dressed in a scarlet suit, with
large white satin cuffs, and a very long white peruke which he combs,
while his valet, who stands behind him, adjusts the curls after the comb
has passed through them." Allusions to this practice may be found in the
plays from the reign of Charles II. down to the days of Queen Anne. We
read in Dryden's prologue to "Almanzor and Almahide":--
"But as when vizard mask appears in pit,
Straight every man who thinks himself a wit
Perks up, and, managing a comb with grace,
With his white wig sets off his nut-brown face."
Says Congreve, in the "Way of the World":--
"The gentlemen stay but to comb, madam, and will wait on you."
[Illustration: Man with Wig and Muff, 1693 (_from a print of the
period_).]
Thomas Brown, in his "Letters from the Dead to the Living," presents a
pen-portrait of beaux as they appeared at the commencement of the
eighteenth century. Some of the passages are well worth reproducing, as
they contain valuable information concerning wigs. "We met," says the
writer, "three flaming beaux of the first magnitude. He in the middle
made a most magnificent figure--his periwig was large enough to have
loaded a camel, and he bestowed upon it at least a bushel of powder, I
warrant you. His sword-knot dangled upon the ground, and his steinkirk,
that was most agreeably discoloured with snuff from the top to the
bottom, reach'd down to his waist; he carry'd his hat under his left
arm, walk'd with both hands in the waistband of his breeches, and his
cane, that hung negligently down in a string from his right arm,
trail'd most harmoniously against the pebbles, while the master of it
was tripping it nicely upon his toes or humming to himself." About this
period in cold weather men wore muffs as well as wigs. A ballad,
describing the frost fair on the Thames in the winter of 1683-84,
mentions amongst those present:--
"A spark of the Bar with his cane and his muff."
[Illustration: Campaign Wig.]
Down to the middle of the eighteenth century wigs continued to increase
in size. It will not now be without interest to direct attention to a
few of the many styles of wigs. Randle Holme, in his "Academy of
Armory," published in 1684, has some interesting illustrations, and we
will draw upon him for a couple of pictures. Our first example is called
the campaign-wig. He says it "hath knobs or bobs, or dildo, on each
side, with a curled forehead." This is not so cumbrous as a periwig we
have noticed. Another example from Holme is a smaller style of periwig
with tail, and from this wig doubtless originated the familiar pig-tail.
It was of various forms, and Swift says:--
"We who wear our wigs
With fantail and with snake."
[Illustration: Periwig with Tail.]
A third example given by Holme is named the "short-bob," and is a plain
peruke, imitating a natural head of hair. "Perukes," says Malcolm, in
his "Manners and Customs," "were an highly important article in 1734.
Those of right gray human hair were four guineas each; light grizzle
ties, three guineas; and other colours in proportion, to twenty-five
shillings. Right gray human hair, cue perukes, from two guineas; white,
fifteen shillings each, which was the price of dark ones; and right gray
bob perukes, two guineas and a half; fifteen shillings was the price of
dark bobs. Those mixed with horse-hair were much lower. It will be
observed from the gradations in price, that real gray hair was most in
fashion, and dark of no estimation." As time ran its course, wigs became
more varied in form, and bore different names.
[Illustration: Ramillie Wig.]
We find in the days of Queen Anne such designations as black
riding-wigs, bag-wigs, and nightcap-wigs. These were in addition to the
long, formally curled perukes. In 1706 the English, led by Marlborough,
gained a great victory on the battlefield of Ramillies, and that gave
the title to a long wig described as "having a long, gradually
diminishing, plaited tail, called the 'Ramillie-tail,' which was tied
with a great bow at the top, and a smaller one at the bottom." It was
at the great battle fought before the town of Ramillies that France lost
the whole Spanish Netherlands, and Europe gained a wig from the vanity
of Louis XIV., of whom Thackeray irreverently speaks in his "Henry
Esmond," as "a little, wrinkled old man, pock-marked, and with a great
periwig and red heels." Lord Lyttelton in his letters thus refers to the
French king: "Louis XIV. annexed great dignity to his peruke, which he
increased to an enormous size, and made a lion's mane the object of its
similitude. That monarch, who daily studied the part of a king, was
never seen uncovered but by the barber who shaved him. It was not his
practice to exchange his wig for a nightcap till he was enclosed by his
curtains, when a page received the former from his hand and delivered it
to him in the morning before he undrew them. The figure of the great
Bourbon must at times have been truly ridiculous." It is stated in
Read's _Weekly Journal_ of May 1st, 1736, in a report of the marriage of
the Prince of Wales, that "the officers of the Horse and Foot Guards
wore Ramillie periwigs by His Majesty's order." This wig survived until
the days of George III. We meet, in the reign of George II., other forms
of the wig, and more titles for them; the most popular, perhaps, was
the pig-tail. The pig-tails were worn hanging down the back, or tied up
in a knot behind as shown in our illustration. This form of wig was
popular in the army, but in 1804 orders were given for it to be reduced
to seven inches in length, and finally, in 1808, to be cut off. It is
recorded that when the Reform Bill of 1832 received the Royal assent,
the Lord Bathurst of the period solemnly cut off his pig-tail, saying,
"Ichabod, for the glory was departed."
[Illustration: Pig-tail Wig.]
In the first reformed Parliament only one pig-tail was returned, and
that was Mr Sheppard, M.P. for Frome.
[Illustration: Bag-Wig.]
Here is a picture of an ordinary man; by no means can he be regarded as
a beau. He is wearing a common bag-wig, dating back to about the middle
of the eighteenth century. The style is modified to suit an individual
taste, and for one who did not follow the extreme fashion of his time.
In this example may be observed the sausage curls over the ear, and the
frizziness over the forehead.
We have directed attention to the large periwigs, and given a portrait
of the Earl of Albemarle wearing one. In the picture of the House of
Commons in the time of Sir Robert Walpole we get an excellent indication
of how popular the periwig was amongst the lawmakers of the land.
