than those of the Persians, owing to the national custom of shaving
the heads of their children at a very early age. He adds, "In other
countries the priests of the gods wear long hair; in Egypt they have
it shaved. With other men it is customary in mourning for the nearest
relations to have their heads shorn; the Egyptians, on occasions of
death, let the hair grow both on the head and face, though till then
they used to shave."
The ceremonies and customs relating to the beard are innumerable. The
management of the beard formed a considerable part of the religion
of the Tartars, who waged a long and bloody war with the Persians,
declaring them infidels, though in other respects of the same faith as
themselves, because they refused to cast their whiskers after the mode
or rite of the Tartars.
[Illustration: BEARDED BACCHUS.
_Hope's "Costume of the Ancients."_]
It has been recorded that the Greeks wore their beards until the time
of Alexander, who, fearful lest the length of their beards should prove
a handle to their enemies, commanded the Macedonians to be shaven,
and the first who shaved at Athens ever after bore the addition of
χοροης (shaven) on medals. Notwithstanding this statement, however,
Philip, the father of Alexander, as well as Amyras and Archelous, his
predecessors, are represented without beards.
According to Pliny, the Romans did not begin to shave until the year of
Rome 454, when P. Titinius brought over a stock of barbers from Sicily.
Pliny adds that Scipio Africanus was the first to introduce the fashion
of shaving daily. It became the custom to have visits of ceremony at
the cutting of the beard for the first time. The first fourteen Roman
Emperors shaved until the time of the Emperor Adrian, who discontinued
the practice and wore a beard, for the purpose, however, of hiding the
scars on his face.
From Gregory of Tours we learn that in the Royal family of France it
was for a long time the peculiar privilege of Kings and Princes of the
blood to wear long hair, artfully dressed and curled; everybody else
was polled, as a sign of inferiority and obedience. To cut off the hair
of a son of France under the first race of Kings was to exclude him
from the right of succession to the crown, and to reduce him to the
condition of a subject.
French historians, however, tell us that Charlemagne wore his hair
short, his son much shorter, and Charles the Bald, as his surname
indicates, none at all.
Good Luitprand furiously declaimed against the Emperor Phocyas for
wearing long hair, after the manner of all the other Emperors of the
East, with the exception of Theophilus, who, being bald, enjoined
all his subjects to shave their heads, like the fox of Æsop, who,
having survived the experience of a trap by the sacrifice of his tail,
harangued the other foxes on the inconvenience of tails in general, and
endeavoured to persuade them to cut off theirs also.
[Illustration: GREEK HEAD-DRESSES.
_Hope's "Costume of the Ancients."_]
In the Church, too, in spite of the beard of Aaron, "that went down
to the skirts of his garments," the Nazarite law, and the reputed
long hair of the founder of Christianity, the priesthood habitually
condemned long hair as being inconsistent with the sacred character
of the priest's office. Pope Anictus is supposed to have been the
first to forbid the clergy to wear long hair. "The Holy Prelate,
Wulstan, reproved the wicked of all ranks with great boldness but he
rebuked those with the greatest severity who were proud of their long
hair."[23] The Nazarite vow is an act of sacrifice in accordance with
the terms of the law laid down in Num. vi. 1-21: "All the days of the
vow of his separation shall no razor come upon his head"; "He shall be
holy, and shall let the locks of his hair grow."
The Nazarite has been regarded as a conqueror who subdued his
temptations, and who wore his long hair as a crown, the hair being worn
_rough_ as a protest against foppery. Another view, however, is that it
was kept elaborately dressed, a proof of the existence of the custom
being seen in the seven locks of Samson:--
"And she made him sleep upon her knees; and she called for a man, and
she caused him to shave off the _seven locks of his head_; and she
began to afflict him, and his strength went from him" (Judg. xvi. 19).
Let us listen to the story in the quaint, silvery music of Chaucer:--
"This Sampson neyther siser dronk ne wyn
Ne on his heed com rasour noon ne schere
By precept of the messager divyn
For alle his strengthes in his heres were.
. . . . .
