{"collection":"philosophy-ethics","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_51856/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_51856","id":"gutenberg_51856","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/51856","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Archaeology & Anthropology","Category: Language & Communication","Category: Philosophy & Ethics","Category: Sociology","Kissing"],"text":"THE KISS AND ITS HISTORY\n\n\n\n\n                               THE KISS\n\n                            And its History\n\n                                  BY\n\n                     DR CHRISTOPHER NYROP\n\n   _Professor of Romance Philology at the University of Copenhagen_\n\n                             TRANSLATED BY\n\n                       WILLIAM FREDERICK HARVEY\n\n    _M.A., Hertford College, Oxford; Barrister-at-Law of the Inner\n         Temple; Lecturer in English at the University of Lund\n          (Sweden); sometime Professor of English Literature\n                      at the University of Malta_\n\n                                LONDON\n\n                              SANDS & CO.\n\n                      12 BURLEIGH STREET, STRAND\n\n                                 1901\n\n                                  TO\n\n                        WALTER BENSON, Esquire\n\n                I DEDICATE MY MODEST PART IN THIS BOOK\n                    IN TOKEN OF A FRIENDSHIP WHICH\n                       HAS GROWN STAUNCHER WITH\n                             THE GROWTH OF\n                                 YEARS\n\n                              \u1f26 \u03bc\u03b5\u03b3\u03ac\u03bb\u03b1 \u03c7\u03ac\u03c1\u03b9\u03c2\n           \u0394\u03ce\u03c1\u1ff3 \u03be\u1f50\u03bd \u03cc\u03bb\u03af\u03b3\u1ff3\u00b7 \u03c0\u03ac\u03bd\u03c4\u03b1 \u03b4\u1f10 \u03c4\u03b9\u03bc\u1fb6\u03bd\u03c4\u03b1 \u03c4\u1f00 \u03c0\u1f00\u03c1 \u03d5\u03af\u03bb\u03c9\u03bd\n                   THEOCRITUS, _Idyl_ xxviii., 24, 25.\n\n\u201cSurely great grace goes with a little gift, and all the offerings of\nfriends are precious.\u201d\n\n    Je c\u00e9l\u00e8bre des jeux paisibles,\n      Qu\u2019en vain on semble m\u00e9priser,\n    Les vrais biens des \u00e2mes sensibles,\n      Les doux myst\u00e8res du baiser.\n                        DORAT.\n\n    To gentle sports due praise I render,\n      At which some wits have vainly sneered:\n    The true delight of spirits tender,\n      The kiss\u2019s mysteries endeared.\n                W. F. H.\n\n\n\n\nTRANSLATOR\u2019S PREFACE\n\n\nThe following treatise, which is the work of a Romance philologist of\nhigh European reputation, has not only gone through two editions in\nDenmark, but has also been translated into German, Swedish, and Russian.\nThe popularity which this learned and at the same time charming little\nbook rapidly acquired abroad, and the favourable criticisms passed on it\nby Continental scholars, have encouraged me to present it to my\nfellow-countrymen in an English dress. With regard to the numerous\npoetical quotations that form so striking a feature of this book, those\nwhich I have translated myself may be distinguished from such as I have\nborrowed from standard versions by the appended initials, W. F. H.\n\nINNER TEMPLE, LONDON, _2nd August 1901_.\n\n\n\n\nAUTHOR\u2019S PREFACE\n\n    Wenn ich nur selber w\u00fcsste,\n      Was mir in die Seele zischt!\n    Die Worte und die K\u00fcsse\n      Sind wunderbar vermischt.\n\n    Oh, could I but decipher\n      What \u2019tis that fills my mind.\n    The words are with the kisses\n      So wond\u2019rously combined.\n                 HEINE.\n\n\nDante, in the fifth canto of his _Hell_, has celebrated the power a kiss\nmay have over human beings. In the course of his wanderings in the\nnether world, when he has reached the spot where abide those who have\nsinned through love, he sees two souls that \u201cflutter so lightly in the\nwind.\u201d These are Francesco da Rimini and her brother-in-law Paolo. He\nasks Francesco to tell him:\n\n            \u201cIn the time of your sweet sighs,\n    By what, and how love granted, that ye knew\n    Your yet uncertain wishes?\u201d\n\nWhereto she replies:\n\n                            \u201cOne day\n    For our delight we read of Lancelot,\n    How him love thrall\u2019d. Alone we were, and no\n    Suspicion near us. Ofttimes by that reading\n    Our eyes were drawn together, and the hue\n    Fled from our alter\u2019d cheek. But at one point\n    Alone we fell. When of that smile we read,\n    The wished smile, so rapturously kissed\n    By one so deep in love, then he, who ne\u2019er\n    From me shall separate, at once my lips\n    All trembling kiss\u2019d. The book and writer both\n    Were love\u2019s purveyors. In its leaves that day\n    We read no more.\u201d[1]\n\nI have had a special object in prefacing my studies on the history of\nkissing with these famous verses, for I regarded it in the light of a\nduty to caution my readers emphatically, and at the very outset, as to\nthe danger of even reading about kisses; and I consider that, having\ndone this, I have warned my readers against pursuing the subject, and\n\u201cforewarned is forearmed,\u201d or, \u201c_homme averti en vaut deux_.\u201d\n\n\n\n\nTABLE OF CONTENTS\n\n\nCHAP.                                      PAGE\n\nI. WHAT IS A KISS?                            3\n\nII. LOVE KISSES                              29\n\nIII. AFFECTIONATE KISSES                     79\n\nIV. THE KISS OF PEACE                       101\n\nV. THE KISS OF RESPECT                      113\n\nVI. THE KISS OF FRIENDSHIP                  141\n\nVII. VARIOUS KINDS OF KISSES                161\n\nVIII. THE ORIGIN OF KISSING                 177\n\nL\u2019ENVOI                                     189\n\n\n\n\nI\n\nWHAT IS A KISS?\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER I\n\nWHAT IS A KISS?\n\n\nIt may perhaps seem somewhat futile to begin with discussing what a kiss\nis: that every child of course knows. We are greeted with kisses\ndirectly we enter the world, and kisses follow us all our life long, as\nH\u00f6lty sings--\n\n    Giving kisses, snatching kisses,\n    Keeps the busy world employed.\n                W. F. H.\n\nNevertheless the question is not altogether superfluous. It seems to me\neven to offer certain points of interest, inasmuch as it is by no means\nso easy as people may imagine to define what a kiss is. If we turn to\nthe poets we are often put off with the answer that a kiss is something\nthat should be merely felt, and that people would do well to refrain\nfrom speculating as to what it actually is.\n\n    What says this glance? What meaning lurks in this\n    Squeezing of hands, embrace, and ling\u2019ring kiss?\n    This only can your heart explain to you.\n    What have such matters with the brain to do?\n                W. F. H.\n\nSo, for instance, says Aarestrup; but he adds as a sort of explanation--\n\n    But when I see thee my fond kiss denying,\n    And straightway, nathless, mine embrace not spurning,\n    Then needs must I to tedious arts be turning,\n    And let crabb\u2019d wisdom from my lips go flying.\n\n    Know then the voice alone interprets rightful\n    And with poetic fire from heart\u2019s depth welleth,\n    And yet the sweetest of them all by no means!\n\n    Whereas the bosom, arms, and lips, and eye-sheens--\n    How shall I call it? for the total swelleth\n    Unto a language wordless as delightful.\n                W. F. H.\n\nwhich has not brought us nearer to a solution of the question. Other\npoets give us an allegorical transcription, couched in vague poetical\nterms, which rather refer to the feelings of which the kiss may be an\nexpression than attempt to define its physiology. Thus Paul Verlaine\ndefines a kiss as \u201cthe fiery accompaniment on the keyboard of the teeth\nof the lovely songs which love sings in a burning heart.\u201d\n\n    Baiser! rose tr\u00e9mi\u00e8re au jardin des caresses!\n    Vif accompagnement sur le clavier des dents,\n    Des doux refrains qu\u2019Amour chante en les c\u0153urs ardents\n    Avec sa voix d\u2019archange aux langueurs charmeresses!\n\nThis definition, which seems to me to be as original as it is beautiful\nand apt, deals, however, exclusively with the kiss of love; but kisses,\nas we all know, are capable of expressing many other emotions, and it\nenlightens us not one whit as to the external side of the nature of a\nkiss. Let us, therefore, leave the poets, and seek refuge with the\nphilologists.\n\nIn the _Dictionary of the Danish Philological Society_ (_Videnskabernes\nSelskabs Ordbog_) a kiss is defined as \u201ca pressure of the mouth against\na body.\u201d As every one at once perceives, this explanation is very\nunsatisfactory, for, from the above statements, we could hardly accept\nmore than one, viz., the mouth. Now, of course, it is quite clear that\none of the first requisites for a kiss is a mouth. \u201cEinen Kuss an sich,\nohne Mund, kann man nicht geben,\u201d say the Germans, and it is also\nremarkable that in Finnish, _antaa sunta_, \u201cto kiss,\u201d means literally\n\u201cto give mouth.\u201d\n\nHow does the mouth produce a kiss?\n\nA kiss is produced by a kind of sucking movement of the muscles of the\nlips, accompanied by a weaker or louder sound. Thus, from a purely\nphonetic point of view, a kiss may be defined as an inspiratory bilabial\nsound, which English phoneticians call the lip-click, _i.e._, the sound\nmade by smacking the lip. This movement of the muscles, however, is not\nof itself sufficient to produce a kiss, it being, as you know, employed\nby coachmen when they want to start their horses; but it becomes a kiss\nonly when it is used as an expression of a certain feeling, and when the\nlips are pressed against, or simply come into contact with, a living\ncreature or object.\n\nThe sound which follows a kiss has been carefully investigated by the\nAustrian _savant_, W. von Kempelen, in his remarkable book entitled _The\nMechanism of Human Speech_ (Wien, 1791). He divides kisses into three\nsorts, according to their sound. First he treats of kisses proper, which\nhe characterises as a _freundschaftlich hellklatschender Herzenskuss_\n(an affectionate, clear-ringing kiss coming from the heart); next he\ndefines the more discreet, or, from an acoustic point of view, weaker\nkiss; and, lastly, speaks contemptuously of a third kind of kiss, which\nis designated an _ekelhafter Schmatz_ (a loathsome smack).\n\nMany other writers have, although in a less scientific manner, sought to\ndefine and elucidate the sound that arises from a kiss. Johannes\nJ\u00f8rgensen says very delicately in his _Stemninger_ that \u201cthe plash of\nthe waves against the pebbles of the beach is like the sound of long\nkisses.\u201d\n\nIt is generally, however, an exclusively humorous or satirical aspect\nthat is most conspicuous. In the _Seducer\u2019s Diary_ (_Forf\u00f8rerens\ndagbog_) of S\u00f6ren Kierkegaard, Johannes speaks of the engaged couples\nwho used to assemble in numbers at his uncle\u2019s house: \u201cWithout\ninterruption, the whole evenings through, one hears a sound as if a\nperson was going round with a fly-flap: that is the lovers\u2019 kisses.\u201d A\nstill more drastic comparison is found in the German expression, \u201cthe\nkiss sounded just like when a cow drags her hind hoof out of a swamp.\u201d\nThis metaphor, which is used, you know, by Mark Twain, is as graphic as\nit is easy of comprehension; whereas, on the other hand, I am somewhat\nperplexed with regard to an old Danish expression that is to be found in\nthe Ole Lade\u2019s Phrases (_Fraser_): \u201cHe kissed her so that it rang just\nas it does when one strikes the horns off felled cows.\u201d Another old\nauthor speaks of kissing that sounds as if one was pulling the horn out\nof an owl.\n\nThe emotions expressed by this more or less noisy lip-sound are manifold\nand varying: burning love and affectionate friendship, exultant joy and\nprofound grief, etc., etc.; consequently there must be many different\nsorts of kisses.\n\nThe austere old Rabbis only recognised three kinds of kisses, viz.:\nthose of greeting, farewell, and respect. The Romans had also three\nkinds, but their classification was essentially at variance with the\nRabbis\u2019: they distinguished between _oscula_,[2] friendly kisses,\n_basia_, kisses of love, and _suavia_, passionate kisses. The\nsignificance of these words is clearly expressed in the following\nlines:--\n\n    Basia coniugibus, sed et oscula dantur amicis,\n    Suavia lascivis miscantur grata labellis.\n\nBut the Romans\u2019 division is by no means exhaustive; kisses are and have\nbeen actually employed to express many other feelings than those\nabove-mentioned.\n\nThat kisses in this book are arranged in five groups, viz., kisses of\npassion, love, peace, respect, and friendship, is chiefly due to\npractical considerations; for, to be precise, these artificially-formed\ngroups are inadequate, and, besides, often overlap one another.\n\nA modern French writer reckons no less than twenty sorts of kisses, but\nI find in German dictionaries over thirty different designations:\n_Abschiedskuss_, _Brautkuss_, _Bruderkuss_, _Dankkuss_, _Doppelkuss_,\n_Ehrenkuss_, _Erwiderungskuss_, _Feuerkuss_, _Flammenkuss_,\n_Frauenkuss_, _Freundschaftskuss_, _Friedenskuss_, _Gegenkuss_,\n_Geisterkuss_, _Handkuss_, _Honigkuss_, _Inbrunstkuss_, _Judaskuss_,\n_Lehenskuss_, _Liebeskuss_, _M\u00e4dchenkuss_, _Minnekuss_, _Morgenkuss_,\n_Mutterkuss_, _Nebenkuss_, _Pantoffelkuss_, _Segenskuss_,\n_S\u00f6hnungskuss_, _Undschuldskuss_, _Verm\u00e4hlungskuss_, _Vers\u00f6hnungskuss_,\n_Wechselkuss_, _Weihekuss_, _Zuckerkuss_, etc., etc. In German the verb\nitself, \u201cto kiss,\u201d is varied in many different ways, _e.g._, in Germany\none may _auk\u00fcssen_, _aufk\u00fcssen_, _ausk\u00fcssen_, _bek\u00fcssen_, _durchk\u00fcssen_,\n_empork\u00fcssen_, _entk\u00fcssen_, _erk\u00fcssen_, _fortk\u00fcssen_, _herk\u00fcssen_,\n_nachk\u00fcssen_, _verk\u00fcssen_, _vorbeik\u00fcssen_, _wegk\u00fcssen_, _widerk\u00fcssen_,\n_zerk\u00fcssen_, _zuk\u00fcssen_, and _zur\u00fcckk\u00fcssen_.\n\nWe must give the Germans the credit of being thorough, and in the\nhighest degree methodical and exhaustive in their nomenclature, for can\nwe conceive a more admirable word than, for instance, _nachk\u00fcssen_,\nwhich is explained as \u201cmaking up for kisses that have been omitted, or\nsupplementing kisses\u201d? However, on the other hand, it cannot be denied\nthat they are at the same time awkward and tasteless in their\nexpressions; a word such as _ausk\u00fcssen_, which, for instance, is used in\nthe refrain: _Trink aus! K\u00fcss aus!_ seems to me to smack perilously of\nthe ale-house.\n\nWe have now seen what a kiss is; but before proceeding to investigate\nthe different kinds of kisses, their significance in the history of\ncivilisation, and treatment in poetry, it still remains for us to reply\nto some of the ordinary queries regarding the nature and characteristics\nof the kiss.\n\nIn the first place we must investigate the kiss in its gustative aspect.\nI here confine myself to what Kierkegaard calls \u201cthe perfect kiss,\u201d\n_i.e._, the kiss between man and woman; kisses between men are,\naccording to that authority, insipid.\n\n_K\u00fcssen, wo smekt dat? see de maid._ Yes, its taste naturally depends\nentirely on the circumstances, and experience is here a teacher that\nsets every theory at nought; but a few leading features may, however, be\nindicated.\n\nWhen Lars Iversen, in Schandorph\u2019s _Skovfogedb\u00f8rnene_, has kissed Mette\nSplyd, he wipes his mouth and says, when he has got well outside the\ndoor, \u201cThat tasted like meat that has been kept too long.\u201d When the old\nminnesinger, King Wenceslaus of Bohemia, had kissed his sweetheart he\nsang: \u201cJust as a rose that opens its calix when it drinks the sweet dew,\nshe offered me her sugar-sweet red mouth.\u201d\n\n    Recht als ein r\u00f4se diu sich \u00fbz ir kl\u00f4sen l\u00e2t,\n    Swenn si des s\u00fcezen touwes gert,\n    Sus b\u00f2t si mir ir zuckers\u00fcezen r\u00f2ten munt.\n\nAs we perceive from both these examples, there is a great distinction\nbetween kisses in their gustative aspect, but, for obvious reasons, I\nshall entirely exclude the variety represented by Mette Splyd.\n\nThe most frequently employed and, at the same time undoubtedly the most\nfitting epithet of a kiss, is that it is sweet. The shepherd in the\nFrench pastorals is fond of asking for a sweet kiss (_un doux baiser_),\nand poets innumerable, like Wenceslaus, have sung about the beloved\u2019s\nsugar mouth. During the Renaissance such expressions as her _bouche\nsucrine_ (sugary mouth) and _bouche pleine de sucre et d\u2019ambregris_\n(mouth full of sugar and ambergris) were often employed.\n\nWe find this further borne out by two Latin epigrams. One asks:--\u201cWhat\nis sweeter than mead?\u201d and the answer runs: \u201cThe dew of heaven. And what\nis sweeter than dew?--Honey from Hybla? What is sweeter than\nhoney?--Nectar. Than nectar?--A kiss.\u201d\n\n     Quid mulso pr\u00e6stat? Ros c\u0153li. Rore quid? Hybl\u00e6 Mel. Melle hoc?\n     Nectar. Nectare? Suaviolum.\n\nThe second epigram goes through a similar string of comparisons, and\narrives at the same result: \u201cWhat is better than sugar?--Honey-cake.\nThan honey-cake?--The flavour of honey-combs. Than this flavour?--Dewy\nkisses\u201d--\n\n     Saccharo quid superat? Libum. Quid libo? Favorum Gustus. At hunc\n     gustum? Basia roscidula.\n\nKisses are sweet as woman\u2019s gentle breath, which, according to a\nRoumanian folk-song, smells of \u201cdelicate young wine,\u201d or, as the French\npoets say, of \u201cthousands of flowers.\u201d--\n\n    Laughing mouth, mouth to caress,\n    Kissing ere its lips you press;\n    Sweet for kissing, balmy breath\n    Like the perfume of fresh heath.\n                W. F. H.\n\nA woman\u2019s breath, which intoxicates man, is, as it were, the ethereal\nexpression of her whole being. In the description of the youthful\nBlancheflor we are told that her breath is so delicious and refreshing\nthat he who experiences it knows not pain, and needs no food for a whole\nweek.\n\n    De sa bouche ist si douce haleine,\n    Vivre en peut-on une semaine;\n    Qui au lundi le sentiroit\n    En la semaine mal n\u2019avroit.\n\nMoreover, as the flavour of a kiss depends on the woman\u2019s mouth, let\nus, therefore, investigate how a woman\u2019s mouth ought to be fashioned in\norder to fulfil its purpose from a philematological point of view. When\nthe medi\u00e6val French poets describe a beautiful and desirable woman they\nsay of her mouth that it must be \u201cwell-formed and sweet to kiss\u201d (_bien\nfaite et douce pour baiser_). The troubadours likewise in their love\npoems praise the mouth that is _ben faita ad obs de baisar_.\n\nIf more detailed explanations are wanted they can easily be given. The\nlips must, in the first place, be bewitchingly soft; next, they must be\nas red as coral:\n\n    Los labios de la su boca\n    Como un fino coral,\n\nor else red as roses:\n\n    La bocca piccioletta e colorita,\n    Vermiglia come rosa di giardino,\n    Piagente ed amorosa per baciare.[3]\n\nThis last simile is one of the most frequently employed. The beloved\none\u2019s mouth is likened to a rose; it has the scent and colour of a\nrose:\n\n    H\u00e6c dulcis in amore\n    Est et plena decore,\n    Rosa rubet rubore,\n    Et lilium convallium\n    Tota vincit odore,\n\nsang the wandering clerks in the Middle Ages, the jolly Goliards, and\nthey extolled the youth who was lucky enough to kiss the mouth of such a\nwoman:\n\n    Felix est qui osculis mellifluis\n            Ipsius potitur.\n\nAnd, they went on to say, \u201con every maiden\u2019s lips the kiss sits like a\nrose which only longs to be plucked\u201d:\n\n    Sedit in ore\n    Rosa cum pudore.\n\nThe old German minnesingers use the expression _K\u00fcssbl\u00fcmlein_\n(kiss-floweret), and a bard of the Netherlands sings: \u201cMy beloved is my\nsummer, my beloved is my joy, all the roses bloom every time she gives\nme a kiss\u201d:\n\n    Mijn liefken is mijn somer,\n    Min liefken is mijn lust,\n    En al de rosen bloejen\n    So dicmael si mi cust.\n\nBut all this is only poetry, merely feeble imageries which only give an\nentirely weak idea of the reality. How accurate is Thomas Moore when,\nin one of his poems, he declares that roses are not so warm as his\nbeloved\u2019s mouth, nor can the dew approach it in sweetness.\n\nNow if we turn to the other aspect of the case and see what women expect\nfrom a man\u2019s kiss, then the question becomes somewhat more difficult to\ntreat, inasmuch as so exceedingly few women have treated of kisses in\npoetry--a fact which is also in itself quite natural. Runeberg, who\nhimself has so often sung the praises of kissing without, however, being\nversed in their nature:\n\n    For my part I\u2019ve ne\u2019er understood\n    Of kisses what can be the good;\n    But I should die if kept away\n    From thy red lips one single day.\n                W. F. H.\n\nasks his beloved:\n\n    Now, dearest maiden, answer me,\n    What joy can kisses bring to thee?\n                W. F. H.\n\nBut she fails to answer him:\n\n    I ask thee now, as I asked this,\n    And all thy answer\u2019s kiss on kiss.\n                W. F. H.\n\nBesides, it seems very evident from the last line that the situation did\nnot admit of the calmer and more sober observation which forms the\nnecessary condition for a reliable answer to the question. I am,\ntherefore, obliged to attempt to reply to the question myself; but I\nreadily admit my deficiency in the essential qualification of being able\nto do so in a satisfactory manner. Moreover, the literary material at my\ndisposal is exceedingly inadequate, and, for that reason, I cannot claim\nany universal application for my treatment of the subject.\n\nIn the first place it seems indisputable that a woman gives a decided\npreference to a man with a beard; at all events a heiduke sings in a\nRoumanian ballad: \u201cI am still too young to marry; my beard has not yet\nsprouted. What married woman then will care about kissing me?\u201d\n\n    C\u0103 simt voinic neinsorat;\n    Nici mustete nu m\u2019a dat:\n    Cum simt bun de s\u0103rutat\n    La neveste cu b\u0103rbat?\n\nTo judge from the part the heidukes play in the ballad literature of the\nRoumanians and Serbs, they must be very experienced in everything that\nhas to do with women and love, and their testimony must therefore be\naccepted as being sufficiently reliable. Besides, we find the same taste\namong women in Northern Europe. In Germany there is said to be nothing\nin a kiss without a beard: _Ein Kuss ohne Bart ist eine Vesper ohne\nMagnificat_ (a kiss without a beard is like Vespers without the\nMagnificat); or, still more strongly, _Ein Kuss ohne Bart ist ein Ei\nohne Salz_ (a kiss without a beard is like an egg without salt). The\nyoung girls in Holland also incline to this point of view: _Een kussje\nzonder baard, een eitje zonder zout_ (an egg without salt), and they\nhave in the Frisian Islands some who share their taste: _An Kleeb sanner\nBiard as \u00e4s en Brei sanner Salt_ (porridge without salt). Lastly, the\nJutland lassies also take the same view of the matter--in fact they are,\nif I may say so, even more refined in their requirements; a kiss is not\nonly to sound, but it must have some flavour about it--it ought to be\nstrong and luscious: _At kysse en karl uden skr\u00e5 og skaeg er som at\nkysse en leret vaeg_ (kissing a fellow without a quid of tobacco and a\nbeard is like kissing a clay wall), say those who express themselves in\nthe most refined manner; but there are others who are not so particular\nin the choice of words, and these latter say straight out: _\u00c5 kys jen,\nd\u00e6 hveken r\u00f8ger eller skr\u00e5er, de \u00e6 som m\u00e6 ku kys \u00e6 sp\u00e6 kal i r._,\n(kissing one who neither smokes nor chews tobacco is like kissing a\nnew-born calf on the rump). On the other hand, a person should not be\ntoo wet about the mouth--that they do not like; _e.g._, the scornful\nsaying: \u201cHe is nice to kiss when one is thirsty,\u201d or, as the German\ngirls say: _Einen Kuss mit Sauce bekommen_ (to get a kiss with sauce).\n\nIt apparently follows from this that women are not so simple in their\ntastes as men; a kiss by itself is not sufficient, it requires some\ncondiment or other in addition--and, for the credit of women\u2019s taste,\nlet it be said--this need not always be tobacco. In a French folk-song\nthe lover tells us that he has smeared his mouth with fresh butter so\nthat it may taste better:\n\n    J\u2019avais toujou dans ma pochette\n      Du bon bieur\u2019 frais,\n    O qu\u00e9 je me gressais la goule,\n      Quand j\u2019 l\u2019embrassais.\n\nI have already mentioned in my preface how dangerous the mere reading\nabout kisses may be; but, apart from literature, a kiss is something\nwhich has to be dealt with most cautiously. Now hear what Socrates said\nto Xenophon one day: \u201cKritobulus is the most foolhardy and rash fellow\nin the world; he is rasher than if he meant to dance on naked\nsword-points or fling himself into the fire; he has had the audacity to\nkiss a pretty face.