Note 226 — ACT IV.[188]
Reading edition
It is observed that, in an age when but a small part of the nation could read, ideas were frequently borrowed from representations in painting or tapestry. Leland, in his "Collectanea," asserts that painters constantly represented Judas the traitor with a red head. Dr Plot ("Oxfordshire," p. 153) says the same. This conceit is thought to have arisen in England from an ancient grudge to the red-haired Danes. See the notes of Mr Steevens and Mr Tollet to "Merry Wives of Windsor," i. 4. To the instances there produced may be added the following—"What has he given her? what is it, gossip? A fair, high-standing cup, and the two great 'postle spoons, one of them gilt. Sure, that was Judas with the red beard."—Middleton's "Chaste Maid in Cheapside," 1620.
"Methought a sweet young man, In years some twenty, with a downy chin, Promising a future beard, and yet no red one."
—Beaumont and Fletcher's "Sea Voyage." [See also Dyce's ed. of Beaumont and Fletcher, v. 41.]
"Runne to the counter, Fetch me red-bearded serjeant."
—"Ram Alley," 1611, ed. 1636, E 3.