Unto his lemman Dalida he tolde
That in his heres al his strengthe lay
And falsly to his foomen sche him solde
And slepying in hir barm upon a day
Sche made to clippe or schere his heres away
And made his foomen al his craft espien
And whan thay fond him in this array
Thay bound him fast and put out bothe his yen.
"But er his heer clipped was or i-schave
Ther was no bond with which men might him bynde
But now is he in prisoun in a cave
Ther as thay made him at the querne grynde
O noble Sampson strengest of al man kynde
O whilom jugge in glory and in richesse
Now maystow wepe with thine eyyen blynde
Sith thou fro wele art falle to wrecchednesse."
_Monk's Tale._
[Illustration: ROMAN HEAD-DRESSES.
_Hope's "Costume of the Ancients."_]
While the hair was the pride, the glory, and the strength of Samson, it
was the bane of Absalom, for by the abundance of his hair he met his
death. "In all Israel there was none to be so much praised as Absalom
for his beauty: from the sole of his foot even to the crown of his
head there was no blemish in him. And when he polled his head (for it
was at every year's end that he polled it: because the hair was heavy,
therefore he polled it), he weighed the hair of his head at two hundred
shekels after the king's weight."[24] Had he polled it at more frequent
intervals he might have made good his succession to the crown, and
Solomon never have been king, for Absalom had "stolen the hearts of the
people of Israel."
As in a mighty river we may trace back its course to the little rill
or rivulet which trickles from the mountain side, so we may often
trace the origin of great events to very small beginnings. How might
the face of both French and English history have been changed but for
Peter Lombard's dislike of a beard! Louis VII. imagined it a matter
of conscience to give an example of submission to the command of
the bishops on the subject of long hair, and to atone for his many
cruelties by being shaved in public. He reckoned, however, without
his--wife, Eleanor of Aquitaine, a jocose madcap, who rallied him upon
his short hair and shaven chin. "I thought I had married a prince, but
find I have wedded nothing but a monk." The breach occasioned by a bare
face was widened, and the marriage dissolved. Six weeks afterwards
Eleanor was again a wife--Henry, Duke of Normandy, who afterwards
reigned as Henry II. of England, being the husband, who obtained
with her fair Aquitaine with its three provinces. Hence arose those
wars which ravaged France for near three centuries, in which upwards
of three millions of Frenchmen perished on the fields of Cressy,
Agincourt, and Poitiers, and on many a lesser field.
Henry I. issued an edict for the suppression of long hair, and as a
natural consequence long hair immediately became the rage. This edict,
however, was the result of a visit to Normandy, and the preaching of
a prelate named Serlo, whose eloquence was such that the monarch and
his courtiers were moved to tears. The astute priest, perceiving the
impression he had created, immediately whipped a pair of scissors from
his sleeve and cropped the whole congregation!
The patriarchal beard and long hair of Edward III., as exhibited in
his effigy at Westminster, is in strict conformity with the general
character of this serious minded monarch, strongly contrasting with the
character of his successor, Richard of Bordeaux, who was the greatest
fop of the day.
During the century which followed the reign of Edward III. beards were
worn of every imaginable cut. There was the fantail beard, with its
wadded nightcap for protection during sleep, of the stiffening which
was applied. There was, as later, the cathedral beard, the spade beard,
the stiletto beard, and there was an extraordinary curled tuft which
resembled a corkscrew. There was apparently as much variety of colour
as of form--
"I will discharge it in either your straw-colour beard, your orange
tawny beard, your purple-in-grain beard, or your French-crown-colour
beard, your perfect yellow" ("A Midsummer Night's Dream," Act I. sc. 2).
Our Royal "Bluebeard" registered a solemn vow before the French
Ambassador that he would never touch razor till he had visited "his
good brother" upon the Field of the Cloth of Gold, the "good brother"
making a similar vow. With characteristic "English perfidy" Henry broke
his vow, while the Frenchman remained true; it was therefore found
necessary for Sir Thomas Boleyn to apologise for his master's bad faith
by saying that "the Queen of England felt an insuperable antipathy to a
bushy chin."
Henry, indeed, not only shaved his own chin and wore his hair short,
but commanded all his subjects to do the same. He granted the barbers a
new charter, incorporated them with the surgeons, and became a member
of their company.
