, like the Roman habits of their youth,
Is never worn until his perfect growth.

And in another set of verses he has again a fling at the obnoxious beard
of the same preacher:

This reverend brother, like a goat,
Did wear a tail upon his throat;
The fringe and tassel of a face
That gives it a becoming grace,
But set in such a curious frame,
As if 'twere wrought in filograin;
And cut so even as if 't had been
Drawn with a pen upon the chin.

As it was customary among the peoples of antiquity who wore their beards
to cut them off, and for those who shaved to allow their beards to grow,
in times of mourning, so many of the Presbyterians and Independents
vowed not to cut their beards till monarchy and episcopacy were utterly
destroyed. Thus in a humorous poem, entitled "The Cobler and the Vicar
of Bray," we read:

This worthy knight was one that swore,
He would not cut his beard
Till this ungodly nation was
From kings and bishops cleared.

Which holy vow he firmly kept,
And most devoutly wore
A grisly meteor on his face,
Till they were both no more.

In _Pericles, Prince of Tyre_, when the royal hero leaves his infant
daughter Marina in charge of his friend Cleon, governor of Tharsus, to
be brought up in his house, he declares to Cleon's wife (Act iii, sc.
3):

Till she be married, madam,
By bright Diana, whom we honour all,
Unscissored shall this hair of mine remain,
Though I show well in't;

and that he meant his beard is evident from what he says at the close of
the play, when his daughter is about to be married to Lysimachus,
governor of Mitylene (Act v, sc. 3):

And now
This ornament, that makes me look so dismal,
Will I, my loved Marina, clip to form;
And what these fourteen years no razor touched,
To grace thy marriage day, I'll beautify.

Scott, in his _Woodstock_, represents Sir Henry Lee, of Ditchley, whilom
Ranger of Woodstock Park (or Chase), as wearing his full beard, to
indicate his profound grief for the death of the "Royal Martyr," which
indeed was not unusual with elderly and warmly devoted Royalists until
the "Happy Restoration"--save the mark!

Another extraordinary beard was that of Van Butchell, the quack doctor,
who died at London in 1814, in his 80th year. This singular individual
had his first wife's body carefully embalmed and preserved in a glass
case in his "study," in order that he mig