FAMOUS NOSES

Evening Post, Volume CVI, Issue 36, 11 August 1923, Page 14

FAMOUS NOSES

THEIR PART IN PAST HISTORY.

"If Cleopatra's nose had been shorter," observes Pascal in one of his Pensees, "the whole face of the world would have been changed. 1 On Caesar's death the cold and calculating Octavian and Antony, "Given to sport, to witness and much company " had practically divided the Human world between - them; Octavian took 2 V6.? 1 a"* Antony the East, upon whose threshold he met the fatal and fascinating"• Cleopatra. -.. From her thrall he never escaped.' She made hmi dream, of founding an Eastern r™ '" ■A a"lim should «™i Borne; with Cleopatra for his empress he would found a dynasty; he legitimised the children she bore^him, 11 ii? *. wIU, endowed them with whole kingdoms that belonged to Some; lie collected an army of 100,000 Asiatics and by celebrating, at Alexandria a Iriumph" he mocked and usurped tis Provlncial town the prerogative of the Imperial capital. ; If Cleonatra Had possessed a snub nose like Socrates Antony might never have fallen in love with her (writes Captain Kenneth i-yon in "John o' London's Weekly") ■ he might have remained a faithful husband and colleague and with Octavlan restored the ancient glory of the Eoman Republic, and Gibbon would never have had to write "The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire " Stranger still is the reflection that Henry VIII.'s unhallowed delight in the pretty profile of Annie Boleyn silhouetted against the sunshine on the terrace of Heaver Castle, actually proved a blow for the Reformation and the occasion of the emancipation of England from the spiritual - domination of Rome. And men's'noses as well as women's have played, their part in history. It was Napoleon v;ho said that when he wanted good head work, he always chose a man, if otherwise suitable, with a long nose.