It was found that the "science and connyng of Physyke and Surgerie"
was practised by unskilful persons, "common artificers, as Smythes,
wevers, and women,"[25] who "boldely and custumably take upon theim
grete curis, and thyngys of great difficultie, in which they partely
use socery and whichcrafte" to the grievous hurt of the Kyng's liege
people. It was therefore enacted that none should practise as a
physician and surgeon in London except by examination, duly approved by
the Bishop of London or Dean of St. Paul's(!). As it seemed needful to
provide skilful surgeons for the "helth of mans body whan infirmities
and seckness shal happen," and as there are many surgeons in London who
give instructions to students, who exercise of the said science "to the
greate relief, comforte, and soccour of muche people, and to the sure
savegard of their bodily helth, their lymmes and lyves," and as two
companies of surgeons exist in London, one "the Barbours of London, and
thother company the Surgeons of London," which company of barbours were
first incorporated "undre the greate Seale of the late King of famous
memory, Edwarde the iiijth, dated at Westminster the xxiiijth day of
February in the first yere of his reigne," these two companies ought
therefore to be united into one body, with a common seal, power to hold
lands, and all the rights of both the old companies.
[Illustration: HEAD-DRESS.
_From Viollet le Duc (Fifteenth Century)._]
It was further found that surgeons were in the habit of taking diseased
persons into their houses, where they "doo use and exercise barbery,
as wasshing and shaving, and other feates therunto belonging," very
perilous to the King's people. Now, "after the feast of the Nativitie
of our Lorde God next coming," no barber in London shall practise
surgery, "letting of bludde, or any other thing belonging to surgery,
_drawing of teth onelye except_." And no surgeon shall "occupye or
exercise the feate or crafte of barbarye or shaving," either by himself
or by any other for him, to his or their use.
It was also provided that any person may keep a barber or a surgeon as
his servant, who may practise in his master's house.
It would appear that the observance of the Lord's day was more strictly
enforced in the seventeenth century than it is at present--
"Att the Councell Chamber on Ouze bridge at York ye xxth of June,
A.D. 1676," it was declared and enacted that whereas barber
surgeons have been shaving and cutting hair on the Lord's day, We
order, that if "any brother of the said company tonse, barbe, or trim
any person on the Lord's day, in any Inn," or other place, public or
private, of which the Lord Mayor shall judge, he shall be fined ten
shillings, and the searchers of the said company for the time being are
to make diligent search in all public and private houses as aforesaid,
for discovery of such offenders.
1745 was the fatal year of the separation of the barbers from their
more dignified colleagues. Their wings were clipped, their privileges
curtailed, the barber's pole and basin, however, still remaining, in
silent, eloquent testimony of their former glory and greatness.[26]
In the reign of Good Queen Bess the campaign against long hair is
continued. Philip Stubbes extols barbers to the skies: "There are no
finer fellowes under the Sunne, nor experter in their noble science of
barbing than they be." Barbers are necessary. "I cannot but marvell at
the beastlinesse of some ruffians (for they are no sober Christians)
that will have their hair grow over their faces like monsters, and
savage people; rather like mad men than otherwise, hanging downe over
their shoulders, as womens haire doth; which indeed is an ornament to
them, being given them as a sign of subjection." In man it is a "shame
and reproch, as the Apostle proveth."
During the reign of the Stuarts long hair was the vogue--with
"love-locks" and "heart breakers."
"A long love-lock on his left shoulder plight,
Like to a woman's hair, well showed a woman's sprite."
"His beard was ruddy hue, and from his head
A wanton lock itself did down dispread
Upon his back; to which, while he did live,
Th' ambiguous name of _Elf-lock_ he did give."
_The Great Oyer._
The absurd fashion of painting and patching the face, much ridiculed by
the satirists, began in the reign of Elizabeth.
"Whers the Devill?
He's got a boxe of women's paint--
Where pride is, thers the Divell too."
_Quips upon Questions, 1600._
"This is an Embleame for those painted faces,
Where devine beautie rests her for awhile,
Filling their browes with stormes and great disgraces,
That on the pained soule yeelds not a smile,
But puts true love into perpetuall exile;
Hard-hearted Soule, such fortune light on thee
That thou maist be transform'd as well as he."