Farquhar, in a comedy called "Love and a Bottle," brought out in 1698,
says, "A full wig is imagined to be as infallible a token of wit as the
laurel."
Tillotson is usually regarded as the first amongst the English clergy to
adopt the wig. He said in one of his sermons: "I can remember since the
wearing of hair below the ears was looked upon as a sin of the first
magnitude, and when ministers generally, whatever their text was, did
either find or make occasion to reprove the great sin of long hair; and
if they saw any one in the congregation guilty in that kind, they would
point him out particularly, and let fly at him with great zeal." Dr
Tillotson died on November 24th, 1694. Wigs found favour with parsons,
and in course of time they appear to have been indispensable. A volume,
in 1765, was issued under the title of "Free Advice to a Young
Clergyman," from the pen of the Rev. John Chubbe, in which he
recommended the young preacher always to wear a full wig until age had
made his own hair respectable. Dr Randolph, on his advancement to the
bishopric, presumed to wait upon George IV. to kiss hands without
wearing a wig. This could not be overlooked by the king, and he said,
"My lord, you must have a wig." Bishops wore wigs until the days of
William IV. Bishop Blomfield is said to have been the first bishop to
set the example of wearing his own hair. Even as late as 1858, at the
marriage of the Princess Royal of England, Archbishop Sumner appeared in
his wig.
Medical men kept up the custom of wearing wigs for a long period:
perhaps they felt like a character in Fielding's farce, "The Mock
Doctor," who exclaims, "I must have a physician's habit, for a physician
can no more prescribe without a full wig than without a fee." The wig
known as the full-bottomed wig was worn by the medical profession:--
"Physic of old her entry made
Beneath the immense, full-bottom'd shade;
While the gilt cane, with solemn pride
To each suspicious nose applied,
Seemed but a necessary prop
To bear the weight of wig at top."
We are told Dr Delmahoy's wig was particularly celebrated in a song
which commenced:--
"If you would see a noble wig,
And in that wig a man look big,
To Ludgate Hill repair, my boy,
And gaze on Dr Delmahoy."
In the middle of the last century so much importance was attached to
this portion of a medical man's costume, that Dr Brocklesby's barber was
in the habit of carrying a bandbox through the High Change, exclaiming:
"Make way for Dr Brocklesby's wig!"
Professional wigs are now confined to the Speaker in the House of
Commons, who, when in the chair, wears a full-bottomed one, and to
judges and barristers. Such wigs are made of horse-hair, cleaned and
curled with care, and woven on silk threads, and shaped to fit the head
with exactness. The cost of a barrister's wig of frizzed hair is from
five to six guineas.
An eminent counsel in years agone wished to make a motion before Judge
Cockburn, and in his hurry appeared without a wig. "I hear your voice,"
sternly said his Lordship, "but I cannot see you." The barrister had to
obtain the loan of a wig from a learned friend before the judge would
listen to him.
Lord Eldon suffered much from headache, and when he was raised to the
peerage he petitioned the king to allow him to dispense with the wig. He
was refused, his Majesty saying he could not permit such an innovation.
In vain did his lordship show that the wig was an innovation, as the old
judges did not wear them. "True," said the king; "the old judges wore
beards."
In more recent times we have particulars of several instances of both
bench and bar discarding the use of the wig. At the Summer Assizes at
Lancaster, in 1819, a barrister named Mr Scarlett hurried into court,
and was permitted to take part in a trial without his wig and gown. Next
day the whole of the members of the bar appeared without their
professional badges, but only on this occasion, although on the previous
day a hope had been expressed that the time was not far distant when the
mummeries of costume would be entirely discarded.
We learn from a report in the _Times_ of July 24th, 1868, that on
account of the unprecedented heat of the weather on the day before, in
the Court of Probate and Divorce the learned judge and bar appeared
without wigs.
On July 22nd, 1873, it is recorded that Dr Kenealy rose to open the case
for the defence in the Tichborne suit; he sought and obtained permission
to remove his wig on account of the excessive heat.
Towards the close of the eighteenth century few were the young men at
the Universities who ventured to wear their own hair, and such as did
were designated Apollos. Women, as well as men, called into requisition,
to add to their charms, artificial accessories in the form of wigs and
curls. Ladies' hair was curled and frizzed with considerable care, and
frequently false curls were worn under the name of heart-breakers. It
will be seen from the illustration we give that these curls increased
the beauty of a pretty face.
Queen Elizabeth, we gather from Hentzner and other authorities, wore
false hair. We are told that ladies, in compliment to her, dyed their
hair a sandy hue, the natural colour of the queen's locks.
[Illustration: Heart-Breakers.]
It is recorded that Mary Queen of Scots obtained wigs from Edinburgh not
merely while in Scotland, but during her long and weary captivity in
England. From "The True Report of the Last Moments of Mary Stuart," it
appears that when the executioner lifted the head by the hair to show it
to the spectators, it fell from his hands owing to the hair being
false.
We have previously mentioned Pepys' allusions to women and wigs in 1666.
Coming down to later times, we read in the _Whitehall Evening Post_ of
August 17th, 1727, that when the King, George II., reviewed the Guards,
the three eldest Princesses "went to Richmond in riding habits, with
hats, and feathers, and periwigs."
[Illustration: With and Without a Wig.]
It will be seen from the picture of a person with and without a wig that
its use made a plain face presentable. There is a good election story of
Daniel O'Connell. It is related during a fierce debate on the hustings,
O'Connell with his biting witty tongue, attacked his opponent on account
of his ill-favoured countenance. But, not to be outdone, and thinking
to turn the gathering against O'Connell, his adversary called out, "Take
off your wig, and I'll warrant that you'll prove the uglier." The witty
Irishman immediately responded, amidst roars of laughter from the crowd,
by snatching the wig from off his own head and exposing to view a bald
pate, destitute of a single hair. The relative question of beauty was
scarcely settled by this amusing rejoinder, but the laugh was certainly
on O'Connell's side.
