THE KISS AND ITS HISTORY THE KISS And its History BY DR CHRISTOPHER NYROP _Professor of Romance Philology at the University of Copenhagen_ TRANSLATED BY WILLIAM FREDERICK HARVEY _M.A., Hertford College, Oxford; Barrister-at-Law of the Inner Temple; Lecturer in English at the University of Lund (Sweden); sometime Professor of English Literature at the University of Malta_ LONDON SANDS & CO. 12 BURLEIGH STREET, STRAND 1901 TO WALTER BENSON, Esquire I DEDICATE MY MODEST PART IN THIS BOOK IN TOKEN OF A FRIENDSHIP WHICH HAS GROWN STAUNCHER WITH THE GROWTH OF YEARS ἦ μεγάλα χάρις Δώρῳ ξὐν όλίγῳ· πάντα δἐ τιμᾶντα τἀ πἀρ ϕίλων THEOCRITUS, _Idyl_ xxviii., 24, 25. “Surely great grace goes with a little gift, and all the offerings of friends are precious.” Je célèbre des jeux paisibles, Qu’en vain on semble mépriser, Les vrais biens des âmes sensibles, Les doux mystères du baiser. DORAT. To gentle sports due praise I render, At which some wits have vainly sneered: The true delight of spirits tender, The kiss’s mysteries endeared. W. F. H. TRANSLATOR’S PREFACE The following treatise, which is the work of a Romance philologist of high European reputation, has not only gone through two editions in Denmark, but has also been translated into German, Swedish, and Russian. The popularity which this learned and at the same time charming little book rapidly acquired abroad, and the favourable criticisms passed on it by Continental scholars, have encouraged me to present it to my fellow-countrymen in an English dress. With regard to the numerous poetical quotations that form so striking a feature of this book, those which I have translated myself may be distinguished from such as I have borrowed from standard versions by the appended initials, W. F. H. INNER TEMPLE, LONDON, _2nd August 1901_. AUTHOR’S PREFACE Wenn ich nur selber wüsste, Was mir in die Seele zischt! Die Worte und die Küsse Sind wunderbar vermischt. Oh, could I but decipher What ’tis that fills my mind. The words are with the kisses So wond’rously combined. HEINE.