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descend as low as his Beard, and ask whether he please to
be shaven or no ? whether he will have his peake cut short
and sharp, amiable like an inamorato, or broad pendant
like a spade, or le terrible, like a warrior or sol dado ?
whether he will have his crates cut low like a juniper
bush, or his subercles taken away with a razor ? If it be
his pleasure to have his appendices pruned, or his moucha-
ches fostered to turn about his ears like the branches of a
vine, or cut down to the hp with the Italian lash, to make
him look like a half-faced bauby in brass. These quaint
terms Master Barber, you greet Master Velvet-breeches
withal, and at every word a snap with your scissors and a
cringe with your knee; whereas, when you come to poor
Cloth-breeches, you either cut his Beard at your own
pleasure, or else in disdain ask him if he will be trimmed
with Christ's cut, round like the half of a Holland cheese,
mocking both Christ and us."*
In the reign of James the 1st, Beards continued in
fashion, and I extract two out of many passages from
Beaumont and Fletcher's plays; the first being, not ex-
cepting even that of Butler's Hudibras, the most humour-
ous description of a Beard in the language. A banished
* Lilly in one of his Dramas makes a Barber say to Ms cus-
tomer. "How, sir, will you be trimmed? Will you have a Beard
like a spade or a bodkin ? A peuthouse on your upper lip or an
ally on your chin? Your moustaches sharp at the ends like shoe-
maker's awls, or hanging down to your mouth like goat's flakes?"