An interesting tale is told of Peter the Great of Russia. In the year
1716, the famous Emperor was at Dantzig, taking part in a public
ceremony, and feeling his head somewhat cold, he stretched out his hand,
and seizing the wig from the head of the burgomaster sitting below him,
he placed it on his own regal head. The surprise of the spectators may
be better imagined than described. On the Czar returning the wig, his
attendants explained that his Majesty was in the habit of borrowing the
wig of any nobleman within reach on similar occasions. His Majesty, it
may be added, was short of hair.
Wigs were not confined to men. At the commencement of the eighteenth
century little boys attended school in wigs and cocked hats. "Had I
lived in the reign of good Queen Anne," wrote Lord Lyttelton, "my baby
face must have been adorned with a full-bottomed periwig as large as
that which bedecks the head and shoulders of Mr Justice Blackstone when
he scowls at the unhappy culprit who is arraigned before him." We learn
from Miss Agnes Strickland that "Marie Antoinette was the first person
who broke the absurd fashion of dressing infant boys as droll miniatures
of their fathers. She attired the unfortunate Dauphin in a simple blue
jacket and trousers, for which she was reviled, as if little bag-wigs
and tiny cocked-hats, and all the paraphernalia of full dress, had been
points of moral obligation. There are noblemen yet in existence," she
says, when writing her history, "who can remember, at six years old,
joining the juvenile parties given by George III. and Queen Charlotte,
dressed after the models of their fathers' court costumes, with powdered
side-curls, single-breasted coat, knee-buckles, and shoe-buckles."
It will not be without interest to give a picture of a full-bottomed
wig, and we select as an example the one worn by the great Lord
Mansfield. It was made by Mr Williams, a noted barber in his day, who
had among his patrons many famous men, including Dr Samuel Johnson, but
he prided himself most on making the full state wig for Lord Mansfield,
and the one which is represented on his imposing monument in Westminster
Abbey. After the famous lawyer had been laid to rest, the wig which is
represented on his monument was the subject of a very odd litigation,
which was fully reported in the _Times_ for 1823. An action, it is
stated, was brought by Mr Williams, a barber, against Mr Lawrence, to
recover Lord Mansfield's full state wig, which had again come into the
possession of the perruquier after the death of his lordship. The wig
had been graciously lent by the barber to one Lawrence, belonging to the
legal profession, but also an amateur actor. In this wig, we are told,
he proposed to disport himself in the character of Shylock. The
plaintiff could not get it back again, and brought the action for its
recovery. The wig had been accidentally burnt, and the judge awarded the
plaintiff the sum of £2 as a compensation for the loss of the relic.
[Illustration: Lord Mansfield.]
STEALING WIGS
[Illustration: Stealing a Wig.]
In the palmy days of wigs the price of a full-wig of an English
gentleman was from thirty to forty guineas. Street quarrels in the olden
time were by no means uncommon; care had to be exercised that wigs were
not lost. Swift says:--
"Triumphing Tories and desponding Whigs,
Forget their feuds, and join to save their wigs."
Although precautions were taken to prevent wigs being stolen, we are
told that robberies were frequently committed. Sam Rogers thus describes
a successful mode of operation: "A boy was carried covered over in a
butcher's tray by a tall man, and the wig was twisted off in a moment by
the boy. The bewildered owner looked all round for it, when an
accomplice impeded his progress under the pretence of assisting him
while the tray-bearer made off." Gay, in _Trivia_, thus writes:--
"Nor is the flaxen wig with safety worn:
High on the shoulders in a basket borne
Lurks the sly boy, whose hand, to rapine bred,
Plucks off the curling honours of thy head."
THE WIG-MAKERS' RIOT
On February 11th, 1765, a curious spectacle was witnessed in the streets
of London, and one which caused some amusement. Fashion had changed; the
peruke was no longer in favour, and only worn to a limited extent. A
large number of peruke-makers had been thrown out of employment, and
distress prevailed amongst them. The sufferers thought that help might
be obtained from George III., and a petition was accordingly drawn up
for the enforcement of gentlefolk to wear wigs for the benefit of the
wig-makers. A procession was formed, and waited upon the king at St
James's Palace. His Majesty, it is said, returned a gracious answer, but
it must have cost him considerable effort to maintain his gravity.
Besides the monarch, the unemployed had to encounter the men of the
metropolis, and we learn from a report of the period they did not fare
so well. "As the distressed men went processionally through the town,"
says the account, "it was observed that most of the wig-makers, who
wanted other people to wear them, wore no wigs themselves; and this
striking the London mob as something monstrously unfair and
inconsistent, they seized the petitioners, and cut off all their hair
per force."
Horace Walpole alludes to this ludicrous petition in one of his letters.
"Should we wonder," he writes, "if carpenters were to remonstrate that
since the Peace there is no demand for wooden legs?" The wags of the
period could not allow the opportunity to pass without attempting to
provoke more mirth out of the matter, and a petition was published
purporting to come from the body-carpenters imploring his Majesty to
wear a wooden leg, and to enjoin his servants to appear in his royal
presence with the same graceful decoration.
THE MOUSTACHE MOVEMENT
At the present time, when moustaches are general, it is difficult to
realise the opposition raised against them in this country half a
century ago. Few outside the military had the courage to follow a
fashion which has become general. In the first year of the reign of
Queen Victoria, we gather from the police court proceedings at
Marlborough Street, London, how unpopular at that period was the
moustache. The following Report is drawn from the _Times_ of September
21st, 1837: "Yesterday, a young man, 'bearded like the pard,' who said
he was a carpenter employed on the London and Birmingham Railroad,
applied to Mr Rawlinson, the sitting magistrate, for an assault warrant,
under the following ludicrous circumstances.
