The Sun.
London, England, 1826-07-08 00:00:00

BARBERS.

Humble and insignificant as is this unfortunate class
of tradesmen hi these days of refinement, yet there
was a time when members of this guild held their heads
as high as their more fortunate brethren in trade, and
claimed to rank not only on equality with, but even
before surgeons and physicians, and those who were
cunning to use the mystery of Fysyk." -Not only in
point of rank were the Bathers a worshipful company,
but their approximation to the persons of Kings and
Emperors,. and other great men, and the familiarity
which no doubt they ever and anon held witl►
their patients; whilst they
.re 140,140: Aug th►e ton-
sorial operation, all contributed to add mightily to
their influence, and raise their trade or profession, in

the eyes of courtiers and sense, of the vulgar
also. Alas ! how are the mighty fallen--be-
hold them now rejected and scorned ; tripping like
lamplighters,, through the streets, and flitting like
ghosts,. so rapid and salight their. movements, from
house'to house, in search of chins to reap or heads to
Mow'. contrast is, in truth, :lamentable enough.
Their present lot compared with that of by-gone days,
is wretchedness personified, for the change has brought
not only disrepute, but a lack of gold-not. only a ces-
sation of their influence,' but a cessation of their
.
profit§,ialso. Look at.the physician in his varnished
pill-box,,--look at the surgeon—the dentist—nay, even
the ebiropedist, and every member of every branch. of
the " mystery of fysyk, rolling in heaps of gold,
swaying and influencing 'monarchs and lords, and
bearing their.honours not with meekness and humili-
ty., but with all the pride and arrogance of wealth
allied to a full consciousness of their own importance
in the scale of society. Alas !, my barbers Lilo* are
the mighty fallen !
in the year 1540, an Act was passed for uniting
the two companies of barbers and surgeons ; but which
were again disunited in the 18th year of the late King.
The connection of a barber with a medical profession
was, however, for mostthe part confined to the sur-
geons, between whom physicians there has always
been a grand distinction, and which ha 4 been carried
so far as to produce very serious misunderstandings,
tni was the case in France, when the physicians revenged
themselves,
by supporting the barbers, in their quar-
relsilv with the sans. Of the importance of the bar-
bers in former tunes, and the influence they exerdsed
in the state, very many examples occur in history, and
as an instance, we select the following :—Trypho was
barber to Herod, King of the Jews, and excited the
suspicions and jealousy of that tyrant, by accusing one
Tero, tot old and faithfulTsoldier of the King, of a
design to slay the King, and set 'Alexander, the King's
son, in his stead. The Son of rero was extremely
mate with Alexander, and Trypho accused him (Tero)
of endeavouring to persuade him to cut the King's throat
with his razor when he trimmed him.* in consa-
Auenee of which Teri) anti his San were' racked, and
afterwards, on the evidence so extorted, put to death,
together with Trypho himself, who thus fell a righteous
victim to his own machinations. Barbers in France
generally attended, and were in fact the surgeons of
the. army, and alwaya followed it wl4thersoever it
marched ; and moreover, it should seem that this
worshipful company of barbers have always been more
'highly respected amongst
.the.. French than here in
England.. Glorieux comme tot burbler is even 110 W
'a trench saying, But in England they were'not alto-
gether
iernwsittrhi :int:
ert
itti,eeirnthitlentr rs, for Rhymer git Yes
barbitonsore Reois
a copy
of
by which it appears that d; King's palace iri the
time
of Henry Vl..tivas surrounded with little shops, which
were entirely untleithe eontroul of the Kings D
Barber,
assisted by the Clerk of the [awry.
Into these little
shot* the courtiers
used
to go' to
.be dressed before
they appeared in the pre'sence of their Sovereign for,
in those days the streets being dirty, and there being

t aware, that even in this day
___
' *., 'erhaps.all our readers are !.10
~ ,
linen an nifiktei, is punishable by floc if committed at the time a
loan it being sthaved. To ,iugge.t the Passibility that the shaver
could, if he liked it, (a the throat of the alio'f.c. at au(ih a time,
subjects the offea4r tt, a line of half-a-clown by the the ilthes of
the tuft,