The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1890-10-28
| SOME HISTORIC KISSES.
SOME OF TIE OSCILLATIONS THAT
LIVE IN LITERATURE.

ROeLlc hiSSeS-aOW the LADIES IRE
sented at Court Should Kiss the
Queens Hand
From the Chicago Inter-Ocean.
LONDON, Oct. 6.-I wrote some time ago
an article upon kisses 10 general, which
was. am told. rather popular Since
then have thought Of continuing the sub
ject and Of treating Tot Of the kiss in pri-
vate life, the heeting joy permitted to love
and friendship, but Of the kiss as it appears
in history and literature.
1t must not be forgotten that the great
tragedy of the Christian religion was in
augurated with kiss-that of Judas. 1t is
hard to realizs the action Of a man who
was privileged to touch with his lips ths
visage Of the Divine Savior, and could turn
that iuestimable privilege to the account of
SO hldeous a betrayal. Years ago remenn-
Der reading extracts from a poem written
by some English author, whose name have
now forgotten, in which Satan was depicted
as welcoming Judas to the Internal regions,
and the fiend
with smirched lips, fuiiginous and hot
Returned the kiss that he to Christ had given. "
This is proba Nly the most famous of all
the celebrated kisses of the world. Pity it
THE WORLDS vILEsT TREACHERY.
In the middle ages the kiss Of the sovereign
formed part of the solemn feud Il cere-
mony by which the vassal did homage 10
his liege lord. The king or prince, at con-
clusion OF the rite, was wont to kiss his
great subject on both cheeks. This part Of
the proceedings was modified to a kiss on
the brow when the estates or territory
we're held by woman, the peeresses of
France having presented a formal petition
to that effect. When Louis XII was their
monarch and liege lord it was probably a
great comfort to be spared oue-half of that
| portion OF the ceremony. That king mar
ried the Scottish princess Margaret. 1t was
she who, when dauphiness, bestowed upon
the poet Allan Charter kiss that has
remained celebrated to the present day
She found him sleeping in the palace
| gardens, AID, as she said TO her ladies in
explanation of her action, II kiss the elo-
quent lips that have given utterance to such
noble verses" This incident has inspired
| not only French painters, but also French
| dramatist as WELL with a subject worthy of
commemoration by their talents.
Shakespeare abounds in illusions to the
| gentle grace of kissing.
THE GRANDEsT KISS IN ALL LITERATURE
is undoubtedly that which Coriolanus be-
stoves upon his wife, Virgilia.
Long as my exile, sweet as my revenge"
In king Henry WILL" the king, after
treadi & measure with Anne boleyn at
the feast at York Place, remarks to his fair
| partner after he removes his mask:
Sweetheart, were unmannerly to take you
And not to kiss YOU"
Whicl argues that such a salutation formed
part of the performances of the stated y
| dances of the period.
Antony exclaims to Cleopatra at the close
| of his noble and tender rebuke to her after
her COW ardice has caused the loss Of the
battle of Actium:
"Give me q kiss!
Even this repays me-"
In THE Merchant of Venice" when Bas-
| sanIo has made his fortunate choice of the
leaden casket, the scroll within it bids him
Turn you where your lady is
And claim her with loving kiss
Wherenpon he pertinently remarks:
| "a gentle scroll, fair lady, by your leave"
| And forthwith sets the seal on his be-
| throthal TO the divine Portia by kissing
| her.
| "Peace, I will stop your mouth cries
Benedick to Beatrice in the last scene of
Much Ado About Nothing" and he stops
| it with kisses.
VERY TENDER AND PATHETIC
is the lament Of Imogen in "Cymbsline"
| concerning the pouting kiss which the sud-
den entry of her father prevented her from
bestowing on Posthumus, who she hears
| from Pisanio that on his departure her hus-
band waved bis handkerchief,
And kissed it, madam"
Imogen-
'Senseless linen? Happier therein than l."
| The lll-starred passion of Romeo and
Juliet finds Its first demonstration in the
kiss exchanged by the lovers at their first
meeting at the house Of Capulet in the first
| act, and it closes with that caress wherein
Juliet seeks in the lips Of her dead husband
some trace Of the deadly veaom that has
caused his death.
~ will kiss thy lips,
HAPPY some provision yet doth hang on them,
To make me die with restorative"
| Between these two kisses lies all that
storm and stress of passion and of pain that
the world knows as the greatest love tragedy
the story of "Romeo and Juliet.n
| IL is q curious fact that the mention in
Hamlet" of the kisses bestow ed upon the
| queen by Claudius figure among Ham
| let's bltterest terms Of reproach to his
| mother in the closet scene. He speaks with
infinite contempt of the "reechv kissesn she
may receive from her new husband Also
it is noted that there is no mention of an
exchange of kisses between
oPHELIA AND HAMLET.
| The gentle maiden reminds him of "words
of such sweet breath composed" but has
not to reproach him with any stolen kisses
in the days that he believed that he loved
| her.
The love words of Othello are of the fatal
kisses wherswith he set the seal on BESIDE
mona's doom,
| 4 kissed thee ere kld thee-No way but this
Killing myself to die upon kiss
| last IN a
wife that he SO loved and that he has slain.
| the mighty spirit of "Othello" departs.
One of the most melancholy kisses re.
| corded by Shakespeare is the parting en-
brace exchanged between King Richard
| I'LL, in the play of that name, and his
| queen, Isabel of France. The king says:
"one kiss shall stop our mouths, and dumbly
part;
Thus give mine, and thus take thy hearth
They kiss. ]
| "Give me mine own again; 'twere no good part
To take on nue. 10 keep, and kill thy heart :"
Kiss again.
But we must pause in our contemplation
OF the kiss as recorded in the pages of Shake
speare. SO often and so prom nentlyhas the
great dramatist brought this tender most
Of caresses into the action OF his plays that
might fill the whole space allotted to this
article with quotations from his immortal
verse on this subject.