I've been reading Hamlet and noted a peculiar passage in which he comments that he kissed a male friend on the lips quote often.
I know kissing on cheeks as a platonic greeting has not and is not uncommon in Europe, but the lips?
The only mouth-kiss tradition I am familiar with (and could find) is the "Socialist Fraternal Kiss." However, this doesn't seem like it fits, since it's a communist country tradition and a (relatively) new one (in the scheme of world history, considering Hamlet was set somewhere around the 1400s).
I'd really appreciate some help here! I can't seem to find analysis of this scene OR any mention of a historical precedent.
I'm new to this sub so please go easy on me, I've heard that it's notoriously harsh on the quality of questions.
Same sex kissing was not unheard of in late Elizabethan/early Jacobean England. Outside of questions of King James' sexuality, there are reports of him kissing other men on the lips in greeting, or as part of an embrace. Michael Young in his King James and the History of Homosexuality discusses the reports of James kissing his favorite, George Villiers. It's difficult to tell from the source material if people were disgusted/upset about James and George kissing, or if they disliked Villiers personally and were indifferent to the kissing.
I would highly recommend checking out Bray, Homosexuality in Renaissance England as he covers a lot of territory explaining the place of same sex affection in the time period.