Henry was well versed in judging the dress Of the w——s of his court: of an intrigue not less: His _chin shaved_; his cheeks pale; effeminate manner; Sard’napulus eye; so much woman all over Was he, that one twelfth-day, this doubtful animal, Without brains or consequence, such appeared at a ball. Let us turn our eyes on a more flattering object, and admire the beard of the best of kings, the ever precious beard of the great Henry IV. of France, which diffused over the countenance of that prince a majestic sweetness and amiable openness; a beard ever dear to posterity, and which should serve as a model for that of every great king; as the beard of his illustrious minister should for that of every minister. It was in this golden age of bearded chins that those different fashions of wearing the beard called, _sharp-pointed_, _square_, _round_, _fan_,[19] _swallow’s-tail_, _artichoke-leaf_, _&c._ successively appeared. There were even _ligue-beards_. Art was often successfully made use of to give them graceful forms; and the keeping of the beard in order was more expensive to the beaux of those days, than that of the hair of our fribbles is now.[20] But what dependence is there to be put on the stability of the things of this world? By an event, as fatal as unforeseen, the beard, which was arrived at its highest degree of glory, all of a sudden lost its favour, and was at length entirely proscribed. The unexpected death of Henry the Great, and the youth of his successor, were the sole cause of it. Footnote 19: At the time that _fan-beards_ were in fashion, says Mr. de St. Foix in his _Essais sur Paris_, they were kept in that form by means of a wax preparation, which gave the hair an agreeable odour and any colour that was desired. The beard was set in order at night, and in order to prevent its being put out of form before morning, it was done up in a sort of purse made on purpose. Footnote 20: We read in the _Menagiana_, that a man very fond of his beard paid three half-crowns a month for keeping it in order: on which cardinal Campege wittily observed, _That his beard cost more than his head was worth_. The same thing might be said now-a-days of a number of head-dresses. Lewis XIII. mounted the throne of his glorious ancestors without a beard. Every one concluded immediately, that the courtiers, seeing their young king with a smooth chin, would look upon their own as too rough. The conjecture proved right, for they presently reduced their beards to whiskers, and a small tuft of hair under the nether lip.