Page:The Kiss and its History.djvu/56

42 but more than three are certainly required for that purpose:

sings Aarestrup, but Catullus outbids him, however, in one of his songs to Lesbia:

As we see, Catullus' love has no trifling start over Aarestrup's, and so a later poet seems likewise to think that even his demands are quite ridiculously small. "Nay," says Joachim du Bellay to his Columbelle, "give me as many kisses as there are flowers on the mead, seeds on the field, and grapes in the vineyards, and so that you shall not deem me ungrateful, I will immediately give you as many again."

Du Bellay, moreover, bitterly upbraids the poet of Verona for asking for so few kisses that they can, when taken together, be counted: