?

But, methinks, I do itch to go thro' stich
The needle-beard to amend,
Which, without any wrong, I may call too long,
For man can see no end.

The soldier's-beard doth march in shear'd
In figure like a spade,
With which he'll make his enemies quake,
And think their graves are made.

The grim stubble eke on the judge's chin,
Shall not my verse despise;
It is more fit for a nutmeg, but yet
It grates poor prisoners' eyes.

What doth invest a bishop's breast
But a milk-white spreading hair?
Which an emblem may be of integrity,
Which doth inhabit there.

But, oh! let us tarry for the beard of King Harry,
That grows about the chin,
With his bushy pride, and a grove on each side,
And a champion ground between.

Last, the clown doth rush, with his beard like a bush,
Which may be well endur'd."

Charles I. wore the Vandyke-beard, made familiar to us by the great
artist. This fashion, set by the king, was followed by nearly the whole
of his Cavaliers. It has been thought by some students of this subject
that with the tragic death of the king the beard disappeared, but if we
are to put our faith in an old song, dated 1660, we must conclude that
with the Restoration it once more came into fashion. It says:--

"Now of beards there be such company,
Of fashions such a throng,
That it is very hard to treat of the beard,
Tho' it be never so long."

It did not remain popular for any length of time, the razor
everywhere keeping down its growth.

[Illustration: The Gunpowder Conspirators, from a print published
immediately after the discovery. Shows the Beards in Fashion in 1605.]

Sir Walter Scott's great grandsire was called "Beardie." He was an
ardent Jacobite, and made a vow that he would never shave his beard
until the Stuarts were restored. "It would have been well," said the
novelist, "if his zeal for the vanished dynasty had stopped with letting
his beard grow. But he took arms and intrigued in their cause, until he
lost all he had in the world, and, as I have heard, ran a narrow risk of
being hanged, had it not been for the interference of Anne, Duchess of
Buccleuch and Monmouth." Sir Walter refers to him in the introduction to
Canto VI. of "Marmion":--

"With amber beard and flaxen hair,
And reverend apostolic air.
Small thought was his, in after time
E'er to b