en’s hair on their heads hath ever been at odds with that on their face. If the head were well covered and the hair long, then the face was smooth shaven. William the Conqueror had short hair and a beard, then came a long-haired king, then a cropped one; Edward IV’s subjects had long hair and closely cut beards. Henry VII fiercely forbade beards. The great sovereign Henry VIII ordered short hair like the French, and wore a beard. Through Elizabeth’s day and that of James the beard continued. Not until great perukes overshadowed the whole face did the beard disappear. It vanished for a century as if men were beardless; but after men began to wear short hair in the early years of the nineteenth century, bearded men appeared. A few German mystics who had come to America full-bearded were stared at like the elephant, and a sight of them was recorded in a diary as a great event. There is no doubt that, to the general reader, the ordinary thought of the Puritan is with a beard, a face and figure much like the Hogarth illustrations of Hudibras—one of the “Presbyterian true Blue,” “the stubborn crew of Errant Saints,”—without the grotesquery of face and feature, perhaps, but certainly with all the plainness and gracelessness of dress and the commonplace beard. The wording of Hudibras also figures the popular conception:— “His tawny Beard was th’ equal Grace Both of his Wisdom and his Face: * * * * * “His Doublet was of sturdy Buff And tho’ not Sword, was Cudgel-Proof. His Breeches were of rugged Woolen And had been at the Siege of Bullen.” Herbert Westphaling, Bishop of Hereford. Herbert Westphaling, Bishop of Hereford. In truth this is well enough as far as it runs and for one suit of clothing; but this was by no means a universal dress, nor was it a universal beard. Indeed beards were fearfully and wonderfully varied. That humorous old rhymester, Taylor, the “Water Poet,” may be quoted at length on the vanity thus:— “And Some, to set their Love’s-Desire on Edge Are cut and prun’d, like to a Quickset Hedge. Some like a Spade, some like a Forke, some square, Some round, some mow’d like stubble, some starke bare; Some sharpe, Stilletto-fashion, Dagger-like, That may with Whispering a Man’s Eyes unpike; Some with the Hammer-cut, or Roman T. Their Beards extravagant, reform’d must be. Some with the Quadrate, some Triangle fashion; Some circular, some ovall in translation; Some Perpendicular in Longitude, Some like a Thicket for their Crassitude, That Heights, Depths, Breadths, Triform, Square, Ovall, Round And Rules Geometrical in Beards are found.” Taylor’s own beard was screw-shaped. I fancy he invented it. The Anglo-Saxon beard was parted, and this double form remained for a long time. Sometimes there were two twists or two long forks.