smus in England," wrote that man of wiles
to one Faustus, a poet; and then--"To touch upon one among many
delights, there are girls in this land divinely fair--soft, easy, and
more wooing than any of your Muses. Moreover, they have a custom which
cannot be too much honoured. Wheresoever you go a-visiting, the girls
all kiss you. With kisses you come in, with kisses depart; returning,
they kiss you again. Cometh one to you, the kisses fly between; doth she
go away, with kisses you are torn asunder; meeting in any place, kisses
abound. Go where you will, it is all kisses. Indeed, my Faustus, had you
but once tasted of lips so fragrant and so soft, not for a time only,
but to your end of days, you would choose to be a pilgrim in this
England." By no means the only stranger to be charmed by our welcoming
girls was Erasmus. Amilcare Passavente, of a darker blood, found such
kisses sweet: those of one at least he vowed to call his own. What he
made of them, what they of him, what other diverting matter appertains
to the kisser and the kissed, you shall understand who care to read.

Mary was her name in our Lord, Lovel that of her father in the flesh, a
respectable wharfinger of Bankside. Molly, Mawkin, Moll Lovel, "Long
Moll Lovel," and other things similar she was to her kinsfolk and
acquaintance, who had seen her handsome body outstrip her simple mind.
Good girl that she was, she carried her looks as easily as a packet of
groceries about the muddy ways of Wapping, went to church, went to
market, gossiped out the dusk at the garden gate, or on the old wharf,
after the 'prentices had gone, linked herself waist to waist with maiden
friends. Up river or down, she trafficked in a wherry, and took the
waterman's tender glances as part receipt for his hire. In a word, this
winsome, rosy creature, grown hardy in a kind soil, adventured herself
at ease among them that might have been her poets, adorers, or raveners,
nor thought to be cheapened by the liberty she employed. She was rather
shy with strangers, conscious of her height, awkward under observation,
blushing to know she blushed; but simple as the day, pleased with
flattery, pleased with other trifles,--trinkets, snatched kisses, notes
slipped into the prayer-book, etc. She told her mother everything before
she went to bed, sat on her father's knee when she was too old and much
too tall for it, dreamed of lovers, hid trembling when they came, had
palpitations, never told a fib