Page:A record of European armour and arms through seven centuries (Volume 2).djvu/86

 he says: "Their beavers down; their eyes of fire sparkling through sights of steel"; in Hamlet, act i, sc. 2, he says: "He wore his beaver up"; in Henry IV, Pt. I, act iv, sc. 1, he says: "I saw young Harry with his beaver on." And finally in Richard III, act v, sc. 3, he says: "What, is my beaver easier than it was?"

From the fresco by Pinturicchio. About 1470. Duomo of Siena

To-day we are accustomed to apply the word (bevor) to that movable portion of the close helmet which actually covers the face and into the top of which the visor of the helmet fits. It is, however, with the bevor considered as a separate defence that we are now concerned. It has erroneously been called the mentonnière; but there is no record of that term having been used so early as the XVth century. There is little doubt that Planché is in error when he opposes M. Viollet-le-Duc's opinion, and states that the piece which we are here calling the bevor is really the "hausse-col"; for we continually find the "hausse-col" described as being made of mail: "Haussecol de maille, houscot de mailles" (Chastelain); "le chamail du haussecol" (Olivier de la Marche). The hausse-col was certainly the standard or gorget of mail (see page 184). It is almost safe to affirm that in the first quarter of the