CHAP. VI.
Of false Beards.
THE substitutes of art are to nature what hypocrisy is to virtue: both are unworthy of an upright man, who is no more afraid to discover the sentiments of his heart, than the lineaments of his face. But if, as a famous moralist said, hypocrisy is a homage which vice pays to virtue, false beards should likewise be regarded as a homage which luxury or idleness pays to natural beards.
Such impositions are more or less condemnable, according to the causes from whence they proceed. The old man whom Theophrastus speaks of, who, in order to plead before the senate of Lacedemon, stained his beard and hoary locks black, dearly merited the mortifying affront which a meanness so unworthy of his age publicly drew on him. As he was debating his cause, his adversary interrupted him, and addressing himself to the senate, asked what confidence could be given to the words of a man who carried a lie in his face?
Towards the middle of the fourteenth century, false beards came much into fashion in Spain, especially in the estates of Cortez of Catalonia. This artifice, which procured the advantage that a beard gives a man, with much ease, must appear much less strange among a people whose character has gravity for basis. This mode was adopted with the greatest eagerness. The same persons had beards of different forms and colours, and could change them as they pleased: they had different ones to wear holidays and working-days; so that a man might have a short red beard in the morning and in the evening a long black one. Every one changed his appearance according to his interest. Such a commodious fashion and so much followed favoured however a great many misdemeanours; and these chin-wigs would soon have been as much the wear as those of the head, if the abuse which was made of them had not at length attracted the attention of government. Peter, king of Arragon, expressly forbade all his subjects to wear false beards. They disappeared, and were replaced by natural ones. ’Tis a great pity this mode never got beyond the Pyrenean mountains: had it but reached France it would have acquired a degree of pre-eminence, which the French alone are capable of giving. However, Spain is not the only country where false beards have been in vogue.
About the end of the fourteenth century there was the largest and thickest beard seen at Paris that ever existed perhaps in the world; in fact, it was the wonder of beards. The man who wore it called himself patriarch of Constantinople; from his having such an extraordinary beard, every one was inclined to believe his assertion: so much power has appearance over the mind of man! Never was there a beard that raised such a sensation. The Parisians, as may be supposed, were unceasing in their admiration of it; and it was through favour of his beard that this patriarch, as he called himself, received the most flattering reception. He was every where loaded with honours: and this astonishing beard, which attracted the veneration of a whole people, who were enraptured with it, was nothing but a false one.
What a powerful effect of the majesty of beards! but what a subject of comparison for our manners! How many revered sages, great geniuses, extolled heroes, and lords of high renown, are like this beard! It is some consolation however, that the homage of the gulled citizens is always the satire of the delusion by which they were deceived: the truth comes out sooner or later; and then all the honour of it is clearly perceived to belong to some particular virtue or talent, or a long beard.
CHAP. VII.
Of golden Beards.
MEN have, in all ages, thought to honour the objects of their regard, or of their worship, by endeavouring to embellish them. But the means which they have employed, whilst they do honour to their zeal, have often given a proof of their bad taste. Because gold is so much valued among us, we thought for a long time, that nothing else could be truly ornamental. Luxury and devotion have both displayed it with profusion; but riches do not constitute beauty. What was intended to be decorated is in fact debased. This abuse, which reigned particularly in the times of ignorance, has even exercised its power over the beard. Oriental pomp presents us at once with an example of this mistaken pride. Several potentates of those countries interwove the hair on their chin with gold thread and spangles. It is not without indignation that St. Chrysostom tells us of a king of Persia, who, in his time, followed this ridiculous custom. After reproaching the extravagant luxury of the fair-sex of Antioch, this evangelical doctor says: “If I should give you an account of a sort of luxury still more absurd than that of those women, who wear gold in their hair, load their lips and eye-brows with it, who, in short, are covered all over with this precious metal; don’t think I want to raise a laugh: what I am going to relate to you exists at this day; it is the king of Persia I mean to speak of. This monarch is not ashamed to wear a golden beard; all the hair of his chin is covered or interwoven with little plates of gold or threads of the same metal. This prince, with his face thus adorned, looks more like a monster than a man.”[[45]]