KISSING.

Observer, Volume 5, Issue 114, 18 November 1882, Page 153

KISSING.

.In years gone by, a kiss -was the recognised fee of a lady's partner, and as such is noticed by Shakespeare in " Henry VIII." (act i. sc. 4) — I were unmannerly to take you out, And not kiss you. In an old treatise, too, entitled the "Use and Abuse of Dancing and Minstrelsie," we read — But some reply, what foole will daunce, If that when daunce is ddon, He may not have at ladye's lips That which in daunce he woon. The custom is still prevalent among country people in many parts of the kingdom. " When," says Bx'and (" Pop. Antiq.," ii. 140), " the fiddler thinks his young couple hare had music enough, he makes his instrument squeak out the notes which all understand to say, " Kiss her." In the sixteenth century it appears that English balls were usually opened with a kissing dance entitled " A Brawl," to which Shakespeare refers in "Lore's Labour Lost" (act iii. sc. 1), where Moth asks : — Master, will you wia your love with a French hrawl ? The performers, we are told, first united hands in a circle, and then, after the leading couple had placed themselves in the centre of the ring, the gentlemen saluted all the ladies in turn, and his fair partner each gentleman ; the figure continued until every pair had followed the example set them. The Puritans of the Elizabethan age strongly condemned this dance, and Stubbes exclaims, " What clipping, what culling, what kissing and bussing, and mouching of one another ?" In spite, however, of all opposition, a writer in the " Graphic and Historical Illustrator" (1834, p. 283) remarks that this kissing-dance " ran a career unparalleled in the history of salutation. It spread from land to land, and everywhere, from the court to the cottage, was enthusiastically welcome." Wi'axall also relates in his " History of France " how the Duke of Montpensier, only a few days before he expired, was removed fx'om his bed purposely to witness " one of these dances, which was performed in his own place by some of the young nobility." In modern days we may compare with this once fashionable dance that popular game known as " Kiss in the Ring," which is kept up with so much enthusiasm amongst the lower orders. Once more, to quote another scene of mei*rhnent in which kissing constitutes the chief attraction, we may mention that Christmas gambol known as " Kissing under the Mistletoe," for, in accordance with an old notion formerly prevalent, the maid who was not kissed under it at Christmas would not be married

*n that year. This custom is said to ' have originated thus :— Balder, the Apollo of Scandinavian mythology, was killed by a mistletoe arrow given to the blind Hoder, by Loki, the God of Mischief. Balder was nevertheless restored to life, but henceforth the misletoe was placed under the care of Friga, and was never again to be an instrument of evil till it touched the earth, the empire of Loki. . On this account it is always suspended from ceilings, and so whenever persons of opposite sexes pass under it, they give one another the kiss of peace and love/ in the full assurance that this plant is no longer an instrument of mischief. Lastly, of the many kissing terms employed at different times, there was one formerly in use termed " Kissing the hare's foot," applied to those who came so late that they lost their dinner or supper ; the meaning probably being that those who came too late to partake of the hare had no better chance than to kiss the foot, and get nothing to eat. In Browned "British Pastorals" we read : — 'Tis supper time with all, and we had need Make haste away, unless we mean to speed With, those that kiss the hnre's foot. Rhuines are bred, Some say, by going supperless to bed, And those I love not. "To kiss the post " meant to be shut out, and occurs in Pasquil's " Night Cap " (1612) : — Men of all countries travel thx'ough the same, And, if they want money, may kiss the post. Again, the " Lamourette's kiss," which is a term used for a reconciliation of policy, without abatement of rancour, originated in the following circumstance :— On July 7th, 1792, the Abbe Lamourette induced the different factions of the Legislative Assembly of France to lay aside their differences ; so the deputies of the Royalists, Girondists, Jacobins, Orientalists, and Constitutionalists rushed into each other's arms, and the king was sent for to see "how those Christians loved one another ; but the reconciliation was hollow and unsound. Once more the pansy, from its habit of coquettishly hanging its head and half-hiding its face, has had many quaint names applied to it, such as "Kiss me behind the Garden Gate," "Jump up and kiss me," and " Kiss me ere I rise." Without adding further illustrations which have in the course of years clustered round the act of kissing, we must not omit to mention the celebrated " kissing comfits" — sugar-plums which, were extensively tised by fashionable persons to make the breath sweet. Falstaff, in the " Merry Wives of Windsor" (act v. scene 5), alludes to these, for, when embracing Mrs Ford, lie exclaims — " Let it thunder to the tune of green sleeves, hail kissing-comfits, and snow eringoes ;" and in Massinger's " Very Woman (act i. scene 1) they are probably referred, to : — Faith, search our pockets, and if you find there Oomfits of ainbergrease to help our kisses, Conclude us faulty.