THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 LOS ANGELES
 
 THE 
 
 LILY AMONG THORNS 
 
 A STUDY OF THE BIBLICAL DRAMA 
 
 ENTITLED 
 
 THE SONG OF SONGS 
 
 BY 
 
 WILLIAM ELLIOT GRIFFIS, D. D. 
 
 PASTOR OF THE SHAWMUT CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH, BOSTON, MASS. 
 AND AUTHOR OF " THE MIKADO's EMPIRE " 
 
 BOSTON AND NEW YORK 
 HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY 
 
 1890
 
 Copyright, i88g, 
 By WILLIAM ELLIOT GRIFFIS. 
 
 All rights reserved. 
 
 The Riverside Press, Cambridge, Mass., U. S. A. 
 Electrotyped and Printed by H. O. Houghton & Company.
 
 l4SS 
 
 J 
 
 To 
 
 KATHARINE LYRA 
 
 MAIDEN BELOVED 
 WIFE CHERISHED 
 MOTHER HONORED 
 
 (SLW .§>tub|0 
 
 OF A FAIR PAGE IN OUR HEAVENLY FATHER'S BOOK, 
 
 COMPLETED IN JUNE, THE MONTH OF 
 
 VISION, RING, AND ALTAR 
 
 /S LOVINGLY DEDICATED 

 
 PREFACE. 
 
 The fruits of a century of critical study of He- 
 brew are now within reach of all. Three gener- 
 ations of reverent students of text, rather than of 
 tradition, have revealed the Bible as literature. 
 The remarkable agreement in theory and result 
 reached, and the total wealth of old truths re-dis- 
 covered, are equally causes of gratitude. The anal- 
 ogy in the natural world has been the collateral 
 progress in geology and the location of earth's un- 
 used treasures in old and new lands. As the miner 
 is first to profit by the studies of the geologist, so 
 the first to utilize the researches of orientalists 
 should be ministers who are pastors and teachers 
 of the Word of God. 
 
 No book of the Bible has been so inaccessible 
 to the ordinary reader, none so walled about, 
 matted over, and hidden by tradition, as the Song 
 of Songs. This Thornrose castle of the Hebrew 
 world has stood for centuries like some battle- 
 mented tower mantled with rank growths of ivy 
 and all wild vines. Its external form has prompted 
 to innumerable conjectures as to what was within. 
 
 The great Hebraists of our century, like the 
 prince in Teutonic storj', have not contented them- 
 selves with beholding the outside. Penetrating
 
 VI PREFACE. 
 
 within, they have been charmed with a beauty be- 
 fore unsuspected. Instead of the garish prismatics 
 shed by allegories, they have enjoyed in white light 
 a loveliness that is ancient, intrinsic, and real. 
 They read in the Song of Songs a stainlessly 
 chaste love-poem, the epic of a woman's purity, a 
 satire on polygamy, lofty ethical teachings, and a 
 spiritual doctrine taught in dramatic form. They 
 find the complement to the other writings of the 
 Jehovah-religion, which needs no artificial and far- 
 fetched system of interpretation ; for good doctrine 
 needs no allegory. 
 
 In the company of such explorers of Israel's his- 
 tory and Bible truth as Herder, Eichhorn, Umbreit, 
 Ewald, Ginsburg, Godet, Cheyne, Farrar, Smith, 
 Briggs, and Daland, and indeed the majority of 
 modern scholars, no pastor of a Christian church 
 need be ashamed to stand. Yet, until the appear- 
 ance of the Revised Version of 1884, which de- 
 capitated the chapters in the English version of 
 their impertinent headings, and showed the poetic 
 and dramatic structure of the Song of Songs, the 
 preacher who discarded allegory seemed audacious, 
 if not heretical. The version of 1884 removes 
 danger and direful novelty, and helps grandly the 
 student, expositor, and ordinary reader. 
 
