Male hand being kissed, etc...
Posted by The Mysterious H.C. on March 12, 1998 at 00:42:00:
In response to Kissing a Lady's hand, written by May on March 11, 1998 at 20:52:48
] When is it proper for a gentleman to kiss the hand of an unmarried woman? Wickham had kissed Lizzy's hand in the "let us not quarrel about the past" scene. It this appropriate now that he is her brother? Are all relatives allowed to do this?
Two points:
- A lady would have been wearing gloves at any formal or semi-formal social event, so that there wouldn't be any question of lips touching skin.
- There's an example of a male hand being kissed, namely Sir Thomas Bertram's, by Fanny Price, in Mansfield Park
To see all the cases where Jane Austen uses "kiss" in the novels, click on this link: http://www.pemberley.com/bin/uncgi/uncgi.cgi/sixnovls.sh?_string=kiss&type=fgrep&contextlin=1&showchapt=on
(I could place all of them except the one in Chapter 31 of S&S, which turns out to be Colonel Brandon kissing Elinor's hand.)
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