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The Dressing of the Hair, Moustachios and Beard
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The Nazarite has been regarded as a conqueror who subdued his temptations, and who wore his
long hair as a crown, the hair being worn rough as a protest against foppery. Another view, however, is that it was kept elaborately
dressed, a proof of the existence of the custom being seen in the seven locks of Samson:
"And she made him sleep upon her knees; and she called for a man, and she caused him to shave
off the seven locks of his head; and she began to afflict him, and his strength went from him " (Judg. xvi. t 9).
Let us listen to the story in the quaint, silvery music of Chaucer:
"This Sampson neyther siser dronk ne wyn
Ne on his heed com rasour noon ne schere
By precept of the messager divyn
For alle his strengthes in his heres were.
Unto his lemman Dalida he tolde
That in his heres al his strengthe lay
And falsly to his foomen sche him solde
And slepying in hir barm upon a day
Sche made to clippe or schere his heres away
And made his foomen al his craft espien
And whan thay fond him in this array
Thay bound him fast and put out bothe his yen.
But er his heer clipped was or i-schave
Ther was no bond with which men might him bynde
But now is he in prisoun in a cave
Ther as thay made him at the querne grynde
0 noble Sampson strengest of al man kynde
0 whilom jugge in glory and in richesse
Now maystow wepe with thine eyyen blynde
Sith thou fro wele art falle to wrecchednesse."
Monk's Tale
While the hair was the pride, the glory, and the strength of Samson, it was the bane of
Absalom, for by the abundance of his hair he met his death. "In all Israel there was none to be so much praised as Absalom for his
beauty: from the sole of his foot even to the crown of his head there was no blemish in him. And when he polled his head (for it was at
every year's end that he polled it: because the hair was heavy, therefore he polled it), he weighed the hair of his head at two hundred
shekels after the king's weight." Had he polled it at more frequent intervals he might have made good his succession to the crown, and
Solomon never have been king, for Absalom had "stolen the hearts of the people of Israel."
As in a mighty river we may trace back its course to the little rill or rivulet which trickles
from the mountain side, so we may often trace the origin of great events to very small beginnings. How might the face of both French and
English history have been changed but for Peter Lombard's dislike of a beard! Louis VII imagined it a matter of conscience to give an
example of submission to 'the command of the bishops on the subject of long hair, and to atone for his many cruelties by being shaved in
public. He reckoned, however, without his wife, Eleanor of Aquitaine, a jocose madcap, who rallied him upon his short hair and shaven
chip. "I thought I had married a prince, but find I have wedded nothing but a monk." The breach occasioned by a bare face was widened,
and the marriage dissolved. Six weeks afterwards Eleanor was again a wife. Henry, Duke of Normandy, who afterwards reigned as Henry II
of England, being the husband, who obtained with her fair Aquitaine with its three provinces. Hence arose those wars which ravaged
France for near three centuries, in which upwards of three millions of Frenchmen perished on the fields of Cressy, Agincourt, and
Poitiers, and on many a lesser field.
Henry I issued an edict for the suppression of long hair, and as a natural consequence long
hair immediately became the rage. This edict, however, was the result of a visit to Normandy, and the preaching of a prelate named
Serlo, whose eloquence was such that the monarch and his courtiers were moved to tears. The astute priest, perceiving the impression he
had created, immediately whipped a pair of scissors from his sleeve and cropped the whole congregation!
The patriarchal beard and long hair of Edward III, as exhibited in his effigy at Westminster,
is in strict conformity with the general character of this serious minded monarch, strongly contrasting with the character of his
successor, Richard of Bordeaux, who was the greatest fop of the day.
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