\u201d--\u201cBut,\u201d asked Xenophon, \u201cis that such a deed of\ndaring? I am certainly no desperado, but still I think I would venture\nto expose myself to the same risk.\u201d--\u201cLuckless wight,\u201d replied Socrates,\n\u201cyou are not thinking what would betide you. If you kissed a pretty\nface, would you not that very instant lose your freedom and become a\nslave? Would you not have to spend much money on harmful amusements, and\nwould you not do much which you would despise, if your understanding\nwere not clouded? Hercules forbid what dreadful effects a poor kiss can\nhave! And dost thou marvel at it, Xenophon? You know, I take it, those\ntiny spiders which are not half the size of an obol, and yet they can,\nthrough merely touching a person\u2019s mouth, cause him the keenest pains;\nnay, even deprive him of his understanding. But, by Jupiter, anyhow this\nis quite another matter; for spiders poison the wound directly they\ninflict a sting. O, thou simple fellow, dost thou not know that lustful\nkisses are poisoned, even if thou failest to perceive the poison? Dost\nthou not know that she to whom the name of beautiful is given is a wild\nbeast far more dangerous than scorpions; for the latter only poison us\nby their touch, whereas beauty destroys us without actual contact with\nus, and even ejects from a long distance a venom so dangerous that\npeople are deprived thereby of their wits. This is the reason why I\nadvise you, O Xenophon, to run away as fast as you can the very instant\nyou see a beautiful woman, and with regard to yourself, O Kritobulus, I\ndeem you will act most prudently in spending a whole year abroad; for\nthat is the least time necessary for curing thy wound.\u201d[4]\n\nIt may perhaps be thought that Socrates\u2019 fear of kissing is a trifle\nexaggerated, his idea possibly arising from a certain prejudice derived\nfrom Mistress Xantippe; anyhow, nowadays, we regard the matter from a\nfar more sober point of view. We ought, nevertheless, to be well on our\nguard against the frivolous opinion expressed in so many modern sayings,\nthat a kiss is a thing of no consequence whatever. The Italians bluntly\nassert \u201cthat a mouth is none the worse for having been kissed\u201d (_bocca\nbaciata non perde ventura_), and a French writer of the present day even\ngoes so far as to compare a kiss with those usually-harmless bullets\nwhich are exchanged in modern duels. _Bah! deux baisers, qu\u2019est que\ncela? On les \u00e9change comme des balles sans r\u00e9sultat, et l\u2019honneur reste\nsatisfait_ (Bah! two kisses. What of that? They are exchanged like\nbullets that miss the mark, and honour is satisfied).\n\nThis frivolous notion must not, however, be deemed peculiar to the Latin\nnations: it is to be met with even in the North. In Norway there is a\nsong:\n\n    Jens Johannesen, the Goth so brave,\n    The maid on her chops a good buss gave.\n    He kissed her once, and once again,\n    But each time was she likewise fain,\n    But each time was she likewise fain.\n                W. F. H.\n\nAs you see, the last line of the verse is repeated as if for the\npurpose of duly impressing the moral of the song.\n\nIt is said in Als: _Et kys er et stow, den der it vil ha et, ka vask et\now_ (a kiss is like a grain of dust, which any one who would be rid of\nit can wash away). We read as far back as Peder Syv[5]: _Et kys kan\nafviskes_ (a kiss can be washed away), but he adds solemnly, and for our\nwarning: \u201cShe who permits a kiss also permits more; and he who has\naccess to kisses has also access to more.\u201d Even the Germans say: _Kuss\nkann man zwar abwischen, aber das Feuer im Herzen nich l\u00f6schen_ (a kiss\nmay indeed be washed away, but the fire in the heart cannot be\nquenched).\n\nThus hardly the shadow of a doubt ought to exist as to kisses being\nextraordinarily dangerous--or, in any case, capable of becoming so--far\nmore dangerous, for instance, than dynamite or gun-cotton; in the first\nplace, at any rate, inasmuch as people are not in the habit of walking\nabout with such explosives in their pockets, whereas every one has\nkisses always at hand, or, more correctly speaking, in their mouths;\nsecondly, we are rid of dynamite when once it has exploded, but, on the\nother hand, we can never actually be quit of a kiss--without at the same\ntime returning it; for we take back the kisses we give, you know, and we\ngive, too, those we take back--and, adds the proverb, \u201cnobody is the\nloser.\u201d _Einen Kuss den man raubt giebt man wieder_ (One returns a\nstolen kiss), say the Germans; and the Spaniards have expressed the same\nthought in a neat little _copla_: \u201cDost thy mother chide thee for having\ngiven me a kiss? Then take back, dear girl, thy kiss, and bid her hold\nher tongue.\u201d\n\n    \u00bfPorque un beso me has dado\n     Ri\u00f1e tu madre?\n     Toma, ni\u00f1a, tu beso;\n     Dile que calle.\n\nMarot has treated the same subject in his epigram _Le Baiser Vol\u00e9_, or\nthe Stolen Kiss.\n\n    About my daring now you grieve,\n    To snatch a kiss without ado,\n    Nor even saying, \u201cBy your leave.\u201d\n    Come, I will make my peace with you,\n    And now I want you to believe\n    I\u2019m loth your soul again to grieve\n    By theft of kisses, since, alack,\n    My kiss has wrought such dole and teen;\n    Yet \u2019tis not lost; I\u2019ll give it back,\n    And that right blithely, too, I ween.\n                W. F. H.\n\nThere is a French anecdote of the present day about a student who took\nthe liberty of kissing a young girl. She got very angry, however, and\ncalled him an insolent puppy, whereupon he retorted with irrefutable\nlogic: _Pour Dieu! Mademoiselle ne vous f\u00e2chez pas, si ce baiser vous\ng\u00eane, rendez-le-moi_ (For goodness\u2019 sake, don\u2019t be cross, young lady. If\nthat kiss annoys you, give it back to me). It seems to have had a more\namicable settlement in the case of a Danish couple who had resolved to\nbreak off their engagement: \u201cIt is best, I suppose, that we return each\nother\u2019s letters?\u201d said he. \u201cI think so too,\u201d replied she, \u201cbut shall we\nnot at the same time give each other all our kisses back?\u201d They did so,\nand thus agreed to renew their engagement.\n\nThis little story shows us that a kiss is something which cannot be so\neasily lost, and I hope, not least for the sake of my book, that we\nshall concur in the Italian proverb which says: _Bacio dato non e mai\nperduto_ (a kiss once given is never lost).\n\n\n\n\nII\n\nLOVE KISSES\n\n    A long, long kiss, a kiss of youth and love\n      And beauty, all concentrating like rays\n    Into one focus, kindled from above;\n      Such kisses as belong to early days,\n    Where heart, and soul, and sense, in concert move,\n      And the blood\u2019s lava, and the pulse a blaze,\n    Each kiss a heart-quake,--for a kiss\u2019s strength\n    I think, it must be reckon\u2019d by its length.\n                       BYRON.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER II\n\nLOVE KISSES\n\n\n\u201cAt the time of the world\u2019s creation kisses were created and cruel\nlove.\u201d Thus begins a Cypriot folk-song, and it is assuredly without the\nshadow of a doubt that among all nations which on the whole know\nkissing, it gets its sublimest meaning as the expression of love.\n\nIn the transport of love the lovers\u2019 lips seek each other. When Byron\u2019s\nDon Juan wanders one evening along the shore with his Haidee, they\nglance at the moonlit sea which lies outspread before them, and they\nlisten to the lapping of the waves and the whispering murmur of the\nbreeze, but suddenly they\n\n      Saw each other\u2019s dark eyes darting light\n    Into each other--and, beholding this,\n    Their lips drew near, and clung into a kiss.\n\n         *       *       *       *       *\n\n    They had not spoken, but they felt allured,\n      As if their souls and lips each other beckoned,\n    Which, being joined, like swarming bees they clung--\n    Their hearts the flowers from whence the honey sprung.\n\nThe kiss of love is the exultant message of the longing of love, love\neternally young, the burning prayer of hot desire, which is born on the\nlovers\u2019 lips, and \u201crises,\u201d as Charles Fuster has said, \u201cup to the blue\nsky from the green plains,\u201d like a tender, trembling thank-offering.\n\n    Que tous les c\u0153urs soient apais\u00e9s\n      Et toutes les l\u00e8vres ouvertes,\n    Qu\u2019un fr\u00e9missement de baisers\n      Monte au ciel bleu des plaines vertes!\n\nThe love kiss, rich in promise, bestows an intoxicating feeling of\ninfinite happiness, courage, and youth, and therefore surpasses all\nother earthly joys in sublimity--at any rate all poets say so--and no\none has expressed it in more exquisite and choicer words than Alfred de\nMusset in his celebrated sonnet on Tizianello:\n\n    Beatrix Donato was the soft sweet name\n      Of her whose earthly form was shaped so fair;\n    A faithful heart lay in her breast\u2019s white frame,\n      Her spotless body held a mind most rare.\n\n    The son of Titian, for her deathless fame,\n      Painted this portrait, witness of love\u2019s care,\n    And from that day renounced his art\u2019s high claim,\n      Loth that another dame his skill should share.\n\n    Stranger, if in your heart love doth abide,\n    Gaze on my lady\u2019s picture ere you chide.\n      Say if perchance your lady\u2019s fair as this.\n    Then mark how poor a thing is fame on earth;\n    Grand as this portrait is, it is not worth--\n      Believe me on my oath--the model\u2019s kiss.\n                W. F. H.\n\nThus even the highest work of art, yea, the loftiest reputation, is\nnothing in comparison with the passionate kiss of a woman one loves.\nThis is what life has taught Musset, and a half melancholy sigh rings\nthrough his exultation over the omnipotence of love. In turning to the\nmore _na\u00efve_ speech of popular poetry, we find in a German\n_Schnaderh\u00fcpfel_ (Improvisation) a corresponding homage to the kiss as\nthe noblest thing in the world:\n\n    My sweetheart\u2019s poor,\n      But fair to behold.\n    What use were wealth?\n      I cannot kiss gold.\n                W. F. H.\n\nAnd we all yearn for kisses and we all seek them; it is idle to struggle\nagainst this passion. No one can evade the omnipotence of the kiss, the\nbest resolutions, the most solemn oaths, are of no avail. A pretty\nlittle Servian folk-song treats of a young girl who swore too hastily.\n\n    Yestreen swore a maiden fair,\n    Ne\u2019er again I\u2019ll wear a garland,\n    Ne\u2019er again I\u2019ll wear a garland,\n    Wine again I\u2019ll never drink,\n    Never more I\u2019ll kiss a laddie.\n\n    Yestreen swore the maiden fair,\n    Clean to-day her oath\u2019s regretted:\n    If I decked myself with flow\u2019rets,\n    Then the flow\u2019rets made me fairer;\n    If I quaffed the wine that\u2019s ruddy,\n    Then my heart grew all the blither;\n    If I kissed my heart\u2019s beloved,\n    Life to me grew doubly dearer.[6]\n                W. F. H.\n\nIt is through kisses that a knowledge of life and happiness first comes\nto us. Runeberg says that the angels rejoice over the first kiss\nexchanged by lovers.\n\n    The evening star was sitting beside a silver cloud,\n    A maid from out a twilight grove addressed this star aloud,\n    \u201cCome, tell me, star of evening, what angels think in heaven\n    When by a youth and maiden the first sweet kiss is given?\u201d\n    And heaven\u2019s bashful daughter was heard to deign reply:\n    \u201cOn earth the choir of angels bright look down from out the sky,\n    And see their own felicity then mirrored on the earth,\n    But death sheds tears, and turns his eyes away from such blest mirth.\u201d\n                W. F. H.\n\nOnly death weeps over the brief duration of human happiness, weeps\nbecause the bliss of the kiss endures not for ever. And likewise, even\nafter death, lovers kiss. Jannakos and Helena, his plighted bride, die\nbefore their wedding day. They die in a kiss and are buried together;\nbut over their grave grew a cypress and an orange tree, and the latter\nstretched forth its branches on high and kissed the cypress.\n\nThe happiest man is the man who has the kiss. In the Greek romance of\n_Babylonika_, which was attributed to Jamblicus, who lived in the second\ncentury of the Christian era, three lovers contend for the favour of a\nyoung maid. To one she has given the cup out of which she was wont to\ndrink; the second she has garlanded with flowers that she herself has\nworn; to the third she has given a kiss. Borokos is called on as judge\nto decide as to which has enjoyed the highest favour, and he\nunhesitatingly decides the dispute in favour of the last.\n\nThe same subject is often the theme of folk-poetry, and the verdict\nnever alters; the joy bestowed by a kiss surpasses all other joys. A\nHungarian ballad runs thus:\n\n    As the hart holds dear the fountain,\n    And the bee the honied flow\u2019rets,\n    So the noble grape I cherish;\n    After this songs melting, tender,\n    Kisses, too, of lips of crimson,\n    As thine own, O Cenzi mine.\n\n    But the wine\u2019s might fires my senses,\n    And songs wake within me blitheness,\n    And with love intoxicated,\n    With thy love, mine own beloved.\n    And my heart no more is longing\n    After purple, after gew-gaws,\n    After what the others long for.\n\n    Happy am I in the clinking\n    Of the goblet filled with rich wine;\n    Happier still amidst sweet singing;\n    But my happiness were greatest,\n    Dared I press my kisses on a\n    Mouth, and that mouth only thine.\n                W. F. H.\n\nThe same idea is still more delicately expressed in the following\nServian ballad:\n\n    Proudly cried a golden orange\n    On the breezy shore:\n    \u201cCertainly nowhere happiness\n    Is found to equal mine.\u201d\n\n    Answered a green apple\n    From its apple tree:\n    \u201cFool to boast, golden orange,\n    On the breezy shore;\n    For happiness such as I\u2019ve found,\n    Its like cannot be seen.\u201d\n\n    Then said the breezy meadow,\n    As yet untouched by scythe:\n    \u201cToo conceited, little apple,\n    That speech of thine, meseems,\n    For happiness such as I\u2019ve found,\n    Its like cannot be seen.\u201d\n\n    Then spake a lovely maiden,\n    Unsullied by a kiss:\n    \u201cThou pratest folly, grass-plot,\n    Instead of sooth, I ween,\n    For happiness such as I\u2019ve found\n    Its like cannot be seen.\u201d\n\n    But a handsome lad made answer\n    To every speech they made;\n    \u201cYou\u2019re mad, all mad, to utter\n    Such words as I\u2019ve just heard,\n    For no one in the universe\n    Can be so blest as I.\u201d\n\n    \u201cGolden orange by the breezy\n    Shore I pluck thee now.\n    Apple, from thy apple tree\n    To-day I\u2019ll shake thee down.\n    Grass-plot, I\u2019ll mow thee level\n    With my scythe-strokes to-day.\n    Maiden, as yet unsullied\n    To-day I\u2019ll kiss thy lips.\u201d\n                W. F. H.\n\nIn another Servian lay, the lover sings that he would rather kiss his\nsweetheart than be the Sultan\u2019s guest. In Spain the lover wishes he were\nthe water-cooler so that he might kiss his darling\u2019s lips when she is\ndrinking:\n\n    Arcarrasa de tu casa,\n    Chiquiya, quisiera ser,\n    Para besarte los labios\n    Quando fueras \u00e1 beber.\n\nThe Greeks say that the kiss is \u201cthe key to Paradise\u201d; yea, it is\nParadise itself, declares Wergeland:\n\n    Nay, bride, thine embrace more than heav\u2019n I prize;\n    Oh, kiss me once more that to heav\u2019n I rise.\n                W. F. H.\n\nThe kiss is a preservation against every ill. \u201cNo ill-luck can betide me\nwhen she bestows on me a kiss,\u201d sings the old trouv\u00e8re, Colin Muset:\n\n    Se de li ai un douz baisier\n    Ne me porroit nus mals venir.\n\nIt gives health and strength, adds Heine:\n\n    Yet could I kiss thee, O my soul,\n    Then straightway I should be made whole.\n                W. F. H.\n\nIt carries life with it; it even bestows the gift of eternal youth--if\none can believe the words of the Duke of Anhalt the minnesinger:\n\n    Your mouth is crimson; over its sweet portal\n      A kindly Genius seems for ever flowing.\n      If on that mouth a kiss I were bestowing,\n    Methinks I should in sooth become immortal.\n                W. F. H.\n\nThe Persians, too, had the same idea. The jovial Hafiz laments that\n\u201csour wisdom added to old age and virtue\u201d has laid waste his strength,\nbut a remedy is to be found for these:\n\n    \u201cCome and drink,\u201d the maiden whispered,\n    \u201cSin and sweetness, youthful folly,\n     Lovingly from lips of crimson,\n     From my bosom\u2019s lily chalice,\n     And live on with strength redoubled.\u201d\n                W. F. H.\n\nAnd if a kiss is no good, then nought avails. In another passage the\nsame bard says, that were he suddenly on some occasion to feel himself\ntormented by agony and unrest, no one is to give him bitter\nmedicine--for such he detests--but:\n\n    Hand me the foaming juice of the vine,\n    Jest and sing from your heart to mine,\n\n    And if these prove not a remedy sure,\n    Then a pair of red lips you must straight procure.\n\n    But if these latter avail not to save,\n    May I be laid deep down in the grave.\n                W. F. H.\n\nIn the case of lovers a kiss is everything; that is the reason why a man\nstakes his all for a kiss. In _Enthousiasme_ Aarestrup says:\n\n    Ha, you\u2019re blushing! What red roses\n    Deck your lips! A man were fain to,\n    If a chasm yawned before him,\n    Straightway peril life to gain you.\n                W. F. H.\n\nAnd man craves for it as his noblest reward:\n\n    From beyond the high green mountains\n    Lamentations fraught with sadness\n    Issue, soft as from a girl\u2019s voice.\n    Then a youth the sound pursueth,\n    And he sees a maiden shackled\n    Fast in fetters thick of roses.\n\n    Then the fair maid called unto him:\n    \u201cDoughty youth, come here and help me;\n    I\u2019ll be to you as a sister.\u201d\n\n    But the youth straightway made answer:\n    \u201cIn my home I have a sister.\u201d\n\n    \u201cDoughty youth, come here and help me,\n    For a brother-in-law I\u2019ll choose thee.\u201d\n\n    Then the lad again made answer:\n    \u201cIn my home I have that title.\u201d\n\n    \u201cCome, young hero, and assist me,\n    And I\u2019ll be thy heart\u2019s belov\u00e8d.\u201d\n\n    Quickly kissed he then the maiden\n    Ere he loosed her from her fetters,\n    Then went homeward with his bride.\n                W. F. H.\n\nThus runs a Servian ballad, and innumerable analogues to it are to be\nfound in the folk-lore of other countries, in ballads as well as tales.\nIt is, you know, for a kiss from the princess\u2019s lovely mouth that the\nswine-herd sells his wonderful pan.\n\nBut women are aware, too, of the witchery that dwells on their lips, and\nthe power that lies in their kiss. According to a remarkable _saga_\nwhich forms the subject of one of Heine\u2019s poems, King Harald H\u00e5rfager\nsits at the bottom of the sea in captivity to a mermaid. The king\u2019s head\nis reposing on her bosom; but, suddenly, a violent tremor thrills him,\nhe hears the Viking shouts which reach him from above, he starts from\nhis dream of love and groans and sighs:\n\n    And then the King from the depth of his heart\n      Begins sobbing, and wailing, and sighing,\n    When quickly the water-fay over him bends,\n      With loving kisses replying.\n\nMan is the slave of the kiss; by a kiss woman tames the fiercest man; by\nmeans of a kiss man\u2019s will becomes as wax. Our peasant girls in Denmark\nknow this, too, right well. When they want one of the lads to do them a\nservice they promise him \u201cseven sweet kisses and a bit of white sugar on\nWhitsunday morning.\u201d \u201cBut he will get neither,\u201d they say to themselves.\n\nNow, as we have discussed the kiss and its importance as the direct\nexpression of love and erotic emotions, we will pass over to certain\nmore special aspects of its nature.\n\nIn the very first place, then, we have the quantitative conditions.\n\nIt is a matter of common knowledge that lovers are liberal in the\nextreme in the question of kisses, which are given and taken to\ninfinity, and these have likewise continually the same intoxicating\nfreshness as at the first meeting. Everything in love is, you know, a\nreiteration, and yet love is a perpetual renewing. How inspiriting are\nthe words of Tove to King Waldemar, as J. P. Jacobsen gives them:\n\n    And now I say for the first time:\n     \u201cKing Volmer, I love thee,\u201d\n    And kiss thee now for the first time,\n      And fling mine arms round thee;\n    But should you say I\u2019ve said this before,\n      And you to kisses are fain,\n    Then say I: \u201cKing, he\u2019s but a fool\n      Who minds such trifles vain.\u201d\n                W. F. H.\n\nWhat has a love kiss to do with the law of renewal? That one does not\narrive at anything by _one_ kiss is expressed with sufficient plainness\nin an Istro-Roumanian proverb: _Cu un trat busni nu se afla muliere_\n(with a single kiss no woman is caught).\n\nThis maxim holds good besides in the case of both men and women. But how\nmany kisses are necessary then?\n\nThere is a little Greek folk-song called \u201cAll good things are three.\u201d It\nruns as follows:\n\n    Your first kiss brought me near to the grave,\n    Your second kiss came my life to save;\n    But if a third kiss you\u2019ll bestow,\n    Not even death can bring me woe.\n                W. F. H.\n\nBut, nevertheless, we may assume without a shadow of a doubt that he was\nnot satisfied with these three kisses--lovers are not wont to be so\neasily contented. The Spaniards and many other nations besides say of\nlovers that \u201cthey eat each other up with kisses;\u201d but more than three\nare certainly required for that purpose:\n\n    Take this kiss and a thousand more, my darling,\n                W. F. H.\n\nsings Aarestrup, but Catullus outbids him, however, in one of his songs\nto Lesbia:\n\n    A thousand kisses; add five score:\n    Another thousand kisses more;\n      Then best forget them all,\n    Lest any wight with evil eye\n    Our too close counting might espy,\n      And dire mishap befall.[7]\n                W. F. H.\n\nAs we see, Catullus\u2019 love has no trifling start over Aarestrup\u2019s, and so\na later poet seems likewise to think that even his demands are quite\nridiculously small. \u201cNay,\u201d says Joachim du Bellay to his Columbelle,\n\u201cgive me as many kisses as there are flowers on the mead, seeds on the\nfield, and grapes in the vineyards, and so that you shall not deem me\nungrateful, I will immediately give you as many again.\u201d\n\nDu Bellay, moreover, bitterly upbraids the poet of Verona for asking for\nso few kisses that they can, when taken together, be counted:\n\n    In truth Catullus\u2019 wants are small,\n      And little can they really mean,\n    Since he could even count them all.\n                W. F. H.\n\nI must, however, take Catullus\u2019 part to a certain extent; he is not so\nprecise in his demands of Lesbia as Du Bellay makes out; in another poem\nhe asks her:\n\n    Thy kisses dost thou bid me count,\n    And tell thee, Lesbia, what amount\n    My rage for love and thee could tire,\n    And satisfy and cloy desire?\n\nAnd the answer runs:\n\n    Many as grains of Libyan sand\n    Upon Cyrene\u2019s spicy land\n    From prescient Ammon\u2019s sultry dome\n    To sacred Battus\u2019 ancient tomb;\n    Many as stars that silent ken\n    At night the stolen loves of men.\n    Yes, when the kisses thou shall kiss\n    Have reached a number vast as this,\n    Then may desire at length be stayed,\n    And e\u2019en my madness be allayed:\n    Then when infinity defies\n    The calculations of the wise;\n    Nor evil voice\u2019s deadly charm,\n    Can work the unknown number harm.\n\nThis being the case, it is a divine blessing that, according to the\nFinnish saying, \u201cthe mouth is not torn by being kissed, nor the hand by\nbeing squeezed\u201d:\n\n    Suu ei kulu suudellessa,\n    K\u0101si k\u0101tt\u0101 annellessa.\n\nBut even if the mouth is not exactly torn, yet much kissing may be\nalmost harmful; but there is only one remedy to be found for this--\u201cyou\nmust heal the hurts by fresh kisses.\u201d\n\nDorat, who may be regarded as a high authority on philematology,\nexpressly says:\n\n    A second kiss can physic\n    The evil the first has wrought.\n                W. F. H.\n\nAnd Heine, whose authority in these questions should hardly be inferior,\nholds quite the same theory:\n\n    If you have kissed my lips quite sore,\n      Then kiss them whole again;\n    If we till evening meet no more,\n      Then hurry will be vain.\n\n    You have still yet the whole, whole night,\n      My dearest heart, know this:\n    One can in such a long, long night,\n      Kiss much and taste much bliss.\n\nI make use of the last of the verses quoted as a transition to the next\nquestion we have to investigate, viz., the qualitative aspect of\nkissing, as I regard it apart from its merely gustative qualities, which\nhave already been considered.