Mini-Update (Week of September 21)

September 23 - How did platonic kissing get stopped in its tracks? Will the swine flu give it the kiss of death? Once a common part of greetings, it's now relegated to scenes from the French cinema and high-fashion caricature. Along with other varieties, "la bise," or cheek-to-cheek kissing, survives for the moment, despite recent warnings. A correspondent to Hone muses on this "obsolete custom," as it was once practiced in England:

It appears that, under the Tudor reigns, 'the women of this country took great offence if they were not saluted in the form of kissing.' [...] The 'embrace' was not left off, even between men, in the days of James I.; for the Spanish ambassador, being indisposed, it appears 'James visited him, and gave him a hearty embrace in bed.'

The correspondent has it on good authority that, in France, a friend or relation of any gender would resent not being greeted with a friendly kiss. So why did the custom die out in England?

The change of religion, from catholic to protestant, no doubt produced a great change in our national manners and habits, which our neighbors, still adhering to the old religion, have retained.

Before the Reformation, he surmises, "a very striking resemblance" would have been found between French and English habits, spectacles and pastimes. [YB]

Image from Current.com