The philosophy of beards : a lecture : physiological, artistic & historical / by T.S. Gowing.
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CI Which holy vow he firmly kept, And most devoutly wore A grizzly meteor on his face, 'Till they were hoth no more."* * Taylor, the Water Poet, who lived from the end of Elizabeth to nearly the end of the Commonwealth, thus humorously des- cribes the various fashions of this appendage. " Now a few bines 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, stilletto-fashion,* dagger-bike, That may, with whispering, a man's eyes outpike. Some with the hammer cut or Roman T, Then* 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." * The stiletto Beard For he that doth wear It makes me afeard A dagger in his face, It is so sharp beneath : What must he wear in his sheath." Old Author. " Who make sharp Beards and little breeches Deities. Beaumont and Fletcher.