\n\nThe love kiss gleams like a cut diamond with a thousand hues; it is\neternally changing as the sun\u2019s shimmer on the waves, and expresses the\nmost diverse states and moods, ranging from humble affection to burning\ndesire.\n\nThe love kiss \u201cquenches the fire of the lips,\u201d quells and stills longing\nand desire, but it also burns and arouses regret. Margaret sits at her\nspinning-wheel, and, in tremulous longing, calls to mind Faust\u2019s ardent\nkiss:\n\n    My peace is gone,\n      My heart is sore:\n    \u2019Tis gone for ever\n      And evermore.\n\n    And the magic flow\n      Of his talk, the bliss\n    In the clasp of his hand,\n      And, oh, his kiss!\n\n    My bosom yearns\n      For him alone;\n    Ah, dared I clasp him,\n      And hold, and own!\n\n    And kiss his mouth,\n      To heart\u2019s desire,\n    And on his kisses\n      At last expire!\n\nNumberless poets have varied the theme of the quenching yet burning\nkisses of love.\n\n    O\u2019er me flows in streams delicious\n    Kisses\u2019 rosy and glowing rain,\n                W. F. H.\n\nsings Waldemar at his meeting with Tove, and Aarestrup laments:\n\n    In vain I\u2019m seeking\n      In ev\u2019ry land,\n    Thy sweetness burning\n      Of mouth and hand.\n                W. F. H.\n\nThis \u201cburning sweetness\u201d seems to be an indubitable characteristic of a\ngenuine love kiss; we even find it again in Heine:\n\n    The world\u2019s an ass, the world can\u2019t see,\n      Thy character not knowing,\n    It knows not how sweet thy kisses be,\n      How rapturously glowing.\n\nThe emotions consequent on the first kiss have been described in the old\n_na\u00efve_, but, nevertheless, exceedingly delicate love-story, of Daphnis\nand Chloe. As a reward Chloe has bestowed a kiss on Daphnis--an innocent\nyoung-maid\u2019s kiss, but it has on him the effect of an electrical shock:\n\n\u201cYe gods, what are my feelings. Her lips are softer than the rose\u2019s\nleaf, her mouth is sweet as honey, and her kiss inflicts on me more pain\nthan a bee\u2019s sting. I have often kissed my kids, I have often kissed my\nlambs, but never have I known aught like this. My pulse is beating fast,\nmy heart throbs, it is as if I were about to suffocate, yet,\nnevertheless, I want to have another kiss. Strange, never-suspected\npain! Has Chloe, I wonder, drunk some poisonous draught ere she kissed\nme? How comes it that she herself has not died of it?\u201d\n\nImpelled, as it were, by some irresistible force, Daphnis wanders back\nto Chloe; he finds her asleep, but dares not awake her: \u201cSee how her\neyes slumber and her mouth breathes. The scent of apple-blossoms is not\nso delicious as her breath. But I dare not kiss her. Her kiss stings me\nto the heart, and drives me as mad as if I had eaten fresh honey.\u201d\nDaphnis\u2019 fear of kisses disappears, however, later on, directly his\nsimplicity has made room for greater selfconsciousness. That a kiss is\nlike the sting of a bee, or pains like a wound, is a metaphor which many\npoets have used, and the metaphor comes undoubtedly near the truth.\nWith growing passion, kisses become mad and violent:\n\n    Thy ruby lips, they kissed so wild,\n    So madly, so soul-disturbing;\n                W. F. H.\n\nand such kisses leave marks behind them. Aarestrup\u2019s mistress has\nbeautiful plump shoulders:\n\n    They curve, as of a goddess,\n      So naked and so bold.\n\n    I\u2019ll brand your comely shoulders,\n      Such guerdon have they earned!\n    Look where my lips enfevered\n      Have scars of crimson burned.\n                W. F. H.\n\nHafiz\u2019 mistress is afraid that \u201chis too hot kisses will char her\ndelicate lips.\u201d With continually increasing desire kisses grow more and\nmore voluptuous, and assume forms which have been celebrated by poets of\nantiquity and the Renaissance. Many burning, erotic verses have been\ncomposed on the subject _columbatim labra conserere_, or kissing as\ndoves kiss.\n\nKisses at last grow into bites. Mirabeau, in a love-letter to Sophie,\nwrites: \u201cI am kissing you and biting you all over, _et jaloux de la\nblancheur je te couvre de su\u00e7ons_\u201d; and the classic poets often speak of\nthe tiny red marks on cheeks or lips, neck or shoulders, which the\nlovers\u2019 _morsiuncul\u00e6_ have left behind.\n\nArethusa writes to Lycas: \u201cWhat keeps you till now so long away from me?\nOh, suffer no young girl to print the mark of her teeth on your neck.\u201d\nThe Italians use the expression _baciare co\u2019 denti_ (kiss with the\nteeth) to signify \u201cto love.\u201d We can only treat these kisses as a sort of\ntransitional link, of shorter or longer duration, according to\ncircumstances. They are, as it were, \u201ca sea fraught with perils,\u201d which\nin Mlle. de Scud\u00e9ry\u2019s celebrated letter (_la carte de tendre_), carries\none to strange countries (_les terres inconnues_); but, as these\ncountries lie outside the regions of pure philematology, I shall not\npursue my investigations further. I will, however, first quote what old\nOvid has written, although I am not at all prepared to assert that his\nopinion is entitled to have any special weight, more especially as it\nis far from being unimpeachable from a moral point of view:\n\n    Oscula qui sumpsit, si non et cetera sumet,\n      H\u00e6c quoque qu\u00e6 data sunt perdere dignus erit.\n    Quantum defuerat pleno post oscula voto?\n      Heu mihi rusticitas, non pudor ille fuit.[8]\n\nAfter the foregoing it would seem superfluous to enter into a closer\ninvestigation of--if the term be allowed--the topographical aspects of\nkissing. The love kiss is, as you are aware, properly directed towards\nthe mouth--a fact sufficiently known, and in testimony of which I have,\nmoreover, brought forward a number of passages from respectable and\ntrustworthy writers. I shall only add a German \u201cSinngedicht\u201d of\nFriedrich von Logau:\n\n    If you will kiss, then kiss the mouth,\n      All other sorts are but half blisses,\n    The face--ah, no--nor hand, neck, breast,\n      The mouth alone can give back kisses.\n                W. F. H.\n\nVon Logau\u2019s vindication of the mouth as the only place that ought to be\nkissed is extremely logical, and, I take it, from a purely theoretical\npoint of view, unobjectionable; but, practically, the case is quite the\ncontrary. The royal _trouv\u00e8re_, Thibaut de Champagne, treats in a\nlengthy poem--one of the so-called _jeux-partis_--the question whether\none should kiss one\u2019s mistress\u2019s mouth or feet. Baudouin\u2019s opinion is in\nfavour of kissing her on the mouth, and he gives his reasons for it at\nsome length; but Thibaut replies, that he who kisses his darling on the\nmouth has no love for her, because that is the way one kisses any little\nshepherdess one comes across; it is only by kissing her feet that a\nlover shows his affection, and it is by such means alone that her favour\nis to be won.\n\nThe question of feet or mouth is threshed out minutely by the two\ncontending parties, who at last agree in the opinion that one ought to\nkiss both parts, beginning with the feet and ending with the mouth.\n\nIt cannot be denied that Thibaut de Champagne has a far better insight\ninto the matter than Von Logau, and yet even the old French poet\u2019s point\nof view must be characterised as being somewhat narrow.\n\nAll the other poets, you must know, teach us that not only the mouth,\nbut every part of our sweetheart\u2019s body says, \u201cKiss me.\u201d\n\n    Friends, if it only were my fate!\n      If fate would will it so,\n    I\u2019d kiss her beauties small and great\n      From bosom down to toe.\n                W. F. H.\n\nSo sings Aarestrup, and he returns again and again to the same idea in\nhis _ritorneller_:\n\n    When scarce the mouth can longer feel such fooling,\n      Because thy lips are all too hotly burning,\n    Press them to bosom\u2019s Alpine snows for cooling.\n\n    The arms so white and tender woo caresses;\n      A lovely pleasance, too, those plump white shoulders!\n    But through the soul a bosom-kiss straight presses.\n\n    Her snow-white shoulders! All what may be said on\n      Such beauty I have uttered. For my guerdon\n    Grant me one now to rest my weary head on.\n\n    At kisses pressed upon your neck\u2019s fair closes\n      You thrilled and threw your head back, and I straightway\n    Planted upon your throat my kisses\u2019 roses.\n\n    About my darling I am wheeling, flying,\n      Like to a gadfly round a lily\u2019s chalice,\n    Buzzing until in nectar-cup mute dying.\n                W. F. H.\n\nAllow me also to call your attention to a pretty little myth which Dorat\ncomposed about a \u201ckiss in the bosom\u2019s Alpine snow.\u201d The kiss is a fair\nrose, and roses bloom everywhere in these tracks; through witchcraft two\nvigorous rosebuds sprouted forth on woman\u2019s white bosom:\n\n    Le bouton d\u2019un beau sein est \u00e9clos du baiser;\n    Une rose y fleurit pour y marquer sa trace;\n    Fier de l\u2019avoir fait na\u00eetre, il aime \u00e0 s\u2019y fixer.\n\nBut if the object of one\u2019s affection is not within reach, and _oscula\ncorporalia_ are, for that reason, practically impossible, her image may\nbe kissed, as a French song na\u00efvely says:\n\n    I will make a portrait gay,\n      Like to thee, set in a locket;\n    Kiss it five score times a day\n      Guard it safely in my pocket.\n                W. F. H.\n\nBut if one is not fortunate enough to possess an image of the object of\none\u2019s affection, then anything that has in any way been associated with,\nor is reminiscent of, him or her may be kissed. Tovelille exults to King\nVolmer:\n\n    For all my roses I\u2019ve kissed to death\n    Whilst thinking, dear love, of thee.\n                W. F. H.\n\nBut F. R\u00fcckert sings with pain and mockery:\n\n    With fervour the hard stone I\u2019m kissing,\n    For your heart is as hard as a stone.\n                W. F. H.\n\nSuch _oscula impropria_ are often mentioned by ancient as well as modern\npoets. _Propertius_ (I. 16) says:\n\n    Ah, oft I\u2019ve hither sped with verse to greet\n      Thee, leaning on thy steps with kisses pressed.\n    How often, traitress, turning towards the street,\n      I\u2019ve laid in secret garlands on thy crest.\n                W. F. H.\n\nEighteen hundred years afterwards Dorat writes:\n\n    I kiss the kindly blades of grass\n      Because they have approached your charms:\n    The sands o\u2019er which your footsteps pass,\n      And leafy boughs that stretched their arms\n    To hide our happiness, dear lass.\n                W. F. H.\n\nLovers often send each other kisses through the air, as in B\u00e9ranger\u2019s\nwell-known song on the detestable Spring:\n\n    We loved before we ever met;\n    Our kisses crossed athwart the air.\n                W. F. H.\n\nBut should the distance be too great for such a platonic interchange of\nkisses, certain small, obliging _postillons d\u2019amour_ are employed Heine\nuses his poems for that purpose:\n\n    O would that all my verses\n      Were kisses light and sweet:\n    I\u2019d send them all in secret\n      My sweetheart\u2019s cheeks to greet.\n\nWhile the young girl in Runeberg has recourse to a rose that has just\nblossomed:\n\n    Through the grove amidst the blooming flow\u2019rets\n    Walked the bonnie maiden unattended,\n    And she plucked a new-born rose, exclaiming:\n    \u2018Lovely flow\u2019ret, if you\u2019d only wings on,\n    I would send you to my well-belov\u00e8d\n    When I\u2019d fastened just two tiny greetings\n    Lightly on your right wing and your left wing;\n    One should bid him cover you with kisses,\n    And the other send you back to me soon.\u2019\n                W. F. H.\n\nBut however much poets may clothe with grace such kisses sent and\nreceived by post--and it cannot be denied that many of them are\nextraordinarily charming from a poetical point of view--they are, and\nmust be, nevertheless, in reality only certain mean substitutes with\nwhich lovers in the long run cannot feel fully satisfied. \u201cThe kiss,\u201d\nsays the practical Frenchmen, \u201cis a fruit which one ought to pluck from\nthe tree itself\u201d (_Le baiser est un fruit qu\u2019il faut cueiller sur\nl\u2019arbre_). Kisses ought to be given, as they should be taken, in secret;\nonly in such case have they their full freshness, their intoxicating\npower. Heine says of such:\n\n    Kisses that one steals in darkness,\n      And in darkness then returns--\n    How such kisses fire the spirit,\n      If with ardent love it burns!\n\nNo profane eyes should see them: they only concern the pair of\nlovers--none other in the whole world. Secrecy and silence must rest\nover these kisses, as over all else that regards the soul of love, so\nthat the butterfly\u2019s wings may not lose their delicate down.\n\nThe strait-laced Cato degraded a senator of the name of Manilius for\nhaving kissed his wife in broad daylight and in his daughter\u2019s presence.\nPlutarch, however, considers the punishment excessive, but adds: \u201cHow\ndisgusting it is in any case to kiss in the presence of third parties.\u201d\nClement of Alexandria, one of the Fathers of the Church, endorses this\nopinion, and exhorts all married people to refrain from kissing one\nanother before their servants.\n\nAll delicate-minded persons must undoubtedly sympathise with the\nancient ascetic conception in proportion as they unconsciously follow it\nin practice. A kiss to or from a woman we love is a far too delicate\npledge of affection to bear the gaze of strangers.\n\nHow many engaged couples would, do you suppose, find favour in Cato\u2019s\neyes? How often do they not by their behaviour offend the commonest\nnotions of decency? Their kisses and caresses, which ought to be their\nsecret possession, they expose quite unconcernedly to the sight of all.\nOne evening at a large party I saw a young girl ostentatiously kiss on\nthe mouth the gentleman to whom she was engaged. Cato would certainly\nturn in his grave if he knew that such immodest behaviour was actually\ntolerated by people of refinement and position; and how disgusted and\nindignant he would be--unless, indeed, he preferred to smile--at the\nsight of the duty-kisses after dinner, which are often exchanged between\nman and wife at dinner-parties. Ah, yes, when the belly\u2019s full ...! How\nwarranted is Kierkegaard\u2019s satire on the conjugal domestic kiss with\nwhich husband and wife, in lack of a napkin, wipe each other\u2019s mouth\nafter meals. On the lips of youth alone you reap the sweetest harvests:\n\n    Sur les l\u00e8vres de la jeunesse\n    Tu fais les plus douces moissons.\n                (DORAT).\n\nThe young maiden will only give her love-kiss to her sweetheart, the\nstalwart swain; an old suitor is spurned with scorn. The lovely Mara,\nwhite and red, walked by the spring and tended her sheep:\n\n    See an old, old suitor comes riding up on horseback,\n    Shouting: \u201cGod\u2019s peace be thine, fair Mara, white and red.\n    Tell me, canst thou offer me a draught of cold clear water;\n    Tell me, can the basil ever verdant here be gathered,\n    And may I snatch a kiss from thee, fair Mara, white and red?\u201d\n                W. F. H.\n\nBut straightway comes the answer from fair Mara, white and red:\n\n    \u201cI charge thee, old, old suitor, to horse and ride hence quickly,\n    No drink is here thy portion from the fountain cold and clear,\n    And the ever-verdant basil by thee shall not be gathered,\n    Nor durst thou snatch a kiss from me, fair Mara, white and red.\u201d\n                W. F. H.\n\nAgain, fair Mara, white and red, walked by the spring and tended her\nsheep:\n\n    See a young and handsome suitor comes riding up on horseback,\n    Shouting: \u201cGod\u2019s peace be thine, fair Mara, white and red.\n    Tell me, canst thou offer me a draught of cold clear water;\n    Tell me, can the basil ever verdant here be gathered,\n    And may I snatch a kiss from thee, fair Mara, white and red?\u201d\n                W. F. H.\n\nBut straightway comes the answer from fair Mara, white and red:\n\n    \u201cI charge thee, handsome laddie, to horse and ride hence quickly,\n    Wouldst thou drink of this cool fountain, thou must hither\n      come some morning,\n    For cold and clear\u2019s the water in the hours of early dawn.\n    Wouldst thou gather from the bushes, thou must hither come at mid-day,\n    For the flower-trees smell the sweetest about the noon-tide hour.\n    Wouldst thou kiss the beauteous Mara, then hither come at evening,\n    At evening sighs each maiden who finds herself alone.\u201d\n                W. F. H.\n\nIn another Servian ballad we find the same glorification of the stalwart\nyoung lover, the same contempt for, and detestation of, old men who go\na-wooing.\n\n    High upon a mountain\u2019s slope once stood a maiden,\n    Mirroring her lovely image in the stream,\n    And her image in these words addressing:\n    \u2018Image fraught to me with so much sadness\n    Had I known a time was ever coming\n    When thou shouldst be kissed by ag\u00e8d lover,\n    Then amidst the green hills I had wandered,\n    Gath\u2019ring with my hands their bitter herbage,\n    Squeezing out of it its acrid juices,\n    Washed thee then therewith that thou should\u2019st savour\n    Bitterly wheresoe\u2019r the old man kissed thee.\u2019\n\n    \u2018O my lovely image, had I known that\n    Thou wert fated for a young man\u2019s kisses,\n    I had hurried to the verdant meadows,\n    Gathered all the roses in the meadows,\n    Squeezing from the roses their sweet juices,\n    Laved thee with them, O mine image, that thou\n    Savoured of fragrance wheresoe\u2019r he kissed thee.\u2019\n                W. F. H.\n\nA kiss must be given and taken in frank, joyous affection. To have\nrecourse to violence is unknightly, unlovely, and despicable in the\nhighest degree. This is a sphere wherein the brutal axiom regarding the\nright of the stronger can never hold good. An Albanian folk-song tells\nus of a young man who is in search of a young maiden with whom he is in\nlove; he finds her at a brook, and, against her will, kisses her mouth\nand cheeks. Filled with shame, the young maiden tries to wash away the\nkisses in the brook, but its water is dyed red, and \u201cwhen the women in\nthe neighbouring village come thither to wash their clothes, the latter\nturn red instead of white. And, in the gardens watered with water from\nthe brook, scarlet flowers sprout up; and the birds which drank of the\nwater thereof lost their power of song.\u201d\n\nThis ballad shows us, in burning words, how deeply a man outrages a\nwoman when he kisses her against the dictates of her heart. A Southern\nimagination alone can find an expression so sublime and poetical: in\nFrench it runs simply and frankly: _Un baiser n\u2019est rien, quand le\nc\u0153ur est muet_. In Teutonic countries it is expressed somewhat more\nawkwardly. In Denmark people say: _Kys med gevalt er \u00e6g uden salt_ (a\nkiss snatched by force is as an egg without salt); and in Germany still\nless elegantly: _Ein aufgezwungener Kuss ist wie ein H\u00fchneraug\u2019 am Fuss_\n(like a corn on one\u2019s foot).\n\nThe question of kissing by main force can be treated not only from an\nethical, but also from a juristic point of view. Holberg relates that in\nNaples the individual who kissed in the street a woman against her will\nwas punished by not being allowed to approach within thirty miles\ndistance of the spot where the outrage had taken place; and a German\njurist wrote in the end of the eighteenth century, a minute and\nextremely solid treatise on the remedy that a woman has against a man\nwho kisses her against her will (_Von dem Rechte des Frauenzimmers gegen\neine Mannperson, die es wider seinen Willen k\u00fcsset_). The author begins\nby classifying kisses; he distinguishes between lawful and unlawful\nkisses, and frames the following classification:--\n\nKisses are either\n\n\n          I.--LAWFUL,\n\n  _A._ As spiritual kisses.\n\n  _B._ As kisses of reconciliation and kisses of peace.\n\n  _C._ As customary kisses; partly,\n\n         _a._ By way of salutation.\n\n                1. At meeting.\n\n                2. On arrival.\n\n                3. At departure; partly,\n\n         _b._ As mark of courtesy.\n\n         _c._ In jest.\n\n  _D._ As kisses of respect.\n\n  _E._ As kisses on festive occasions.\n\n  _F._ As kisses of love:\n\n          \u03b1. Between married people.\n\n          \u03b2. Between such as are engaged to be married.\n\n          \u03b3. Between parents and children.\n\n          \u03b4. Between relations.\n\n          \u03b5. Between intimate friends; or,\n\n\n     II.--UNLAWFUL, when they are given--\n\n  _A._ Out of treachery or malice.\n\n  _B._ Out of lust.\n\nAfter this particularly happy attempt to reduce kissing to a system, our\njurist maintains the view that all depends on the person who kisses and\nthe person who is kissed.\n\nIf, for instance, a peasant or a vulgar citizen takes such a liberty as\nto kiss a noble and high-born lady against her will, her claim against\nthe aggressor ought to be far greater than it would be in the case of\none of less ignoble descent; but, on the other hand, if Hans steals from\nhis Greta \u201can informal, hearty, rustic kiss,\u201d and she complains to the\nauthorities about it, there will scarcely be any grounds for litigation.\n\nOn the whole, says he, a kiss between individuals of the same position\nin society is not to be regarded as a tort, and he more closely defines\nhow he arrives at this conception. It can only be actionable in the case\nof a party having some consciously unchaste intention when he kissed, or\nin the case of an _osculum luxuriosum_ or _libidinosum_--in such cases\nonly can a verdict be brought in of what, according to Roman law, is\ntermed _crimen osculationis_, and in no other case can the wrong-doer be\npunished by fine or imprisonment, _propter voluntatem pernicios\u00e6\nlibidinis_. The punishment, however, should be proportioned in severity\naccording to the rank of the injured party. In the case of a nun or a\nmarried woman it ought to be most severe; less severe if the lady be\nunmarried but betrothed, and mildest when she is neither married nor\nbetrothed.\n\nBut if the unchaste intention cannot be distinctly proved, the woman has\nno grounds for complaining of any sort, and, in accordance with the\nprocedure of the German courts, the kiss is to be considered innocent\ntill the contrary is proved.\n\nOur jurist thus takes a really liberal view in the case of a \u201ckiss taken\nby force\u201d; he may almost be said to regard it as _eine grosse\nKleinigkeit_ (an unimportant trifle).\n\nWith regard to the question of a woman\u2019s right to defend herself in\nsuch cases, he is of opinion that she is justified in repulsing the\ninsulter by a box on the ears, but only if the offence amounts to\n_crimen osculationis_, and this box on the ears may not be inflicted\nwith \u201cthe fist of an Amazon,\u201d as, by such requital, she easily loses her\nright to take legal action in the matter. She must, above all, be\ncareful that the box on the ears be not excessive (_die Ohrfeige\nproportionirlich einzukleiden_), as otherwise the man can bring an\naction against her; consequently the woman ought to use her right of\nself-defence with great caution.\n\nOur jurist concludes with considerations of cases when the woman who has\nbeen kissed forfeits all claims, viz., when, for instance, by look or\ngestures she says, \u201cI should like to see the man who would dare to kiss\nme,\u201d and, by such conduct, obviously exposes herself to the danger.\n\nHolberg has also occupied himself with this question, and tells the\nfollowing story in one of his epistles (No. 199):--\n\n\u201cLast week I was at a party where a curious incident happened. A person\nstole up to a lady and gave her a kiss unexpectedly. The Vestal virgin\ntook this _douceur_ in such ill part that, in her wrath, she gave him a\nsound box on the ears. He gave a start, and every one expected he was\ngoing to pay her back in the same coin; but, to show his respect for the\nfair sex, he made a low bow, and kissed the very hand that had but\nlately struck him. All present praised this act of courtesy, on his\npart.\u201d Holberg, on the contrary, does not commend the man\u2019s politeness;\nlike the German jurist, he sees nothing wrong about a kiss--indeed, he\neven goes so far as to say that the young man ought to have given the\nmaiden a box on the ears in return. This coarse way of looking at the\nsubject from a bachelor\u2019s point of view is wittily defended in the\nfollowing rather startling way:\n\n\u201cI candidly confess that if anything of the kind had happened to me I\nshould have returned the good lady\u2019s salutation in the same way, and\nthat not out of anger or desire of being revenged, but for the purpose\nof showing the courtesy with which one ought to treat a woman; for\nkissing the lady on the hand which has boxed his ears is equivalent to\nsaying: \u2018As you are a feeble creature of no importance, and cannot hurt\nme, your act deserves ridicule rather than revenge or rage.