Things are very different when similar whims enter the brain of despots. The two following relations will prove what ravages a razor in their hands may cause.
Chardin relates, that a minister of the king of Persia, a scrupulous observer of the law of Mahomet, wore in consequence a long beard which he had very white. It was not the fashion to be so religious at the court: the courtiers were satisfied with long whiskers, which they could turn up under their ears; but they wore very short beards. The king was shocked that his minister did not follow this mode, but obstinately persisted to wear a long beard. In a drunken moment, he sent for a barber, and ordered him to cut it off immediately. The minister, who was obliged to submit to this rigorous order, begged the operator not to cut so near the skin; but the king, perceiving that he was badly obeyed, fell into such a rage, that he ordered the barber’s hand to be cut off immediately.
The czar Peter, who had so many claims to the surname of Great, seems to have been but little worthy of it on this occasion. He had the boldness to lay a tax on the beards of his subjects. He ordered, that the noblemen and gentlemen, tradesmen, and artisans (the priests and peasants[[34]] excepted,) should pay a hundred rubles, to be able to retain their beards; that the lower class of people should pay a copeck for the same liberty, and he established clerks at the gates of the different towns, to collect these duties. Such a new and singular impost troubled the vast empire of Russia. Both religion and manners were thought in danger. Complaints were heard from all parts; they even went so far as to write libels against the sovereign; but he was inflexible, and, at that time, powerful. Even the fatal scenes of St. Bartholomew were renewed against these unfortunate beards, and the most unlawful violences were publicly exercised. The razor and scissars were every where made use of. A great number, to avoid these cruel extremities, obeyed with reluctant sighs. Some of them carefully preserved the sad trimmings of their chins, and, in order to be never separated from these dear locks, ordered that they should be placed with them in their coffins. Oh! Peter the Great, John James was very right, you did not possess true genius![[35]]
[34]. The priests and peasants of Russia still wear their beards.
[35]. See Du Contrat Social of John James Rousseau. Voltaire has censured this assertion.
Example, more powerful than authority, produced, in Spain, what it had not been able to bring about in Russia without great difficulty. Philip V. ascended the throne with a shaved chin. The courtiers imitated the prince, and the people, in turn, the courtiers. However, though this revolution was brought about without violence and by degrees, it caused much lamentation and murmuring: the gravity of the Spaniards lost by the change. The favourite custom of a nation can never be altered without incurring displeasure. They have this old saying in Spain: Desde que no hay barba, no hay mas alma. Since we lost our beards, we have no more souls.
Well, it’s now a whole century since we wore beards. Have we gained by the change? This well merits an investigation. The Spanish proverb, which might very well be applied to us, seems to account justly for our state of abasement. If, as a modern philosopher said, stupor reigns, it is, no doubt, because we no longer wear our beards. But let us console ourselves; the source of these evils is nearly dried up. The fashion of long beards is on the point of being renewed, an epoch which I pronounce to be nearer than people think. All our present fashions and customs are nothing more than old ones revived, and which will disappear in their turn. The revolution is just at an end: the rapidity of our changes has accelerated its course, and a new reign is at hand. You pretty fellows of the present day, Jemmy-Jessamy parsons, jolly bucks, and all you with smock-faces and weak nerves, be dumb with astonishment, I foretel it, you will soon resemble men.
CHAP. IV.
Of bearded Women.
A Woman with a beard on her chin is one of those extraordinary deviations with which nature presents us every day; as to those women who, in order to pass for men, have put on false beards, it was in consequence of some particular circumstance: that there have been others whose character, seconded by nature, made them regard a long beard as an honourable phenomenon for their sex, must seem at this time more extraordinary; but it would appear almost incredible that the eagerness of women to command should prompt them to make use of artificial means to have a beard on their chin, and, by this usurpation, to dispute with man the symbol of his sovereignty, and that, to put a stop to this disorder, the laws should have interfered, if the authenticity of the evidence which we have left did not put it beyond a doubt.