CHESTER'S _Love's Martyr_, 1601.
[Illustration: A PAINTED FACE.
_Roxburghe Ballads._]
By the reign of James I. this ridiculous fashion had become common. All
sorts of curious devices were made use of--spots, stars, crescents,
and in one woodcut a coach and coachman with two horses and postilions
appear upon the lady's forehead. The fashion continued for a long
period; in fact, during the greater part of the Georgian era, when it
had degenerated into mere spots or small patches. At the close of the
eighteenth century it had entirely disappeared.[27]
"Wherfor, faire doughtres, takithe ensaumple, and holde it in your
herte that ye put no thinge to poppe, painte, and fayre youre visages,
the which is made after Goddes ymage, otherwise thanne your Creatoure
and nature hath ordeined; and that ye plucke no browes, nother temples,
nor forhed; and also that ye wasshe not the here of youre hede in none
other thing but in lye and water" ("Advice of the Knight of La Tour
Landry to his iij doughtres").
THE INVINCIBLE PRIDE OF WOMEN.
I have a Wife, the more's my care, who like a gaudy peacock goes,
In top-knots, patches, powder'd hair, besides she is the worst of shrows;
This fills my heart with grief and care to think I must this burden bear.
It is her forecast to contrive to rise about the hour of Noon,
And if she's trimm'd and rigg'd by five, why this I count is very soon;
Then goes she to a ball or play, to pass the pleasant night away.
And when she home returns again, conducted by a bully spark,
If that I in the least complain, she does my words and actions mark,
And does likewise my gullet tear, then roars like thunder in the air.
I never had a groat with her, most solemnly I here declare;
Yet she's as proud as Lucifer, and cannot study what to wear:
In sumptuous robes she still appears, while I am forc'd to hide my ears.
The lofty Top-knots on her crown, with which she sails abroad withal,
Makes me with care, alas! look down, as having now no hope at all,
That ever I shall happy be in such a flaunting Wife as she.
In debt with every shop she runs, for to appear in gaudy pride,
And when the milliner she duns, I then am forc'd my head to hide:
Dear friends, this proud imperious wife she makes me weary of my life.
_Roxburghe Ballads, circa 1686._
Wigs of various kinds have been in use from very early periods, as
the grace and ornament which the hair imparts to the human frame have
always been generally recognised. The want of it has ever been deemed
a subject of reproach, held in ridicule, in all climes; hence the
constant recourse to false hair.
Strutt affirms that the beards of the Egyptians, as well as the
coverings for the head, appear to have been made of false hair, and
removed when the face was shaved. There is no doubt that the Egyptians
wore wigs, as examples are to be seen in the British and other museums.
The wig given in the illustration is probably a woman's, and was found
near the small temple of Isis at Thebes. It belongs to the seventeenth
dynasty, about B.C. 1500; it is formed of natural curlings
of the hair in the upper portion, and the lower portion, which was
originally much longer, consists of long, thin plaits, a number of
which have been broken off and decayed, the thin plaitings contrasting
very happily with the natural curls.
[Illustration: WIG, EGYPTIAN, B.C. 1500.
_British Museum._]
Lamprideses describes the wig of the Emperor Commodus as powdered with
scrapings of gold, and oiled with glutinous perfumes for the powder to
hang by.
Wigs first appear in England during the reign of Stephen, but are
seldom mentioned until the Tudor period. The "Maiden Queen" is
popularly supposed to have had her head shaved, and to have worn a wig.
Mary Queen of Scots had a most complete collection of wigs, and it is
recorded that she wore one at her execution.
The periwig first appears in history as the headgear of a fool. In
the privy purse expenses of Henry VIII. for December, 1522, occurs
the entry: "For a peryke for Sexton the King's fool xx shillings." By
the middle of the same century their use had become general, and it
was dangerous for children to wander alone, as they were liable to be
deprived of their hair for the manufacture of these articles.
The periwig blossomed out during the reign of Charles II., and attained
enormous proportions; it was often gaily decked with ribbons and
allowed to hang over the front and back for some distance.
