CHAP. III.Of someshaved Chins.

IT is a disgrace to man to have the most conspicuous mark of his virility taken off; to pretend that it becomes him to look like a woman, an eunuch, or a child, is the height of folly and ridiculousness. Even if this truth were not constantly supported by the will of nature, the opinion of all the most respectable characters of antiquity should be sufficient to establish it for ever among all nations, and this is what I would fain persuade my countrymen of.

A shaved chin was always a sign of slavery, infamy, or debauchery. Diogenes asked those he saw without beards, if they had not changed their sex, and were dissatisfied at being men. The loss of the beard, among a great many nations, was always accompanied by banishment. All the fathers of the church exclaimed against this shameful abuse, and always regarded a shaved chin as the effect of the vilest licentiousness.

The example of Alexander, no doubt, will be alleged against me, who, before the battle of Ardela, had all his soldiers shaved. I shall answer, that he never shaved himself, but constantly wore this characteristical mark of his valour, and that, if he ordered his soldiers’ faces to be trimmed, it was only, as Plutarch says, for fear the enemy should seize them by the beard.

I know very well too, that Scipio Africanus was the first Roman who daily used a razor, and that this mode was brought from Sicily to Italy by P. Ticinius, who brought with him a troop of barbers. But it is good to know, as Pliny very judiciously remarks, that, of all the nations that then consented to cut off their beards, the Romans were the last that yielded to this effeminate custom.[26]This proves nothing more, than that luxury began to be predominant at Rome, and that luxury perverts every thing. Moreover, these particular cases should be reckoned among transient errors, which, being dissipated, give to truth an additional lustre.

26.Plin.Hist. nat. lib. vii, cap. 60.

Let us take a view of a period less remote, which, interesting us more, will shew the value of a beard, the disgrace of a shaved face, and the mischiefs that have been the consequence of it.

In the beginning of the French monarchy, Clotarius II. having a mind to appoint a Governor to his son Dagobert, chose Sadregesile, a man very learned for his time; he loaded him with honours, and created him duke of Aquitaine; and the new duke spared no pains to instruct his pupil; but it seemed the latter no more answered the intention of the king his father, than the lessons of his governor. The wild unruly character of the princes of those times must necessarily have submitted with difficulty to the will of master. Dagobert would not long endure the constraint which the duty of his education laid him under. He considered reprimands as so many outrages. Hatred and vengeance took possession of his proud heart, and soon broke out to attack Sadregesile.

One day when king Clotarius was a hunting, young Dagobert invited his governor to dinner. The prince, feigning during the repast, to act without ceremony, (say the chronicles of France,)presented him the cup to drink, with three. This was a snare which the duke of Aquitaine never dreamed of. He received the cup with a confident air: and this was a crime.And he, who was deserving of punishment, took it from his hand, not as it ought to be taken from a person of great consequence, but as it is customary to take it from an equal.The author of these same chronicles, who was not a contemporary however, does not fail, as may be perceived, to condemn Sadregesile, for having accepted the cup, and to justify Dagobert who had presented it to himwith three. Without doubt he did not observe, in receiving it, all the ceremony which the etiquette of the court in those days required. This slight want of respect, or rather this liberty, was made a pretext by Dagobert for revenge. After having called Sadregesile all manner of names, and had him beaten by his servants, the young prince, hurried away by his rage, without regarding the age of his governor, or the authority with which he was invested, not even his title of duke of Aquitaine, rushed upon him and cut off his beard with his knife. Some other chronicles which relate the same affair, add likewise this bad treatment.PrinceDagobert took him by the beard, and with his knife, which he held in his hand, cut it so close, that he cut off a piece of his chin with it.

The two authors, who agree in relating the same affair, were well persuaded, that the abuse and the blows, which the duke of Aquitaine received, hurt his feelings much less than the loss of his beard. This is the reason of their laying more stress on the latter.In those days, says one of them,it was the greatest affront and disgrace a man could receive, to have his beard cut off.

Clotarius, on his return from hunting, was far from applauding his son’s conduct.The king was greatly enraged.The young Dagobert, to avoid the just indignation of his father, fled for refuge to thechapel of the Martyrs, now called the church of St. Denis. In vain did the king send serjeants to take him from thence: the writers, who relate this affair, assert that God worked a miracle in favour of this young rebel; they say, that all the men the king sent were stopped on the road by adivine power. Be that as it may, this miracle had no effect on Clotarius; for he never pardoned his son’s cutting off the beard of his governor.The king was so enraged, say the same chronicles,that he never forgave this offence.