\u2019 No\nsensible woman can be pleased with such a compliment, as there is\nnothing worse than being treated like a puppet; and I hope no maid or\nmatron will take this opinion of mine in ill part, but will rather\nregard it as a proof of the justice I have always shown to women by\nalways taking them seriously. A kiss is nothing but a salutation, and\ncannot be looked on as anything else. We are no longer living in the\ngolden age, when a young lady almost fainted at hearing the word\npronounced.\u201d\n\nEnglish ladies regard the matter from quite another point of view. In\n1837 Mr Thomas Saverland brought an action against Miss Caroline Newton,\nwho had bitten a piece out of his nose for his having tried to kiss her\nby way of a joke. The defendant was acquitted, and the judge laid it\ndown that \u201cwhen a man kisses a woman against her will she is fully\nentitled to bite his nose, if she so pleases.\u201d--\u201cAnd eat it up, if she\nhas a fancy that way,\u201d added a jocular barrister half aloud.\n\nLet us next consider how the thing stands when it is apparently only a\nquestion of a kiss snatched by force--for it is, you know, a matter of\ngeneral knowledge that a woman\u2019s \u201cNo\u201d is not always to be taken\nseriously. The refusal may, you know, be merely feigned. The maiden\u2019s\n\u201cNo\u201d is the swain\u2019s \u201cYes,\u201d Peder Syv teaches us, and Runeberg, who also\nunderstood women, says:--\n\n    Ev\u2019ry girl is fond of kisses,\n    Though she may pretend to scorn them.\n                W. F. H.\n\nIf one is now convinced that the German proverb which says: _Auf ein\nWeibes Zunge ist Nein nicht Nein_ (On a woman\u2019s tongue \u201cno\u201d is not\n\u201cno\u201d), what then? Well, but how the point is to be finally settled is\nnot satisfactorily explained by the authorities within my reach; and\nthis is the reason why I dare not pronounce an opinion on the question\nat issue. But I am convinced that the momentary difficulty will afford\nthe man the necessary diplomatic qualities as well as the requisite\ntact. There is only one thing I can lay down for certain, viz., that if\na man follows his natural simplicity and reserve, and takes the girl\u2019s\nfeigned \u201cNo\u201d seriously, she will only laugh at him afterwards--such,\nagain, is woman\u2019s nature.\n\nA well-known French _chanson_ deals with a hunter who meets a young\ngirl out in the forest. Struck by her beauty, he wants to kiss her:\n\n    And takes her by her white hand,\n      Intending to caress her;\n                W. F. H.\n\nbut she begins to cry, and, moved by her tears, he releases her; but he\nhas hardly got clear of the wood before she begins to laugh at him\nheartily, and in derision shouts after him: \u201cWhen you\u2019ve got hold of a\nquail you ought to pluck it, and when you\u2019ve got hold of a girl you\nought to embrace her\u201d:\n\n    Quand vous teniez la caille,\n    Il fallait la plumer.\n    Quand vous teniez la fillette,\n    Il fallait l\u2019embrasser.\n\nI quote these verses, for they may possibly afford inexperienced young\nmen some matter for reflection.\n\nBesides, a woman\u2019s \u201cNo\u201d has often a piquancy about it which lovers of a\nsomewhat more refined class set great store by. Even Martial (v. 46) has\nexpressed himself in favour of this in a little epigram which begins\nthus:\n\n    While ev\u2019ry joy I scorn, but that I snatch;\n    And me thy furies more than features catch.\n\nAnd Marot, who was likewise much skilled in \u201c_ars amandi_,\u201d even begs\nhis mistress not to give him her kisses readily:\n\n    Mouth of coral, rare and bright,\n    That in kissing seems to bite;\n    Longed-for mouth, I pray you this:\n    Feign deny me when you kiss.\n                W. F. H.\n\nDorat has also expressed himself in favour of such. \u201cPromise me nine\nkisses,\u201d says he to his Thais, \u201cgive me eight, and let me struggle for\nthe ninth.\u201d\n\n    The first eight kisses you accord\n      Will crown my love\u2019s felicity;\n    But I shall die in joy\u2019s reward\n      If for the ninth a struggle be.\n                W. F. H.\n\nEven if the answer is not a decided negative, yet it can, you know, be\ncouched in such equivocal words as to be tantamount to neither a\npermission nor a refusal. Many girls agree with the Swedish song:\n\n    But \u201cyes\u201d \u2019s a word I will not say,\n    Nor will I either answer \u201cnay.\u201d\n                W. F. H.\n\nThere is a saying in Jutland that runs thus: \u201cMaren, may I kiss\nyou?--Guess. You won\u2019t then, I suppose?--Guess once more? You\nwill?--But how could you guess it then?\u201d This tallies capitally with the\nfollowing German saying: \u201c_Zwinge mich, so thu\u2019 ich keine S\u00fcnde,\u201d sagte\ndas M\u00e4dchen_ (\u201cConstrain me, so that I shall not commit sin,\u201d said the\nmaiden). Naturally in this case, there can be no question of any _crimen\nosculationis_, for, as the jurists have it, _volenti non fit injuria_.\n\nLet us finally examine all these kisses from an ethical standpoint. We\nhave all of us, you know, learnt from our earliest childhood that--\n\n    He who kisses maidens hath\n    A very naughty habit;\n                W. F. H.\n\nand popular belief adds, by way of warning, that it causes sores on the\nmouth. Ah, yes, that is certainly very true, but what becomes of our\nchildish lore in the main when we attain to somewhat riper age? Now,\nonly listen to the ballad about what happened in the case of the young\nSerb, in spite of all he had learnt:\n\n    Here, so people told us,\n    Dwells a youth industrious,\n    Who from ancient volumes\n    Late and early studies.\n\n    As for books they tell us:\n    Don\u2019t vault on the saddle,\n    Buckle not thy sword on,\n    Drink no wine that fuddles,\n    Never kiss a maiden.\n\n    But the young man harkens\n    Not to what they tell him:\n    Keenest sword he seizes,\n    Hottest wine he drinketh,\n    Fairest maids he kisses.\n                W. F. H.\n\nWhen so learned a man as our Serb succumbs to the tempting kiss, what is\nto be said then about all the rest who are less instructed? And let us\nremember ere we sit in judgment on any one--and it ought to be regarded\nas peculiarly extenuating circumstances--that a woman\u2019s mouth is a\ndirect incentive to kissing, that it is formed, as you know, for that\npurpose, asserts an old troubadour, and created to kiss and smile:--\n\n    And when I gazed upon her red mouth sweet,\n    To match whose charms not Jove himself were meet,\n      That mouth for laughter and for kisses framed,\n    I fell thereof so amorous straightway\n    That I lacked power to do aught or to say.\n                W. F. H.\n\nThe roguish mouth with the white teeth and the moist red,\ndelicately-shaped lips say to every man who is not made of marble,\n\u201cKiss me, kiss me\u201d:\n\n    Her fresh mouth\u2019s playing\n    Seems ever saying\n    To kiss I am fain\n        Again, again.\n                W. F. H.\n\nHow human is Byron\u2019s wish that all women had but one mouth so that he\nmight kiss them all at the same time:\n\n    That womankind had but one rosy mouth,\n    To kiss them all at once from north to south.\n\nRuneberg has uttered a similar wish, and with a minute account of his\nreasons:\n\n    I gaze on a bevy of damsels,\n    I\u2019m gazing and gazing incessant,\n    The fairest of all I\u2019ll be choosing,\n    And yet as to choice I\u2019m uncertain;\n    For one has the brightest of bright eyes,\n    Another girl\u2019s cheeks are more rosy,\n    A third one\u2019s lips are the riper,\n    The fourth has a heart far more tender.\n    There isn\u2019t a single maid lacking\n    A something that captures my senses.\n    There isn\u2019t one there I\u2019d say \u201cno\u201d to,\n    Oh, would I might kiss the whole bevy!\n                W. F. H.\n\nEven an ecclesiastic such as \u00c6neas Silvius Piccolomini, when wishing to\ndescribe how beautiful and fascinating a young girl was, writes that\n\u201cno one could see her without being seized at once with a desire to kiss\nher.\u201d So as not to shock my readers, I may mention that he wrote this\nbefore he was made Pope and assumed the name of Pius II.\n\nIt ought now to be taken as proved that women--beautiful women--and\nkisses are of a piece. It is at the same time nature\u2019s ordinance, and we\nfind it verified in all countries and in all ages. Odin himself says,\nyou know, in H\u00e1vam\u00e1l, where he instructs mortals in the wisdom of life:\n\n    Ships are for voyages,\n    And shields for ward,\n    Sword-blades to smite,\n    And maids to kiss.\n                W. F. H.\n\nAnd the Greeks sing: \u201cWine belongs to chestnuts, honey to nuts, and\nkisses morning and night to young maids.\u201d\n\nI am inclined to assume that women also agree with this view; certainly\nI have no positive enunciation to support my assumption, but I am able\nto quote a German proverb which most assuredly points in this direction:\n\u201c_Ich kann das K\u00fcssen nicht leiden_,\u201d _sagte das M\u00e4dchen_, \u201c_wenn ich\nnicht dabei bin_\u201d (\u201cI cannot bear kissing,\u201d said the maiden, \u201cwhen I am\nnot taking any part in it.\u201d)\n\nNow if, in spite of all I have quoted, some rigid moralist or other will\npersist that kissing young maids is always a \u201cbad\u201d habit, and if,\nperadventure, a still sterner moralist will maintain it is a sin into\nthe bargain, I should reply that, in any case, it is one of those sorts\nof sin that are venial. The Pope himself will not refuse his absolution,\nsay the Italians, and they certainly ought to understand things in Rome.\n\u201cKiss me,\u201d runs an Italian folk-song, \u201cthe Pope will forgive you; kiss\nme and I will kiss you, and the Pope will forgive us both.\u201d\n\n    O bella figlia, o bella garzona,\n    Baciate me, ch\u00e8 il Papa vi perdona;\n    Baciate me, ch\u00e8 io bacer\u00f2 vui,\n    Ch\u00e8 il Papa ci perdona tutti e dui.\n\nIf the Pope is so complaisant then, to be sure, a subordinate servant of\nthe Church such as Aarestrup\u2019s Father Hugo may well say:\n\n    Child, a kiss is but a trifle,\n      If it\u2019s only long and sweet.\n                W. F. H.\n\n\n\n\nIII\n\nAFFECTIONATE KISSES\n\n    Seigneur, tu m\u2019as donn\u00e9 les baisers de ma m\u00e8re,\n          Je te b\u00e9nis, Seigneur!\n                    F. E. ADAM.\n\n    I bless thee, O Lord, for having given me my mother\u2019s kisses.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER III\n\nAFFECTIONATE KISSES\n\n\nA kiss can also express feelings from which the erotic element is\nexcluded--feelings that are consequently less ardent and longing, but,\nmost frequently, far deeper and more lasting.\n\nA kiss is expressive of love in the widest and most comprehensive\nmeaning of the word, bringing a message of loyal affection, gratitude,\ncompassion, sympathy, intense joy, and profound sorrow. In the first\nplace a kiss is the expression of the deep and intense feeling which\nknits parents to their offspring. At its entrance into the world the\nlittle helpless infant is received by its father\u2019s and mother\u2019s warm\nkiss. In the Middle Ages they kissed the new-born baby thrice in the\nname of the Holy Trinity. And the parent\u2019s kiss follows the child\nthrough life. When Hector takes leave of his wife Andromache he lifts\nhis little son up into his arms, but the child is afraid of his father\u2019s\nhelmet, \u201cof the gleam of the copper and the nodding crest of\nhorse-hair.\u201d\n\n                                  And from his brow\n    Hector the casque removed, and set it down,\n    All glittering, on the ground; then kissed his child,\n    And danced him in his arms.[9]\n\nThe Evangelist Luke tells the story of the Prodigal Son\u2019s return home.\n\u201cBut when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and had\ncompassion, and ran and fell on his neck, and kissed him.\u201d\n\nThe parent\u2019s kiss is like the good angel which shields the child from\nall evil. When Johannes in S\u00f6ren Kierkegaard\u2019s _Forf\u00f8rerens dagbog_\nwould describe the impression made on him by Cordelia he says, \u201cShe\nlooked so young and fresh, as if nature like a tender and opulent mother\nhad that very instant released her from her hand,\u201d and he goes on to\nsay: \u201cIt seemed to me as if I had been witness to this farewell scene; I\nmarked how the loving mother once again embraced her and bade her\nfarewell; I heard her say: \u2019Go out into the world now, my child; I have\ndone all for you. Now take this kiss as a seal upon your lips; \u2019tis a\nseal the sanctuary preserves; no one can break it against your own will,\nbut when the right man comes, you shall understand him.\u2019 And she presses\na kiss on her lips--a kiss which, not like a human kiss, takes aught,\nbut a divine kiss that gives all.\u201d The chaste purity, which is\nCordelia\u2019s halo and protection, is, as it were, the reflection of a\nmother\u2019s kiss.\n\nIt is for this reason also that in the _sagas_ a quite irresistible\npower is attributed to the parent\u2019s kiss. When Vildering, the king\u2019s\nson, quits Maid Miseri and journeys alone to his parents to tell them\nwhat has befallen him, she implores him to be especially careful not to\nlet his parents kiss him, \u201cfor should that happen, you will forget me\nutterly.\u201d In spite of his caution his mother kisses him, and oblivion\ncovers the past; he forgets his betrothed, who is sitting and waiting\nfor him in the depths of the forest.\n\nKisses of affection are exchanged not only between parents and children,\nbut between all the members of the same family; we find them even\noutside the more narrow family circle, everywhere where deep affection\nunites people.\n\nWhen Naomi bade her son\u2019s wife farewell, \u201cthey lifted up their voice and\nwept again; and Orpah kissed her mother-in-law; but Ruth clave unto\nher.\u201d When Moses went to meet his father-in-law, \u201che did obeisance and\nkissed him; and they asked each other of their welfare; and they came\ninto the tent;\u201d and when Jacob had wrestled with the Lord he met Esau,\nran towards him, fell on his neck and kissed him.\n\nThe family kiss was also much in vogue with the Romans. Propertius, in\none of his elegies, chides his mistress for inventing quite _ad libitum_\na whole crowd of relations so as always to have at hand some one to kiss\nher. This is how that came to pass: In ancient times there was a\nso-called _jus osculi_, which allowed all a woman\u2019s relations to kiss\nher. There are several curious stories about this peculiar privilege.\nThe old traditions, which have been solemnly discussed by several\nwriters, relate that once upon a time women were forbidden to drink\nwine; the above-mentioned law must have been instituted so that the\nparties concerned should, in a pleasant and practical way, be able to\nsatisfy themselves about observing the prohibition. This highly\nimprobable explanation has been defended in a thesis for the degree of\nDoctor of Philosophy even in the eighteenth century.\n\nThe kiss of affection is often mentioned by the early Greeks. Odysseus,\non reaching his home, meets his faithful shepherds, discloses his\nidentity to them, and shows them, as a certain proof, the cicatrix of a\nwound that he had on one occasion received when out hunting:\n\n    \u201cBut come, another token most manifest will I show,\n    That the truth in your souls may be strengthened, and my very\n      self ye may know.\n    Lo the scar of the hurt, which the wood-boar with his white\n      tooth drave on a tide,\n    When with Autolycus\u2019 children I sought Parnassus\u2019 side!\u201d[10]\n\n    So saying, the rags about him from the mighty weal he drew,\n    And they twain looked upon it, and all the tale they knew;\n    And they wept, and o\u2019er wise Odysseus they cast their hands, they twain,\n    And kissed his head and his shoulders, and loved him and were fain.[11]\n\nIn the same hearty manner the shepherd Eum\u00e6us received Odysseus\u2019 son on\nthe latter\u2019s return from his journey, and lucky escape from the\ntreacherous plot of the suitors:\n\n    And on the head he kissed him, and both his eyes so fair,\n    And both his hands, moreover, and he shed a mighty tear;\n    And e\u2019en as a loving father makes much of his dear son,\n    Who has come from an alien country where the tenth long year is done,\n    His only son and darling for whom he hath travailed sore,\n    E\u2019en so the goodly swineherd now kisseth him o\u2019er and o\u2019er\n    Telemachus the godlike, as one escaped from death.[A]\n\nHe gets the same reception from his old nurse and his mother:\n\n    But the nurse, e\u2019en Euryclea, beheld him first of all\n    As the fleecy fells she was spreading o\u2019er the painted seats of the hall,\n    And, weeping, went straight toward him; and the other maids thereto\n    Of Odysseus hardy-hearted, all round about him drew,\n    And they kissed him and caressed him, his shoulders and his head.[12]\n\n           *       *       *       *       *\n\n    Then Penelope the wise-heart from her chamber forth she sped,\n    Like to golden Aphrodite or Artemis the fair,\n    And she cast her arms amidst weeping round her son beloved and dear;\n    And therewithal she kissed him, his head and his lovely eyes.[13]\n\nWe have another famous scene of recognition, but of far later date, in\nthe old French epic of Girart de Roussillon. Girart, after many years\u2019\nabsence, returns in poverty and sickness to France. He presents himself\nto the queen, who recognises him by means of a ring, and, \u201calthough it\nwas Good Friday, she fell on Girart\u2019s neck and kissed him seven times.\u201d\n\nIt would perhaps be superfluous to quote more instances of the kisses of\naffection. We meet with it in all ages in grave and solemn moments, not\nonly among those who love each other, but also as an expression of\nprofound gratitude. When the Apostle Paul took leave of the elders of\nthe congregation at Ephesus, \u201cthey all wept sore, and fell on Paul\u2019s\nneck and kissed him\u201d (Acts xx. 37).\n\nWhen De Malesherbes had solicited for himself the perilous honour of\nundertaking the defence of Louis XVI., that monarch got up and, in\norder to show his gratitude, kissed him publicly.\n\nEven among persons who are utter strangers to each other, kisses such as\nthese may be exchanged. The profoundest sympathy with, the warmest\ninterest in, another\u2019s weal or woe can be instantly created.\n\nThe story of Ingeborg Vinding and Poul Vendelbo L\u00f8ven\u00f8rn is well known.\nH. P. Giessing relates it, just as he heard it, in the following form:\nPoul Vendelbo, the poor student, went one day on the ramparts round\nCopenhagen, and walked with two rich noblemen who, like himself, had\nmatriculated at the university from Horsen\u2019s School. They happened to\nnotice a singularly beautiful woman sitting at the window of one of the\nadjacent houses. One of the noblemen then said half-mockingly to\nVendelbo, \u201cNow, if you could get a kiss from that lady, Poul, we would\ndefray the expenses of that tour abroad which you are so anxious to\nmake.\u201d Vendelbo took him at his word, went up to the beautiful lady, and\ntold her how his whole future possibly depended on her. She then drew\nhim towards the window, and, in the view of the nobleman, gave him the\nkiss he craved. He went abroad, and, returning at last as\nAdjutant-General L\u00f8ven\u00f8rn, paid the fair lady a visit. She was none\nother than Ingeborg Vinding.\n\nThis is the anecdote, equally characteristic of both parties, that Carl\nPloug has so prettily treated in his poem _Et Kys_ (A Kiss).\n\nThe professor\u2019s daughter is sitting alone in the sitting-room, and\n\u201chumming a song she has learnt by heart.\u201d Then some one knocks at the\ndoor, and in steps young Poul with his audacious request; first she will\nrefuse him indignantly:\n\n    Ere yet a word she uttered\n      She raised her eyes again.\n    Their angry flash should wither\n      That overbold young swain.\n\n    But, ah, he stood so quiet,\n      With such a modest grace,\n    With features stamped with honour,\n      And such a noble face.\n\n    Once more the maiden\u2019s glances\n      Looked down, their anger dead,\n    And with a blush delicious\n      She spoke him fair instead.\n\n    \u201c\u2018Twas wrong indeed, I take it,\n      That you should boldly dare\n    Address a well-born maiden\n      By stealth with such a prayer.\n\n    \u201cBut if your looks belie not,\n      You good and noble are,\n    And so your path to fortune\n      I should be loth to mar.\u201d\n\n    Then by the hand she leads him\n      To where the window is,\n    She blushes and she trembles;\n      They interchange a kiss.\n                W. F. H.\n\nIt would be superfluous to say more about this poem, which I suppose is\nthe most popular of Ploug\u2019s essays in epic narrative. How far the\nanecdote is historical is uncertain; but with the knowledge we have of\nhis and her character it cannot, in any case, be regarded as improbable.\nPloug may thus be right when he says:\n\n    A kiss has with its gentle flame\n      Once kindled honour\u2019s beacon high;\n    A kiss has given Denmark\u2019s fame\n      A hero\u2019s name that shall not die.\n                W. F. H.\n\nIn early French literature there is a story somewhat akin to this; it\noccurs in the old miracle play of \u201c_La Marquise de la Gaudine_.\u201d In her\nhusband\u2019s absence she has been falsely accused of adultery and thrown\ninto prison. Nobody dares to undertake her defence when, suddenly, a\nknight named Anthenor steps up and offers, with sword in hand, to\nundertake the defence of her innocence, having a long time back owed her\na deep debt of gratitude for having, on one occasion, saved his life by\na kiss. He himself tells us na\u00efvely and ingenuously how it happened:\n\u201cOnce upon a time I found myself, as you are aware, in peril of death;\nthe king suspected me and believed I aspired to his wife\u2019s favour. Ah,\nthis was not the case at all, you know. But one day he said he would\nbelieve me if I divulged to him who my sweetheart was. I did not know\nwhat to do, and to save my life I said that the _marquise_ was my\n_amie_. He was not, however, content with this, but, as a proof,\ndemanded that I should take her by the waist in his presence and ask her\nfor a kiss. She gave it me and thus saved me from the snare the king had\nlaid. I shall never be able to repay her for what she has done for me.\u201d\n\nThe kiss of affection is also bestowed on some person or thing that\nexcites detestation and abhorrence.\n\nThe legends of St Martin tell us how, on coming one day to Lutetia,\nfollowed by a great crowd of people, he caught sight of a leper at the\ngate of the city, who was so terrible an object to look at that\neverybody turned away from him with loathing. To give those who followed\nhim a lesson in Christian charity, he went up to the poor sick man,\nkissed and blessed him, and on the following morning the latter was\ncured as by a miracle.\n\nIt is just through overcoming oneself in respect to that which is\nintrinsically foul and repugnant that this kiss gets its high\nsignificance and dignity. St Francis of Assisi had bidden farewell to an\nexistence of luxury, bestowed his wealth on the necessitous, and lived\nthe life of a beggar, but his conversion was still incomplete; he did\nnot become ripe for his great work of charity until he had overcome his\nrepugnance to the leprous. One day, when out riding, he met one of these\nwretched sufferers, whose whole body was like a great open wound, and he\nreined his horse aside in disgust; but shame overtook him at once, he\nleapt off his horse, spoke kindly to the sick man, gave him what money\nhe had, and kissed both his hands. Such is the account given by the\nhistorical chronicles, but the legend goes on to say that the leper\nimmediately afterwards vanished: it was Christ Himself who wished, in\nthis wise, to bestow His benediction on the noble and beautiful life\u2019s\nwork of the saint.\n\nThe kiss of affection also plays an important part in folk-poetry; that\nalone has power to cast off spells, that alone breaks all the bonds of\nwitchcraft and sorcery, and is able to restore man to his original\nshape.\n\nIn the Scotch ballad of Kempion we are told how the Earl of\nEstmereland\u2019s daughter is persecuted by her wicked stepmother, who at\nlast by magic arts changes her into a snake:\n\n    Cum heir, cum heir, ye freely feed\n      And lay your head low on my knee;\n    The heaviest weird I will you read,\n      That ever was read to gay ladye.\n\n    O meikle dolour sall ye dree,\n      And aye the salt seas o\u2019er ye\u2019se swim;\n    And far mair dolour sall ye dree,\n      On Estmere crags, when ye them climb.\n\n    \u201cI weired ye to a fiery beast,\n      And relieved sall ye never be,\n    Till Kempion, the king\u2019s son,\n      Cum to the crag, and thrice kiss thee.\u201d\n\n    O meikle dolour did she dree,\n      And aye the salt seas o\u2019er she swam;\n    And far mair dolour did she dree\n      On Estmere crags, when she them clamb.\n\n    And aye she cried for Kempion,\n      Gin he would but come to her hand.