The kiss of friendship was so general in Germany, even in the eighteenth century, that Klopstock could write to a friend in 1750: Vergessen sie nicht zu mir auf einen Kaffee und auf einen Kuss zu kommen. It seems, however, soon to have fallen into disuse.
As far back as 1747, Lessing had ridiculed it in a poem:
The kiss with which my friend will greet me
Is not what’s rightly termed a kiss,
But only formal salutation
Because cold fashion bids him this.
W. F. H.
VII
VARIOUS KINDS OF KISSES
Einen Kuss in Ehren
Darf niemand wehren.
German Proverb.
No one should take amiss
An honest-hearted kiss.
W. F. H.