It is Cicero himself who gives an account of this singular law, instituted to prevent the women’s ever succeeding to get a beard: they are expressly forbidden by it to shave their cheeks. It is taken from the twelve Tables; the following are the words: Mulieres genas ne radunto. Let not women presume to shave their cheeks.[[36]]
[36]. Cicero, de Legibus. Lib. ii.
If the abuse which was the cause of this law is one of the greatest encomiums on beards, it presents us however with room for comparison. The women of the present day are every wit as envious of commanding, as those of whom Cicero speaks; but their means are very different.
It is beyond a doubt that the women of those days were very far from disliking a beard. The Venus of Cyprus, (whom the ancient Greeks represented with a bushy beard on her chin,) seems to strengthen this assertion.
As to bearded women, and those who have done themselves the honour of appearing so, we have several examples.
In the cabinet of curiosities of Stutgard in Germany, there is the portrait of a woman called Bartel Graetje, whose chin is covered with a very large beard: she was drawn in 1587, at which time she was but twenty-five years of age. There is likewise in the same cabinet another portrait of her when she was more advanced in life, but likewise with a beard.
It is said that the duke of Saxony had the portrait of a poor Swiss woman taken, remarkable for her long, bushy beard; and those who were at the carnival at Venice in 1726, saw a female dancer astonish the spectators, as much by her talents, as by her chin covered with a black, bushy beard.
Charles XII. had in his army a female grenadier: it was neither courage nor a beard that she wanted to be a man. She was taken at the battle of Pultoway, and carried to Petersburg, where she was presented to the czar in 1724: her beard measured a yard and half[[37]].
[37]. Russian measure.
We read in Trévoux’s dictionary, that there was a woman seen at Paris, who had not only a bushy beard on her face, but her body likewise covered all over with hair. Among a number of other examples of this nature, that of Margaret, the governess of the Netherlands, is very remarkable: she had a very long, stiff beard, which she prided herself on; and being persuaded that it contributed to give her an air of majesty, she took great care not to lose a hair of it. This Margaret was a very great woman.