Art

“Namely, in former centuries such artists or actors were everywhere relegated by other beings to the lowest caste and were regarded with contempt. And even at the present time there, in many communities, for instance on the continent Asia, it is not proper to shake hands with them, as one almost always does when meeting beings similar to oneself.

“Even up till now in these said communities, it is also considered defiling to sit with such actors at the same table and to eat together with them.

“But the contemporary beings of that continent, which at the present time is the chief place of what is called their ‘cultured existence,’ not only put these contemporary actors on a level with themselves in their inner relations, but even largely imitate their appearance, and at the present time do so pretty thoroughly.

“The custom of shaving the beard and mustache, now followed by all your favorites, is a very good example for confirming what I have just said.

“I must tell you that in past epochs these terrestrial professional actors had always to go with shaved mustaches and beards during the ordinary process of their existence.

“They had to shave these ‘expressers’ of masculinity and activity, first of all because, always playing the roles of other beings, they had often to change their appearance and for this they not only had to put on their face a corresponding what is called ‘paint’ but also to wear wigs and false mustaches and beards, which they could not possibly do if they had their own beards and mustaches; and secondly, because the ordinary beings of all former communities there, considering such actors dirty and a harmful influence and fearing to fail to recognize them if they chanced to meet them in ordinary conditions of existence and of somehow touching them, then promulgated everywhere a severe law, that the beings of the profession of artists or actors have always to shave their mustaches and beards in order to be unmistakable for other beings.