\n\nAt last Kempion hears her voice, and straightway rows towards the foot\nof the mountain:\n\n    Out of my stythe I winna rise,\n\n    *       *       *       *       *\n\n    Till Kempion, the king\u2019s son,\n      Cum to the crag, and thrice kiss me;\n\nimplores the snake; but Kempion dares not. The snake coils in and out,\nand the mountain is aflame; at last Kempion summons all his courage:\n\n    He\u2019s louted him o\u2019er the lofty crag,\n      And he has given her kisses three;\n    Awa she gaed, and again she cam,\n      The loveliest ladye e\u2019er could be!\n\nThe same subject is found in the ballads of other countries. In the\nDanish _Jomfruen i ormeham_ the young maiden has been changed into a\nlittle snake, compelled to wriggle in the grass. However, the knight\nJennus comes:\n\n    It was the brave knight Jennus;\n      Forth to the greenwood he hies.\n    As o\u2019er the grass he rideth,\n      A little snake he espies.\n\n    It was the brave knight Jennus;\n      Over his saddle he lay.\n    He kissed the little serpent;\n      A maiden it turned straightway.\n\n    It was the brave knight Jennus;\n      Troth to the maid he did plight.\n    He bade them keep his wedding\n      For both with much delight.\n                W. F. H.\n\nIn another ballad the maiden has been turned by her stepmother into a\nlime-tree, and makes her moan:\n\n    She changed me into a lime-tree, and\n    She bade me e\u2019en in the greenwood stand.\n\n    She bade me stand and hope for no bote,\n    Until a king\u2019s son should kiss my root.\n\n    Here have I tarried for years full five,\n    Nor kissed me has any king\u2019s son alive.\n\n    Here have I tarried for years now ten,\n    Nor has a king\u2019s son kissed me since then.\n                W. F. H.\n\nBut at last the hour of her freedom arrives; the king\u2019s daughter has\nheard the lime-tree\u2019s lamentation, and she sends a message to her\nbrother, who comes at once:\n\n    He hoisted his silken sail of red,\n    And o\u2019er the salt sea on he sped.\n\n    The knight on his back a red cloak threw,\n    And fared to the lime-tree without ado.\n\n    He kissed himself the lime-tree\u2019s feet,\n    Which straight became a maiden sweet.\n                W. F. H.\n\nCorresponding poetical stories of the redeeming power of the kiss are to\nbe found in the literature of many countries, especially, for example,\nin the Old French Arthurian romances (_Lancelot_, _Guiglain_, _Tirant le\nblanc_) in which the princess is changed by evil arts into a dreadful\ndragon, and can only resume her human shape in the case of a knight\nbeing brave enough to kiss her. This kiss is called _le fier baiser_.\nFrom French the subject migrated to Italian literature, in which it was\ntaken up and made use of first in _Carduino_, later on in Boiardo\u2019s\n_Orlando innamorato_. The hero, after many perilous adventures, reaches\nan enchanted castle where a young and beautiful maiden is sitting by a\ntomb. She tells him she can be released if he will venture to lift the\nstone from the tomb and kiss what then appears. Without giving it a\nsecond thought, the knight opens the tomb, and a horrible serpent with\nhissing tongue and venomous breath darts forth. Trembling with fear, he\nfulfils his promise, and that very instant the monster is transformed\ninto a lovely fairy who overwhelms her benefactor with recompenses. This\n_motif_ formed the subject of a drama in the last century by Gozzi in\n_La donna serpente: fiaba teatrale tragicomica_.\n\nFinally many folk-stories on this subject may be quoted. In the tale of\n\u201cBeauty and the Beast,\u201d the transformed prince begged the young maiden\nhe had carried off on his back for a kiss. \u201cNo,\u201d answered she, \u201chow\ncould I kiss you who are so ugly and have seven horns on your forehead?\u201d\nThen the beast went its way, and she saw it no more till one day she\nfound it lying dead under a bush in the garden, whereupon she wept as\nshe had never wept before, and cast herself down on the beast and kissed\nit. Then it returned to life, and the ugly beast became the handsomest\nprince her eyes could see. He then told her that he had been bewitched\nby a wicked fairy, and could not be delivered unless a maid fell in love\nwith him and kissed him, despite his ugliness.\n\nIn this case the kiss redeems from death, and likewise death itself is\nnothing more than a great kiss of affection. When a human being quits\nthis earthly life it is God who takes His child in His arms, kisses it,\nand carries it away from earth to brighter and more blissful spheres.\n\nThis highly poetical and beautiful conception of death has found\nexpression in Italian, where, instead of the word \u201cdie,\u201d one can say,\n\u201cfall asleep in the Lord\u2019s kiss\u201d (_addormentarsi nel bacio del\nSignore_). And this has got flesh and blood in an old legend of the\nsaints, where it is told of St Monica that, as she lay dying on her\ncouch, a little child whom nobody knew came and kissed her on her\nbreast, and straightway, as if the child had called her, she bowed her\nhead and breathed forth her last sigh.\n\nThe kiss of affection follows man even after death; with a kiss one\ntakes leave of the lifeless body.\n\nIn Genesis we read that when Jacob was dead, \u201cJoseph fell upon his\nfather\u2019s face and wept upon him and kissed him\u201d; and it is told of Abu\nBekr, Mahomet\u2019s first disciple, father-in-law, and successor, that, when\nthe prophet was dead, he went into the latter\u2019s tent, uncovered his\nface, and kissed him.\n\nIn the curious poem of _Ebbe Tyges\u00f8ns d\u00f6dsridt_, when the knight\u2019s horse\ncarries his corpse back to his betrothed, it is said:\n\n    She lifted up his gory head,\n      And raised it to her lips to kiss;\n    She swooned away, and fell back dead,\n      In very sooth, as she did this.\n                W. F. H.\n\nIn ancient times lovers always demanded of each other this act of love.\n\u201cWhen the alabaster box, filled with Syrian perfume, has been poured out\nover my dead body, then do thou, O Cynthia, press thy last kisses on my\ncold lips,\u201d sings Propertius in one of his elegies:\n\n    Osculaque in gelidis pones suprema labellis,\n    Cum dabitur Syrio munere plenus onyx.\n              _Propertius_ iii. 4, 29, 30.\n\nAnd the same wish is expressed by Tibullus (I., i. 61, 62):\n\n    Flebis et arsuro positum me, Delia, lecto,\n      Tristibus et lacrymis oscula mixta dabis.\n\n    \u201cYou\u2019ll weep for me, dear Delia, ere flames have caught my bier,\n    And mingle with your kisses full many a bitter tear.\u201d\n                W. F. H.\n\nThe death-kiss is something so natural that it is superfluous to point\nout its existence amongst different nations. It was not only a mark of\nlove, but it was also an article of belief that the soul might be\ndetained for a brief while by such a kiss. Ovid, in his _Tristia_,\nlaments over his joyless existence in Tomis, whither Augustus had\nbanished him, and is in despair because, when the hour of death\napproaches, he will not have his beloved wife by his side to detain his\nfleeting spirit by her kisses mingled with tears.\n\nThe kiss is the last tender proof of love bestowed on one we have loved,\nand was believed, in ancient times, to follow mankind to the nether\nworld. Even in our own days, popular belief in many places demands that\nthe nearest relative shall kiss the corpses forehead ere the coffin lid\nis screwed down; in certain parts, indeed, it is incumbent on every one\nwho sees a dead body to kiss it, otherwise he will get no peace for the\ndead.\n\n\n\n\nIV\n\nTHE KISS OF PEACE\n\n    Salute invicem in osculo sancto.\n          _Pauli Epist. ad Romanos_, xvi. 16.\n\n    Salute one another with an holy kiss.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER IV\n\nTHE KISS OF PEACE\n\n\nThe kiss, as expressive of deep, spiritual love, also came to figure in\nthe primitive Christian Church.\n\nChrist has said: \u201cPeace be with you, my peace I give you,\u201d and the\nmembers of Christ\u2019s Church gave each other peace symbolically through a\nkiss. St Paul repeatedly speaks of the \u201choly kiss\u201d (\u03d5\u03af\u03bb\u03b7\u03bc\u03b1 \u1f04\u03b3\u03b9\u03bf\u03bd), and,\nin his Epistle to the Romans, writes: \u201cSalute one another with an holy\nkiss\u201d; and he reiterates this exhortation in both his Epistles to the\nCorinthians (1, xvi. 20, and 2, xiii. 12), and his first Epistle to the\nThessalonians (v. 26), wherein he says: \u201cGreet all the brethren with an\nholy kiss.\u201d\n\nThe holy kiss has gradually found admission into the ritual of the\nChurch, and was imparted on occasions of particular solemnity, such as\nbaptism, marriage, confession, ordination, obsequies, etc., etc. At a\nwedding the ceremony was as follows: On the conclusion of High Mass and\nafter the _Agnus Dei_ had been chanted, the bridegroom went up to the\naltar and received the kiss of peace from the priest. After this he\nreturned to his wife, and gave her the priest\u2019s kiss of peace at the\nfoot of the crucifix. Reminiscences of this rite still survive in\nseveral churches in England.\n\nThe holy kiss played an important part even at the Mass; in the Greek\nChurch it was imparted before, in the Roman Catholic Church after, the\nconsecration of the elements. The priest kissed the penitent, and\nthrough this kiss gave him peace; this was the true kiss of peace\n(_osculum pacis_). We have a peculiar memorial of this in Old Irish,\nwhere the word _p\u014dc_, which is derived from the Latin _pax_, means\n\u201ckiss,\u201d--not \u201cpeace.\u201d This change of meaning must, I suppose, be\nattributed partly to a misunderstanding of the priest\u2019s words when he\nkissed the penitent: _Pacem do tibi_ (Peace I give unto thee), _i.e._,\npeople understood the kiss as the chief thing, and thought _pacem_\nreferred to that. The same peculiarity is again to be met with in\nmedi\u00e6val Spanish, where _paz_ has also the meaning of \u201ckiss.\u201d In an\nancient romance which relates how Fernando dubbed the Cid a knight, it\nsays at the end, \u201cHe buckled a sword on his waist, and gave him \u2018peace\u2019\n(_i.e._, a kiss) on the mouth\u201d:\n\n    El rey le ci\u00f1\u00f3 la espada\n    Paz en la boca le ha dado.\n\nThe holy kiss occurs even in the early Christian love-feasts, the\nso-called \u1f00\u03b3\u03b1\u03c0\u03b1\u03af, and indeed was often exchanged in the church itself by\nall the faithful without regard to sex, which gave the heathen cause for\nscandal, and its use was restricted so that only men kissed men, and\nwomen, women.\n\nThe kiss of peace was in vogue in France down to the thirteenth century.\nWe find it in the story about a very unpleasant incident to which Queen\nMargaret, the wife of St Louis, was exposed. One day when she was in\nchurch and the kiss of peace was to be imparted, she saw close beside\nher a woman in splendid apparel, and taking the latter to be a lady of\nrank, she gave her the kiss of peace. It turned out, however, that the\nqueen had made a mistake; she had kissed one of the common courtesans\nwho always swarmed about the Court. She then complained to the king, the\nconsequence of which was that certain ordinances were drawn up with\nrespect to the dress of women of that class, in order to render all\nconfusion with respectable women henceforward impossible.\n\nThe kiss of peace in the churches seems to have been abolished in the\nlatter part of the Middle Ages, at different times in different\ncountries.\n\nIn the middle of the thirteenth century a special instrument for\nconveying the kiss was introduced into England--the so-called\n_osculatorium_ or _tabella pacis_, which was composed of a metal disc\nwith a holy picture, and was passed round the church to be kissed.\n\nFrom the English Church the osculatory was gradually introduced into\nother churches, but nowhere does it appear to have contrived to rejoice\nin any particularly long stay. In various ways it gave occasion to\nscandal.\n\nIt was provocative of contention and strife in the church itself, when\npeople of position quarrelled violently as to whom the honour belonged\nof kissing it first. Contentions as to precedence at church are, as we\nsee, of long standing.\n\nIt seems also to have served as a sort of profane intermediary between\nlovers. When a young and beautiful girl kissed it she had close beside\nher a fine young fellow who waited impatiently to take it directly from\nher hand and lips. We read in one of Marot\u2019s poems:\n\n    I told the maid that she was fair;\n    I\u2019ve kissed the Pax just after her.\n                W. F. H.\n\nThrough the use of the osculatory, the well-known custom of gallants\nsuch as, from the Greek romances and Ovid, existed in ancient times, was\nrevived--Huet calls it _elegans urbanitatis genus_--when the lover drank\nout of the goblet from the very place which the beloved one\u2019s lips had\ntouched. Formerly a sort of _pax_ was employed even in Danish churches.\nThe Catholic priests showed the people \u201ca picture in a book\u201d (of course\nthe picture of some saint), and this picture was kissed by the\ncongregation; for which purpose a small fee termed \u201ckiss-money\u201d or\n\u201cbook-money\u201d was handed to the parish clerk.\n\nEven after the use of the _pax_ had been abolished by the Reformation,\nthe \u201cbook-money,\u201d as a customary due to the clerk, was retained. But at\na congress at Roskilde in 1565, parish clerks were forbidden to demand\nthis fee.\n\nThe holy kiss is still imparted in the Greek Church on Easter Sunday;\nall the faithful greet each other in church with kisses, and the words,\n\u201cChrist is risen,\u201d the reply to which being, \u201cVerily, He hath risen.\u201d In\nthe Roman Catholic liturgy this usage has been confined to certain\nmasses, and the holy kiss is only exchanged among the clergy, not among\nthe members of the congregation. First, the bishop and archdeacon kiss\nthe altar, then the archdeacon kneels down and the bishop gives him the\nkiss of peace with the words: _Pax tibi, frater, et ecclesi\u00e6 sanct\u00e6 Dei_\n(Peace be with thee, brother, and with God\u2019s Holy Church). The\narchdeacon answers: _Et cum spiritu tuo_ (And with thy spirit), after\nwhich he gets up, genuflects towards the altar, and carries the kiss of\npeace to the chief canon, whom he kisses on the left cheek with the\nwords _pax tibi_, and thus it is sent round to all the officiating\nclergy with many different ceremonies.\n\nThe holy kiss soon spread beyond the walls of the church, and came into\nusage even in secular festivities. Thus, during the Middle Ages, it was\nthe custom to seal the reconciliation and pacification of enemies by a\nkiss. The old German poets mention such a kiss under the name of\n\u201cVredekuss,\u201d and so widespread was the custom of the kiss of\nreconciliation, that the verb _at sone_, or _udsone_, got the meaning of\n\u201cto kiss.\u201d _S\u00f4nen_ has still this meaning in Frisian.\n\nIn an old French miracle-play St Bernard of Clairvaux says to Count\nWilliam and the Bishop of Poitiers, who had had a long-standing feud\nwith each other, and between whom he had managed to make peace: \u201cIn\norder to show that your friendship is true and sincere, you must kiss\neach other.\u201d Count William then goes up to the bishop, saying: \u201cMy lord,\nI crave your forgiveness for the wrong I have inflicted on you; I have\nerred greatly towards you. Kiss me now to seal our peace, and I will\nkiss you with loyal heart.\u201d\n\nEven knights gave each other the kiss of peace before proceeding to the\ncombat, and forgave one another all real or imaginary wrongs.\n\nIn _Covenant Vivien_, Vivien exchanges the kiss of peace with Girart and\nsix other illustrious warriors before the great fight with King Desram\u00e9\nbegins.\n\nManzoni has made use of the kiss of peace in the pathetic scene in _I\npromessi Sposi_ (The Betrothed), when Fra Cristoforo obtains forgiveness\nfrom the nobleman whose son he has slain. The nobleman receives the monk\nin his palace. Surrounded by all his relations, he stands in the middle\nof his great hall, with left hand on his sword-hilt, whilst with his\nright he holds a flap of his cloak pressed against his chest. Cold and\nstern, he gazes contemptuously and with suppressed wrath at the novice\nas he enters, but the latter exhibits such touching remorse and noble\nhumility that the nobleman, there and then, abandons his stiffness. He\nraises up the kneeling brother himself, grants him his forgiveness, and,\nfinally, \u201ccarried away by the emotion that prevailed, he threw his arms\nround the latter\u2019s neck, and gave and received the kiss of peace.\u201d\n\nAfter the Middle Ages the kiss of peace disappears altogether as the\nofficial token of reconciliation; solitary instances, indeed, can\ncertainly be quoted from Catherine of Medici\u2019s Court, but they are\nrather to be regarded as studied efforts to re-introduce an old and\nabandoned usage. After the murder of Francis de Guise in 1563, his widow\nand brother meet Admiral de Coligny; the latter swore that he had not\nthe least suspicion of the assassin\u2019s plot, whereupon they kiss each\nother, and mutually promise to forget all enmities, and henceforward to\nlive in peace and harmony. This kiss of peace was as powerless to revive\nthe old custom as Lamourette\u2019s memorable attempt at the time of the\nRevolution. On the 7th July 1792, when the quarrel amongst the members\nof the Legislative Assembly had reached a terrible height, at the time\nwhen the Austrian and Prussian armies were marching on Paris, Lamourette\ngot up and made a fervent patriotic speech, in which, in the most moving\nterms, he exhorted all the members of the Assembly to sink their\ndifferences. He finished by saying: \u201cLet us forget all dissension and\nswear everlasting fraternity\u201d--_et jurons-nous fraternit\u00e9 \u00e9ternelle_,\nand the deputies at once fell into each others arms, and in a universal\nkiss of reconciliation every one forgave each other\u2019s wrongs. But this\nunity did not last long. The quarrels began again the following day, and\ntwo years afterwards Lamourette himself died by the guillotine; but the\nexpression, a kiss of Lamourette--_un baiser de Lamourette_--still\nsurvives in the French language as a half ironical term for a\nshort-lived reconciliation.\n\n\n\n\nV\n\nTHE KISS OF RESPECT\n\n    Les rois des nations, devant toi prostern\u00e9s,\n    De tes pieds baisent la poussi\u00e8re.\n             RACINE--_Athalie._\n\nThe kings of the Gentiles, prostrate before thee, kiss the dust of thy\nfeet.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER V\n\nTHE KISS OF RESPECT\n\n\nMargaret of Scotland, who was betrothed to Charles the Seventh\u2019s son,\nthe Dauphin Louis (afterwards Louis XI.), one day walked through a hall\nwhere Alain Chartier was sitting asleep in a chair. On perceiving the\nsleeping poet, she went up to him and kissed him on the lips. Many of\nher suite were astonished at this, \u201cfor nature had, so far as Chartier\nwas concerned, suffered a beautiful and rich mind to take up its abode\nin an ugly body.\u201d The princess replied that they were not to marvel at\nwhat she had done, for it was not the man she had kissed, but the mouth\nfrom which so many golden words had proceeded. Margaret\u2019s kiss was\ntherefore an expression of the respect she had for the poet, and the\nadmiration and regard inspired by his poetical genius. A little further\nback in the Middle Ages we meet with another striking instance of a\nkiss as expressive of veneration; but this kiss is of a more humble\nnature. We are told that, when the Emperor Otto I. had taken leave of\nhis pious mother in the church attached to a monastery, the latter\nfollowed him with her eyes as long as she could, and then returned to\nthe church and kissed the place whereon his feet had stood.\n\nThe kiss of veneration is of ancient origin; from the remotest times we\nfind it applied to all that is holy, noble, and worshipful--to the gods,\ntheir statues, temples, and altars, as well as to kings and emperors;\nout of reverence, people even kissed the ground, and both sun and moon\nwere greeted with kisses.\n\nIn the first book of Kings God says to Elijah: \u201cYet I have left me seven\nthousand in Israel, all the knees which have not bowed unto Baal, and\nevery mouth which hath not kissed him\u201d (xix. 18).\n\nIn the thirty-first chapter of Job, Job extols his own piety: \u201cIf I\nbeheld the sun when it shined, or the moon walking in brightness; and my\nheart hath been secretly enticed, or my mouth hath kissed my hand\u201d (26,\n27). Here, undoubtedly, allusion is made to the kissing of hands\nwhereby the heathen were wont to salute the heavenly bodies.\n\nWhen the prophet Hosea laments over the idolatry of the children of\nIsrael, he says that they make molten images of calves and kiss them.\n\nEven in remote classical times a similar homage was paid to the gods;\npeople kissed the hands, knees, and feet, even the mouths, of their\nidols. Cicero informs us, in one of his speeches against Verres, that\nthe lips and beard of the famous statue of Hercules at Agrigentum were\nworn away by the kisses of devotees.\n\nBayle tells us, in reference to this passage, that a physician was asked\none day why it was that a bronze face could, in this manner, be worn\naway through being kissed, whereas, on the other hand, kisses did not\nleave the slightest trace on the countenance of the most fashionable\ncourtesan. His answer was that the reason, he supposed, was that statues\nwere kissed for centuries, but that the woman in question was only\nkissed for a very few years, viz., so long as her beauty lasted. This\nexplanation was, however, considered unsatisfactory, and the physician\u2019s\nattention was called to the fact that soft flesh must be far sooner\nworn away than hard bronze; besides, lover\u2019s kisses being considerably\nmore violent than those of mere respect. The physician then urged\nanother reason, viz., that which kisses wear away from bronze lips is\nlost for ever, but that which is worn away from living lips is\nimmediately replaced by renewal of tissue in the body.\n\nThe kiss of veneration came to play a very important part in Christian\nsociety. St Luke the Evangelist tells us that when Christ sat at meat in\nthe Pharisee\u2019s house there came a woman who had been a great sinner,\nbringing with her a vase of ointment. \u201cAnd stood at his feet behind him\nweeping, and began to wash his feet with tears, and did wipe them with\nthe hairs of her head, and kissed his feet, and anointed them with the\nointment\u201d (vii. 38). When the Pharisee wondered at His having allowed\nsuch a woman to touch Him, He rebuked him by the parable of the two\ndebtors, and added, \u201cThou gavest me no kiss, but this woman since the\ntime I came in hath not ceased to kiss my feet. My head with oil thou\ndidst not anoint, but this woman hath anointed my feet with ointment.\u201d\n\nAgain in the Psalms, \u201cKiss the Son, lest he be angry, and ye perish from\nthe way, when his wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are all they\nthat put their trust in him.\u201d\n\nC. H. Spurgeon used these lines as the text of a sermon he preached in\nthe \u201cMusic Hall,\u201d London, on the 3rd of July 1859, in which he did his\nutmost to make his congregation understand what is meant by saying we\nare to \u201ckiss Christ.\u201d \u201cThe kiss,\u201d says he, \u201cis a mark of worship; to\nkiss Christ is at the same time to recognise Him as God, and to pay Him\ndivine worship. The kiss is a mark of homage and subjection; we ought\nlikewise to acknowledge Christ as our King, and promise to follow\nblindly His behests. The kiss is a sign of reconciliation; we ought to\nshow that we are reconciled with God. Lastly, the kiss is the greatest\nof all tokens of love; to kiss Christ is therefore only a figurative way\nof expressing to love Him with deep and fervent love.\u201d[14]\n\nAs the woman that was a sinner showed her reverence for Christ by\nkissing His feet, so all saintly men and women henceforward were\nhonoured in a like manner. They were saluted humbly by kisses on their\nhands or feet, and the legend goes that he who kissed the hand of St\nDominic never afterwards committed sin. In many countries, more\nespecially in Southern Italy, kissing the hands of the priest is still\ncustomary.\n\nThe kiss reverential was extended to everything that was holy, or had\nbeen consecrated to sacred purposes.