It should be observed, that what was at the same time a mark of infamy, became, in other circumstances, the seal of confidence and fidelity. When a sovereign took a vassal or an ally under his protection, he cut off his beard. This was a sort of adoption which conferred on the person the title of son. The nobles of Spoleta voluntarily submitted to this usage, after they had refused to succour Didier against Charlemain; they set out immediately for Rome, and came and put themselves under the protection of the pope; and as a proof of their constant fidelity, they left their beards in his holiness’s hands.

This ceremony was looked upon as sacred by the contracting parties; and when any one had promised to adopt another and to cut off his beard, the greatest rascal breathing would be afraid to break his word, and what happened to Tasson, duke of Frejus, is a proof of it. Gregory, patrician of the Romans, being desirous to discharge a sum which he was obliged to pay the dukes of Frejus, drew the young Tasson to Oderzo, a town on the borders of Trevisannah, under the specious pretext of adopting him for his son by cutting off his beard. Tasson came without suspicion; but he was no sooner entered the town with his retinue, than Gregory ordered the gates to be shut, and immediately sent soldiers to attack him. Tasson, accompanied by his little troop, defended himself with great courage, and killed a great many Romans; but at length he was overcome by number. Then the traitor, Gregory, ordered the head of the young duke to be brought him; and, to prevent his appearing to have broken his oath, he cut off his beard, as he had promised.[27]

27.Pauli Warnefridi Longobardi filii, Diaconi Forojulliensis, de gestis Longobardorum.Lib. vi. cap. 11.

The same usage had been observed a long time before; but, in the ceremony, touching the beard, instead of cutting it off, was thought sufficient. It was then held in higher respect. Clovis, king of France, sent deputies to Alaric, king of the Goths, to treat with him, and entreat the favour of him to come and touch his beard, and at the same time to adopt him as his son.[28]

28.Aimonius, Fragment. de Clod. & Alar. Regibus.

The beard has met with its tyrants; the Latin church furnishes a great number. Charlemain deserved this title when he absolutely refused to let the Beneventians have Grimoald for duke, unless he obliged the Lombards to shave.[29]But no sooner was this same Charlemain emperor of the West, than he adopted the Roman beard.[30]Circumstances change every thing.

29.Paul Diacre says, the Lombards derive their name from the length of their beard. He adds, that, according to the idiom of the country,langsignifies longam, andbaertbarbam. Lib. i. cap. 9.

30.His beard is carefully preserved at Spire.

Since William the Conqueror, who robbed the English of their beards with their liberty, history does not furnish us with any relation of this kind more poignant, than that of Lewis the Young, king of France.

This king, in the war which he carried on against Theobald count of Champaign, having taken Vitri by storm,burnt three thousand five hundred inhabitants, who had taken shelter in the church, says Mezerai,as a sacred asylum. He soon repented of this cruelty; and, by way of making some atonement, he, at the instigation of the clergy, consented to cut off his beard. His austere deportment and shaved chin greatly displeased his young wife Eleanor, the daughter of the duke of Aquitaine; she murmured against this ridiculous custom, and often reproached her husband, with looking much more like a monk than a king.

If Lewis the Young’s shaved chin had caused nothing more than the dislike of the young queen, the mischief would have been trifling; but several historians assert, that it was the first cause of that inextinguishable hatred which has so long divided England and France. The following is the account they give of it.

Saint Bernard, spurred on by pope Eugene III. his old disciple, took advantage of the religious disposition of the king of France, to persuade him, that nothing but the undertaking of a second crusade could appease the wrath of God. The penitent monarch, who had not hesitated to let himself be shaved, was as easily prevailed on to depart for Palestine. Eleanor, whether through curiosity, duty, or to divert the uneasiness of mind which the continual absence of her husband caused her, resolved to accompany him.

After the misfortunes with which this war was attended, the devout prince met with one that affected his heart much nearer; he perceived that his shaved chin had entirely alienated from him the affections of Eleanor, and that this wife, expressing every day her liking for long beards, listened with attention to the amorous assiduities of Raymund, prince of Antioch, her paternal uncle. They add, moreover, that a young Turk, called Saladin, uncommonly handsome, and endowed, no doubt, with a notable beard, likewise made this princess forget the fatigues of this long and unfortunate campaign.

