None the less, the friendly kiss held its ground right through the seventeenth and even a part of the eighteenth century. Molière’s marquesses kiss each other whenever they meet; for instance, in the famous eleventh scene in _Les Précieuses ridicules_, when Mascarille and Jodelet fall into each other’s arms with many warm kisses. In _Le Misanthrope_ Alceste reproaches Philinte with embracing and kissing every one, and “when I ask you who it is, you scarcely know his name!” Vous chargez la fureur de vos embrassements; Et quand je vous demande après, quel est cet homme, À peine pouvez-vous dire comme il se nomme. La Bruyère has, time after time, satirised this foolish custom, which, especially at Court, seems to have assumed colossal dimensions; but even in middle-class circles etiquette required men to salute ladies with a kiss. In an old comedy entitled _Le Gentilhomme guespin_ a father presents his son, who is extraordinarily awkward and clumsy. The latter does not know how he ought to behave to the ladies of the house, so the father in despair gives him a dig in the ribs, and whispers in his ear: “He’s bashful. Kiss the lady. One always greets a lady with a kiss.” ... Il est honteux. Là, baisez donc Madame; C’est toujours en baisant qu’on salue une femme, Molière has made use of this scene in _Le Malade imaginaire_, where Thomas Diafoirus pedantically asks when he is introduced to Angélique: _Baiserai-je?_ (Am I to kiss?). In England we come across pretty nearly the same state of things. Erasmus of Rotterdam, in one of his _Epistolæ familiares_, expresses his great satisfaction with English customs: “When you arrive every one kisses you; at your departure they bid you good-bye and kiss you; you come back, then fresh kisses. You are kissed when you meet any one, and so, too, when you separate. Wheresoever you go everything is filled with kisses, and if you have only once tasted how delicate these kisses are, and the deliciousness of their savour, you would want, my dear Faustus, to be banished to England for time and eternity.” In another passage, where Erasmus is speaking of the state of the inns in England, which he mentions in terms of unqualified praise, he winds up as follows: “Everywhere at the inns one meets with pretty, smiling girls: they come and ask for one’s soiled clothes; they wash them and soon bring them back again. When the travellers are about to resume their journey these girls kiss them, and take as affectionate a farewell of them as if the latter were their brothers or near relations.” And Holberg in his letter writes: “In England it is considered uncourteous to enter a house without saluting one’s hostess with a kiss.”