 The study of this book having been very helpful 
 to my own soul, I herein endeavor to impart freely 
 the blessing enjoyed. I have repressed most of 
 the homiletical matter used in the two courses of 
 sermons, preached in Schenectady (1884) and Bos-
 
 PREFACE. Vll 
 
 ton (1889), and have been content to furnish what 
 is, in the main, a literary study of this, probably, 
 the most perfect poem in any language. The 
 thronging illustrations which have come to me 
 from biblical, far- oriental, and other literature 
 have been but sparingly used, in order that the 
 work might be as modest in size as it is slender in 
 scholarship. 
 
 It is no work of learning or research which is 
 here submitted to cold type, but only the studies of 
 one who enjoys the Bible as literature as well as 
 revelation. The key to this particular treasure- 
 chamber of Holy Scripture has been furnished me 
 by the great Hebraists. An earnest study of De- 
 litzsch completed my emancipation from the alle- 
 gorical theory. Fascinated by the riches before me, 
 I cast away the commentaries, and gave the spare 
 hours of my days and nights to the original text 
 and the ancient versions. These, to the sympa- 
 thetic student, outweigh in value the mountains of 
 commentary built upon them. 
 
 It remains to speak gratefully of all those teach- 
 ers, friends, and associates who have helped me to 
 enjoy and appreciate the riches of the Old Testa- 
 ment. First in honor, I name my instructors at 
 New Brunswick, N. J. : the venerable ex-President 
 of Rutgers College, Rev. William H. Campbell, 
 D. D., LL. D., from whom I learned the rudiments 
 of critical biblical study ; and the Rev. John De 
 Witt, D. D., professor of Hebrew at New Bruns- 
 wick, N. J., whose " Praise Songs of Israel " is, in
 
 Viii PREFACE. 
 
 my view, the best rendering into the English lan- 
 guage of the Psalms. To my former parishioner, 
 the late Tayler Lewis, LL. D., whose writings are 
 ever stimulating and helpful ; to Professor Charles 
 A. Briggs, D. D., of Union Theological Seminary, 
 whose lectures on Hebrew Literature so enriched 
 my mind and heart ; to Rev. William C. Daland, 
 a fellow-alumnus of Union Seminary, whose valu- 
 able monograph on the Song of Songs (Leonards- 
 villa, N. Y., 1888) is so full of fine scholarship and 
 rich suggestion ; to Rev. S. M. Jackson, editor of 
 the " Concise Dictionary of Religious Knowledge," 
 who kept me informed as to the latest bibliography 
 of the subject ; and to Messrs. M. F. Dickinson, 
 Jr., Charles H. Allen, and S. T. Snow, of Boston, 
 for special interest in the publication of this little 
 book, I return my sincere and hearty thanks. In 
 the two congregations I have had the honor to 
 serve nave been many men and women who have 
 been heartily appreciative of every endeavor of 
 their pastor to unfold to them the riches of the 
 Bible ; their kind words I gratefully remember. 
 
 Above all, thanks to the Heavenly Father for 
 the health and strength enjoyed during the delight- 
 ful study of the fair page of inspiration, of which 
 this little book is an unworthy exposition. 
 
 In His Name, it is sent forth. 
 
 W. E. G. 
 
 Saturday Evening, 
 November 2, i88g.
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 -•- 
 
 PART I. 
 
 History and Criticism. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 Theory and Interpretation ii 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 Life and Times of King Solomon 27 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 Historic Characters in the Poem 46 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 Poetic Background of the Canticle 64 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 Dramatic Structure of the Song of Songs . . 83 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 History of the Book itself 106 
 
 PART II. 
 The Text in the Revised Version . . . .129
 
 X I CONTENTS. 
 
 PART III. 
 Studies and Comments. 
 