Lewis the Young returned from Syria, still shaved, and, moreover, vanquished: too certain of Eleanor’s infidelity, in the rage of his jealousy, he assembled a council at Beaugency, where, spite of the prudent and pacific advice of his minister, (abbot Suger,) he had his marriage set aside, under pretext of consanguinity.

Eleanor, six weeks after her repudiation, married Henry, count of Anjou and duke of Normandy, who was afterwards Henry II. king of England. The French king saw with chagrin this new monarch, his vassal, in possession of his wife and the provinces which composed her dowry; he declared war against him; and this is the foundation of that destructive rivality which has so long troubled England and France. Who would have thought that the cutting off of a beard, six hundred years since, should have been the cause of a war the flames of which are scarcely extinguished, and which not long since set a great part of our globe in blaze.[31]

31.“This woman (Eleanor)” says Mezerai, “consummate in all sorts of wickedness, lived more than eighty years, kept up a war for more than sixty years, and left a hatred, between France and England, which has lasted more than three centuries.”

The Templars, that order of monks and soldiers, who had the faults of both, wore their beards like the Orientals. Philip the Handsome, king of France, thought it advisable to destroy these religious soldiers, and to have a great number of them burnt. Their execution was preceded by cutting off their beards, either to disgrace them more, or to deprive them of that grave imposing air which it gave them.

Soldiers and princes were not the only ones for whom a shaved chin was a mark of infamy: philosophers and learned men have always abhorred these naked faces. Paul Jove, in his elogy of Francis Filelfo, relates a trifling event which proves how much the learned of those days valued their beards. A violent dispute arose between the Italian, Filelfo, and a Greek professor called Timothy; the question was, whether a certain Greek syllable were long or short. Things were carried to such a height, that Filelfo waged a considerable sum, and Timothy his long beard. The affair was at length decided. Timothy was declared vanquished; and, to save his beard, which he had just lost, he made Filelfo very advantageous offers; but the latter, inexorable, would have nothing but the beard he had won: he insisted on having the unfortunate Timothy shaved, and retained the spoils of his adversary’s chin as a monument of his victory.

When, by an event which has been already related, Francis I. introduced the mode of long beards into France, the parliaments and all the lawyers stood up against this ornament so suitable to the gravity of their functions: all the magistrates shaved, while the young men of fashion, and all the court, appeared with a venerable beard. This contrast in dress lasted longer than it ought to, through the obstinacy of the lawyers. The self-importance which they shewed in this sort of contest, is one of those lineaments of character which the philosophical observer should not let escape him.

The rapid progress which this mode of long beards daily made, soon alarmed the members of the parliament of Paris; they thought it highly necessary to stop the progress of such a dangerous usage: being thoroughly persuaded that it was essential towards magisterial gravity to be constantly shaved, they made a law, in 1535, commonly called in those daysthe edict of beards, by which all magistrates and lawyers, even litigants, were absolutely forbidden to appear in the Justice-hall with a long beard.

Francis Olivier, a man of the court, who was afterwards chancellor, experienced all the hatred that the parliament had for long beards, when he presented himself to be admitted to the charge of master of requests: he was at first refused, for the sole reason of not being shaved. Notwithstanding the pressing solicitations of our candidate, the parliament was inflexible, and Francis Olivier was obliged to sacrifice his long beard to his interest, or rather to the childish prejudice of that court.

The parliament of Toulouse distinguished itself likewise, by pronouncing a decree which expressly forbade the wearing long beards. A gentleman wanted to solicit in this court without complying with this unfashionable ordinance; the parliament replied very seriously to him, that he should have justice done him when he should be shaved.[32]

32.Gentien Hervet,de redendâ barbâ oratio.

There were neither attorneys nor counsellors in the sovereign courts of justice that could presume to appear in court on St. Martin’s day, with a long beard, without incurring a fine; and this was observed likewise in the inferior jurisdictions.These are the words of a writer nearly contemporary: he adds likewise, that it was highly necessary to be careful how one came to present a request without being shaved first.Such-a-one would have been finely snubbed, says he,who should have come with a long beard to present a request, so much so, that whoever wanted to present one, readily put his beard in his sleeve.[33]

33.Pogonologie, ou Discours facétieux des Barbes. I am surprised, says the author of this work,at the ordinance of a certain magistrate, who commanded all the millers of his district to cut off their beards.

