Have a good time, Bjarne. And post some pictures if you can.
Joan
At 11:37 AM 2/20/2006, you wrote:
Thanks for all your responses to my questions. It has ben
interresting reading for me.
I am preparing myself in manners because i am going to visit
Mauritia and Kim Kirchner in Germany at next weekend. They are
having a costume party weekend, and i have butterflies in my belly
because i look so much forwards to this.
Thanks all
Bjarne
----- Original Message ----- From: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: "Historical Costume" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Monday, February 20, 2006 5:00 PM
Subject: Re: FW: [h-cost] modes and manners
It might be useful to Bjarne to know that in 1775 in England, at
least, hand-kissing was not necessarily literal. Witness this
dialogue from Richard Brinsley Sheridan's "The Rivals." Bob Acres,
a country squire eager to appear sophisticated during a visit to
Bath, is meeting with his acquaintance Sir Lucius O'Trigger, a
landed Irish gentleman of old-fashioned manners:
Enter Sir Lucius.
SIR LUCIUS: Mr. Acres, I am delighted to embrace you.
ACRES: My dear Sir Lucius, I kiss your hands.
It is probable that no embracing or hand-kissing actually takes
place, but that these are merely verbal expressions of good-will.
(Indeed, the moment on stage is much more delicious if the two
gentlemen making these statements are standing half a room apart!)
So between a gentleman and a lady in 1775 I would imagine (on this
theatrical basis) that hand-kissing would be essentially a courtly
gesture rather than necessarily a lip-to-flesh experience, and
bowing low over the lady's hand would do.
--Ruth Anne Baumgartner
scholar gypsy and amateur costumer
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