ortunity of following his host out of the
room, he asked for an explanation of his conduct, and said that he
deemed it an insult to be seated in such inferior company. Amazed at the
charge, Sir Theophilus assured the dramatist that every one of the
guests was a gentleman, and that they were his particular friends.
Farquhar was not satisfied. "I am certain," he said, "that the little
humpbacked man who sat opposite me is a barber who shaved me this
morning." The host returned to the room and related the story which he
had just heard. "Ay, yes," replied the guest, who was a well-born
gentleman, "I can make the matter clear. It was I who was in the
barber's shop this morning, and as Farquhar seemed in such a hurry, and
the barber was out, I shaved him."

The works of the old dramatists and other publications contain allusions
to barbers' music. It was the practice, as we have said, when a
customer was waiting for his turn in a barber's shop to pass his time
playing on the gittern. Dekker mentions a "barber's cittern for every
serving-man to play upon." Writing in 1583, Stubbes alludes to music at
the barber's shop. In the "Diary of Samuel Pepys" we read: "After supper
my Lord called for the lieutenant's cittern, and with two candlesticks
with money in them for symballs, we made barber's music, with which my
lord was well pleased." "My Lord was easily satisfied," says a
well-known contributor to _Punch_, "and in our day would probably have
enjoyed 'the horgans.'" We may rest assured that barber's music was of
questionable melody.

SUNDAY SHAVING

In bygone England, the churchyard was a common place for holding fairs
and the vending of merchandise, and it was also customary for barbers to
shave their customers there. In 1422, by a particular prohibition of
Richard Flemmyng, Bishop of Lincoln, the observance of the custom was
restrained.

The regulations of the Gild of Barber-Surgeons of York deal with Lord's
Day observance. In 1592 a rule was made, ordering, under a fine of ten
shillings, "that none of the barbers shall work or keep open their shop
on Sunday, except two Sundays next or before the assize weeks." Another
law on the question was made in 1676 as follows:--"This court, taking
notice of several irregular and unreasonable practices committed by the
Company of Barber-Surgeons within this city in shaving, trimming, and
cutting of several strangers' as well as citizens' hair and faces on the
Lord's Day, w