An advocate at the parliament of Paris was a victim to this rigorous antipathy. They relate, that having presented himself in the hall to plead a cause with a long beard, Peter Lizet, the first president, ordered him, in open court, to cut it off immediately, or else the parliament would refuse to hear him. The advocate was obliged to obey this tyrannical order.Tome 2. des Memoires de Litérature de Salengre.

Fortunately, these unmerciful enemies of bearded chins were unable to exercise their persecution but over the small number of people dependant upon them; they would have shaved all the French, if the nation would have let them to. But this rage for disbearding insensibly died away, and, in a little time, these enemies of toleration complied with the usage which they had endeavoured to proscribe: so, this sort of league among the magistrates against the beards of the French was attended with no disagreeable consequences.

Things are very different when similar whims enter the brain of despots. The two following relations will prove what ravages a razor in their hands may cause.

Chardin relates, that a minister of the king of Persia, a scrupulous observer of the law of Mahomet, wore in consequence a long beard which he had very white. It was not the fashion to be so religious at the court: the courtiers were satisfied with long whiskers, which they could turn up under their ears; but they wore very short beards. The king was shocked that his minister did not follow this mode, but obstinately persisted to wear a long beard. In a drunken moment, he sent for a barber, and ordered him to cut it off immediately. The minister, who was obliged to submit to this rigorous order, begged the operator not to cut so near the skin; but the king, perceiving that he was badly obeyed, fell into such a rage, that he ordered the barber’s hand to be cut off immediately.

The czar Peter, who had so many claims to the surname ofGreat, seems to have been but little worthy of it on this occasion. He had the boldness to lay a tax on the beards of his subjects. He ordered, that the noblemen and gentlemen, tradesmen, and artisans (the priests and peasants[34]excepted,) should pay a hundred rubles, to be able to retain their beards; that the lower class of people should pay a copeck for the same liberty, and he established clerks at the gates of the different towns, to collect these duties. Such a new and singular impost troubled the vast empire of Russia. Both religion and manners were thought in danger. Complaints were heard from all parts; they even went so far as to write libels against the sovereign; but he was inflexible, and, at that time, powerful. Even the fatal scenes ofSt. Bartholomewwere renewed against these unfortunate beards, and the most unlawful violences were publicly exercised. The razor and scissars were every where made use of. A great number, to avoid these cruel extremities, obeyed with reluctant sighs. Some of them carefully preserved the sad trimmings of their chins, and, in order to be never separated from these dear locks, ordered that they should be placed with them in their coffins. Oh! Peter the Great, John James was very right, you did not possess true genius![35]

34.The priests and peasants of Russia still wear their beards.

35.SeeDu Contrat Socialof John James Rousseau. Voltaire has censured this assertion.

Example, more powerful than authority, produced, in Spain, what it had not been able to bring about in Russia without great difficulty. Philip V. ascended the throne with a shaved chin. The courtiers imitated the prince, and the people, in turn, the courtiers. However, though this revolution was brought about without violence and by degrees, it caused much lamentation and murmuring: the gravity of the Spaniards lost by the change. The favourite custom of a nation can never be altered without incurring displeasure. They have this old saying in Spain:Desde que no hay barba, no hay mas alma. Since we lost our beards, we have no more souls.

Well, it’s now a whole century since we wore beards. Have we gained by the change? This well merits an investigation. The Spanish proverb, which might very well be applied to us, seems to account justly for our state of abasement. If, as a modern philosopher said,stupor reigns, it is, no doubt, because we no longer wear our beards. But let us console ourselves; the source of these evils is nearly dried up. The fashion of long beards is on the point of being renewed, an epoch which I pronounce to be nearer than people think. All our present fashions and customs are nothing more than old ones revived, and which will disappear in their turn. The revolution is just at an end: the rapidity of our changes has accelerated its course, and a new reign is at hand. You pretty fellows of the present day, Jemmy-Jessamy parsons, jolly bucks, and all you with smock-faces and weak nerves, be dumb with astonishment, I foretel it, you will soon resemble men.

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