"Mr Rawlinson: What do you want a warrant for?
"Applicant: I'll tell your worship, and you'll say it's the most
haggrawating, and provoking thing as ever was heard on. Vell then, I
goes to my vork, as usual, this 'ere morning, ven one of my shopmates
said to me, 'Bill, you arn't shaved your hupper lip lately,' says I.
'Vy,' says he 'Cos,' I replied, 'I intends vearing mustachios to look
like a gentleman,' 'Vell, then,' says he, 'as you intends to become a
fashionable gentleman, p'raps you'll have no objection to forfeit
half-a-gallon of ale, as it's the rule here that every workman vot
sports mustachios, to have them vetted a bit.' Vell, has I refused to
have my mustachios christened, they made game of them, and said they
weren't half fledged; and, more nor all that, they hustled me about, and
stole my dinner out of the pot, and treated me shameful, and so I want
your advice respecting my mustachios.
"Mr Rawlinson: My advice is, go to the barber and have them shaved off
without loss of time.
"Applicant: Can't part with a single hair.
"Mr Rawlinson: You want to look like a grenadier, I suppose?
"Applicant: My granny-dear (God bless her dear old soul!), she never had
such a fashionable and warlike appendage in her life.
"Mr Rawlinson: What business has a carpenter with a quantity of long
hair hanging from his lip?
"Applicant: The reason vy I rears it is 'cos it's fashionable, and makes
me look like a man of some courage.
"Mr Rawlinson: Fashionable, indeed! I wish, with all my heart, that the
fashion was discontinued. Why need an Englishman make a Jew of himself?
It is disgusting to see persons strutting through the streets with
mustachios, and sometimes a fringe of hair round the face and chin,
which is dignified by the name of whiskers. As you won't take my advice,
I can't assist you.
"Applicant: Vot! not for striking me on the hupper lip?
"Mr Rawlinson: Then your moustachios must have saved you.
"Applicant: No, they didn't.
"Mr Rawlinson: How's that?
"Applicant: 'Cos the hair ain't long and thick enough; they're only
young 'uns as yet. There was no occasion to strike me.
"Mr Rawlinson: And there's no occasion for you to wear mustachios. You
may have a warrant if you like, but I think you had better not."
"The man with the mustachios then withdrew."
About 1855 the beard movement took hold of Englishmen. The Crimean War
had much to do with it, as our soldiers were permitted to forego the use
of the razor as the hair on the face protected them from the cold and
attacks of neuralgia. About this period only one civilian of position in
England had the hardihood to wear the moustache. He was Mr George
Frederick Muntz, a member of Parliament for Birmingham. He was a notable
figure in the House of Commons, and is described as manly in appearance,
with a handsome face, a huge black beard, and moustache. He died 30th
July, 1857, and is regarded as the father of the modern moustache
movement. Another early moustache member was Colonel Sibthorp, the
representative for Lincoln, who bore Mr Muntz company for some time in
the House of Commons. Daniel O'Connell wrote a biting epigram on
Colonels Sibthorp, Percival, and Verner, the first of whom was
remarkable for his length of beard, whilst the others had none:--
Three Colonels, in three distant counties born,
Lincoln, Armagh, and Sligo did adorn.
The first in matchless impudence surpass'd,
The next in bigotry, in both the last,
The force of nature could no further go,
To beard the first she shaved the other two.
It will be noticed that the foregoing is a parody on Dryden's celebrated
tribute to Milton.
[Illustration: George Frederick Muntz, M.P.]
The enlightened electors, however, did not take kindly to the bearded
politician. It is related by Dr Hedderwick, the well-known Glasgow
journalist, that at the time the moustache movement was making slow
progress, the candidate for Linlithgowshire was an officer in the
Lancers, a man of ability, family, and fashion, who wore a heavily
hirsute upper lip. He received an intimation from a leader of his party
that his moustache might prejudice him in the eyes of a rural
population. The candidate replied that he had already considered the
point, but it was the rule in his regiment that it would be cowardly to
succumb, and that he was "determined to face it out."
We have it on good authority that a Cabinet Minister, about 1855, caused
a gentleman to be told that the beard and moustache did not look well on
a man holding a civic position under the Crown. This Minister did not
then imagine that shortly men with beards and moustaches would sit by
his side as members of the Cabinet. Even a Colonial Governor about half
a century ago was not supposed to wear a moustache. Dr Hedderwick, in
his "Backward Glances" (Edinburgh, 1891), tells us that on a certain
Sunday he was rambling with his friend, Mr Charles Maclaren, the
well-known editor of the _Scotsman_, to Loch Long, when he saw some
carriages conveying a number of ladies and gentlemen to church. "Sitting
obliquely on an Irish jaunting-car," says the doctor, "was a portly
personage with a dark heavy fringe on his upper lip, and otherwise
distinguished appearance. I suggested that it might be Sir Henry
Pottinger, the celebrated diplomatist and Colonial Governor. We knew he
had returned to England, and I had heard he was visiting in Scotland on
the banks of Loch Long. 'No, no,' said Mr Maclaren, 'it's quite
impossible it can be he. A civilian of great intelligence and sense
would never wear a moustache.'" We may gather from the foregoing the
prejudice of the period against facial adornments.
From about 1855 to some years afterwards we resided at the small town of
Alfreton, Derbyshire, where, if by chance the boys saw a man with a
moustache, with one accord they commenced calling after him, "Jew, Jew,
Jew," or "Frenchy, Frenchy, Frenchy," and, if that did not make any
impression, they commenced stoning the offender against the unwritten
laws of the land. In later years our barber at Wakefield was somewhat of
a dandy, and would, perhaps, have preferred being called a tonsorial
artist. He was the first to cultivate a moustache in that West Riding
town, and he told the writer with pride that in those distant days he
was one of the sights of the place, but his vanity had many checks from
the rough lads, and even men, of Wakefield. Before his death he saw many
follow his lead.
