THE
Literature of Kissing,
GLEANED FROM
HISTORY, POETRY, FICTION, AND
ANECDOTE.
BY
C. C. BOMBAUGH, A.M., M.D.,
AUTHOR OF “GLEANINGS FOR THE CURIOUS,” “THE BOOK OF BLUNDERS,” ETC.
PHILADELPHIA:
J. B. LIPPINCOTT & CO.
LONDON: 16 SOUTHAMPTON ST., COVENT GARDEN.
1876.
Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1875, by
J. B. LIPPINCOTT & CO.,
In the Office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington.
From the time of the first kisses recorded in the book ofGenesis,—the kiss with which Jacob imposed upon the credulityof his blind old father and defrauded his brother of the blessingintended for him, and that of Jacob the lover when hemet Rachel at the well,—to the present hour, the custom ofkissing has been so universally honored in the observancethat one would naturally expect to find in any well-regulatedlibrary a formal treatise upon its manifold phases and expressions.Yet, with the exception of a few insignificant monographsof the seventeenth century, the curious inquirer wouldfind upon the shelves nothing specially devoted to a customwith which all of human kind, from the elect of the childrenof men to the dwellers in partibus infidelium, are familiar.To borrow a waggish saying, the knowledge of the art hasbeen principally transmitted from mouth to mouth. Herrenschmidiuspublished his “Osculogia” in 1630; Muller, “DeOsculo Sancto,” in 1674; and Kempius, “De Osculis,” in1680. Boberg wrote upon the fashion of kissing among theHebrews, and Pfanner upon the kisses of the primitiveChristians,—both in Latin. But works of this character areinaccessible to general readers. Those modern classics, the“Basia” of Secundus, and the “Baisers” of Dorat and ofBonnefons, are readily attainable, both in the original and inthe form of translations and paraphrases.
Beyond this extremely limited range the literature of kissingis scattered as widely as its practice. For the earlier presentmentof a custom favored in all ages, we must recur tothe Bible. There only may we raise “the barred visor ofantiquity” for full and conclusive revelation; and there shall[4]we find that the kiss, in all the varied forms of which it is susceptible,was recognized among ancient kindred, and lovers,and friends, as an expression of affection or sympathy, as asymbol of joy or sorrow, as a token of welcome or farewell,as a mark of reverence, or reconciliation, or gratitude, or humility.There, likewise, shall we find the kiss of hypocrisy,as noted in the case of Absalom on the eve of his conspiracy;the sensual kiss, as referred to in the Proverbs; and thespi