A German Lover’s Definition of the Contact of Lips Puts Modern
Lexicographers to Shame—How Monks Viewed It.
The dictionary informs the breathless seeker after truth that a kiss is
“a form of salutation expressed by the contact, with pressure, of the
lips”—which definition, though clear and concise, seems to leave
something to be desired.
Jonathan Swift testily remarks: “Lord! I wonder what fool it was that
first invented kissing”—and many more are the disgruntled speeches which
have been made by men and women ever since the art first became known on
earth.
It is probable that every mother’s son of us—and daughter, too—has some
sort of idea of what a kiss is, in spite of the reticence of the
language Solons, but it is doubtful if any one ever clothed the idea
more appropriately than the lover who in 1679 wrote the epistle from
which the following extract is taken. It is translated from the German.
What is a kiss? A kiss is, as it were, a seal expressing our sincere
attachment: the pledge of our future union; a dumb, but at the same
time audible, language of a living heart; a present, which at the same
time it is given is taken from us; the impression of an ardent
attachment on an ivory coral press; the striking of two flints against
one another; a crimson balsam for a love-wounded heart; a sweet bite
of the lip; an affectionate pinching of the mouth; a delicious dish
which is eaten with scarlet spoons; a sweetmeat which does not satisfy
hunger; a fruit which is planted and gathered at the same time; the
quickest exchange of questions and answers of two lovers; the fourth
degree of love.
The monks of the Middle Ages divided the kiss into fifteen distinct and
separate orders—the decorous, or modest kiss; the diplomatic, or kiss of
policy; the spying kiss, to ascertain if a woman has drunk wine; the
slave kiss; the kiss infamous—a church penance; the slipper kiss,
practised toward tyrants; the judicial kiss; the feudal kiss; the
religious kiss (kissing the cross); the academical kiss (or joining a
solemn brotherhood), the hand kiss; the Judas kiss; the medical kiss—for
the purpose of healing some sickness; the kiss of etiquette; the kiss of
love—the only real kiss.