GENTLEMEN PREFER BLONDES

Evening Star, Issue 19614, 21 July 1927, Page 12

GENTLEMEN PREFER BLONDES

A PEEP INTO HISTORY [By W. B. Sedgwick, in the ‘ English .Review. ] In live history of morals a prominent place is claimed by the vagaries of feminine fashion,, and of all fashions tlio.se connected \vith the hair would seem to demand first notice; yet, though the dressing and ornamentation of the hair have received some attention, perhaps because the church lias deemed them not beneath her notice, the actual color of the hair still awaits its Lccky or Toufoisdrockh. If, however, the Muse of History considers the subject beneath her dignity, journalism, having no muse, may perlians so fa- sacrifice dignity as to dwell awhile on this frivolous topic.

Xo doubt there wore blondes ante Agamemnon, but, lacking their sacred bard, they have passed into oblivion. In Homer, Menelans, Achilles, and Ulysses are all described as blond while Achilles’s son, Pyrrhus, derived his name from his ‘'fiery” hair—a name clung to with pride by kings who claimed descent from Ills house. It seems a reasonable inference that blond hair was prized as distinguishing the northern conquerors Dorn the subjugated “ Mediterranean ” stock, dark ml short—an inference which is imported by the other distinguishing nature of the heroic race, malo and female, namely, tallness; lienee the recurring formula tall and brave,” hence Ulysses’s flattering reference to the tallness of Xausicaa among her maidens, hence the action of Athena in adding to Ulysses’s own stature when she intends him to dazzle (though here the poet strangely forgets that* Ulysses’s hair is elsewhere light, ancj makes it dark). _ The theory of race-distinction would also explain' the Egyptian custom, referred to bv Greek writers, of sacrificing the red-haired, _ including dogs, to Osiris; for the object of such regulations is generally to ensure that the victim shall belong to an alien race. To return to the Greeks, wo find that in historical times the blond typo had become rare; it seems to be a, tact that, whenever there is an intermixture of race, the Mediterranean stock eventually predominates and the blond type gradually disappears, although favored in soxuul selection. But by the fifth century u.c. the circumstances i>ad changed, so far from being a sign ■){ noble birth, blond hair had come to indicate servile origin. In earliest Limes slaves (Garians, Lydians, etc.) Tul come from Asia Minor, but with the expansion of Athens in the north and her alliance with northern kings a fresh source of supply was opened out, and the Macedonian kings now engaged u a lucrative trade with Athens in the slaves procured in the raids which they, dignified with the name of wars of expansion. Scythians were regularly employed as police, and Thracian maids earao to be so common that the name became generic to a domestic servant. Many slave were simply called by their tribal names, Geta (Goth), Dams (a northern tribe), etc. _ The northern origin of others is indicated by the very common names ol Pyrrhias ■'Birria), Xanthias, etc., referring to their blond hair. (It is hard to distinguish both in Greek and Latin hel ,ween “ light” and “ red ” hair, owing I io the vagueness of their adjectives of I color;' so that blond can nowhere be understood to exclude red). The best evidence conies from comedy, particularly the domestic Xcw Comedy (comedy of manners), which survives in the translations of Plautus and Terence. Hero we find that the and Terence. Hree we find that the stock character of the tricky, thievish slave had a stock mask, of which the most characteristic feature was its shock of red hair; and thus slaves arc often verbally described in the extant [days, for instance, the Pscudolus of Plautus, the most notable example of rhe type, and the most famous part of the greatest of comic actors, Roscius. It is to be remembered that the life depicted in Roman comedy is entirely Greek. Corroborative evidence of the prevalence of slaves from the north comes from an unexpected quarter. By a lucky accident fortune has preserved for us (in an inscription) the inventory of the confiscated property of those conlemned in the great scandal of the Mutilation of the Herraae (415 8.C.). \mong other interesting items (including the bedroom furniture of _ Aid'd ades) we have an incomplete list of Hie slaves of a well-to-do citizen, Sophisoclorus; it contains five Thracians ■ two males, three females), two Illyrians, one Scythian, and seven Orientals (including two expensive Syrians and two children). In the Classical Age of Greece, females who affected blond hair usually belonged to the courtesan class, the ancient equivalent of 0. Henry s ‘ peroxide Junes.” (I'nr how many feminine fashions are wo indebted to the demi-monde!) The secluded matron of Athenian life would, if wo may judge from comedy, be veiy chary of emulating them; gentlemen no doubt preferred blondes, but then wives looked askance-at them Similarly among the Romans the fashion of blond hair first became widespread with the growing license ol women towards the end of the Republic, having been previously associated with the courtesan class; but it was still frowned on by the puritanical. .Haves now conic chiefly froin the _Ea«t there was no longer any social stigma attached to blond hair as a sign ol nice. So with regard 'to the , hhnd lock of the unhappy Dido, cut off by Iris, Servins (fourtli century, A.n.l assures us that Virgil intended it as a reflection on her character (biiic ergo datur quasi turpi), for “blond hair was never given to matrons, bjit black.” But this, I for one reln.se to behevo, of Virgil. About the same time wo find the common use ol the wig (ealienclruni, galenas), though attacked by satirists ami associated with prostitutes: thus in Horace the hag Sagana wears one wine l, comes to grief. But in spite * its associations the fashion Inn. come to stay. .Similarly, in Venice the glorious red hair of Titian’s courtesans was ■ envied and imitated by more honest women ; hence the importation of the blond tresses of the German women became a staple trade under the Empire—a custom from which Martial contrives to extract a pretty compliment: These locks 1 send from realms of northern cold; See, Lesbia, how your own outshines their gold.

