speech, while the colder love took on itself the
warmer utterance.

There is one kiss in the New Testament full
of pathos and divine meaning. This is the kiss
which Mary Magdalene gives when she washes
the loved feet with her tears and wipes them
wilh her hair. And here is that most terrible
kiss of all— the kiss in the garden of Gethsemane
which meant betrayal—the "Hail, Master!"
which meant death. But this was a kiss scarcely
to be spoken of in an article like the present
There are some things before which we must
simply veil our heads and pass on.

Secular history has also its kisses of treachery.
When the conspirators went towards Cæsar to
stab him, they made as if they would salute him
according to the custom; but the kiss they gave
him was a two-edged sword, and their homage,
death. Cæsar sank at the foot of Pompey's statue
deceived, if not betrayed, by a caress. So Othello
kisses Desdemona before he smothers her:

     —- When I have pluck'd thy rose,
      I cannot give it vital growth again,
      It needs must wither: I'll smell it on the tree.

But the "balmy breath" that almost did

     —- persuade
      Justice to break her sword,

failed  just to the extent of that " almost."
Neither innocence nor love; neither kisses nor
regrets, could calm the furious nature all aflame
with jealousy and hate; and Othello's farewell
kisses, tender and heart broken as they were—
the straining grasp of a man who loves even
while he slays -- had no magic in them, to redeem
poor Desdemona's life.

Shakespeare has countless kisses of all
complexions. There is the kiss of Petruchio, when

     —- he took the bride about the neck,
      And kissed her lips with such a clamorous smack,
      That, at the parting, all the church did echo.

And there is that grand kiss of Coriolanus,

      That womanhood had but one rosy mouth,
      To kiss them all at once from North to South.

And there is Romeo's kiss in the vault; and
Anthony's dying kiss, so tender and so sad—

      Of so many thousand kisses, the poor last
      I lay upon thy lips.

Bassanio's, when the leaden casket is found to
hold the golden prize, and the dull outside
which had no shadowing forth of the glory
within, gave him all that the more flattering
had withheld. And there is Mariana's in that
exquisite song which every one knows by inmost
heart, but which the hand cannot be stayed from
writing, so bewitching is the marvellous music
and grace of those lines:

      Take, oh take those lips away,
      That so sweetly were forsworn;
      And those eyes, the break of day,
      Lights that do mislead the morn;
      But my kisses bring again,
                                          Bring again,
      Seals of love, but seal'd in vain,
                                          Seal'd in vain!

But think of Titania's, when she " kisses the
fair large ears of her gentle joy;" while, further
on, come the quaint kisses of Pyramus and
Thisbe, given through the chinks of Tinker
Snout's fingers—the fingers which were made to

                                          present a wall,
      And such a wall as I would have you think,
      That had in it a cranny'd hole or chink.

It would be lengthy work to pick out all the
"kissing comfits" from Shakespeare. In his
time, maidens were not shy nor wives reserved,
and things were done and talked of in the
choicest company which it would be now
impossible to allude to. English civilisation was
then far behind the old Roman times of nicety
and refinement, when a man would as soon think
of kissing his wife in the presence of his daughters,
as we should now think of performing the
same grace in an open railway-carriage. The
Romans were very strict; and only near blood
relations might kiss the women of the family at all.
And then, not for love or friendship, but to find
out if they had been drinking wine in the master's
absence. The Greeks did more than this; they
made their wives eat onions whenever they were
going from home, so that they might be sure no
poachers would trench on their preserves. For
who would kiss Aspasia herself with the flavour
of garlic clinging round her delicate mouth?
England in Shakespeare's time, therefore, had
gone back sadly from these earlier days of
reticence. Long after the custom had been
abandoned abroad, it remained in full force here.
In Notes and Queries of September 9, 1854,
will be found a curious extract from the Life
of Wolsey by Cavendish. He says:

"I being in a fair great dining chamber" (in a
castle belonging to M. Crequi, a French nobleman),
"I attended my lady's coming; and after she came
hither out of her own chamber, she received me most
gently, like one of noble estate, having a train of
twelve gentlewomen. And when she, with her train,
came all out, she said to me, 'Forasmuch,' quoth
she, 'as ye be an Englishman, whose custom is in
your country to kiss all ladies and gentlewomen,
without offence, and although it be not so here in
this realm, yet will I be so bold as to kiss you, and
so shall all my maids.' By means whereof I kissed
my lady and all her women."

Bulstrode Whitelock, at the court of Christina
of Sweden, was honoured in the same
manner. It was May-day, and Whitelock had
made a fête for the queen, which she was
graciously pleased to attend; when, after the
"little collation," as he calls it, " she, being
full of pleasantness and gaiety of spirits, among
other frolics commanded him to teach her ladies
the English mode of salutation; which, after
some pretty defences, their lips obeyed, and
Whitelock most readily." Lucky fellow!

But if the English kept longer to the practice
than the foreigner, they owed it to him