A teacher of music was the first to wear a moustache in Nottingham. He
attracted the attention of young and old, and was deemed a great
curiosity. The younger generation made matters lively for the music
master. Speaking on this theme to an old Nottinghamshire friend, with
whom we often discuss olden days and ways, he stated to us how he won
his wife because he had not a moustache. It appears another eligible
young man was anxious to win the young lady, but his character was
regarded as doubtful because he cultivated a moustache. After a short
engagement our friend was married in the year 1855. At this period the
moustache movement was making slow progress in Nottingham.
Mr W.P. Frith, R.A., published in 1887 an amusing "Autobiography," and
devotes not the least attractive chapter of his work to "The Bearded
Model." He relates how difficult it was to find a bearded model, and how
at last he discovered one. He says that in crossing Soho Square one day
his attention was drawn to a crowd of little boys, who seemed to be
teasing an old man in the manner of the London street boy. "Why don't
you get your 'air cut?" said one. "Yah! where's your bundle of old
clothes? Yer ain't got 'em in that 'ere basket, 'ave you?" said another,
"Let's 'ave a look. You're a Jew, you know; now, ain't you?" and so on.
All this, observes the artist, because the old man wore a long grey
beard, then such a rarity. The young gentlemen had mistaken their man.
He soundly punished two elder boys, and Mr Frith found he was not a Jew.
How he became a model does not come within the scope of our present
studies.
Mr Frith says that the head of a well-known firm of drapers in Regent
Street refused to employ shopmen who wore moustaches, or men who parted
their hair down the middle. In days before the moustache was popular, Mr
Frith shows how even in art circles its adoption retarded progress. "I
well remember," says Mr Frith, "a book illustrator named Stuart, who,
according to his own notion, ought to have been on the throne of England
instead of drawing on insensible wood blocks. He could trace his descent
from James I. He could sing Jacobite songs, and very well, too, and he
was certainly like Charles I. There was not the least doubt about his
pedigree in his own mind; and he was such a nuisance when once launched
into the long list of Royal blood, that we declared our unanimous
conviction of the justice of his claims, and implored him to put them
forward in the proper quarter, as we were powerless in the matter. The
Stuart beard, exactly like the Vandyke portrait of Charles, was the
treasured ornament of our friend's face, and though he was assured that
the publishers felt such doubt of his abilities, and such a conviction
of his utterly unreliable character and general dishonesty in
consequence of his beard--one man going so far as to tell him it cost
him £200 a year--he refused to remove it." Mr Frith says when the
Vandyke beard became white his poor friend would have died in extreme
poverty had he not received well-deserved assistance from a fund
established to meet cases like his.
The directors and managers of banks made a stand against the moustache
movement. It is asserted that the authorities of the Bank of England
issued an order "that the clerks were not to wear moustaches during
business hours." It is not surprising to learn that the amusing order
was soon cancelled. At the present time, at one of the great banks in
the Strand, the clerks have to be clean shaven. To illustrate the rigid
manner of enforcing the order, Mr Frith quotes the case of an old
servant of the bank, who was severely attacked by erysipelas in the face
and head. Even after convalescence the tenderness of the skin made
shaving impossible, but the old clerk begged to be allowed to return to
his desk. He was told by one of the principals, in a kind note in answer
to his application, that the bank would endeavour to get on without him
until his face was in a condition to bear the attention of his razor.
In the earlier years of the moustache movement, clerks might be
dismissed for not being clean shaven. Contractors, as a rule, we should
regard as being the least particular of any class of employers about
the personal appearance of their servants. Yet we have it on reliable
authority that a trusted superintendent of one of the great contractors
served the firm in Russia, and there cultivated the beard and moustache.
On his return to England he displayed no disposition to resume the use
of the razor. The head contractor grew alarmed at the terrible example
he was setting those engaged in the office, and insisted that the
adornment should be cut off, which was done. The poor fellow caught
cold, and in a few days died.
[Illustration: Charles Dickens, born 1812, died 1870.]
An important firm of timber merchants in Hull made it a condition that
any clerks employed by them should be clean shaven. This rule was
strictly enforced until the firm closed its career a few years ago.
Mr Serjeant Robinson, in his interesting and informing volume, "Bench
and Bar Reminiscences" (London, 1889), deals with the legal aspect of
our theme. He says for many years anterior to 1860 scarcely a beard, and
certainly not even a downy symptom of a moustache, was to be seen on the
face of a practising barrister. Towards the close of the first half of
the nineteenth century a quiet, gentlemanly, well-informed barrister,
named Brierley, used to attend the Central Criminal Court, wearing a
long flowing beard and a thick moustache. These hirsute adornments gave
offence to the leaders who regularly attended the sessions. No other
exception could be taken to him. A meeting of the senior Bar was held,
and he was summoned to attend. He was called upon to defend his action.
Instead of denying the jurisdiction of the tribunal that was to judge
him, he recognised the enormity of his crime, and excused himself on the
ground of a serious affection of the throat, and stated that it was
under urgent medical advice that he was induced to transgress the
unwritten ordinances of the Bar. Despite the reasonableness of the plea,
a small majority passed upon him a vote of censure for subjecting the
Bar to general ridicule by his extravagant physiognomy. "This was," says
Mr Serjeant Robinson, "the worst that could befall him, for of course he
could not be prevented from coming within the sacred precincts of the
court, nor from taking his seat at the Bar table. The only means of
carrying out the resolution was by sending him to Coventry. But he did
not give them the opportunity of executing it, for he seldom appeared
afterwards. It is not known what became of this barrister after he had
been driven from practising his profession in the courts."
Several old laws regulated wearing the beard in the bygone times. In the
reign of Queen Elizabeth a decree went forth that no barrister should
appear in court with a beard of more than a fortnight's growth.