 Act I., Scene I. The Vineyard Girl in the 
 
 King's Harem. Chapter I. i-8 152 
 
 Act I., Scene II. The Lily among Thorns. Chap- 
 ter I. 8-II 7 162 
 
 Act II., Scene I. The Dove in the Cleft of 
 
 the Rocks. Chapter II. 8-17 174 
 
 Act II., Scene II. In Dream-Land. Chapter 
 
 III. i-s 182 
 
 Act III., Scene I. The Royal Procession. Ch.a.p- 
 
 TER III. 6-11 190 
 
 Act III., Scene II. Loye-Making in the Pal.'vce. 
 
 Ch.\pter IV. 1-5, 7 199 
 
 Act III., Scene III. The Garden of Spices. 
 
 Chapter IV. 8-V. i 208 
 
 Act III., Scene IV. The Waking Heart. Chap- 
 ter V. 2-S 216 
 
 Act IV., Scene I. The Beloved and his Ch.\rms. 
 
 Chaptf.r V. 9-VI. 3 223 
 
 Act IV., Scene II. Compared with Princesses. 
 
 Chapter VI. 4-10 229 
 
 Act IV., Scene III. The Dance of M.\hanaim 
 
 Chapter VII. 1-7 236 
 
 Act IV., Scene IV. The Impregnable Fortress. 
 
 Chapter VII. 8-VIII. 4 248 
 
 Act v.. Scene I. The Union of the Lo\t:rs. 
 
 Chapter VIII. 5-7 256 
 
 Act v., Scene H. The Virgin Fortress .\nd the 
 
 Vineyards. Chapter VIII. 8-14 264
 
 THE LILY AMONG THORNS. 
 PART I. 
 
 HISTORY AND CRITICISM. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 THEORY AND INTERPRETATION. 
 
 " No man also having drunk old wine, 
 straightway desireth new, for he saith, The 
 old is better." In the study of the master- 
 pieces of art, in painting, poetry, and architec- 
 ture, the old work of master hands seems to 
 the purged eye of the student more august 
 and lovely than the more recent productions 
 which imitate or cover up the old. The works 
 of the golden age are better than the weaker 
 or more garish fabrics of debased taste. Even 
 when the earlier poem, picture, statue, or fa- 
 cade seems simple, nay plain, it may have to 
 the eye of the critic a richer beauty than the 
 more florid work of later days when taste was 
 less severe, or originality had run out. When,
 
 12 HISTORY AND CRITICISM. 
 
 under a cheap oil painting of a local artist of 
 untrained powers, one discovers on the scraped 
 canvas a head of the virgin by Raphael or 
 Correggio, or back of the diluted lines of a 
 plagiarist one recalls the simpler, grander 
 verse of Milton or Herrick, or from a white- 
 washed renovation there is revealed a superb 
 carving, who does not prefer the original to its 
 copy ? 
 
 If underneath some monkish or popish le- 
 gend written on parchment there be brought to 
 resurrection a Codex of St. Matthew or a for- 
 gotten fragment of the New Testament, who 
 would not have rather the simple Scripture 
 than all the lying lives of the saints, or the 
 priests' rubbish about winking virgins or dried 
 blood turning to liquid again ? In art, in ar- 
 chitecture, in religion, give us the original, the 
 strong, the best, the true. 
 
 If you wish a photograph to flatter your 
 vanity, to conceal your age, to compete with 
 actresses and professional beauties, then bid 
 the artist soften the lines, erase all the wrin- 
 kles, touch up and tone down the negative, un- 
 til the printed picture shall be a fancy portrait 
 of nobody in particular, and of yourself only 
 in a shadowy sense. But do you want truth, 
 character, life, manliness, a face on which his- 
 tory and experience are graven ? Then let the
 
 THEORY AND INTERPRETATION. 1 3 
 
 photograph be but slightly touched. As Oliver 
 Cromwell did, put the wart in, and let the 
 rugged lines remain. Fleeting taste or tem- 
 porary fashion changes the face, the figure, 
 the dress. So let it be in dry goods, groceries, 
 drugs, and show-case pictures ; but from truth, 
 especially truth in the Word of God, keep off 
 the improver's touches from the negative. 
 Away with dye and wigs and crimps from the 
 hair, paint from the cheek, patches from the 
 face, pads and shams from the limbs, and let 
 us see God's daughter. Truth, as she is, beau- 
 tiful in her simplicity, and "when unadorned, 
 adorned the most." The perfectly beautiful 
 needs no adorning. 
 