The gossiping Pepys, complaining in his diary of October 30, 1663, of
his extravagant purchases in wigs, clothes, &c., mentions, amongst
other things, two periwigs, "one whereof cost me £3 and the other 40s.
I have worn neither yet, but will begin next week, God willing."
"A Londoner into the country went,
To visit his tennants, and gather in rent;
He on a brave gelding did gallantly ride,
With boots and with spurs, and a sword by his side.
Because that the Innkeepers they will not score
He lined his pockets with silver good store;
And he wore a wigg cost three guineas and more;
His hat was cockt up, Sir, behind and before."
_Roxburghe Ballads, 1688._
Wigs when first worn were extremely expensive, costing as much as a
hundred guineas, and their value often led to their being stolen from
the head.
The different shapes which the wig assumed were innumerable, and the
different classes of society were identified with particular shaped
wigs. There were the clerical and the physical; the huge tie peruke for
the man of law, the brigadier and the tremendous fox-ear or cluster of
temple curls with a pigtail behind, for the Army and Navy. (The Army
pigtail was shortened to seven inches in 1804, and in 1808 was cut off
altogether.) The merchant, the man of business and of law affected the
grave full-bottom; the tradesman was distinguished by the snug bob or
natty scratch; the country gent by the natural fly and hunting peruke;
"the coachman wore his, as do some to this day, in imitation of the
curled hair of a water-dog."
There were also, as a writer in the _London Magazine_ of 1753 informs
us, the pigeon's wing, the comet, the cauliflower, the royal bird, the
staircase, the ladder, the brush, the wild boar's back, the temple, the
rhinoceros, the corded wolf's paw, Count Saxe's mode, the she-dragon,
the rose, the crutch, the negligent, the chancellor, the cut bob, the
long bob, the half natural, the chain-buckle, the corded buckle, the
snail back, and many others.
[Illustration: BEAU FIELDING.
_After Wissing._]
"The Judge," says Fortescue, "while he sitteth in the King's Courts,
weareth a white quoife of silke, which is the principal and chiefe
insignement of habite wherewith Sergeants-at-lawe are dekked, and
neither the Justice nor the Sergeant shall ever put off the quoife, no,
not in the King's presence, though he bee in talke with his majestie's
highnesse."
The coif-cap is still worn on occasions when the Judge passes sentence
of death, but with the colour changed to black, the cap being worn over
the wig.
Samuel Rogers in his "Table Talk" tells a good story of Lord
Ellenborough's wig. On one occasion when the distinguished Judge
was about to go on circuit, his Lady intimated that she would like
to accompany him. He replied that he had no objection, provided she
did not encumber the carriage with band-boxes, which were his utter
abhorrence. During the first day's journey, happening to stretch
his legs, he struck his foot against something below the seat, and
discovered that it was one of the detested band-boxes. Up went the
window, and out went the band-box. The coachman stopped, and the
footman, thinking that the band-box had tumbled out of the window
by some extraordinary chance, was about to pick it up. "Drive on!"
thundered his lordship. The band-box was accordingly left by the
ditch. Upon his arrival at the court at which he was to officiate, and
arraying himself for his appearance at the court-house, "Now," said
he, "where's my wig?--where _is_ my wig?" "My lord," replied the
attendant, "it was thrown out of the carriage window!"
[Illustration: PORTRAIT OF THE PAINTER HYACINTHE RIGAUD.]
From 1770 onwards was the period of the highest blossoming of feminine
head-gear. The bodies of these enormous creations were formed of tow,
over which the hair was drawn in great curls, rolls, bobs, &c., with
false hair added, the whole freely plastered over with powder, pomatum,
&c., decorated with huge bows, ribbons, feathers, and flowers.
In the "Macaroni Dialogue"--a colloquy between Sir Harry Dimple and
Lady Betty Frisky--in the _Lady's Magazine_, iv. 1773, which is
illustrated by a picture of a lady and gentleman discussing with great
animation the merits of the male and female costumes of this period, in
which they are clad, the gentleman is presenting to the lady a nosegay,
and she invites his interest in the excessively lofty coiffure which
she is wearing.