Barristers with beards and moustaches are not much less common at the
present time than those without them. This is no doubt the result of the
martial order which passed over the country at the introduction of the
Volunteer movement. The moustache was regarded as indispensable to the
military appearance of the citizen soldier.
Old illustrated books relating to the worthies of the Church often
contain portraits of divines with flowing beards and moustaches. In
modern times the cultivation of these adornments of the face has given
rise to not a little discussion in Church circles. Early in 1861 the
newspapers criticised the charge of the Bishop of Rochester, which
included a denunciation of the development of beards and moustaches
among the clergymen of his diocese. The writing in the press for and
against the facial adornment had little point, but it gave rise to more
than one book dealing with the subject. An author issued "An Apology
for the Beard; addressed to men in general, and to the clergy in
particular" (London, 1862). The Bible and other books are quoted against
shaving. James Ward, R.A., the celebrated animal painter, produced in
book form a "Defence of the Beard." He dealt with his subject on
scriptural grounds, and gave eighteen reasons why man was bound to grow
a beard unless he was indifferent as to offending his Creator and good
taste. Mr. Ward asked, "What would a Jupiter be without a beard? Who
would countenance the idea of a shaved Christ?" The artist set an
example to others by adopting the beard when it was not popular. On the
title-page of another work was declared: "A Breach of the Sabbath, and a
Hindrance to the Spread of the Gospel." The writer designated himself
"Theologos." If his views were carried out, it would lead to the
practice which prevailed among the Essenes, who never did on the Sabbath
anything that was customary for them to do on other days. The High
Church clergymen use the razor, and as a rule the moustache is
discarded. For some time not a few of the clergy in the lower ranks
joined the moustache movement, but it was not until 1889 that a bishop
was included. The late Bishop Ryle, of Liverpool, was the first to give
up in modern times the use of the razor. Quite a sensation was caused
towards the close of 1892 when it became known that the Archbishop of
York did not approve of the moustache among his clergy. In several
quarters the barber was visited, and the cherished moustache and beard
swept away, it is said, to please the head of the Church in the Northern
Province. Not so with a moustached candidate for Orders from Hull. He
had been spending two or three days at Bishopthorpe before ordination,
but gentle hints failed to induce him to make a clean shave. As a final
effort the chaplain of the Archbishop asked him if he thought it was not
time he cut off his moustache. He replied that he did not think of doing
so, and asked why he should. "Well," said the chaplain, "you see the
saints in the stained glass windows have not any moustaches." "That may
be so," said the candidate, "but as I am not intended to be a saint and
stuck in a window, I mean my moustache to remain."
Speaking at a reunion of the Leeds Clergy School held on June 6th, 1899,
Dr Eden, the Bishop of Wakefield, said he recently noticed a paragraph
in the newspapers which said that the Bishop of Wakefield had given it
out that he was very much against the clergy wearing moustaches. "After
a little while this legend increased in definiteness, and the next
paragraph I saw was that the Bishop of Wakefield had 'commanded' the
curates of his diocese to shave clean. A little while after that I took
up a London paper, and I saw it stated: 'The Bishop of Wakefield has
joined the anti-moustache brigade, and we believe he has the sympathy of
His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales.' I waited a little longer, for I
felt sure something more would come, and then I took up another paper
and found that an exceedingly respected Prebendary of St Paul's in
London had been uttering remarks, either in public or to the
reporters--I don't know which--in which he held up the Bishop of
Wakefield as being one of those foolish people who had largely exceeded
their episcopal powers. I was given a very round lecture upon the
contrast of my conduct with that of my predecessor, who would never have
thought of issuing such a foolish order to the curates to shave their
moustaches. The curates were recommended to do nothing of the kind, but
a fear was expressed that a large number of them would probably comply
with the demand. Still that was not quite the end of the legend; I had
of course a great deal of private correspondence arising out of this
newspaper paragraph, but only the other day I heard--I have not seen
it--that a cartoon has appeared in a London paper in which the Bishop of
Wakefield is represented with a drawn razor in his hand in full cry
after a Wakefield curate with a moustache. That is a very good example
of finding the truth about yourselves in the newspapers, for I have the
most astounding fact of all to tell you, and that is that I have never
said a single word about moustaches from first to last. I knew you would
forgive me making this little personal reference because it is not
personal to myself and to many of those in this tent."
A former Bishop of Wakefield, Dr Walsham How, related a good story. "The
vicar of an East London parish," said the bishop, "was one of the first
London clergymen to grow his beard. The then Bishop of London wished to
stop the practice, and, as he was going to confirm in that church, sent
his chaplain to the vicar to ask him to shave it off, saying he should
otherwise select another church for the Confirmation. The vicar replied
that he was quite willing to take his candidates to another church, and
would give out next Sunday the reason for the change. Of course the
bishop retracted."
We are told in the "Life of R.W. Dale" (London, 1898) that this famous
Birmingham preacher, about 1860, was clean shaven, but with "long black
hair that hung over his cheeks and ears like a mane." In a year or two
it was cut short. He then let his beard grow, and, after some
hesitation, his moustache. Many of the older people, we are told, were
scandalised, but remained silent; some wrote to the newspapers in
protest. The moustache was declared to invest ministers "with an air of
levity and worldliness." A letter of approval purported to come from
the shade of a Wesleyan minister, the Rev. H.D. Lowe, who, in 1828, had
his beard cut off by order of the Wesleyan Conference. It ran as
follows:--
"REVEREND AND BEARDED SIR,--It rejoiced my shade to see
you not only addressing Methodists, but sitting among many of the
identical men who required that cruel sacrifice of me, and that
unrebuked when you even spoke of dreaming of belonging to the
'Legal Hundred,' bearded though you are."