 In such a spirit, let us study that portion of 
 our Heavenly Father's book which treats of 
 human love, " Solomon's Song," so-called, or, 
 as its own title is, "The Song of Songs." We 
 believe in the ancient, and not the modern 
 interpretation of it, and shall study it as an 
 untouched picture, as an ancient work. Peo- 
 ple have made out of it a stumbling-block, 
 have been scandalized even at its being in the 
 Holy Bible. Some read it as bare prose, as 
 though it were a newspaper column. Others 
 take it in fragments, without beginning, devel- 
 opment, or end, and all as literally as if it were 
 a grocer's bill or a landlord's receipt. Others
 
 14 HISTORY AND CRITICISM. 
 
 again make it, even to every word and detail, 
 an allegory of Christ and the church ; and, 
 following the chapter headings of the unre- 
 vised version, read into it a thousand ideas 
 and conceits foreign to the mind of the writer ; 
 while some kindle the flames of lust with fire 
 sent down from heaven ! 
 
 Christian people look askance at this book, 
 because as the commentator, Matthew Henry, 
 intimates, with more or less truth, it is so 
 unlike the other books in the Old or New Tes- 
 tament ; the name of God is not found in it ; 
 it is never quoted by Christ or the apostles ; 
 we do not find in it any expressions of natural 
 religion or pious devotion ; nor is there in it 
 any vision, miracle, or mark of immediate in- 
 spiration ; and, finally, it is a flower from 
 which those with carnal minds and corrupt 
 affections are likely to extract poison. 
 
 Some of the statements which we have 
 condensed are true, some not. The Song of 
 Songs is not, indeed, spoken of nor quoted in 
 the New Testament, but it is full of religion, 
 exalted sentiment, chaste and pure ideas. The 
 poem is suffused with ethical teaching of the 
 best kind, enforcing an example for us to fol- 
 low. To crown all, the name of God is in it, 
 and linked to the master passion which is the 
 burden of the song. We propose to extract
 
 THEORY AND INTERPRETATION. 1 5 
 
 honey and not poison from this Shemitic 
 flower. This book should be expounded by- 
 Christian ministers in order to vindicate its 
 pure character, and in expository discourse to 
 unfold " the whole counsel of God " as com- 
 prised in the Bible, which enshrines the Word 
 of God to man, and which is not to be neg- 
 lected in any part. 
 
 When the science of biblical criticism was 
 in its infancy, and the large mass of unchal- 
 lenged tradition inherited from the rabbis 
 still burdened the Christian church, such 
 statements as those of Matthew Henry could 
 be written and accepted ; and this, notwith- 
 standing such assertions bring as much odium 
 upon the Bible as the sneers of infidels and 
 the destructive criticisms of Renan, who, with 
 all his learning, is the chief vulgarizer of holy 
 things. 
 
 As matter of fact, The Song of Songs is 
 the completion, the crowning work of inspired 
 Hebrew wisdom. We find in the centre of 
 the English Old Testament, the part usually 
 called the Poetical, which is the third of the 
 four great divisions of Law, History, Poetry, 
 and Prophecy, a collection of five books which 
 may be called the Code of Wisdom. These 
 five books. Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, 
 and the Song of Songs, do not treat of events.
 
