“In this reign, whiskers however attained to a high degree of favour at the expense of the expiring Beard, and continued so under Louis XIV, who, with all the great men of his court, took a great pride in wearing them. In those days of gallantry, it was no uncommon thing for a lover to have his whiskers turned up, combed and pomatumed by his mistress; and a man of fashion was always provided with every necessary article for this purpose, especially whisker wax.” _Percy Anecdotes._
Under our first Charles,[34] the sides of the face were often shaven, and the Beard reduced to the moustache, and a long chin-tuft, as in the portrait of that monarch, retaining however still some of its former gracefulness. As the contest grew hotter between Cavalier and Roundhead, doubtless some of the latter cropped chin as well as head; though others are said to have been so careful of their Beards, as to provide them with pasteboard night-caps to prevent the hairs being rumpled.
D’Israeli quotes an author of this reign, who in his “Elements of Education” says, “I have a favourable opinion of that young gentleman who is _curious in fine moustachios_. The time he employs in adjusting, dressing and curling them, is no lost time; _for the more he contemplates his moustachios, the more his mind will cherish and be animated by masculine and courageous notions_.”
D’Israeli also states, that the grandfather of Mrs. Thomas, the “Corinna of Dryden,” was very nice in the mode of that age, his valet being some hours every morning in _starching his Beard and curling his whiskers_, during which time he was always read to.
In one instance it was worn long for a sign, as we see by the following verse—
“This worthy knight was one that swore He would not cut his Beard, ’Till this ungodly nation was From kings and bishops cleared:
Which holy vow he firmly kept, And most devoutly wore A grizzly meteor on his face, ’Till they were both no more.”[35]
Taylor, the Water Poet, who lived from the end of Elizabeth to nearly the end of the Commonwealth, thus humorously describes the various fashions of this appendage.
“Now a few lines to paper I will put, Of men’s 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 reaped most substantial like a brush, Which makes a natural wit known by the bush; And in my time of some men I have heard, Whose wisdom hath 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 loves’ 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,[36] dagger-like, That may, with whispering, a man’s eyes outpike. 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. The heighths, depths, breadths, triform, square, oval, round, And rules geometrical in Beards are found.”
