[158] The notion that a beard indicated wisdom on the part of
the wearer is often referred to in early European
literature. For example, in Lib. v of Caxton's Esop, the
Fox, to induce the sick King Lion to kill the Wolf, says
he has travelled far and wide, seeking a good medicine
for his Majesty, and "certaynly I have found no better
counceylle than the counceylle of an auncyent Greke,
with a grete and long berd, a man of grete wysdom, sage,
and worthy to be praysed." And when the Fox, in another
fable, leaves the too-credulous Goat in the well,
Reynard adds insult to injury by saying to him, "O
maystre goote, yf thow haddest be [i.e. been] wel
wyse, with thy fayre berde," and so forth. (Pp. 153 and
196 of Mr. Jacobs' new edition.)--A story is told of a
close-shaven French ambassador to the court of some
Eastern potentate, that on presenting his credentials
his Majesty made sneering remarks on his smooth face
(doubtless he was himself "bearded to the eyes"), to
which the envoy boldly replied: "Sire, had my master
supposed that you esteem a beard so highly, instead of
me, he would have sent your Majesty a goat as his
ambassador."

[159] Harleian MS. No. 7334, lines 2412-2418. Printed for the
Early English Text Society.

Selim I was the first Turkish sultan who shaved his beard after his
accession to the throne; and when his muftis remonstrated with him for
this _dangerous_ innovation, he facetiously replied that he had removed