John Gay issued in 1727 the first series of his "Fables," and in the one entitled "The Goat Without a Beard" we get a description of the barber's shop of the period:--
"His pole, with pewter basins hung, Black, rotten teeth in order strung, Rang'd cups that in the window stood, Lin'd with red rags, to look like blood, Did well his threefold trade explain, Who shav'd, drew teeth, and breath'd a vein."
The wooden chair is next referred to, and then it is stated:--
"Mouth, nose, and cheeks, the lather hides: Light, smooth, and swift, the razor glides."
Old barbers' shops had their regulations in poetry and prose. Forfeits used to be enforced for breaches of conduct as laid down in laws which were exhibited in a conspicuous manner, and might be read while the customer was awaiting his turn for attention at the hands of the knight of the razor. Forfeits had to be paid for such offences as the following:--
For handling the razors, For talking of cutting throats, For calling hair-powder flour, For meddling with anything on the shop-board.
Shakespeare alludes to this custom in "Measure for Measure," Act v. sc. 1, as follows:--
"The strong statutes Stand like the forfeits in a barber's shop, As much in mock as mark."
[Illustration: William Shakespeare (the Stratford Portrait).]
Half a century ago there was hanging a code of laws in a barber's shop in Stratford-on-Avon, which the possessor mounted when he was an apprentice some fifty years previously. His master was in business as a barber at the time of the Garrick Jubilee in 1769, and he asserted that the list of forfeits was generally acknowledged by all the fraternity to have been in use for centuries. The following lines have found their way into several works, including Ingledew's "Ballads and Songs of Yorkshire" (1860). In some collections the lines are headed "Rules for Seemly Behaviour," and in others "The Barber of Thirsk's Forfeits." We draw upon Dr Ingledew for the following version, which is the best we have seen:--
"First come, first served--then come not late, And when arrived keep your sate; For he who from these rules shall swerve Shall pay his forfeit--so observe.
"Who enters here with boots and spurs Must keep his nook, for if he stirs And gives with arm'd heel a kick, A pint he pays for every prick.