 1 6 HISTORY AND CRITICISM. 
 
 laws, chronicles, and regulations, of concrete 
 history or of prophecy, but of the conduct of 
 life. Their purpose is didactic and stimulating 
 to all who would "set righteousness in the 
 earth." They are characterized by the word 
 chokma, meaning wisdom. They have the 
 form of dialogue, drama, lyrics, apothegms, 
 soliloquy and cantata, or drama. They are 
 nearest to our idea of pure literature, the liter- 
 ature of power, rather than the literature of 
 knowledge. With this group of poetical books 
 we naturally associate Ruth and Lamentations, 
 for these also treat of the right way to live, as 
 well as to believe and worship. 
 
 The authors of the book of Job would teach 
 us how "to suffer and be strong;" the Psalm- 
 ists how to pray and praise ; the Proverbists, 
 inculcating wisdom and discipline, how, under 
 all circumstances, to do the square thing, ac- 
 cording to the plumb line of the eternities ; the 
 Preacher how to enjoy aright the good things 
 of God ; while the poet of the Canticle shows 
 us how to love. 
 
 Surely this divine art is a most vital matter. 
 Since God is love, we are not to love apart 
 from Him, nor allow our affections to twine 
 hopelessly around what will separate us from 
 Him. We are even in our earthly loves to 
 remain unshakably loyal to our God. Surely
 
 THEORY AND INTERPRETATION. 1/ 
 
 in our Heavenly Father's Book may we not, 
 on some pages, learn the supreme art of true 
 and pure love ? 
 
 It is our belief that we may thus learn from 
 one who, amid all that is most tempting to a 
 woman, remains at once immutably faithful 
 to Jehovah and to the man to whom she 
 plighted her troth in humble life. Our model 
 and exemplar is this heroine in the Song of 
 Songs. As Job was tried in the things most 
 tempting to the mind of man and learned to 
 suffer nobly, as Joseph — " the pure moon of 
 Canaan," as the Persians call him — was 
 tempted as to the flesh, and resisting gladly 
 endured unjust imprisonment, so the Shula- 
 mite, "faithful found among the faithless," 
 came out unscathed from those allurements 
 which offered most to a young girl. In one 
 sense, Joseph, Job, and the Shulamite were 
 types of Him who loved to contrast the lily 
 and Solomon, and who in the desert foiled the 
 tempter who assaulted the flesh, the intellect, 
 and the soul of the Son of Man in vain. 
 
 We read in this book the handwriting of 
 God affixing his signature of reprobation upon 
 the sins of Solomon, and upon all human lust. 
 We behold in the very heart of the Bible a 
 pure shrine of affection on which God has set 
 his own seal and name.
 
 1 8 HISTORY AND CRITICISM. 
 
 People are not to blame if they read the 
 book wrongly, when it has never been ex- 
 plained to them. Once understood properly, 
 all objections against it fall to the ground. If 
 interpreted according to the popular idea, 
 that the Canticle was written by Solomon, and 
 that in it he represents himself as a lover and 
 bridegroom, then the book is an indorsement 
 of polygamy, or at least does not rebuke it. 
 Whereas we hold that the Canticle is an im- 
 plicit condemnation of the polygamous old 
 king, and a psean in praise of virtue and the 
 love of one man to one woman. 
 
 We believe of this book what is said of all 
 the Bible : " Every scripture inspired of God 
 is also profitable for teaching, for reproof, for 
 correction, for instruction which is in right- 
 eousness : that the man of God may be com- 
 plete, furnished completely unto every good 
 work." 
 
 Perhaps we may find that this exquisite 
 love-poem furnishes us to one particular good 
 work such as no other book in the Bible does. 
 The right understanding of it makes the Old 
 Testament complete. The book of Proverbs 
 gives us in precept the image of " a perfect 
 woman nobly planned," the Song of Songs 
 gives her in example. This is the Bible 
 method, to unite history and philosophy.
 