\n\nPeople kissed the Cross with the image of the Crucified, and such\nkissing of the Cross is always regarded as a particularly holy act. In\nmany countries it is required, on taking an oath, as the highest\nasseveration that the witness is speaking the truth, and as a last act\nof charity, the image of the Redeemer is handed to the dying or\ndeath-condemned to be kissed. Kissing the Cross brings blessing and\nhappiness. In the south of France people used formerly, in moments of\ndifficulty or danger, when no Cross was at hand, to kiss their thumbs\nlaid in the form of a cross. When devout Catholics salute the Pope by\nhumbly kissing his slipper, they are fond of explaining away this\ngreeting. They say that it is not to be taken as any personal homage\npaid to the Pope; the kiss having nothing to do with his slipper, but\nthe cross which is embroidered on it. Therefore Christ it is to whom\nthey are prostrating themselves. This idea, however, is undoubtedly a\nlater fancy; the kiss on the slipper ought, I take it, more correctly to\nbe considered as humble homage to the Pope as primate of the Church, and\nsuch, therefore, must be the view the Pope himself holds, since he has,\ntimes without number, exempted cardinals and other persons of high rank\nfrom kissing his slipper. The number of kings and ambassadors who, in\nthe course of time, have refused to submit to this ceremony, have\nundoubtedly regarded it as a humiliation; and popular conception bears\nthis out thoroughly. To \u201ckiss the slipper\u201d has become in many languages\nsynonymous with a low and unworthy cringing. In the old German war-song\nagainst Charles V., we find:\n\n    Ah, think the whole imperial race\n    Through Popery fell in sore disgrace\n    And German might was riven.\n    Will you for all their knavery\n    To slipper-kiss be given?\n                W. F. H.\n\nPeople kiss the image of Our Lady. The legend tells us that John of\nAntioch even dared to kiss Mary\u2019s mouth, and this kiss gave him wisdom\nand great eloquence, and spread a golden glory round his mouth, hence\nhis surname Chrysostom (golden mouth).[15]\n\nPeople kiss the pictures and statues of saints. Down in St Peter\u2019s\nchurch in Rome there is a remarkable old bronze figure of St Peter,\nwhich is said to date from the fifth century, and the faithful have, in\nall ages, shown the highest veneration to this image, in consequence of\nwhich a great part of the right foot has been gradually kissed away.\n\nEven nowadays the kiss bestowed on the pictures of the saints plays an\nenormous part in the Roman Catholic, but more particularly in the Greek\nChurch. Not only their pictures, but even their relics are kissed; they\nmake both soul and body whole. St Balbina obtained forgiveness for her\nsins by kissing St Peter\u2019s chains, and Pascal\u2019s niece was cured of a\ndisease in her eyes by kissing one of the thorns of Christ\u2019s Crown. This\ncure, the historical authenticity of which is, however, somewhat\ndoubtful, made a great sensation, and provoked a violent controversy\nbetween the Jansenists and Jesuits.\n\nBesides, there are legends innumerable of sick people regaining their\nhealth by kissing relics; innumerable, too, are the satires which arose\nby reason of abuses in respect to cures which were achieved with relics\ngenuine and false. One of the best known is perhaps the medi\u00e6val story\nof _The Monk\u2019s Breeches_.\n\nA Franciscan friar was a very intimate friend of a merchant in Orleans\nand his wife--especially of the latter. One evening the merchant\nreturned home unexpectedly from a journey, and the friar, who had tried\nto the best of his ability to entertain the wife in the husband\u2019s\nabsence, for certain circumstances which were capable of being\nmisunderstood, thought it wisest to disappear as quick as possible; but\nin his haste he forgot his breeches. The merchant, however, did not\nnotice anything; the night was dark, and next morning he even put on the\nfriar\u2019s breeches instead of his own. On coming back home from his office\nin the afternoon--he had long discovered his mistake--he demanded, with\nviolent and hasty words, an explanation from his wife; but the latter,\nwho had discovered at once in the morning what had happened, hurriedly\nsent a messenger to the friar to consult with him as to what was to be\ndone. According to their arrangement she answered her husband very\ncalmly:\n\n\u201cMy dear friend, don\u2019t fly into a passion; you ought to thank me instead\nof quarrelling with me. You know we have no children, and we have tried\neverything--but all in vain. Now I heard that St Francis\u2019 breeches could\nwork miracles, even of that sort, and that is why I had them fetched for\nyou. Take them off now, for I expect some one from the monastery will be\ncoming for them directly.\u201d The poor man in his delight quickly got out\nof his breeches, and directly he had done so there came a knocking at\nthe door. It was the friar, followed by a choir boy carrying holy-water\nand a censer. He had come to fetch the precious relic of the monastery,\nand inquisitive neighbours flocked in from all quarters. He wrapped the\nbreeches reverently up in a white hand-cloth, and sprinkled them with\nholy-water while the boy incensed them, after which he lifted up the\nsacred bundle. Meanwhile all fell on their knees, and after pronouncing\na panegyric on St Francis, he himself carried round the breeches so that\nthe people who had assembled might kiss them. This they did with deep\npiety and emotion, more especially the honest and grateful merchant.\n\nThis little story afforded much merriment in the Middle Ages. People\nfound much enjoyment in its burlesque humour, and never got tired of\nhearing it. It occurs as a _fabliau_, a _farce_, and a story, and\nbelongs to the _faceti\u00e6_ with which the Pope\u2019s Secretary, Poggio, amused\nhis friends in _Il Bugiale_ (The Lie Manufactory).\n\nEven as regards the great ones of this world the kiss used to serve in\nvarious ways as a mark of humility and reverence. Its use in ancient\ntimes was remarkably widespread; people threw themselves down on the\nground before their rulers, kissed their footprints, literally \u201clicked\nthe dust,\u201d as it is termed. In the Psalms, Solomon sings of the promised\nKing: \u201cThey that dwell in the wilderness shall bow before him; and his\nenemies shall lick the dust\u201d; and the prophet Isaiah says: \u201cKings shall\nbe thy nursing fathers, and queens thy nursing mothers: they shall bow\ndown to thee with their face before the earth and lick up the dust of\nthy feet\u201d (xlix. 23).\n\nThey kissed not only the ground under the powerful, but also their feet,\nknees, hands, or the hem of their garments.\n\nCertain Roman Emperors adopted these oriental usages. Thus Caligula\nordered people to kiss his hands and feet, and even in the Middle Ages\nthe custom of kissing the feet of kings was in vogue.\n\nNearly everywhere, wheresoever an inferior meets a superior, we observe\nthe kiss of respect. The Roman slaves kissed the hands of their masters;\npupils and soldiers those of their teachers and captains respectively.\n\nDuring the Middle Ages the vassal paid homage to his feudal lord by a\nkiss on the hand or foot, hence the expression _devoir la bouche et les\nmains_. It is well-known what befell Charles the Simple when Rollo, the\nNorman chieftain, had to pay him feudal homage. The proud Viking would\nnot bow down to the king, but laid hold of the latter\u2019s feet and lifted\nthem up to his mouth, whereat the king, amidst the laughter of the\nspectators, tumbled down. Thus the scene is depicted briefly and\ngraphically in the _Roman de Rou_:--\n\n    Quant baisier dut le pie, baisier ne le deigna,\n    La main tendi aual, le pie al rei leua,\n    A sa bouche le traist e le rei enuersa;\n    Asez s\u2019en ristrent tuit, e li reis se dre\u00e7a.[16]\n\nThey also kissed their liege lords on the thigh, and this method of\nkissing can be traced down to the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries;\nbut the kiss on the hand was undoubtedly most frequently in use; and it\nwas the general custom for the vassal at the same time to hand his lord\na present, which is the reason why the word _baise-main_ (hand-kiss)\ngradually got this meaning.\n\nIf the lord was absent when the vassal waited on him, the latter had to\nkiss the door, the lock or bolt, which was regarded as a valid\nsubstitution for kissing the hand. From this arose the expressions,\n_baiser l\u2019huis_, (the door), _baiser le verrouil_, (the bolt), which\nwere used partly as an expression of slavish subserviency, and partly\nin an ironical sense of lovers who have been rejected by their\nmistresses, and thus constrained to\n\n    Kiss the door, and kiss its chains\n    For ladies\u2019 sake who are within.\n                W. F. H.\n\nAs expressive not only of respect, but also of repentance, children in\nformer days were made to kiss the rod by which they had been chastised.\nGeiler von Keiserberg writes in the sixteenth century: \u201cWhen children\nare thrashed they kiss the rods and say:\n\n    Liebe ruot, trute ruot\n    werestu, ich tet niemer guot.[17]\n\n\u201cThey kiss the rods and jump over them, yea they leap over them.\u201d We\nhave a memorial of this custom in the phrase, \u201ckissing the rod.\u201d\n\nThere is still one great power that we have not mentioned, and one who\ndemands, too, homage by kisses, _i.e._, the devil; but, in order that\nthe humility shown to him may be as great as possible, he must be kissed\non his behind, _i.e._, on the place where the back ceases to be called\nthe back. Old pictures of the Sabbath on Blocksberg exhibit to us his\nSatanic majesty, in the guise of a goat or cat, sitting on a high seat,\nwhile his worshippers reverently approach and kiss him under his tail.\nIn several confessions of witches we find this kiss still more closely\ndescribed: \u201cThe devil has a big tail, and under it a sort of face, but\nwith this face he never speaks, as the only use he makes of it is to let\nhis most devoted followers kiss the same; for kissing this face is\nregarded as an especially great honour.\u201d This somewhat awkward kiss\noccurs, moreover, in several sagas. In _Harehyrden_ the Jeppe gives up\nhis magic flute to the king on condition that the latter kisses his ass\nunder its tail. It can also be shown in actual life, and we have some\nanecdotes from the Middle Ages which seem to prove that the _podex_-kiss\nwas used as a derisory punishment. There is also a story told of a merry\nknight, once upon a time, compelling a party of monks to pay their\nrespects to their abbot in the aforesaid less dignified way.\n\nKisses _in ano_ seem also to have been required of neophytes on their\nreception into certain secret societies.\n\nThe part this kiss plays in insulting speech ought to be sufficiently\nwell known. The Romans ere now spoke about _lingere culum_ or _lambere\nnates_; the Germans more decently say: _K\u00fcss mich da ich sitz\u2019_ (Kiss me\nwhere I sit), or _Er kann mich k\u00fcssen da wo ich keine Nase habe_ (He can\nkiss me where I have no nose). Frenchmen even use the last mentioned\nparaphrastic expression. It is told in an old poem about Theodore de\nBeza, whose youth was, as you are aware, a very dissipated one, that, on\none occasion, he said of a lady that he would like to kiss her, but he\ndid not know how he could manage to do so as her nose was far too long.\nWhen the lady learnt this she wittily replied:\n\n    ... Pour si peu ne tenez,\n    Car si cela seulement vous en garde!\n    J\u2019ai bien pour vous un visage sans nez.[18]\n\nWe have no knowledge if this offer tempted the rigid Calvinist that was\nto be; but the lady was undoubtedly young, and even if he had not found\nher face so remarkably beautiful, yet it would have been very different\nhad the invitation come from an old crone, as the well-known saying,\n\u201c_baiser le cul de la vieille_,\u201d implies the deepest ignominy that can\nbefall a man, at any rate a gambler--viz., to lose without scoring a\npoint.\n\nThere is a Jutland variant of the story about Theodore de Beza: \u201cI was\ndriving one day with Niels Hundepenge, and we saw at a distance a woman\nwalking on in front. Says Niels, \u2018Peter, there goes a pretty girl; just\nsee what a figure, and how she steps out.\u2019 When we got up to her we\nfound she was pock-marked and hideous. Then says Niels, \u2018Now, my girl,\nif you were only as good-looking in front as you are behind, I should\nwant to kiss you.\u2019 \u2018Well, if you think so,\u2019 replied she, \u2018you can kiss\nme, you know, where you fancy I am best looking.\u2019\u201d\n\nAllow me, in connection with this, to call your attention to a\npeculiarity about the Latin word _osculum_. The first syllable os of\ncourse signifies \u201cmouth,\u201d the two last, on the other hand, mean the\ncorrelative part on the reverse side of the body. This circumstance has\nbeen made use of in a Latin anecdote about a married lady. An\nimportunate suitor asked her for a kiss, whereupon she replied that\nthis could not be granted, inasmuch as the first of what he asked\nabsolutely belonged to her husband, but, as she did not wish to be too\nhard on him, he was welcome to have the last:\n\n    Syllaba prima meo debetur tota marito,\n    Sume tibi reliquas, non ero dura, duas.[19]\n\nIn modern times the ceremonious kiss of respect has gone clean out of\nfashion in the most civilised countries; it is only retained in the\nChurch, but in all other domains it is practically unknown--so unknown,\nindeed, that in many cases the practice would be offensive or\nridiculous.\n\nKissing the earth is another instance of such kisses that I shall quote.\nIt plays a part in the old stories about Junius Brutus. Together with\nKing Tarquin\u2019s sons he journeyed to Delphi to consult the oracle. The\nanswer they received was that the supreme power would fall to the lot of\nhim who first kissed his mother. Brutus then made a pretence of\nstumbling, and as he fell he kissed the earth, our common mother. A few\nyears after this, the royal family were expelled from Rome, and Brutus\nand Lucius Tarquinius were elected consuls.\n\nPeople also kissed the earth for joy on returning to their native land\nafter a lengthened absence. When Agamemnon returned from the Trojan War:\n\n    Stepped he forth inwardly glad to the shore of his well-loved country,\n    Kissing and kissing again his mother earth while the scalding\n    Tears down his cheeks were coursing, though his heart was\n      brimming with blitheness.\n\nEven nowadays people feel glad at seeing their native country again\nafter long absence, but they have another way of expressing their joy,\nand, without exaggeration, it would be safe to assert that if any one\nreturning from a journey wished to emulate Agamemnon, that person would\nundoubtedly be put down as mad.\n\nWe find in Holberg (\u201cUlysses of Ithaca,\u201d or \u201cA German Comedy\u201d) a parody\nof the old usage, where Ulysses says: \u201cLet us fall down, after the old\nhero\u2019s fashion, and kiss our mother earth.\u201d They fall down and kiss the\nground, but Chilian gets up hurriedly and says: \u201cThe deuce! I don\u2019t\nreally understand the use of these ceremonies. Eugh, somebody has been\nhere before--that I can plainly perceive.\u201d\n\nThe old custom now only survives in certain sayings. Frenchmen use the\nexpression _baiser la terre_ (to kiss the earth), jeeringly, of a person\nfalling; and the German, _die Erde k\u00fcssen_ (to kiss the earth), is a\neuphemistic way of saying \u201cdie.\u201d I may add, for the sake of\ncompleteness, that kissing the earth still occurs sporadically nowadays\nin the sense of the profoundest humility mingled with regret. When\nRaskolnikow, in Dostojewski\u2019s novel of that name, has confided to Sonja\nhow he murdered the old usurer\u2019s wife, he exclaims in his despair: \u201cAnd\nwhat shall I do now?\u201d--\u201cWhat shall you do now,\u201d exclaims Sonja, and her\neyes flash: \u201cGet up, go hence at once; station yourself at a crossway,\nkneel down and kiss the earth you have defiled, bow down thus before all\nthe people, and say to them: \u2018I have committed murder.\u2019 Then God shall\ngive you new life.\u201d And, finally, when Raskolnikow has determined\npublicly to acknowledge his crime and denounce himself as a murderer, he\nfalls prostrate on his knees in the middle of the market-place, bows\ndown, and, amidst the laughter and derision of the bystanders, kisses\nthe dirty ground with ecstasy and delight.\n\nIn Europe, at least, we no longer kiss the ground before the feet of the\nmighty, any more than we salute them by kissing their hands or feet; a\nbow more or less gracious, according to circumstances, serves the same\npurpose generally. Nevertheless, at certain courts, such as the Spanish,\nEnglish, and Russian, kissing the hand is still customary as a sort of\nceremonial salutation; but its practice is usually confined to certain\nsolemn occasions.\n\nIndividuals of princely rank excepted, the kiss of respect to superiors\nis to be regarded as all but extinct; but even in the eighteenth\ncentury, kissing the hem of their garments is mentioned as a salutation\nbefitting ladies of exalted rank, and in Holberg\u2019s _Politiske\nKandest\u00f8ber_ (the Political Pewterer), we see how Madame Abrahamsen and\nMadame Sanderus even kissed Gedske on the apron.\n\nKissing, as expressive of admiration, still undoubtedly occurs, but can\nscarcely be said to be particularly general; it becomes less and less\ncommon as we approach our own time.\n\nA half-ironical instance occurs in Moli\u00e8re; in _Les Femmes Savantes_\nArmande and Philaminte fall into raptures over Vadius\u2019 great learning.\n_Du grec! O ciel! du grec! Il sait du grec, ma s\u0153ur!_ (Greek! good\nheavens! Greek! He knows Greek, sister), says the one, and the other\nanswers: _Du grec! quelle douceur!_ (Greek! how sweet!). In their\nboundless enthusiasm they ask Vadius to let them kiss him as a mark of\ntheir admiration. He accepts this salutation very politely, if not with\nany particularly great joy; but when he turns to young Henriette, from\nwhose lips he is especially desirous of receiving so tender an\nexpression of admiration, she rejects him quite abruptly with the\nremark: _Excusez-moi, monsieur, je n\u2019entends pas le Grec_ (Excuse me,\nsir, I don\u2019t understand Greek).\n\nThe pedantic Vadius got just what he deserved--a kiss as dry as dust\nfrom two middle-aged, sexless blue-stockings, which nobody begrudges\nhim. On the other hand, many, perhaps, will read with envy of the\nhomage received by Benjamin Franklin at the French Court. Mme. de\nCampan, in her _M\u00e9moires_, says: \u201cAt one of the splendid entertainments\ngiven in Franklin\u2019s honour, I saw how the most beautiful of the three\nhundred ladies present was chosen to place a laurel crown on the white\nlocks of the American philosopher and imprint a kiss on each of the old\nman\u2019s cheeks.\u201d\n\nThe kiss of admiration and respect has, I suppose, been the longest to\nsurvive in the form of kissing ladies\u2019 hands. Formerly, in many\ncountries, it constituted a friendly greeting on meeting a lady or\nsaying good-bye to her; but nowadays this custom has grown obsolete in\nmost places; nevertheless we have certain literary reminiscences of it.\nIn Austria people say _K\u00fcss die Hand, gn\u00e4dige Frau_, and _S\u00e2rut m\u00e2na_ in\nRoumania, but still it is comparatively rare that this expression is\nfollowed by actual kisses, as was formerly the case. _Je vous baise les\nmains_ is now only used in an ironical sense in France. Ceremonial\nkisses, however, still flourish in Spain to a marked degree, not only in\nthe language of the Court, but also in general conversation. When I was\nfirst presented to a Spanish lady I expressed my gladness at making her\nacquaintance by kissing her hand--only, however, by figure of\nspeech--but her husband at once pointed out to me in a laughing way,\nthat I had failed to show her proper respect. One can only kiss a\nSpanish lady\u2019s feet: _Beso \u00e0 usted los pies_ or _\u00e0 los pies de usted_ (I\nkiss your feet), as they say.\n\nBefore leaving the subject of the kiss reverential I will mention two\ndifferent ways in which it has been used. Formerly it was the custom, at\nleast at the French Court, for pages to first kiss the articles they\nwere to hand to distinguished personages. Henri Estienne tells an\nanecdote about a page who had to carry a letter to the Princess of\nNaples. It was expressly enjoined on him to kiss it (_baisez-la_), but\nthe page pretended he had misunderstood the words, so when he had to\nleave the letter he first kissed the unsuspecting princess.\n\nWe find another peculiar form of the kiss reverential in the cases when\na person kisses his own hand before offering it to the guest he would\nespecially honour, or before accepting a present for which he wishes to\nshow his gratitude in an extraordinarily polite manner.[A]\n\nIn an old comedy of Marivaux, \u201c_Harlequin poli par l\u2019Amour_,\u201d a fairy\nfalls in love with a rustic lout. She carries him off, entertains him in\nher castle, and tries in every possible way to gain his love; but he\nremains utterly callous to all her blandishments, and behaves all the\ntime in a most foolish manner. He takes a fancy to a valuable ring the\nfairy is wearing; she removes it from her finger and gives it to him,\nbut when he scarcely says \u201cThank you\u201d for it, she says to chide him:\n_Mon cher Arlequin, un beau gar\u00e7on comme vous, quand une dame lui\npr\u00e9sente quelque chose, doit baiser la main en la re\u00e7evant_.[20]\nArlequin takes hold of the fairy\u2019s hand and kisses it; but she corrects\nhim again, and says: \u201cHe does not understand me once, but I like his\nmistake. It is your own hand, you know, that you should kiss.\u201d[21]\n\nThis usage still prevails amongst old peasants in Jutland, and is termed\nreceiving something with \u201ckissed hand,\u201d or \u201ckiss hand.\u201d The expression\n_Kusshand_ is also employed in German, and is explained thus: \u201cGruss,\nwobei man die eigne Hand k\u00fcsst und dann nach der zu gr\u00fcssenden Person\nhin bewegt oder sie reicht.\u201d The same sort of greeting is found both in\nEngland and France. Voltaire tells us that children in certain countries\nare taught to kiss their right hand when anybody gives them something\ngood. Even at the present day, in certain places on the Alps, peasants\nexpress their thanks by kissing their hand before taking what is given\nto them.\n\n\n\n\nVI\n\nTHE KISS OF FRIENDSHIP\n\n    Par amistiet l\u2019en baisat en la buche.\n              _Chanson de Roland._\n\n    For friendship pressed a kiss upon his mouth.\n                W. F. H.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VI\n\nTHE KISS OF FRIENDSHIP\n\n\nThe kiss is also employed as a conventional salutation between persons\nwho only stand on a footing of friendship or acquaintance with each\nother. In our northern countries the friendly kiss usually occurs only\nbetween ladies, but in this instance its usage is very widely extended.\nWith men and women it is properly only allowable when there is a marked\ndifference in age between both parties, but, on the other hand, it\nseldom or never takes place between men, with the exception, however, of\nroyal personages who, on solemn occasions, are wont to greet and take\nleave of each other with more or less sincere kisses of greeting and\nfarewell. Here we find ourselves again in a sphere in which, alas, we\nhave sadly fallen away from the good old ways. In former times, to wit,\nthe friendly kiss was very common with us between man and man as well\nas between persons of opposite sexes. In guilds it was customary for the\nmembers to greet each other \u201cwith hearty handshakes and smacking\nkisses,\u201d and, on the conclusion of a meal, people thanked and kissed\nboth their hosts and hostesses. In a description of a wedding in the\nolden time in the district of Voer in Denmark we read:\n\n\u201cWhen they had eaten, the parish clerk got up first, put his arms round\nthe parson\u2019s neck, and kissed him on the mouth, saying: _Tak for mad,\nhr. pastor_ (Thanks for your hospitality, sir priest). Then the parson\nplanted himself against a chest of drawers, and all the women, old and\nyoung, went up to him, one after the other, and kissed him on the mouth.\nSome of the old goodies could not quite reach him, for the priest was a\nbig, tall man, and they had actually to climb on to his boots, though he\nstooped down to them slightly.\u201d Peder Havg\u00e5rd said that he would not\nhave cared much to be in the parson\u2019s place, for it was a mean and poor\ncountry thereabouts, and some of the women were very shabbily-dressed\nand dirty-looking.\n\nIf we glance outside Denmark it appears that the kiss of friendship is\nconsiderably in vogue. In Iceland it is still a general form of\nsalutation, although of late years there is said to be a certain falling\noff in its use; and every one who travels in South Germany and Austria\ncan study at the very first railway station the different forms of that\nkind of kiss which in those countries is specially used by way of\nleave-taking; officers and students, farmers and merchants, all treat\neach other to sounding kisses, usually on the cheek. One can observe the\nsame sort of thing in France, but more especially in Italy. I can attest\nfrom personal experience that it is looked upon as the most natural\nthing in the world for people to kiss their intimate friends when saying\ngood-bye, a shake of the hand being far too cold a leave-taking beneath\nthe warm sky of Italy.\n\nIt is, however, undoubted that, speaking generally, the custom of\nkissing, as an ordinary greeting, has immensely declined; in ancient\ntimes and in the Middle Ages it was much more frequent than nowadays.