Lower Germany also supplied a kind of soap dyo known as Dutch Foam (spuma Batava). whic.li was intended to impart a golden tint. With German herbs grey hair is now concealed, And thus to Art Nature is made to yield. says Ovid, while the Elder Pliny is full of recipes for hair dyes, which were known oven to old Cato—“ ashes,” he calls them, perhaps a kind of lye. In the case of men we are not so well informed. The youthful Nero's golden beard has attained some notoriety, but that was the peculiar mark of the Ahenobarbi, and due to a miracle dating back to the Battle of Lake Eegillus. (The first Ahenobarbus had his beard stroked by the Dioscuri.) In the Middle Ages, although many of the kings must have had red hair (witness Rufus and Barbarossa), it was held to indicate deceit and low birth, tlie prevalence of the belief is shown

by many proverbs, some of definitely Teutonic origin. We may quote two: Beneath red hair Lurks guile and snare. I’ve rarely seen a tall man wise. Nor a white man lusty. Nor a short man meek and mild, Nor a red man trusty. This was probably not so much The result of observation as of the stuc|y of Latin comedy and its mediaeval adaptations: the characters of comedy became types, as we may see. for instance, from a song of about 1100 a.D. : Priests and prophets now arc Darns, Gota and Birria, heaven save us!

Golden hair, however, was admired, and in the case of ladies usually compared by poets to gold wire! To summarise the results obtained, then, we may say that in Homeric times blond hair was admired in both sexes,, as a mark of tho ruling race. in tho Classical Age of Greece the conditions wore reversed, but blond tints were affected by ladies as an exotic attraction: in Roman times tho fashion spread, perhaps owing to a decline in morals. In tho Middle Ages red (but not golden) hair becomes a reproach for both sexes. This is a new feature, though ultimately it can be traced to Greek comedy. But in no case does it seem to have been a subject for humor. This is a development of modern times, chielly associated with low comedy. But to deal with modern times is beyond the scope of this sketch, and would require an amount of research perhaps out of proportion to tho importance of the subject. Enough has been said, it is hoped, to show that this apparently frivolous subject opens out several interesting lines of inquiry, and, is not without interest in the history: of morals.