Being barber’d ten times o’er, goes to the feast,
And for his ordinary pays his heart
For what his eyes eat only.”
[15]. Arcite in Chaucer’s Knight’s Tale thus devotes his Beard to Mars:—
“And eke to this avow I wol me bind,
My Berd, my here that hangeth low adoun,
That never yet felt non offensioun
Of rasour, ne of shere, I wol thee yeve.”
[16]. The Goths and Dacians, as seen on the Roman monuments, were Bearded; and the ancient Hungarians, Raumer states, wore long Beards adorned with gold and jewels. The Catti also were accustomed not to trim the hair of the head or Beard till they had proved their manliness by slaying an enemy in battle.
[17]. One of the Legends of King Arthur mentions a giant who made “a great exhibition of domestic manufacture,” consisting of a “cloak fringed with the Beards of kings.”