“Rove not from pole to pole, but here turn in,
Where nought excels the shaving but the gin.”
Sir Walter Scott in his “Fortunes of Nigel,” vol ii., as a motto to chap. iv., gives the following version:—
“Rove not from pole to pole—the man lives here,
Whose razor’s only equall’d by his beer;
And where, in either sense, the Cockney-put,
May, if he pleases, get confounded cut.”
The amalgamation of the two trades has led to some other rhymes and jokes. A barber-publican in Dudley has the following barbarous joke:—
“What do you think
I’ll shave you for nothing and give you some drink?”
The point of this joke lies in the punctuation, which the illiterate shavers coming to the shop are sure to treat with supreme contempt; but a barber in Ratcliffe Highway, circa 1825, had the following bona fide invitation:—
“Hair cut with despatch,
Shave well in a minute,
And a glass in the bar—gain
With a thimbleful in it.”[*]
[* ]Note—Of gin and bitters, all for a penny 12d.
* Note—Come in, Jolly Tars, and be scraped across the line.”
Another common inscription is the following:—“I tell U there is no shaving to X L——’s” (name of the barber.) The Parisian barbers are much on a par with their English colleagues in brilliancy of wit and inventive power: “Ici on rajeunit,”[504] used to be a frequent inscription with them; others have:—
“La nature donne barbe et cheveux,
Et moi je les coupe tous les deux.”