Smith, in his Ancient Topography of London, says--"The flying barber is a character now no more to be seen in London, though he still remains in some of our country villages: he was provided with a napkin, soap, and pewter basin, the form of which may be seen, in many of the illustrative prints of Don Quixote. His chafer was a deep leaden vessel, something like a chocolate pot, with a large ring or handle, at the top; this pot held about a quart of water, boiling hot; and, thus equipped, he flew about to his customers."
Old Randle Holme says, "_perawickes_" were very common in his time, about 1668, though unused before "contrary to our forefathers, who wore their own hair." A barber, in Paris, to recommend his bag wigs, hung over his door the sign of Absalom. Hone, i. 1262, states that a periwig-maker, to recommend his wares, turned the reason into rhyme:
"Oh, Absalom, oh Absalom, Oh Absalom, my son, If thou hadst worn a periwig, Thou hadst not been undone."
Hutchinson, i. 152, says periwigs were an eyesore in New England, for thirty years after the Restoration of Charles II.
Among the Romans, after Mena introduced the practice of shaving, those, who professed philosophy, still maintained their dignity, and their beards, as an _ecce signum_. Hence the expression of Horace, Sat. ii. 3, 35, _sapientem pascere barbam_: and of Persius, iv. 1, when speaking of Socrates:
barbatum hæc crede magistrum Dicere, sorbitio tollit quem dira cicutæ.
Of those, who wear beards, at the present day, it has been computed, that, for one philosopher, there are five hundred fools, at the very lowest estimate. Manage them as you will, they are troublesome appendages; of very questionable cleanliness; and mightily in the way of such, as are much addicted to gravy and spoon victual. Like the burden of our sins, the postprandial odor of them must be sometimes intolerable.
What an infinite variety of colors we have now-a-days! Bottom, in Midsummer Night's Dream, i. 2, is in doubt, what beard he shall play Pyramus in, and, at last, he says--"I will discharge it in either your straw-colored beard, your orange tawny beard, your purple ingrain beard, or your French crown-colour beard, your perfect yellow." Now I can honestly aver, that every fifth dandy I meet, looks precisely like Bottom, performing Pyramus. Now and then, I meet a fine, full, black beard; but, even then, it seems to me, that the proud satisfaction the fortunate proprietor must feel, in going about town with it, must be, in some degree, counterbalanced, by the necessity of sleeping in it, during the summer solstice.