The Progress. [volume] (White Earth, Minn.) 1886-1889, 1888-03-10

At the same period, it was held that
the highest degree of spite or malice
which could be offered to an enemy
consisted not only in cutting off the
head but afterward in shaving the beard
and fixing the mouth in grin. A
similar sentiment of disgrace attached,
at somewhat later period, to any at
tempt to pull the beard, SO we find a
note in Grey's "Hudibras:' Ito
pull the devil by the beard, a common
saying in England" The being pulled
by the beard in Spain is deemed as
dishonorable as being kicked in En-
gland. Archbishop Laud, when adj
vised to make his escape. replied: IF
I should get into Holland I should
have every Anabaptist come and pull
me by the beard.''
The expression to beard a person
that is, to affront him or to set HIM at
deiance-is illustrated by the words
in Shakspeare's King Henry w., Part
l., act l.: IL beard thee to thy face"
For this the French expression was
fare la 6ar6e quelqu'ua; and in Italy
it was said, ia la 6arbe ad uno. 1t is
difficult to ascertain when the very
personal custom of pulling the nose
superseded that of pulling the beard;
but it most probably was adopted as
sufficiently strong equivalent. when
the chin became naked and close
shaven, and 50 afforded no handle for
an intended insult. In the reign of
James II. as much as ESQ. 600 was paid
by William Cavendish, Earl of Devon
shire, for this treatment of a person at
court.
That there may be an element of
danger in the beard we gather from a
story, given in ''Plutarch's Lives" of
Alexander. who caused his Macedonian
soldiers to be clipped. lest their enc
mics should make use of their boards
as handles in the fight. Caesar has left
it upon record that ancient Britons
wore no boards, though they allowed
hair to grow upon the upper lip; and
Strabo bears testimony of an opposite
sort, writing of Scilly islanders in his
time. whose custom it was to grow
boards, goat fashion, in point below
the chin.
A strong proof of the value set upon
this part of their personal adornment
by men is found in the fact that, when
the Normans sought to compel the En-
glish to shave, as they did themselves,
many chose rather to abandon their
country than to lose their whiskers.
That this form OF pride was not con-
fined to comparatively modern days
we know from St. Chrysostom, who
tells us that Persian Kings wore long
boards interw oven with golden threads,
while slaves in the same country were
shaved as a sign of servitude.
The argument commonly adopted by
those who do not shave is that mature
knows best;' and although many in
all ages have ignored this maxim, or
contradicted it by removing more or
less'the hairs upon their face it seems
to have occurred to none, except to
that most subtle race, the Chinese, to
supplement- the gifts of nature and to
attach with considerable skill false
tufts of hair to the smooth surface of
their chins.
Some humors of the beard may be
gathered from early sources. In
"Epigrams for the Muses. Recreation"
1910, we find:
''Thy beard is long, better it would thee fit,
To have shorter beard and longer wit"
That the large and profuse beard. as
worn by Cramer, Knox, Cardinal Pole
and others, was much ridiculed by
writer's of the Sixteenth Century, we
find in a play of that date:
| IA dozen OF boards
And in Decker's "Gull's Horn
Book" 1909. we read of boards Ito
stuff breaches and tennis balls" While
Shakespeare makes similar sportive
allusion in Coriolanus, act ii, scene 2:
land your beard deserve not so hon.
orable a grave as to stuff botchers
cushion or to be entombed in an ass's
pack-saddle. AS akin to this we
may quote from another play the
words: "All my mistress lines that
she dries her clothes on are only made
of mustachio stuff. "-INslstrated Lon-
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