that of Queen Anne, however, they were certainly extinct, as the author of No. 331 of the

66

Spectator" humorously makes Sir Roger de Coverley interested in the beard from the review of his ancestors' portraits; and the worthy Knight is made to express a strong desire for its revival, and to hint, that, " upon a month's warning, he would undertake to lead up the Fashion himself in a pair of Whiskers." The writer of this humorous paper appears certainly adverse (and justly so) to the re-introduction of the beard, and in reference to the then fashions of the ladyes faire, (see p. 122 of this work,) he proceeds to say, "besides we are not certain, that the Ladies would not come into the Mode, when they take the air on horseback. They already appear in Hats and Feathers, Coats and Periwigs; and I see no reason why we may not suppose that they would have their Riding Beards on the same occasion." In the present day, gentle reader, there does appear also a lurking desire amongst a portion of our fellowmen for the revival of the beard, but, fearful of the aroused voice of the country, they seem tremulously to adopt-the beardlet-or the IMPERIAL, as it is magnificently termed. I admire neither the one, nor the other, but " de gustibus non est disputandum," let him, who will, e'en wear it. I trust, however, the fashion will stop here-that it will not lead to the revival of the barbarous beard, (barba à bar: baris,) which has, in days of yore, oft given a handle to a bitter foe, wherewith to wreak his vengeance, and many a time hath the weaker

man been thus-pulled by the beard, which is, indeed, no longer to be seen amongst us, (unless with the religious sect of the Jews, and the fanatic disciples of Joanna Southcott,) but, in its shadow, it has left its metaphor behind. To beard a man is now to throw opprobrium in his face-to defy—and to revile him—and thus (in p. 46) did I aver, that the occasionally too warm John Halle “did probably beard his Monarch on the Throne.”

I must readily admit, that the beard is picturesque in the picture, but, I contend, that it is proportionably otherwise in the living man ; the constituent and the representative, gentle reader, were never more at variance. In real life, the beard falls listless, and inconvenient, and, whether beard, or beardlet, it cannot but yield (e'en should it be perfumed) somewhat of a squalid, and hard, appearance; but, if we turn to the still life of the pictures of Rembrandt, and look on the flowing beards of his Abraham in the sacrifice of Isaac-of Elijah raising the Widow's Son-of the Jew Rabbi-and of the Priest in the " Presentation in the Temple❞— we there behold a surprising majesty, blended with a softness of character, and a breadth of light and shade, never to be expected in the living model, and, if expected, never to be met with.

In the early part of this dissertation on beards, I spoke of them, as a curious, and well-founded instance of the extreme mutability of fashion-sometimes worn-and-sometimes not. I will now show you, on the authority

66

of John Taylor (8), the "Water Poet," in his humorous poem Superbiæ Flagellum," that in his time every variety of beard was worn together--for thus saith he:

"Now a few lines to paper I will put

Of mens beards strange and variable cut,

In which there's some that take as vain a pride,
As almost in all other things beside.

Some are reap'd most substantial, like a brush,
Which makes a natʼral wit known by the bush;
And in my time of some men I have heard,
Whose wisdom have been only wealth and beard ;
Many of these, the proverb well doth fit,
Which says Bush natural, more hair than wit;
Some seem as they were starched stiff and fine,
Like to the bristles of some angry swine;

And some, to set their love's desire on edge,
Are cut and prun'd like to a quickset hedge;

Some like a spade, some like a fork, some square,

Some round, some mow'd like stubble, some stark bare;

Some sharp, stiletto fashion, dagger like,

That may, with whispering, a man's eyes outspike;

Some with the hammer cut, or Roman T,*

Their beards extravagant reform'd must be;

Some with the quadrate, some triangle fashion,
Some circular, some oval in translation;

Some perpendicular in longitude,

Some like a thicket for their crassitude;

That heights, depths, breadths, triform, square, oval, round,
And rules geometrical in beards are found."

I have before (intentionally) omitted the description of a very curious beard, that of Hudibras, inasmuch as it may be wholly supposititious; but yet, as that description beareth with it not a little humour, and has, annexed to it, an historic

* Quere? Is not this the beardlet? the whiskers and the pendent lock?

Y

note by the learned editor, Grey, which carries the semblance of truth, I will e'en, briefly, give it-therefore, as the facetious Butler saith:

"His tawny beard was th' equal grace

Both of his wisdom and his face;

In cut and die so like a tile,
A sudden view it would beguile:

The upper part whereof was whey;

The nether orange mix'd with grey."

"So like a tile."] "They were then so curious," (says Grey,) "in the management of their beards, that some (as I am informed) had paste-board cases to put over them in the night; lest they should turn upon them, and rumple them in their sleep."

I have thus given a very succinct history of the English Beard, as clearly as I have been enabled to do from the documents, and exemplars, before me. I could, perchaunce, have added somewhat on foreign beards, but the desire of brevity, and the feeling, that, so to do, would be somewhat-foreign to my present object, did restrain me. The general subject (with engraved illustrations) is worthy of a better pen than mine, and, with the exertions of an industrious author, might make a very interesting, and pleasing, folio volume. If I say more, gentle reader, may I not deserve to be bearded? and, with this candid acknowledgment, I will now proceed to descant on

The Partelet, or Partlet:

An article of dress, which covers the breast, and shoulders, of John Halle. The etymology of

this word is thus given by Minshieu: "Partlet, or Neckerchief, quod portelet, circa collum quod gestetur." It is difficult to point out clearly its specific difference from the gorget, which is supposed to have preceded it, or from the tippet, which is of about coeval origin. The partlet came into fashion towards the close of the fifteenth century, and, if this be that article of dress, which is thus worn by John Halle, I can only say, that it assimilates very closely with the tippet, as worn by the female in modern days. It is made to cover the breast, and shoulders; it appears to be of black satin, or velvet, and to be embroidered with gold thread around both its upper and lower edges, between which are worked a double row of trefoil leaves, and it is surrounded with a border of fur. It is handsome, but not gorgeous in its appearance, nor ill-suited to the wear of the affluent merchant. The partlet, I should imagine, was not a very general article of dress. On referring to the coeval suit of the "Galante" I perceive, that he is not so arrayed, but has merely the collar of his doublet drawn together by an encircling double gold chain. The partlet seems to have been more in fashion about the time of Henry, the Eighth, and several are mentioned in the inventory of his wardrobe, and in other inventories; they were generally, as in this instance, embroidered with gold thread. In days of yore, the ladies busied themselves more in the domestic concerns than in the present days; housekeepers, and upper servants (unless, perhaps, in the establishment of the affluent Baron or Knight)