Dr. John Dee. 1600.
Dr. Dee’s extraordinary beard I can but regard as an affectation of singularity, assumed doubtless to attract attention, and to be a sign of unusual parts. Aubrey, his friend, calls him “a very handsome man; of very fair, clear, sanguine complexion, with a long beard as white as milke. He was tall and slender. He wore a gowne like an artist’s gowne; with hanging sleeves and a slitt. A mighty good man he was.” The word “artist” then meant artisan; and in this reference means a smock like a workman’s.
A name seen often in Winthrop’s letters is that of Sir Kenelm Digby. He was an intimate correspondent of John Winthrop the second, and it would not be strange if he did many errands for Winthrop in England besides purchasing drugs. His portrait, and a lugubrious one it is, is one of the few of his day which shows an untrimmed beard. Aubrey says of him that after the death of his wife he wore “a long mourning cloak, a high cornered hatt, his beard unshorn, look’t like a hermit; as signs of sorrow for his beloved wife. He had something of the sweetness of his mother’s face.” This sweetness is, however, not to be perceived in his unattractive portrait.
CHAPTER XIII
PATTENS, CLOGS, AND GOLOE-SHOES
“Q. Why is a Wife like a Patten? A. Both are Clogs.”
—Old Riddle.