 THEORY AND INTERPRETATION. 1 9 
 
 The theory of interpretation upon which we 
 proceed, and which we hold is the ancient one, 
 is that the Canticle is a cantata or series of 
 songs making a dramatic unity, celebrating 
 the triumph of virtue over temptation, and 
 illustrating the contrast between virtuous and 
 sensual love, praising the former and stigma- 
 tizing the latter. With the almost overwhelm- 
 ing majority of modern critical scholars, we 
 think that Solomon is not the author of it, but 
 that it was composed after his death, probably 
 by an Ephraimite or northern poet who de- 
 scribes, in character sketches, the ladies of 
 the royal harem in Jerusalem, and a beautiful 
 maiden from the North, a simple, rustic girl 
 from the vineyards, a Shulamite. The poem 
 contrasts the pure simplicity of Galilean coun- 
 try life with the corrupt splendor of the court 
 of Solomon. 
 
 The king tries to win the maiden's love, and 
 to place her in his harem, with the other 
 court ladies or, as they are called, " daughters 
 of Jerusalem." 
 
 The chief speakers in this cantata are Sol- 
 omon, the Shulamite, her "beloved" {dod) 
 who is a shepherd, and the court ladies. The 
 Shulamite is betrothed to a young mountain- 
 eer of her country, and remains faithful to him 
 while away from her home. Notwithstanding
 
 20 HISTORY AND CRITICISM. 
 
 all the blandishments of King Solomon, the 
 glittering allurements of palace, city, and 
 court life, and of wealth, fame, and dazzling 
 glory, even the offer of queenship, she re- 
 mains unflinchingly loyal to her beloved. 
 Twenty-five times is he addressed or referred 
 to in the poem. 
 
 The court ladies second Solomon's efforts, 
 either by banter or jeers ; but this country 
 lass, this wild flower of Sharon, this lily among 
 thorns, ever remembers her lover. She falls 
 into reminiscence, longing, and home - sick- 
 ness, and though polite and obedient to royal 
 behests, chngs to her betrothed faithfully, 
 remaining chaste, pure, undazzled and un- 
 bought, crying out in every temptation, " my 
 beloved is mine, and I am his," and in every 
 victory, " I adjure you, O daughters of Jeru- 
 salem, by the roes and by the hinds of the 
 field, that ye stir not up nor awaken love 
 {ahabah), until it please." That love must rise 
 spontaneously, and be true, is the supreme 
 lesson of this divinely inspired drama. 
 
 Finally, at the end of the long trial, having 
 won the victory, she cries out in exultant 
 song, " Love {ahabah) is as strong as death, 
 its intensest passion unyielding as Sheol, the 
 coals thereof are as outflashing fire, a light- 
 ning of the Eternal. Many waters cannot
 
 THEORY AND INTERPRETATION. 21 
 
 quench love {ahabah) nor the floods drown it, 
 and if a man [Solomon] were to give all the 
 substance of his house for my love, it would 
 utterly be contemned." 
 
 With this radiant apex of victory to virtue, 
 and a crown to constancy, the nature of the 
 eternal romance of true love is set forth, its 
 seat and birthplace in the bosom of God, who 
 ordains one man to love one woman in holy 
 wedlock, and abhors lust, polygamy, and all 
 unfaithfulness. 
 
 This interpretation, founded not on uncer- 
 tain tradition, and on far-fetched allegory 
 which the Bible gives no hint of, is based on 
 the readuig and scrutiny of the language of 
 the book itself, the background of history as 
 given in the Bible, and the study of the great 
 Hebraists of this, the greatest century of 
 Shemitic learning. 
 