Professor Hodgson used to tell a good story of a shaky village knight of
the razor who gashed the minister's cheek. "John, John!" cried the
reverend sufferer, "it's a dreadful thing that drink!" "'Deed it is,
sir," mildly assented John, "it makes the skin unco tender."
The electors of Hull, who returned to Parliament Sir Henry Vane the
younger, Andrew Marvell, the patriot, and in later times, William
Wilberforce, the emancipator of the slave, have never, as might be
readily believed, been backward in adopting reasonable measures of
reform. On December 1st, 1859, at the Hull Watch Sub-Committee, it was
moved by Mr Moss, seconded by Mr Clarke, and carried unanimously: "That
it be a recommendation to the Watch Committee to permit the police to
wear a beard and moustache if they think fit." A week later, namely, on
December 7th, at the Watch Committee, it was moved by Mr Mayfield, and
seconded by Mr Fountain: "That a resolution of the Sub-Committee of
December 1st, granting permission to police to wear the beard and
moustache, if they think fit, be confirmed by this Committee." It was
pointed out by one of the members of the Council, who was advocating the
passing of the resolution, that it would give a "fierce appearance to
the police."
In course of time the leading gentlemen of the land adopted the
moustache, and those in the lower walks of life were not slow to follow
their example, the result being that it is worn now by all sorts and
conditions of men.
The moustache figures in recent wills. In 1862, one made by Henry Budd
came into force, and declared as follows against the wearing of
moustaches by his sons in the following terms: "In case my son Edward
shall wear moustaches, the devise herein before contained in favour of
him, his appointees, heirs, and assigns of my said estate, called Pepper
Park, shall be void; and I devise the same estate to my son William, his
appointees, heirs, and assigns. And in case my said son William shall
wear moustaches, then the devise hereinbefore contained in favour of
him, his appointees, heirs, and assigns of my said estate, called
Twickenham Park, shall be void; and I devise the said estate to my said
son Edward, his appointees, heirs, and assigns."
Mr Fleming, an upholsterer, of Pimlico, by his will, proved in 1869,
left £10 each to the men in his employ who did not wear moustaches, and
to those who persisted in wearing them, £5 only.
In the daily newspapers of July 11th, 1901, it was stated: "French
motor-car owners having shown a disposition to make their chauffeurs
shave, the latter combined in defence of their moustaches, which they
declare to be a sanitary protection."
INDEX
Absalom, 7, 8
Age of wigs, 71-93
Agrarian law repealed, 48
Albemarle, Earl of, 78
---- Duchess of, 17
Alexander III., Pope, forbids clergy to act as surgeons, 27
Alfreton, 102
Anne, Queen, 82
Assyrian sculptures, 72
"_Antiquarian Repertory_," quoted, 2
"_Athenian Oracle_," quoted, 1
Aubrey, quoted, 17, 54
Bag-wig, 84
Bakewell, Derbyshire, epitaph from, 32
Ballad of the Beard, 41-44
Banks, Mrs G. Linnæus, quoted, 67
Banks and the moustache, 105
Bar and the moustache, 107
Barber-surgeon, antiquity of, 26
Barber's pole, 1-8
Barber's shop, 8-24
Barbers and surgeons, laws relating to their work, 28
---- separate, 31
Barbers' Company, first Master of the, 27
Barnard Castle, 18
Barristers without wigs, 88
Bathurst, Lord, cuts off his pig-tail, 84
Bayeux tapestry, 34
Beard protection against neuralgia, 99
Beardie Scott, 47
Beardless Britons, 33
Bible, quoted, 33
Bleeding at Northallerton, 31
Blomfield, Bishop, 86
Boxing the beard, 56
Brand's "Popular Antiquities," 5
_British Apollo_, quoted, 6
Britons, 33
Brontë, Rev. P., story about, 25, 26
Bygone beards, 33-56
Campaign wig, 81
Canterbury, Sheriff of, 36
Cavaliers, 44
Chair, barber's, 14
Charles I., 38, 44, 48
---- II., 25
Charlotte, Queen, 66
Chaucer, quoted, 52
Chester barber-surgeons, 23
Church denounces wigs, 73
---- denounces moustache, 108
Churchyards, barbers shave in, 21, 23
Clergy caring for men's bodies and souls, 26
Cloth of gold, 55
Cockburn, Judge, 87
Combing the wig, 79
Congreve, 79
"_Comenii Orbis Pictus_," quoted, 2
Comenius, Bishop, 2
Contractors and the moustache, 105
Cox, Rev. Dr J.C., quoted, 70
Crimean War, 99
Crop clubs, 64
Curing a joking duke, 18
Cyprus customs, 50
Dale, R.W., 112
Defence of the beard, 109
Delmahoy's wig, 86
Demanding the beard, 51
Desecrating the Sabbath by shaving, 24, 25
Disuse of hair powder, 69
Doran, Dr, quoted, 73
Drapers refuse to employ men with moustaches, 104
Drury Lane, five women barbers of, 17
Dryden, quoted, 79
Duke and barber's boy, 18
Dyeing the beard, 37
Earliest mention of the beard, 33
Early gild in London, 27
Eastern potentate, 35
Eden, Dr, and the moustache, 110
Egyptian wigs, 71
Eldon, Lord, 87
Elizabeth, Queen, 37, 38