\n\nIt was the common practice with the Hebrews for acquaintances, when they\nmet, to kiss each other on the head, hands, and shoulders; and it was\nassuredly with a kiss of pretended friendship that Judas betrayed his\nMaster.\n\nEven the Greeks in former times used kissing as a common salutation; not\nonly friends and acquaintances kissed each other, but also persons who\nquite accidentally met when they were travelling.\n\nThe custom of kissing, however, became less general later on. In a\ndiscourse of Dion Chrysostomus, called _From Eub\u0153a_, or \u201cThe Hunter,\u201d\nis a story of a rustic coming to the city and meeting two acquaintances\nin the assembly, whom he goes up to and kisses. \u201cBut,\u201d says the rustic,\n\u201cpeople laughed prodigiously at my kissing them, and, on that occasion,\nI learnt that it is not customary for people of the city to kiss each\nother.\u201d[22]\n\nKissing seems to have been much more in vogue with the Romans, amongst\nwhom it was the usual custom for people to salute each other with a kiss\non the hand, the cheek, or the mouth. Many even scented their mouths in\norder to render their kisses more pleasing--or less unpleasant. Martial\nlaments over this usage in a little epigram to Posthumus:\n\n    What\u2019s this that myrrh doth still smell in thy kiss,\n    And that with thee no other odour is?\n    \u2019Tis doubt, my Posthumus, he that doth smell\n    So sweetly always, smells not very well.\n\nThis kissing of friends gradually became a veritable nuisance to the\ncountry. Fashion ordained that every one should give and receive such\nkisses, but, in reality, every one preferred evading them. Martial, in\nanother epigram to this same Posthumus, exclaims:\n\n    Posthumus late was wont to kiss\n      With one lip, which I loth;\n    But now my plague redoubled is,--\n      He kisses me with both.\n\nand\n\n    Posthumus\u2019 kisses some must have,\n      And some salute his fist;\n    Thy hand, good Posthumus, I crave,\n      If I may choose my list.\n\nUnder such frightful circumstances people had recourse to shifts which\nseem almost as unsavoury as the kisses they would escape:\n\n    Why on my chin a plaster clapped;\n    Besalved my lips, that are not chapped;\n    Phil\u00e6nis, why? The cause is this:\n    Phil\u00e6nis, thee I will not kiss.\n\nBut such artifices, however, are of very little use; no one escapes the\n_basiatores_ (kissers). They prowl about the streets and market-places;\nnot even the walls of the home, nor even the enforced solitariness of\nthe most hidden-places served as a protection against them:\n\n    There are no means the kissing tribe to shun,\n    They meet you, stop you, after you they run,\n    Press you before, behind, to each side cleave,\n    No place, no time, no men, exempted leave;\n    A dropping nose, salved lips, can none reprieve,\n    Gangrenes, foul running sores, no one relieve;\n    They kiss you in a sweat, or starved with cold,\n    Lovers\u2019 their mistress\u2019 kisses cannot hold;\n    A chair is no defence, with curtains guarded,\n    With door and windows shut, and closely warded,\n    The kissers, through a chink will find a way,\n    Presume the tribune, consul\u2019s self, to stay;\n    Nor can the awful rods, or Lictor\u2019s mace,\n    His stounding voice away these kissers chase,\n    But they\u2019ll ascend the Rostra, curule chair,\n    The judges kiss while they give sentence there.\n    Those laugh they kiss, and those that sigh and weep;\n    \u2019Tis all the same whether you laugh or weep;\n    Those who do bathe, or recreate in pool,\n    Who are withdrawn to ease themselves at stool.\n    Against this plague I know no fence but this:\n    Make him thy friend whom thou abhorr\u2019st to kiss.\n\nAll greet one another with kisses; every condition of life, every\nhandicraft, found a representative amongst the _basiatores_. When a\nman, in ancient times, was afraid of meeting his tailor, it was not so\nmuch on account of the latter\u2019s bill as by reason of his kisses.\n\n\u201cRome,\u201d says Martial, \u201cgives, on one\u2019s return after fifteen years\u2019\nabsence, such a number of kisses as exceeds those given by Lesbia to\nCatullus. Every neighbour, every hairy-faced farmer, presses on you with\na strongly-scented kiss. Here the weaver assails you, there the fuller\nand cobbler, who has just been kissing leather; here the owner of a\nfilthy beard, and a one-eyed gentleman; there one with bleared eyes, and\nfellows whose mouths are defiled with all manner of abominations. It was\nhardly worth while to return.\u201d\n\nPeople kissed whenever they met: morning and evening, at all seasons of\nthe year: spring and autumn, summer and winter. The winter kisses seem\nto have been especially unpleasant, and Martial censures them, in the\nstrongest terms, in his epigram to Linus:\n\n    \u2019Tis winter, and December\u2019s horrid cold\n    Makes all things stark; yet, Linus, thou lay\u2019st hold\n    On all thou meet\u2019st; none can thy clutches miss;\n    But with thy frozen mouth all Rome dost kiss.\n    What could\u2019st more spiteful do, or more severe,\n    Had\u2019st thou a blow o\u2019 th\u2019 face, or box o\u2019 th\u2019 ear?\n    My wife, this time, to kiss me does forbear,\n    My daughter, too, however debonaire.\n    But thou more trim and sweeter art. No doubt\n    Th\u2019 icicles, hanging at thy dog-like snout,\n    The congealed snivel dangling on thy beard,\n    Ranker than th\u2019 oldest goat of all the herd.\n    The nastiest mouth i\u2019 th\u2019 town I\u2019d rather greet,\n    Than with thy flowing frozen nostrils meet.\n    If therefore thou hast either shame or sense,\n    Till April comes no kisses more dispense.\n\nThat Martial\u2019s epigrams depict the actual state of the case without any\nparticular exaggeration it may, among other things, be inferred from the\nfact that the Emperor Tiberius, according to Suetonius, issued an edict\nagainst these _cotidiana oscula_ (daily kisses).\n\nThe friendly kiss was likewise much in vogue in the Middle Ages.\n\nIn _La Chanson de Roland_ the Saracen king receives Ganelon with a kiss\non the neck, and then displayed to him his treasures:\n\n    Quant l\u2019ot Marsilies, si l\u2019ad baisiet el\u2019 col;\n    Pois, si cumencet \u00e0 uvrir ses tr\u00e9sors.\n                           (603).\n\nAnd Ganelon salutes the Saracen chiefs in the same way, and \u201cthey\nkissed each other on face and chin\u201d:\n\n    \u201cBien serat fait\u201d--li quens Guenes respunt;\n     Pois, se baisi\u00e8rent es vis e es mentuns.\n                           (625, 628).\n\nThe friendly kiss is, on the whole, pretty often mentioned in the Old\nFrench epics. \u201cOut of friendship he kissed him on the mouth\u201d is a verse\nthat frequently recurs:\n\n    _Par l\u2019amistiet l\u2019en baisat en la buche._\n\nThe kiss of friendship was also exchanged between the opposite sexes. It\nwas the general custom for ladies to salute with a kiss any stranger\nwhether he came as an ambassador, expected guest, or a chance passer-by.\nIn the old French mystery-play of St Bernard de Menton, the Lord of\nMiolan is sitting one day with his wife and daughters in the hall of his\ncastle, when a squire steps in and announces that some strangers have\narrived. The lord of the castle receives them courteously, bids them\nwelcome in God\u2019s name, and at once orders his wife do her duty to them.\nShe, too, bids them welcome, and kisses them; at last it comes to the\nturn of the little girls, who assure their father that they know their\nduty right well, and are even willing to perform it:\n\n    A vostre bon commandement\n    Les bayserons et festoyrons,\n    Trestons le myeulx que nous pourrons,\n    Mon seigneur, \u00e0 vostre talent.\n\nWhich may be rendered thus:\n\n    As it is your orders dear,\n    We will kiss and make good cheer,\n    All, so far as in us lies,\n    Since your wishes that comprise.\n                W. F. H.\n\nWhereupon they kiss the strange gentlemen. In the poem of \u201cHuon de\nBordeaux\u201d we are told how Huon\u2019s mother, the Duchess of Bordeaux,\nreceives the French king\u2019s embassy with kisses. The queen, in Marie de\nFrance\u2019s _Lai de Graelan_, sends an ambassador after Graelan to make his\nacquaintance, and, when he arrives, goes to meet him, and kisses him on\nthe mouth.\n\nIn other Romance countries, too, kissing serves as a common mode of\ngreeting, which fact can be incidentally substantiated by means of\nphilology, inasmuch as the Latin verb _salutare_ (\u2018to greet\u2019) both in\nSpanish and Roumanian, and partially in French, has acquired the meaning\nof \u2018to kiss.\u2019\n\nWhen Abengalvon, in the old _P\u00f6ema del Cid_, meets Minaya Alvar Fa\u00f1ez,\nhe advances smilingly towards him in order to kiss him, and he \u201cgreets\u201d\nhim on the shoulder, \u201cfor such was his wont\u201d:\n\n    Sonrisando de la boca, ibalo abrazar,\n    En el ombro lo saluda, ca tal es su usaje.\n\nThe expression \u201cto greet on the mouth\u201d likewise occurs many times; but\nalso the verb _saludar_ (\u2018to hail\u2019) is also used alone, as in the\nRoumanian _s\u00e2ruta_, to express \u2018to kiss.\u2019\n\nEven in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries the friendly kiss\nflourished in France. When Leo Rozmital, the Bohemian nobleman, paid his\nrespects to Louis XI. at Meung-sur-Loire, the king led him to the queen,\nand both she and all the ladies of her court kissed him on the mouth.\n\nWe get further information in a letter from Annibale Caro dated 29th\nOctober, 1544. It is addressed to the Duke of Palma, and describes the\nvisit of the French Queen El\u00e9onore to the Emperor Charles V. in\nBrussels. \u201cWhen we met,\u201d says he, \u201cthe ceremony of reception with\nkissing of the ladies was, in the highest degree, interesting; it\nseemed as if I had been present at the Rape of the Sabines. Not only the\nhigher nobility, but even all the rest took each his lady, and the\nSpaniards and Neapolitans were the most eager. It gave rise to much\nmerriment when the Countess of Vertus, Charlotte de Pisseleu, was\nobserved to lean over her saddle to such an extent, in order to kiss the\nEmperor, that she slid off her horse, and kissed the earth instead of\nHis Majesty\u2019s mouth. The Emperor hurried up to her assistance, and with\na smile kissed her heartily (_e ridendo la baci\u00f2 saporitamente_).\nDirectly afterwards Duke Ottavio rode up, jumped quickly off his horse,\nand the Emperor himself conducted him to the Queen\u2019s carriage, and there\nhe was presented to the distinguished ladies. The Duke kissed the\nQueen\u2019s hand and was about to remount his charger, but the Emperor\ncalled him back, and told him that he ought also to kiss Mdme.\nd\u2019Etampes, who was sitting right opposite to the Queen in the carriage.\nLike a good Frenchman, he exceeded the Emperor\u2019s order and kissed her on\nthe mouth.\u201d\n\nA vast quantity of other evidence goes to show how general was the\nfriendly kiss of salutation even during the Renaissance, especially\namong the upper classes. Henri Estienne satirises it in his _Apologie\npour H\u00e9rodote_. \u201cKisses are allowed,\u201d writes he, \u201cin France between\nnoblemen and ladies, whether they do or do not belong to the same\nfamily. If a high-born dame is in church, and any fop of her\nacquaintance comes, she must, in conformity with the usage prevailing in\ngood society, get up, even if she be absorbed in the deepest devotion,\nand kiss him on the mouth.\u201d\n\nEven Montaigne expresses his disapproval of such a state of things. \u201cIt\nis,\u201d says he, \u201ca highly reprehensible custom that ladies should be\nobliged to offer their lips to every one who has a couple of lackeys at\nhis heels, however undesirable he may be, and we men are no gainers\nthereby, for we have to kiss fifty ugly women to three pretty ones.\u201d\n\nNone the less, the friendly kiss held its ground right through the\nseventeenth and even a part of the eighteenth century. Moli\u00e8re\u2019s\nmarquesses kiss each other whenever they meet; for instance, in the\nfamous eleventh scene in _Les Pr\u00e9cieuses ridicules_, when Mascarille\nand Jodelet fall into each other\u2019s arms with many warm kisses. In _Le\nMisanthrope_ Alceste reproaches Philinte with embracing and kissing\nevery one, and \u201cwhen I ask you who it is, you scarcely know his name!\u201d\n\n    Vous chargez la fureur de vos embrassements;\n    Et quand je vous demande apr\u00e8s, quel est cet homme,\n    \u00c0 peine pouvez-vous dire comme il se nomme.\n\nLa Bruy\u00e8re has, time after time, satirised this foolish custom, which,\nespecially at Court, seems to have assumed colossal dimensions; but even\nin middle-class circles etiquette required men to salute ladies with a\nkiss.\n\nIn an old comedy entitled _Le Gentilhomme guespin_ a father presents his\nson, who is extraordinarily awkward and clumsy. The latter does not know\nhow he ought to behave to the ladies of the house, so the father in\ndespair gives him a dig in the ribs, and whispers in his ear: \u201cHe\u2019s\nbashful. Kiss the lady. One always greets a lady with a kiss.\u201d\n\n    ... Il est honteux. L\u00e0, baisez donc Madame;\n    C\u2019est toujours en baisant qu\u2019on salue une femme,\n\nMoli\u00e8re has made use of this scene in _Le Malade imaginaire_, where\nThomas Diafoirus pedantically asks when he is introduced to Ang\u00e9lique:\n_Baiserai-je?_ (Am I to kiss?).\n\nIn England we come across pretty nearly the same state of things.\nErasmus of Rotterdam, in one of his _Epistol\u00e6 familiares_, expresses his\ngreat satisfaction with English customs: \u201cWhen you arrive every one\nkisses you; at your departure they bid you good-bye and kiss you; you\ncome back, then fresh kisses. You are kissed when you meet any one, and\nso, too, when you separate. Wheresoever you go everything is filled with\nkisses, and if you have only once tasted how delicate these kisses are,\nand the deliciousness of their savour, you would want, my dear Faustus,\nto be banished to England for time and eternity.\u201d In another passage,\nwhere Erasmus is speaking of the state of the inns in England, which he\nmentions in terms of unqualified praise, he winds up as follows:\n\u201cEverywhere at the inns one meets with pretty, smiling girls: they come\nand ask for one\u2019s soiled clothes; they wash them and soon bring them\nback again. When the travellers are about to resume their journey these\ngirls kiss them, and take as affectionate a farewell of them as if the\nlatter were their brothers or near relations.\u201d\n\nAnd Holberg in his letter writes: \u201cIn England it is considered\nuncourteous to enter a house without saluting one\u2019s hostess with a\nkiss.\u201d\n\nEven in the Low Countries the friendly kiss was much in vogue. Adrianus\nH\u00f6reboord, a professor at the University of Leyden, has, in a Latin\ntreatise, investigated the question as to whether the custom of allowing\nstrangers to kiss young girls, widows, and other persons\u2019 wives, on\npaying a visit, can be said to be in conformity with the laws of\nchastity. H\u00f6reboord\u2019s opinion is that such practice is in no way\nobjectionable: as a kiss can be given without any _arri\u00e8re pens\u00e9e_ the\nkisses demanded by politeness may be quite chaste.\n\nErycius Puteanus, the learned Dutch philosopher, on the contrary, holds\nthat the aforesaid custom is not without danger--at any rate to more\nsensually-disposed temperaments. In a letter on the education of a young\nItalian girl he writes that he would never suffer any one to kiss his\npupil, adding: \u201cOur Flemish girls never do so; they are not so ardent.\nThey do not comprehend the language of love in glances and kisses. In\nthe matter of Italian girls on the other hand, things are quite\ndifferent, and I teach my pupil the speech of our country and our\ncustoms, kissing excepted.\u201d\n\nThe kiss of friendship was so general in Germany, even in the eighteenth\ncentury, that Klopstock could write to a friend in 1750: _Vergessen sie\nnicht zu mir auf einen Kaffee und auf einen Kuss zu kommen_. It seems,\nhowever, soon to have fallen into disuse.\n\nAs far back as 1747, Lessing had ridiculed it in a poem:\n\n    The kiss with which my friend will greet me\n      Is not what\u2019s rightly termed a kiss,\n    But only formal salutation\n      Because cold fashion bids him this.\n                W. F. H.\n\n\n\n\nVII\n\nVARIOUS KINDS OF KISSES\n\n    Einen Kuss in Ehren\n    Darf niemand wehren.\n                _German Proverb._\n\n    No one should take amiss\n    An honest-hearted kiss.\n                W. F. H.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VII\n\nVARIOUS KINDS OF KISSES\n\n\nIt has been previously shown by numerous examples that kissing occupies\na prominent place in certain ceremonies. It would be easy to multiply\ninstances of this.\n\nWe know from Roman law that the so-called _osculum interveniens_, which\nconcerned gifts, was exchanged between engaged couples. The law enacts\nthat, in the event of one of the contracting parties dying before the\nmarriage, only a moiety of the presents are to be returned, provided a\nkiss was exchanged at the betrothal, but, if no kiss had been exchanged,\nall the presents were to be returned.[23]\n\nThe kiss was regarded as the introduction, as it were, to matrimonial\ncohabitation--_initium consummationis nuptiarum_; it was symbolical of\nmarriage--_viri et mulieris conjunctio_. Certain ancient jurists have\neven discussed the question whether a married woman who has suffered\nherself to be kissed by a stranger has not thereby rendered herself\nguilty of adultery.\n\nThe decree of the Roman law which, so far as I know, still partly holds\ngood in Greece, is met with again in the Latin countries during the\nMiddle Ages. It was incorporated in the law of the Visigoths (_Lex\nRomana Visigothorum_), and migrated thence to the different old Spanish\n_fueros_ and the old French law, in which the word _osculum_ was also\nused in the learned form _oscle_. It was likewise admitted into the law\nof the Lombards, and Italy is most probably the West European country\nwhere _donatio propter osculum_ has been longest retained. We find, even\ndown to our own times, traces of the same in customary laws.\n\nThis is probably the only ceremonial kiss that has received legal\nsanction; but wherever elsewhere we may turn our eyes and investigate\nold ceremonies, we constantly find the kiss a necessary and important\npart.\n\nIts usage was, for instance, general at weddings. Thomas Platter, who\nstudied at the University of Montpellier at the end of the sixteenth\ncentury, tells us, in his \u201cDiary,\u201d that the majority of marriages took\nplace in private, without witnesses, through fear of witchcraft; though\nthe wedding feast, on the contrary, was celebrated in public with a vast\nconcourse of guests, and with many merry episodes. At the conclusion of\nthe feast the bride was divested of her bridal array, amidst jokes and\nraillery, smart young bachelors having to take off her garters; and when\nat last she sat up in bed, clad only in linen, then all the guests, male\nand female, came and kissed her on the mouth, and the kisses were\nfollowed by facetious compliments and good wishes.\n\nMoreover, at the later ceremony of dubbing a knight, the newly-made\nknight of the Golden Fleece was kissed by the master of the ceremonies,\nand had afterwards to kiss all the senior knights present.\n\nAt certain academical functions the kiss also formed part of the festal\nceremony; in the seventeenth century the Dean, when degrees were\nconferred, kissed all the new doctors and masters.\n\nEven in the guilds we meet with the kiss, though in a somewhat peculiar\nform. H\u00fcbertz tells us that at the ceremony of admitting a member into\nthe Guild of Tanners, the candidate chose for his \u201cKr\u00e4nzjungfer\u201d a girl\nwho had to be \u201cfairly a maiden.\u201d She painted black moustaches on his\nupper lip, and the senior member placed a crown on his head. This done,\nhe kissed the latter, removed the crown, and decorated him instead with\na \u201cJungferkranz.\u201d Finally, the senior member made a speech to the new\nmember, and gave him three boxes on the ears, on which the girl kissed\nhim, and washed off his moustaches, whilst \u201cVater\u201d hung a sword to his\nwaist.\n\nThe ceremony of reception into the Guild of Carpenters was followed by a\nfeast, at which the members, as a sign that they were now grown-up, were\nallowed, on the payment of a mark, to kiss the barmaid, who was usually\nthe innkeeper\u2019s daughter.\n\nIt is easily understood that the kiss likewise came to play a prominent\npart in many different dances and games.\n\nKiss-dances were very common during the Middle Ages and even later.\nMontaigne describes one that he witnessed at Augsburg in 1580. \u201cThe\nladies,\u201d said he, \u201csit in two rows along the walls of the room. The\ngentlemen go away and bow to them; they kiss the latter\u2019s hands, and the\nladies get up, but without kissing them on the hand. Then each gentleman\nputs his arm round the lady\u2019s waist, right beneath her shoulder, kisses\nher, and lays his cheek to hers.\u201d[24] Whether it is the lady\u2019s check or\nmouth that is kissed, he omits to state; but it is certain that kisses\non the mouth were not uncommon.\n\nA Swiss traveller who stayed for some time in France in the middle of\nthe sixteenth century relates that, when he was in Montpellier, he was\ninvited to a ball, and there met a very beautiful young lady; but, he\nadds, her nose was a trifle too long, and so her partner had great\ndifficulty in kissing her mouth, \u201cas is the general custom.\u201d\n\nThe kiss-dance has not yet died out in Germany; but it appears no longer\nto have the graceful forms of the Renaissance period, if we can trust\nFritz Reuter\u2019s description in his _Journey to Belgium_. At a wedding\nwhen the kiss-dance is to be held, the parish clerk cautiously inquires\nof the clergyman whether kissing is regarded as unbefitting his\npriestly dignity, but when the answer comes short and shrewd, \u201cKiss\naway,\u201d he bows to Mrs Black and--smack!--gives her a couple of hearty\nkisses right on her mouth. Madame was thoroughly frightened, but that\ndid not avail, but every time he swang round with her, she got a proper,\nsmacking kiss.\n\nBut it is evident from _Romeo and Juliet_ that even in England there\nwere dances in which a gentleman was allowed to kiss his partner. All\nknow the beautiful words with which Romeo claims his right:\n\n    If I profane with my unworthiest hand\n      This holy shrine, the gentle sin is this:\n    My lips, two blushing pilgrims, ready stand\n      To smooth that rough touch with a tender kiss. (I. 5.)\n\nOne can still take the same liberty at Christmastide under the\nmistletoe. I know a young English lady who was offended with an American\ngentleman who did not dare to avail himself of his privilege, because he\nthought that this custom was obsolete in Europe.\n\nKissing in our time still plays an important part in France in the\nrefrains of dance songs. _Le Bouquet de ma Mie_ ends with:\n\n    Bell\u2019 berg\u00e8re, embrasse-moi,\n    Embrasse, embrasse, embrasse!\n\nAnd in _Ramenez vos Moutons, Berg\u00e8re_, is sung by way of conclusion:\n\n    Tombez \u00e0 genoux,\n    Jurez devant tous.\n    D\u2019\u00eatre un jour \u00e9poux\n    Et embrassez-vous.[25]\n\nThere is, I suppose, no doubt that in these games the kiss is given and\ntaken, as the _dramatis person\u00e6_ are generally children, but what takes\nplace when adults amuse themselves with these _rondes_, I do not know;\nbut I consider it probable that the gentleman will demand as his due a\nkiss, at any rate on the cheek. There also exists an old _ronde \u00e0\nbaisers_, which is very characteristic and merry. In this it is the lady\nwho has to take the first step:\n\n    Madame, entrez dans la danse,\n    Regardez-en la cadence,\n    Et puis vous embrasserez\n    Celui que vous aimerez.[26]\n\nAs the living expression of the warmest and sincerest human feelings\nkissing has been credited, in the world of fairy tales and superstition,\nwith a considerable curative and prophylactical power.\n\nWe have seen, in the old sagas and ballads, how enchantments are broken\nby means of a kiss; we have seen how holy men in the legends restore the\nsick to health by means of a kiss, etc. Kissing has, on the whole,\ninfluenced popular credulity to a large extent, and of the numerous\nsuperstitious notions concerning it I only quote some few:\n\nIf you would protect yourself against lightning you should make three\ncrosses before you, and kiss the ground three times. (Germany.)\n\nIf you want to have luck in gambling you must kiss the cards before the\ngame begins. (France.)\n\nIf you have the toothache you should kiss a donkey on his chops.\n(Germany.) This very efficacious advice is found as far back as Pliny.\n\nIf you drop a bit of bread on the floor you must kiss it when you pick\nit up. The same respect is also to be shown to books you have dropped.\n(Denmark, Germany.)\n\nAccording to Danish superstition, it is a bad omen when the first person\nyou meet of a morning is an old woman; nevertheless, you can ward off\nall evil consequences by giving her a kiss. Evil must be expelled by\nevil.