Meaning & Analysis
To 'kiss the post' means to arrive too late and find that what you wanted (such as a meal or opportunity) is gone, so you are left with nothing except the post (a physical object by the door or gate).
Insights
Missed Opportunity
The proverb symbolizes being too late to benefit from an opportunity, and thus receiving nothing for one's efforts but disappointment.
Consequence of Delay
It metaphorically serves as a warning about the consequences of tardiness or procrastination: if you are not timely, you are left empty-handed.
Historical Symbolism
Posts at the doors of halls or inns were familiar fixtures in early modern life. If one arrived after a meal was served, all that remained was the post itself—a mute witness to your lateness. The image powerfully illustrates public loss and social embarrassment.
Cultural Resonance
Related to phrases like 'to kiss the hare’s foot' or 'to dine with Duke Humphrey,' this proverb participates in a rich tradition of idioms for missing out, reflecting communal experiences of scarcity, lateness, or exclusion.
Psychological Insight
It underscores the disappointment and frustration of being excluded by lateness. The phrase wittily externalizes that failure, turning private embarrassment into a shared cultural joke.
Rhetorical Devices
Metonymy
Uses 'the post' as a stand-in for the whole situation of arriving too late, turning a mundane object into a symbol of lost chances.
Irony
There is an implicit irony in expecting a welcome or reward and finding only a post—a humorous reversal of expectations.
Ellipsis
The brevity and omission of the full story ('kiss the post [because you’re too late]') make the phrase punchy and memorable.
Transcription
Quotations
Troylus also hath lost On her moch loue and cost, And now must kys the post.
Thou lose [lose?] thy meat and kisse the post.
The poore the poste may kis.
But some that lost, their blood in countries right May kisse the post.
Make haste thou art best, for feare thou kiss the post.
Vnlesse I ride post, I kisse the post.
Looking as hungrilie as if he had kist the post.
As we say when one comes late that all haue dined or supped, to kisse the Hares foote, or else to kisse the post.
*Sero venisti.
That such as come late must kisse the post.
You must kiss the post, or hares foote.
Cross References
Related Proverbs
Original Scan
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