In 1629, the celebrated poet, playwright, and translator George Chapman (1559/60–1634) wrote a pamphlet allegedly justifying the burial of a single strand of hair. In A iustification of a strange action of Nero; in burying with a solemne fvnerall, one of the cast hayres of his mistresse Poppæa. Also a iust reproofe of a Romane smell-feast, being the fifth satyre of Ivvenall, Chapman satirically described a scene in which the ‘mighty Emperor’ Nero solemnly marched in mourning clothes, followed by a train of ‘all the state of the Empire either present or presented’.1 With such a show of funeral pomp, all assembled to witness the procession expected the sombre hearse, decorated with honours at the end of the procession, to house Nero’s mother, Julia Agrippina, or his wife, Octavia, both of whom were murdered through the emperor’s tyranny. The hearse that passed, however, contained a single ‘poor hayre broken loose’ from the head of Nero’s beloved mistress, Poppaea. Such a scene, Chapman remarked, ‘may perhaps breed a wonder in those that know not the cause, and laughter in those that know it’; as for Nero, the cast hair of his favourite mistress deserved political honour and public expense.