 As the ancient painting of the master- 
 artist found on the wall under the whitewash, 
 or the true scripture text beneath a palimp- 
 sest, or a genuine antique fragment rather 
 than a tinkered classic statue, or an un- 
 touched photograph instead of a smoothed- 
 off negative from which all individuality has 
 been eliminated, are preferred to their copies, 
 so we prefer the simple narrative of this an- 
 cient poem, without the allegories discovered
 
 22 HISTORY AND CRITICISM. 
 
 in it in later times. We believe the literal 
 interpretation, simpler, truer, more biblical 
 and more helpful for this life of ours. There 
 is not a more chastely moral book in the whole 
 Bible than this Song of Songs, nor one whose 
 tone and example are more befitting our day 
 and country, nor one that sweeps with more 
 bracing atmosphere, or searches with more 
 purifying gales the plague spots and malaria 
 in our own social life. The purest maiden 
 may read it without danger to mind or heart, 
 for it is as pure as guileless maidenhood itself. 
 To the heavenly simplicity of its teachings, 
 and to its detailed pictures, its music, and 
 scenery and poetry, let us hie in company, 
 thankful to God for so beautiful and inspired 
 a poem. We believe it speaks to us with the 
 sanction of inspiration. 
 
 Some may not accept the interpretation 
 herein set forth by modern scholars because 
 they deem it too commonplace for Holy Scrip- 
 ture. Others will prefer the mediaeval view 
 because it is somewhat old, albeit there is not 
 a scintilla of Bible proof, or even evidence in 
 its behalf. Others will judge that we have 
 degraded Solomon, and spoken too lightly of 
 one who in certain points was a type of Christ, 
 an inspired writer, who according to late Jew- 
 ish tradition was the author of certain books
 
 THEORY AND INTERPRETATION. 23 
 
 of the Bible, and who was a wise, dignified, 
 and learned judge, law-giver, and king. To 
 save his reputation, many will prefer to read 
 into Canticles the fanciful notions of the Tal- 
 mudists and writers of the Apocrypha. Oth- 
 ers prefer to shun or prohibit the book as 
 something dangerous for young people, and at 
 the best a scandalous and suspicious book, 
 that is found among the Holy Scriptures, very 
 much as Saul was discovered among the 
 prophets, or Satan among the sons of God. 
 Some orthodox Christians, who hold the the- 
 ory of interpretation not taught in the Bible, 
 but thought necessary and God -honoring, 
 would, if they could, keep " Solomon's Song " 
 under lock and key, or surround it with the 
 barbed wire of prohibition until adult age be 
 reached. This was the course advised by the 
 rabbis, who advised young men not to read it 
 until thirty years of age. Yet even the good 
 people who deprecate its perusal by the 
 young must remember that the rabbis forbade 
 it to immature readers, not because of any 
 supposable harm to their morals, but rather 
 lest they should not understand it correctly ; 
 i. e., according to their particular and tempo- 
 rary orthodoxy. 
 
 It is remarkable, also, that the Turks at 
 Constantinople, whose custom-house is under
 
 24 HISTORY AND CRITICISM. 
 
 the shadow of the sultan's harem, refused to 
 admit certain books imported by the Amer- 
 ican Tract Society. Why ? Because these 
 books from Christian America — Christian 
 except in Utah — contained criticisms upon 
 Solomon, whose polygamous example the Mo- 
 hammedans as well as our Mormons follow to 
 this day. This the Turks did, notwithstanding 
 there is no trace of justification in the Old 
 Testament of the Mohammedan treatment of 
 woman. It might be well for Christians, too 
 anxious to save Solomon's reputation, not to 
 follow the example of the Turks. 
 
 We appeal from Solomon the sensualist to 
 Solomon the pure ; from the king with his 
 harem of a thousand women to the young 
 prince at Shechem praying for divine wisdom, 
 or as the leader of Israel in rapt communion 
 with God at the dedication of the temple ; 
 from the gray - headed sinner who forgot 
 Jehovah to the wise man who in consecrated 
 and inspired manhood coined proverbs, and 
 possibly penned other small portions of Holy 
 Writ. It is not the Solomon of early life and 
 middle age, but only the blackslider and the 
 recreant voluptuary that we hold up to de- 
 served execration. 
 
