FOOTNOTES
[1] The ancients supposed that honey contained a tenth part of nectar, and therefore the lips of Lydia were imbued with double the nectar bestowed on honey.
[2] Ulysses had been sent by Agamemnon to the offended Achilles to induce him to return, but was treated by the latter with disdain, hence the importunity of Briseis.
[3] “Os parvum decensque labia corallini coloris ad morsum aptissima.”
[4] “Teneris labellis molles morsiunculæ.”
[5] The temple of Jupiter Ammon and the tomb of Battus, founder of the city of Cyrene, were four hundred miles apart, the intervening space being a waste of sand.
What more? All’s not enough: mix all t’express
My dear girl’s morning kisses’ sweetnesses.
You’d know her name? I’ll naught but kisses tell;
I doubt, I swear, you’d know her fain too well.
Old MS. 16th. Century.
[7] Tennyson.
[8] The Duke of Clarence to Lady E. Beauchamp.
[9] Ruprecht may be called the Father Nicholas, who comes on Christmas eve and plays all sorts of tricks.
[10] The pax is a piece of board having the image of Christ upon the cross on it, which the people used to kiss after the service was ended, that ceremony being considered the kiss of peace.
[11] The admirers of Robert Burns will remember the lines:
“——bent on winning borough towns,
Come shaking hands wi’ wabster loons,
And kissing barefit carlins.”
[12] An actual expression of a child.
[13] Francesca da Rimini.
[14] Mr. Longfellow translates the passage thus:
“Alone we were and without any fear.
Full many a time our eyes together drew
That reading, and drove the color from our faces;
But one point only was it that o’ercame us,
Whenas we read of the much-longed-for smile
Being by such a noble lover kissed,
This one, who ne’er from me shall be divided,
Kissed me upon the mouth all palpitating.”
Inferno, v.
[15] Burns.
[16] Neck.
[17] “But I think my heart was e’en sairer when I saw that hellicat trooper, Tam Halliday, kissing Jenny Dennison afore my face. I wonder women can hae the impudence to do sic things; but they are a’ for the redcoats.”—Scott: Old Mortality.
[18] “The Merry Pranks of Robin Goodfellow,” from which this stanza is taken, though attributed to Ben Jonson, is not found among his works.
[19] Shakspeare, it will be observed, represents Hermione as a colored statue. Paulina will not allow it to be touched, because the paint is not yet dry.
[20] A kiss appears to have been an established incident in ancient English marriage ceremonies.
[21] That by the impression of my kiss forever remaining on thy hand, thou mightst think on those lips through which a thousand sighs will be breathed for thee.
[22] A kiss was anciently in England the established fee of a lady’s partner. The custom is still prevalent among some of the country-people.
[23] Thus Bassanio, in “The Merchant of Venice,” when he kisses Portia:
“Fair lady, by your leave,
I come by note to give and to receive.”
[24] Queen Mab.
[25] Probable allusion to the kissing comfits mentioned by Falstaff, “Merry Wives,” v. 5.
[26] The poet here, no doubt, copied from the mode of his own time, since kissing a lady in a public assembly was not then thought indecorous. In King Henry VIII., Act i., scene v., Lord Sands is represented as kissing Anne Boleyn, next whom he sat at supper.
[27] The handkerchief.
[28] In the serious treatment of this idea the following lines from Whittier’s “Angels of Buena Vista” are among the most beautiful:
“Whispered low the dying soldier, pressed her hand and faintly smiled:
Was that pitying face his mother’s? did she watch beside her child?
All his stranger words with meaning her woman’s heart supplied;
With her kiss upon his forehead, ‘Mother,’ murmured he, and died.”
[29] The readers of Byron’s “Don Juan” will remember the wish
“That womanhood had but one rosy mouth,
To kiss them all at once, from North to South.”
[30] This epigram, though taken from the French, may be traced back to the Latin Anthology:
“Kisses my Phillis takes, but ne’er bestows:
Taking’s all one with giving, Phillis knows.”
[31] There is a similar point in a Greek epigram of Strato:
“While thus a few kisses I steal,
Dear Chloris, you bravely complain;
If resentment you really do feel.
Pray give me my kisses again.”
[32] Mrs. Thomson, in her “Life of Sarah, Duchess of Marlborough,” says:
“The proud Duke of Somerset married twice. His second duchess once tapped him familiarly on the shoulder with her fan; he turned round, and, with an indignant countenance, said, ‘My first duchess was a Percy, and she never took such a liberty.’”
[33] This riddle was originally published in the “Gentleman’s Magazine.” A correspondent furnished the following answer:
“A riddle by Cowper
Made me swear like a trooper;
But my anger, alas! was in vain;
For, remembering the bliss
Of beauty’s soft kiss,
I now long for such riddles again.”