\n\nPeople kiss little children when they have knocked themselves, in order\nto take away the pain; they must \u201ckiss them well again,\u201d as it is\ntermed, or, as Englishmen say, \u201ckiss the place and make it well.\u201d\n\nThe Greenland mother, who does not understand kissing as expressive of\nlove, kisses her sick child on the breast, shoulders, hips, and navel to\nrestore it to health.\n\nAs the loving kiss of a living human creature brings life, health, and\nhappiness, so it is thought, on the other hand, that kisses of a\nsupernatural being bring destruction.\n\nIn Lucian\u2019s _True History_ there is a description of a perilous journey\nto the realms of fancy. In one of these the travellers came upon a\nremarkable vineyard wherein all the vines at the bottom were green and\nluxuriant, but those above had the shape of women. \u201cThey greeted us, as\nwe drew nigh, and bade us halt. Some of us kissed them on the mouth,\nand those who were kissed lost their understanding and reeled about like\ndrunken men. But worse befell those who had suffered themselves to be\nembraced by these women; they were powerless to extricate themselves\nfrom the latter\u2019s arms, and we beheld their fingers changed into boughs\nand twigs.\u201d[27]\n\nI will here call your attention to the Roumanian song about cholera,\nwhich comes in the shape of an ugly old woman to V\u00eelcu, and V\u00eelcu\nentreats it thus: \u201cTake my horse, take my weapons, but give me still\nsome days so I may once more see my children, which are as dear to me as\nthe light of the sun.\u201d But the old woman stretches forth her bony arms,\nfolds V\u00eelcu to her bosom, presses her pallid lips to his, and, in a\ndeath-dealing kiss, takes his life, whereupon she departs with a mocking\nlaugh. The Roumanian text is here very strong:\n\n    Gur\u0103 pe gur\u0103 punea,\n    Buze pe buze lip\u012da,\n    Zilele i le sorb\u012da.\n    Apo\u012d cloanza ear ridea,\n    Cu zilele purcedea,\n    Si vo\u012dnicul mort c\u0103dea.\n\nEven a spectre\u2019s kiss brings death. In an English variant of the ballad\nof Leonora, Margaret says to her dead bridegroom, who is knocking at her\ndoor at night: \u201cCome and kiss me on the cheek and chin.\u201d--\u201cPerhaps I\nshall come to thee,\u201d he replies, but:\n\n    If I shou\u2019d come within thy bower,\n    I am no mortal man;\n    And shou\u2019d I kiss thy rosy lips,\n    Thy days will not be long.\n\nI shall also call your attention, in connection with the foregoing, to a\ncurious old story of the venomous girl.\n\nA young maiden had from her tenderest years been reared on all the most\ndeadly poisons. Her beauty was marvellous, but her breath was so\npoisonous that it killed everybody who came near her. She was sent to\nthe palace of Alexander the Great, as the king\u2019s enemies reckoned on his\nfalling in love with her and dying in her arms. When the king saw her he\nat once wanted to make her his mistress; but the shrewd Aristotle\nsuspected treachery. He restrained the king, and had a criminal who had\nbeen sentenced to death sent for. The criminal was made to kiss the girl\nin presence of the king, and he fell prone on the ground, poisoned by\nher breath, like one struck by lightning.\n\nThis story can be traced to India. It found its way into several\nmedi\u00e6val storybooks and attained great popularity. The monks made use of\nit in their sermons, and gave it an allegorical interpretation:\nAlexander was the good, trustful Christian; Aristotle was the\nconscience; the venomous girl, incontinence, which comprehends\neverything that is poisonous to the soul; and the criminal is the wicked\nman who pursues the lusts of the flesh and suffers his punishment. \u201cLet\nus, therefore, abstain from all such things if we wish to reach\nParadise,\u201d is the moral that the monk draws from it at the close of his\nsermon.\n\nIn conclusion I will quote several expressions to which kissing has\ngiven rise:\n\nA lady\u2019s hat which was fashionable in England in 1850, and which had no\nbrim to it, got the name of _Kiss-me-quick_. In contradistinction to\nthis, the old-fashioned Danish hats with prominent brims were called\n_Kiss-me-if-you-can_. We have a modern variant in the Salvation lasses\u2019\n_Stop-kissing-me_ hat.\n\nIn France, during the last century, there was a colour of\nthe name of _Baise-moi ma mignonne_, called in England\n\u201cheart\u2019s-ease\u201d: _Look-up-and-kiss-me_, _Kiss-me-at-the-garden-gate_,\n_Kiss-me-ere-I-rise_ or _Jump-up-and-kiss-me_.\n\nThe verb \u201cto kiss\u201d is often used in a figurative sense, _e.g._, the\nItalians say of one who likes drinking, \u201cHe kisses the flask\u201d (_Bacia il\nfiasco_); the Germans say of mean people, \u201cThey kiss the farthing\u201d (_Den\nPfennig k\u00fcssen_); the English too speak of a _penny-kisser_.\n\nThis figurative meaning is not, however, confined to jocose expressions\nand phrases; on the contrary, it occurs perhaps more frequently in\nserious prose.\n\nOur whole life, lived in love to our neighbour and nature, is nothing\nmore than one long kiss.\n\nKaalund somewhere says:\n\n    A babe was I not long ere this,\n      But time too swiftly slips;\n    And that is why I press a kiss\n      So warmly on life\u2019s lips.\n                W. F. H.\n\nA similar figurative use is extraordinarily common with the poets. H. C.\nAndersen, in _Goose-grass_, says of the lark that it flies past the\ntulip and other aristocratic flowers only to light on the sward by the\nhumble goose-grass, which it kisses with its beak, and for which it\nsings its joyous song. The other poets represent the waves as kissing\nthe white beach, the bees, the scented flowers; and the ears of corn in\nthe fields as heaving beneath the warm kisses of the sun\u2019s golden rays.\nThe sun\u2019s kisses are _oscula sancta_; every creature shares in them, for\nthey are the most beautiful expression of God\u2019s love. Ingemann sings in\na morning hymn:\n\n    The sun looks down on hut and hall,\n      On haughty king and beggar weeping,\n    Beholds the great ones and the small,\n      And kisses babes in cradles sleeping.\n                W. F. H.\n\n\n\n\nVIII\n\nTHE ORIGIN OF KISSING\n\nLes coutumes, quelque \u00e9tranges qu\u2019elles deviennent parfois \u00e0 la longue,\nont g\u00e9n\u00e9ralement des commencements tr\u00e8s simples.\n\nMAX M\u00dcLLER.\n\n\nUsages, however strange they may sometimes become in the long run, have\ngenerally very simple beginnings.--_Translated from the above._\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VIII\n\nTHE ORIGIN OF KISSING\n\n\nWith most civilised and many uncivilised nations kissing is the natural\nexpression of love and its kindred emotions.\n\nHow can it be explained that a kiss has succeeded in getting so deep and\ncomprehensive a significance? How can a trivial movement of the lips\ninterpret our innermost feelings in so eloquent a way that there is not\na language which has at its command words approaching to it in\nargumentative power?\n\nAre we face to face with something primitive, or something conventional\nand derivative? Is it as natural to kiss when we are transported with\nlove as it is to smile when we are mirthful, or weep when we are sad? In\nother words, is Steele right when he says, in strict conformity with a\nCypriot folk-song previously quoted, that \u201cnature was its author, and it\nbegan with the first courtship?\u201d\n\nI shall try to answer this question in the following pages, but,\nnevertheless, I wish at once to state most expressly that we are now\napproaching ground where we know nothing, and where no one can with\ncertainty know anything. We can only advance more or less likely\nhypotheses.\n\nIn the first place, it is important to bear in mind that there are many\nraces of people who are quite ignorant of kissing as it is generally\nunderstood. Thus it is unknown in a great part of Polynesia, in\nMadagascar, and among many tribes of negroes in Africa, more\nparticularly among those which mutilate their lips. W. Reade, in one of\nhis books of travel, tells us of the horror which seized a young African\nnegress when he kissed her. Kissing is likewise unknown amongst the\nEsquimaux and the people of Tierra del Fuego. Certain Finnish tribes\nappear, from what B. Taylor tells us, not to practise it much. In his\n_Northern Travel_ he relates that \u201cwhile both sexes bathe together in a\nstate of complete nudity, a kiss is regarded as something indecent.\u201d A\nFinnish married woman, on being told by him that it was the usual custom\nfor husband and wife to kiss each other, angrily exclaimed, \u201cIf my\nhusband were to attempt such a thing, faith, I would warm his ears in\nsuch a way that he would feel it for a whole week.\u201d\n\nIf the question arises as to what these people substitute for kissing,\nthe fact is well-known that, amongst uncivilised races, there is an\nendless number of different ways of salutation; some smack each other on\nthe arms or stomach, others blow on each other\u2019s hands, others again rub\ntheir right ear and put out their tongue, etc., etc. Here, however, we\nmust confine ourselves to the salutations which are suggestive of\nkissing.\n\nIn many places people are in the habit of saluting with their noses.\nThis is the so-called Malay kiss, which consists in rubbing or merely\npressing one\u2019s nose against another person\u2019s nose. This nose-salute is\nfound among the Polynesians, Malays, Esquimaux, certain negro tribes in\nAfrica--in short, just among the majority of races which are ignorant of\nkissing as we understand it.\n\nDarwin thus describes the Malay kiss: \u201cThe women squatted with their\nfaces upturned; my attendants stood leaning over them, laid the bridge\nof their noses at right angles over theirs, and commenced rubbing. It\nlasted somewhat longer than a hearty hand-shake with us. During this\nprocess they uttered a grunt of satisfaction.\u201d[28] The French _savant_\nGaidoz, who has also described this custom, remarks, \u201cI have many times\nobserved that cats which are fond of one another greet each other in\nthis way; and I myself once had a cat which always tried to squeeze its\nnose against mine as a mark of affection.\u201d[29]\n\nEverything is in favour of this nose-salute being a very primitive\ncustom, and its origin may be sought beyond the sense of touch; no\ndoubt, in the sense of smell.\n\nSpencer has arrived at the following conclusions: The sheep bleats after\nher little lamb which has run away. It sniffs at several lambs that are\nskipping about near her, and at last recognises her own by means of the\nsense of smell, and undoubtedly feels great delight at recognising it.\nIn consequence of assiduous repetitions of this a certain relation is\ndeveloped between the two factors, so that the smell of the lamb excites\njoy in the sheep.\n\nAs every animal has its peculiar smell, so, too, has every human being.\nWhen the patriarch Isaac grew old his eyes began to get dim, and he\ncould not see. He wished to bless his eldest son, Esau, but Jacob\ndeceived him by clothing himself in his brother\u2019s garments, and giving\nhimself out as the latter. Isaac then said to him: \u201cCome near now and\nkiss me, my son.\u201d And he came near and kissed him, and he smelled the\nsmell of his raiment, and blessed him, and said: \u201cSee the smell of my\nson is as the smell of a field which the Lord hath blessed.\u201d\n\nThe sense of the smell peculiar to some one we are fond of is capable of\nexciting pleasure. Timkowski writes of a Mongol father that the latter\ntime after time smelt his youngest son\u2019s head. This mark of paternal\ntenderness serves with the Mongols instead of kisses. In the Philippine\nIslands, the sense of smell is so developed that the inhabitants, by\nsimply sniffing at a pocket-handkerchief, can tell to whom it belongs;\nlovers who are separated send one another presents of bits of their\nlinen, and, in their absence, keep each other in mind by often inhaling\neach other\u2019s scent.\n\nThat the delicate perfume that exhales from a woman\u2019s body plays an\nimportant part in love affairs even with modern civilised nations is\ntoo well-known to require more than a passing mention on my part.\n\nCertain races of mankind now actually salute each other by smelling;\nthey apply their mouth and nose to a person\u2019s cheek, and draw a long\nbreath. In their language they do not say \u201cGive me a kiss,\u201d but \u201cSmell\nme.\u201d The same sort of kiss is also met with among the Burmese; and with\nmany Malay tribes the words \u201csmell\u201d and \u201csalute\u201d are synonymous. Other\nraces do not confine themselves to smelling each other\u2019s faces, but\nsniff their hands at every salutation.\n\nAlfred Grandidier, a French traveller, says of the nose-kiss in\nMadagascar: \u201cIt always excites the merriment of Europeans, and yet it\nhas its origin in an extremely refined idea. The invisible air which is\ncontinually being breathed through the lips is to savages, not only, as\nwith us, a sign of life, but it is also an emanation of the soul--its\nperfume, as they themselves say--and, when they mingle and suck in each\nother\u2019s breath and odour, they think they are actually mingling their\nsouls.\u201d[30]\n\nThen the origin of the nose-kiss, it seems, undoubtedly ought to be\nsought--at any rate partly--in the sense of smell. The love of another\nhuman being involves, as a consequence, one\u2019s loving everything\nbelonging to this other being; and this love is shown _in casu_ by\ndrinking in his or her breath, whereby, little by little, a peculiar\nnose-salutation is very ingeniously developed, which, naturally, is\ncapable of gradually assuming various conventional forms.\n\nNow we will proceed to the kiss proper--that on the mouth. How can its\norigin be explained?[31]\n\nIt does not seem very rational to assume that the motion of the muscles\nin breathing should of itself be the natural, purely physical reflex of\na feeling of love in the same way as, for instance, certain\nhalf-spasmodic contractions of several muscles in the upper part of the\nface can be the immediate expression of wrath.\n\nI do not believe either that the mere contact of the lips with another\nperson\u2019s face was originally sufficient to express \u201cI love you.\u201d\nNaturally, the longing to touch the beloved ones body, to approach it as\nclosely as possible, is a very essential manifestation of erotic\nemotion; but so far as the contact of the lips is concerned, there is\nreason for assuming that, originally, without its being the direct\nobject, it had been, moreover, and perhaps in an equally high degree, a\nmeans of attaining a definite sensual gratification--a gratification\nthat can be realised by the co-operation of the lips and mouth.\n\nAs the nose-salutation partly originates in smell, so the mouth\nsalutation may, to a certain extent[32] at least, have its origin in\ntaste, or--which is even more probable--in both smell and taste? These\nlatter, as you know, are very closely related to each other.\n\nThe dog shows his joy at his master\u2019s presence by licking the latter\u2019s\nhand. Why is this? It would not, I suppose, be too rash to assume that\nhe as good as \u201ctastes\u201d him; loving his master, he therefore loves the\ntaste and smell peculiar to him.\n\nThe cow licks her calf, and in this one may presumably see the\nexpression of a feeling which is to some extent satisfied by this\naction. And why so? Undoubtedly by recognising by the tongue (and nose)\nthe taste (and smell) peculiar to the calf.\n\nNow, is it not exceedingly probable that the human kiss, in its original\nform, can, as to its passive element, be accounted for in an identical\nway, viz., as a purely sensual assimilation, by means of the nerves of\ntaste and smell, of another person\u2019s peculiar qualities with respect to\n_gustus_ and _odor_? These qualities have probably been much more\nconspicuous in primitive mankind than nowadays, just as it is quite\ncertain that its faculty of taste and smell were far more developed than\nours.\n\nAnd have we not still, especially in the love-kiss, but also in kisses\nbetween women, very numerous representatives of the primitive kiss,\nwhich I should like to term the \u201ctaste-kiss.\u201d I have many times pointed\nout, in the preceding pages, the part which taste plays in kissing; and\nI shall now add what I have often heard young girls say to a lady they\nhad kissed amorously: \u201cYour kisses taste so nice.\u201d\n\nFrom being a natural expression for love the sucking, tasting kiss has,\nin course of time, become reduced to nothing more than a simple\ninspiratory movement of the lips, which, by analogy, has come to express\nmany other feelings, such as gratitude, admiration, compassion,\ntenderness, etc. It has become at length so degraded as to be used as a\npurely conventional salutation.\n\nIf this reasoning be correct, then the mouth-kiss, in the course of its\ndevelopment, presents a perfect parallel with the nose-kiss. Both these\nforms of greeting were originally closely allied, but the mouth-kiss had\nbetter conditions for development than the nose-kiss. It has become a\nsalutation of a considerably higher sort, and whenever savage tribes\ncome into contact with civilised nations the nose-kiss is gradually\ndiscarded. Such, for instance, was the case in Madagascar. There is no\ndoubt that savages can express very deep emotions by the nose-kiss. A\nFrench missionary tells the story of how he was received when he went\nback to the island of Pomotu: \u201cWhen we approached the country all the\npopulation assembled on the beach. They had harpoons in their hands, for\nthey imagined we were enemies; but, as soon as they saw my cassock, they\nshouted, \u2018That\u2019s the Father, away with the harpoons,\u2019 and when we\nreached the shore they all rushed forward to kiss me by rubbing their\nnoses against mine, according to the custom of that country. The\nceremony was not very agreeable to me, and I was not altogether pleased\nat having to take part in it.\u201d[33] Civilised people, on the other hand,\nregard the nose-kiss as something highly ludicrous, and I doubt if any\npoet has the power of casting a halo of romance over it.\n\nThe mouth-kiss, on the contrary, is redolent of the purest and most\ndelicate poesy. A German minnesinger rhapsodises thus: \u201cThe radiant sun\nis darkened before mine eyes when I behold the roses that bloom on my\ndarling\u2019s mouth.\u201d\n\n\u201cHe who can pluck these roses may rejoice in the depth of his heart.\nMany are the roses I have beheld, but never have I looked on any so\nsplendid.\u201d\n\n\u201cHow beauteous are the roses one gathers in the valley; nathless her\ndelicate, ruddy lips conjure up thousands that are lovelier still.\u201d\n\n\n\n\nL\u2019ENVOI\n\n    Wherefore, methinks, let ev\u2019ry man\n    Kiss as he knows best, will, should, can;\n    But I and my beloved know this:--\n    How we ought properly to kiss.--PAUL FLEMING.\n                W. F. H.\n\n\n                              Printed by\n                             Oliver & Boyd\n                              Edinburgh.\n\n\n                              FOOTNOTES:\n\n [1] H. F. Cary\u2019s translation.\n\n [2] From _osculum_ we get the words osculogy, the science of kissing,\n and osculogical, that which pertains to kissing; but the Greek\n derivations philematology and philematological are perhaps preferable.\n\n [3]\n\n    The tiny little mouth, red as a rose\n    That blossoms hidden in some garden-close,\n    Pleasant and amorous through being kissed.\n                W. F. H.\n\n\n [4] Translated from the Danish Version.\n\n [5] A Danish poet, philologist, and collector of proverbs (1631-1702).\n\n [6] This and most of the following Servian ballads were translated by\n Prof. Nyrop into Danish from the German version of O. P. Ritto.\n\n [7] From \u201cVarious Verses,\u201d 1893.\n\n [8]\n\n    He who a kiss has snatched and takes naught more,\n    Deserves to lose the kiss he has in store,\n    How much was lacking to my perfect bliss?\n    Not modesty but clownishness was this.\n                W. F. H.\n\n\n [9] Translated by Edward, Earl of Derby.\n\n [10] William Morris\u2019 Translation.\n\n [11] William Morris\u2019 Translation.\n\n [12] William Morris\u2019 Translation.\n\n [13] William Morris\u2019 Translation.\n\n [14] Retranslated from the Danish of the Text.\n\n [15] We have here a striking example of how legends arise. John,\n the Father of the Church, got the epithet \u201cgolden-mouth\u201d on account\n of his great eloquence; but the people sought another more concrete\n explanation, if I may use the term, of that name, the metaphorical use\n of which they failed to comprehend.\n\n [16]\n\n    And when he had to kiss Charles\u2019 foot--such kissing Rollo spurned--\n    He thrust his hand forth downward, and to the monarch turned.\n    He raised the king\u2019s foot to his lips, and overturned the king,\n    Who quickly rose upon his feet whilst mirth around did ring.\n                W. F. H.\n\n\n [17] Which may be freely translated:\n\n    Dear, kind rod that\u2019s trusty stood,\n    Without thee ne\u2019er should I do good.\n\n\n [18]\n\n    ... Well, if you chose\n    With less to be content, don\u2019t stick at this.\n    I have for you a face without a nose.\n                W. F. H.\n\n\n [19]\n\n    My first is for my husband, not for you;\n    But you\u2019re right welcome to the other two.\n                W. F. H.\n\n\n [20] My dear Arlequin, a handsome lad like you, when a lady offers him\n anything, ought to kiss the hand when he receives it.\n\n [21] Omitted in the last edition.\n\n [22] Omitted in the last edition.\n\n [23] _Si ab sponso rebus spons\u00e6 donatis, interveniente osculo,\n ante nuptias hunc vel illam mori contigerit, dimidiam partem rerum\n donatarum ad superstitem pertinere pr\u00e6cipimus, dimidiam ad defuncti\n vel defunct\u00e6 heredes cuiuslibet gradus sint et quocunque iure\n successerint, ut donatio stare pro parte media et solvi pro parte\n media videatur: osculo vero non interveniente, sive sponsus sive\n sponsa obierit, totam infirmari donationem et donatori sponso sive\n heredibus eius restitui._\n\n [24] Retranslated from the Danish Text.\n\n [25]\n\n    Now down on your knees fall,\n      And promise straightway\n    To be wife and husband,\n      And then kiss away.\n                W. F. H.\n\n\n [26]\n\n    Madame, join the dancing throng,\n    Listen to their measured song;\n    But remember, for the rest,\n    You shall kiss whom you love best.\n                W. F. H.\n\n\n [27] Retranslated from the Danish of the Text.\n\n [28] Retranslated from the Danish Version in the Text.\n\n [29] Retranslated from the Danish Version in the Text.\n\n [30] Retranslated from the Danish Version in the Text.\n\n [31] Naturally, I am not concerned here with the various explanations\n given by the poets as to the origin of the kiss. Gressner, in an\n idyll of Daphnis and Chloe, has told us how both the lovers observed\n the sport of the doves in the grove and then tried to imitate it by\n pressing their mouths together as the doves do their beaks.\n\n [32] Besides the passive or receptive element of the kiss, which is\n essentially the object of my investigation, there is also, as we have\n previously noticed, an active element which must not be overlooked,\n viz., the contact and muscular sensation at the pressure. During the\n erotic transport, which excites the desire for something further of a\n brutal and violent nature, the body trembles with powerful muscular\n tension, and a pressure or bite of the mouth is one of the forms by\n which the passion of love finds expression. It is difficult, in these\n pages, to go further into this aspect of the kiss, which is regarded\n by certain philosophers as the main one, which it really is in respect\n to certain kisses under certain circumstances; but there are other\n kisses which are equally so originally, and in which the passive\n element seems to me the most essential. The origin of the love-kiss\n ought scarcely to be sought in any single source, whether in the sense\n of touch or in that of taste and smell combined. Unquestionably both\n these elements co-operate in its production, but under constantly\n varying conditions, just as the active or the passive element\n predominates, the kiss accompanies and interprets according to the\n erotic phase. In what follows I shall confine myself exclusively to\n the receptive element in the kiss.\n\n [33] Retranslated from the Danish Version in the Text.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nTypographical errors corrected by the etext transcriber:\n\nInbruntskuss=> Inbrunstkuss {pg 9}\n\nKuss aus!=> K\u00fcss aus! {pg 10}\n\neine grosse Kleinigheit=> eine grosse Kleinigkeit {pg 64}\n\nEr kan mich k\u00fcssen da wo ich keine Nase habe=> Er kann mich k\u00fcssen da wo\nich keine Nase habe {pg 128}\n\nLucius Turquinius=> Lucius Tarquinius {pg 131}\n\nthe same state of thing=> the same state of things {pg 155}\n\npedanticly asks=> pedantically asks {pg 155}","title":"The kiss and its history","tradition":"philosophy-ethics","translated_text":null,"word_count":32905}