Epigram on three colonels, 100
Epitaphs on barber-surgeons, 32
Fairholt, F.W., 41
False hair worn by women, 88
Farquhar, 20
Female follies, 61
Fined for wearing beards, 35, 36
First illustrated school book, 2
Forfeits, 14-16
Fox, C.J., 64
France, wig mania in, 75
Free advice to a young clergyman, 85
Frith, W.P., "Autobiography" quoted, 103
From barber to surgeon, 26-32
Frost fair, 81
Gallants, gathering of, 9
Galley-pot, 5
Garrick, 14
Gauls, 60
Gay, J., quoted, 13, 61, 95
_Gentleman's Magazine_, quoted, 62
George III. and wig-makers, 95
---- sets his subjects a good example, 69
---- IV. and Dr Randolph, 86
Gold-dust used as hair-powder, 59
Grain, high price of, 68
Great seal, 76
Guitar, 9
Hannibal, 75
Hastings, Battle of, 33
Hawkesbury, Lord, and new bread, 70
Hawkins, Sir J., quoted, 79
Heart-Breakers, 89
Hedderwick, Dr, quoted, 101
Henry VI., 48
Henry VIII., 35
Hentzner, quoted, 89
High Church clergymen, 109
Hodgson, Professor, 113
Holbein's picture, 28
Holme, R., quoted, 81
House of Peers, 5
How, Dr Walsham, 112
Hull baker fined, 70
---- candidate for Holy Orders and his moustache, 110
---- policemen and the moustache, 113
---- timber merchant and the moustache, 110
"Impartial Monitor," quoted, 61
Incorporation of Barbers, 28
Irish Shaving Statute, 47
Jewish custom, 26
Jews used hair-powder, 59
Johnson, Dr, 16
Johnstone, Rev. E., desecrating the Sabbath by shaving, 24
Julius II., 34
Juvenile wigs, 92
Kauffmann, A., 66
Kenealy, Dr, 88
Kenrick, Dr, 16
King's barber, 19
Knox, John, 36, 37
Last barber-surgeon in London, 31
Laud, Archbishop, 51
"Letters from the Dead to the Living," 79
Lichfield, 20
Lincoln's Inn and the beard, 35
London women barbers, 17
Lord's Day observance, 21-25
Louis XIV., 83
Louth, 18
Lowe, Rev. H.D., 113
"Loyal Litany," quoted, 61
Lyttelton, Lord, 91
Macedonian soldiers, 48
Maclaren, C., editor of the _Scotsman_, 102
Magistrate and the moustache, 97
Malcolm, quoted, 82
Manner of using hair powder, 63, 68
Mansfield, Lord, 92
Marie Antoinette, 92
Marston, quoted, 54
Mary Queen of Scots, 89
Massinger, quoted, 61
Medical men and wigs, 86
Ministers shaving on Sunday, 24, 25
Missal, 5
Mock doctor, 86
More, Rev. J., 36
---- Sir Thomas, 36
Moustache and the motor-car, 115
---- movement, 96-115
Muffs, 80
Muntz, G.F., 99
Music, barber's, 9, 21
Newcastle-on-Tyne, barber-surgeons of, 24
_Notes and Queries_, quoted, 16, 47
Nottingham, story of moustache and marriage, 103
Objectionable mode of advertising blood-letting, 27
O'Connell, D., 90
One pig-tail only returned to the reformed Parliament, 84
Paris, massacre of, 75
Pepys, quoted, 31, 76
Percival, Col., 99
Periwig with tail, 81
Peter the Great, 91
Phlebotomy, 2-5
Pig-tail, 84
Pitt, 63
Plucking the beard, 48, 49
Poetical signs, 7, 8
Politics and the moustache, 101
Pontefract, 23
Powdering the hair, 59-71
Pulling the nose, 54
Puritans, 11
"Quip for an Upstart Courtier," 9
"Rambler," quoted, 63
Ramillies, Battle of, 82
---- wig, 83
Reading regulations, 9
Red rag, 5
Reform Bill, 84
Repton, J.A., 41
Retailer of scandal, 8
Reynolds, Sir Joshua, 66
Robinson, Serjeant, quoted, 106
Rogers, Dr C., quoted, 24
Romans and hair-powder, 59
Russian laws, 56-59
Ryle, Bishop, 109
Sandy-coloured hair, 60
Saxons and hair-powder, 59
Sayings, old, 51-56
Saywell, Rev. J.L., quoted, 31
Scarborough, woman barber at, 17
Scott, Sir Walter, quoted, 66
Sealing custom, 35
Shakespeare, quoted, 14, 53
Shaving heads, 74
Sheppard, Mr, M.P., 84
Shirley, quoted, 53
Short-bob, 83
Sibthorp, Col., 99
Speaker's wig, 87
Starching the beard, 55
Stealing wigs, 93-95
Stephen, King, 75
Stow, quoted, 75
Stratford-on-Avon, 14
Street frays, 9
Strickland, Agnes, quoted, 92
Stripes on barber's pole, colour of, 5
Strutt, quoted, 60
Stuart, artist, story of, 114
Stubbes, 12
Stupid barbers unknown, 8
Sumner, Archbishop, 86
Sunday shaving, 21-25
Surgeons' Incorporation Bill, 5
Swift, quoted, 5-7, 94
Taxing hair-powder, 62, 63, 65
---- the beard, 37, 56-59
Taylor the Water Poet, 38, 41
Tewkesbury Abbey, epitaph from, 31
"Thirsk Forfeits," 15
Thurlow, Lord, 5
Tichborne trial, 88
Tiles, fine of, 9
Tillotson, Dr, 85
Timbs, John, quoted, 31
_Times_, quoted, 64, 88, 97
Token, beard, 58
Tours, Edict of, 27
Tragic story, 48
Verner, Col., 99
Vizetelly, quoted, 50
Wakefield, first man to wear a moustache at, 102
Walpole, Horace, quoted, 96
---- Sir Robert, 85
Ward, James, quoted, 109
Wesleyans and the beard, 113
_Whitehall Evening Post_, quoted, 90
Wig-makers' riot, 95, 96
Williams, noted barber, 92
Wills and the moustache, 114
With and without wigs, 90
"Wits' Recreations," quoted, 60
Women barbers, 16-18
Working hours, long, 9
Workshop and Sunday shaving, 23
Yarmouth, curious bill at, 69
York, Archbishop of, 110
---- Gild of Barber-Surgeons, 21
"Yorkshire, Ballads and Songs of," quoted, 15, 16
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