BACK TO BEARDS?

Evening Post, Volume CXX, Issue 144, 14 December 1935, Page 15

BACK TO BEARDS?

A SWING IN FASHION

ASPECTS OF THEIR HISTORY

SYMBOL OF MANHOOD

There has been some discussion ■in American newspapers '■ regarding the possibility of the return of the beard in that country, says a -writer in the "Melbourne Age." The experience of England over the centuries is that beards come and 'go' as fashion dictates, but the Americans are the most clean-shaven nation in the world, and their country will probably be the last stronghold of the safety razor should fashion attempt, to revive the beard. Moreover, the s vested interests represented by the manufacturers "6f razors and shaving; soaps, as,well, as the barbers, would probably combine in a campaign to ridicule the beard through the medium of the newspapers, the stage, and the radio. Beards and whiskers went out of fashion- in the United States shortly after the Civil War, which dates back seventy years. In Anglo-Saxon times in England beards were in fashion, but William the Conquerer was clean-shaven. Henry 111 is the first Norman king 'depicted with a nice curled beard, but it was not until the reign of Elizabeth that beards became an object of tender attention by their owners.' George Killingworthe,' who went to Russia as Elizabeth's agent, had a thick, broad, yellow beard which was five, feet: two inches long. The . courtiers, soldiers, lawyers, and merchants of Elizabeth's reign wore beards. They dyed them, curled them With' irons and quills, dusted them with oris powder and sprayed them with scent. ' BOTTOM'S VIEW. In "Midsummer Night's' Dream" Bottom the Weaver satirises the custom of dyeing beards when he'undertakes to play Pyramus, and asks, "What beard were I best to play-it in? I will discharge it in either your straw-colour-ed beard, your Orange-tawny • beard, your purple-in-grain ; beard, or your French coloured beard." -Trimmed beards were the fashion in the'reign of Elizabeth's successor, James I; but in the time of Charles: I the cheeks were shaved, and the hair on the face was limited to the upper lip, where it was turned upwards, and on the chin, where it grew downward to a point. In the Bestoration. period under Charles II young men were clean-shaven,, but the Merry Monarch wore'a slight moustache and close-clipped .whiskers on his cheeks. His brother, James 11, was clean-shaven. Samuel Pepys, who was Secretary to the Navy in the time of Charles 11, wore a. beard in his early years, but in 1662, when he was in his thirty-first year, he began, to shave —with a piece of pumice stone. He records in his diary on Sunday, May 25, 1662: "To trimming myself, which I have this week done every morning with a pummice stone, which I learnt from Mr. Marsh when I was last at Portsmouth, and I find it very easy, speedy, and shall continue the practice of it." Eight months later he. began shaving himself with a razor, "which pleases me mightily." But his experience was no different from that vi anybody else, for .a.few days later he :cdmplains of having cut himself twice,, and declares that the*"razor was > blunt.' .CHANGING FASHIONS. By the time of QueenfAnne, cleanshaven faces were the rule in England, and anyone seen with a rrioustache was, picked out as a foreigner. Only Jews and Turks wore beards, which had become an object of scorn. But when wigs, went out of fashion beards came, back again. Early in the nineteenth century the'bucks began to show a patch of whiskers on the cheeks below the ears, and soldiers wore moustaches. Tlie cavalry, officers of Wellington's army wore moutaches, but they regarded civilians • who copied them as guilty of offensive swagger. After the Crimean. War English army officers who had.served, there returned with beards, arid a.taste for cigar- x cttes. When the Volunteer movement spread over England and eVery man became a soldier, moustaches1 .became general, and were supplemented ■by long drooping whiskers, but chins were clean-shaven. The Prince Consort wore a moustache as a'young, man, .arid added whiskers in nisi later years. :When the yoifng.Queen. Victoria' fell, in love with him, she wrote with approval about his "delicate moustachios, and slight, but very slight' whiskers." Kirig.Edward VII wore a moustache ,and trimmed beard, and this custom ha 3 been followed by his son, George V. The trimmed beard arid moustache are favoured by other British Admirals as well as his Majesty. It is of interest to note that whereas custom demands that British sailors must be either clean-shaven or bearded, army officers are encouraged to wear the moustache. ■■ ■ '■■? • LAST IN EUROPE. .Leopold II of Belgium, who died in 1909, was the, last European, king to wear an undipped beard. The Emperor Francis Joseph of Austria-Hun-gary, who died during the Great .War, after a reign of sixty-eight 'years, wore a moustache and side whiskers, in conformity with a fashion that had gobe out in the sixties of last century. The Presidents of France have always been bearded. In fact France is still a country of beards,'for clean-shaving is rare except among members of the theatrical profession. But the "Imperial" beard of the Second Empire,! j and the pointed waxed moustache which are so characteristic of the { Frenchman on the English stage, have t lorig been out of fashion in France. ( Among Oriental nations the beard ' has long been regarded as a symbol of J manhood, strength, venerability, or j wisdom.- Adam, Abraham, and the Bib- t lical prophets are' all' depicted with ( beards. The ancient Jews wore flowing 1 beards and were strictly forbidden to c cut or trim them. ..When David sent { envoys to Hanun, King of the Am- ( monites, they were thought to be spies, 1 and were treated with ignomy. Half E of their beards were.shaven off, and being, forbidden to touch the other "}. half, they were a laughing stock. David I sent them to Jericho with instructions t to stay there until their beards''grew, 1 before returning to their homes. j The rulers of Assyria wore their t beards elaborately curled, and the ancient Kings of Persia interwove t theirs with gold thread. " We' ancient c Egyptians were usually . clean-shaven, ] but allowed beards to gro\y as a sign t of mourning, and on occasions they r wore false beards. . , 1 MARK OF PHILOSOPHER. l The ancient Greeks were 'bearded. A , flowing beard was the mark of a philo- j sopher in ancient Greece, and Zeus and the Homeric heroeS "we're" ddpictefi { with beards. Alexander the Great j abolished beards from his army, as af- j fording handles for : the enemy! but j they came in again under the Emperor s Justinian, arid lasted till the'taking of i Constantinople in 1453. .. f The-Romans, did not shave until 1 about 300 8.C., when Sicilian barbers t were brought to Rome. Scipio Afri- r . canus is said by Pliny; to have been 1