 The action of Solomon in introducing prof- 
 ligacy and idolatry in Israel was as the open-
 
 THEORY AND INTERPRETATION. 2^ 
 
 ing of the floodgates of iniquity. From his 
 time, or immediately after his death, dates the 
 general introduction of the da7na or mounds 
 on wliich the worship of Astarte was cele- 
 brated. Henceforth the " high-places," or 
 Asherah, so often spoken of in the historical 
 books, became strongholds for the propagation 
 of a vile idolatry joined to sensualism. Hith- 
 erto idol-worship had been accidental and occa- 
 sional ; from Solomon's time until the Baby- 
 lonian captivity it became rampant and hostile. 
 It meant war to the death against the religion 
 of Jehovah. The prophets, sooner than the 
 people, discerned this truth, and with fiery 
 zeal for God strove to make the fact patent to 
 all. With more and more seductiveness of 
 manner, idolatry spread through the masses, 
 until in Elijah's time Israel was sunk low in- 
 deed. 
 
 For the state of things which we read of in 
 times not far distant from Solomon, and for 
 the crowds of "strange women," with the con- 
 sequent looseness of public morals, as revealed 
 in the book of Proverbs and in the prophetic 
 writings, Solomon, more than any other one 
 man in Hebrew history, is distinctly respon- 
 sible. 
 
 That the justness of the view and interpre- 
 tation of this book of the Bible as held by
 
 26 HISTORY AND CRITICISM. 
 
 the great modern Hebraists may be made ap- 
 parent, let us look at Solomon through the 
 perspective of history. We shall glance at 
 the development of the nation as sketched in 
 the writings of the Hebrew historians, and 
 from them learn what mark the third and last 
 sovereign of the united kingdom made. By a 
 study of the life and times of the grand mon- 
 arch, and of the characters, the artistic form, 
 and literary features of this great " lay of the 
 Hebrew troubadour," we may all the more 
 appreciate its exquisite beauty. Let us then 
 give attention to a few introductory chapters.
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 LIFE AND TIMES OF KING SOLOMON. 
 
 A THOUSAND years are but as yesterday in 
 the sight of God. A millennium and a moment 
 are alike to Him. He makes a covenant with 
 man, and though it takes ten centuries to fulfill 
 it, yet God is not slack nor forgetful concern- 
 ing his promises. For while He keeps man 
 waiting He educates him and advances the 
 race. 
 
 He called Abraham out of the Chaldees, 
 bidding him to leave home and set his face 
 westward. The father of the faithful never 
 owned the land promised him, but lived in 
 tents, an heir, not a possessor. Faith instead 
 of fee-simple was his reward. Yet when he 
 died he bequeathed, not an estate of broad 
 acres, with the empty name of a nobody and 
 an example of selfishness, but a deathless name 
 and a pattern of faith, which even to-day are 
 beacon lights of progress and aspiration. Abra- 
 ham is the model of character to three civili- 
 zatiorfs. 
 
 Neither Isaac nor Jacob ever possessed the
 
 28 HISTORY AND CRITICISM. 
 
 promised land, and with four hundred years of 
 captivity in Egypt, it seemed as though Jeho- 
 vah had forgotten his covenant. 
 
 Even after Moses' dehverance, and Joshua's 
 conquest, the divine measure of promise was 
 not fulfilled, for all around Israel were power- 
 ful enemies. It was not until nearly a thou- 
 sand years had flown, and David's victories had 
 been won, that the word of the Lord to Abra- 
 ham seemed to be accomplished in the reign of 
 his (David's) son Solomon ; then the sceptre of 
 the heirs of Abraham extended from Phoenicia 
 to Egypt, and from Palmyra to the Mediterra- 
 nean. 
 
 During all these centuries the Almighty was 
 educating his elect people, training the family 
 into a tribe, the tribe into a people, and the 
 people into a nation, with a land and a purpose. 
 
 No longer, from David's time on, was God's 
 covenant with one old man, nor with a family 
 or clan, nor with a body of slaves, nor a rabble 
 of freedmen, nor even with groups of petty 
 principalities, or turbulent clan-like republics ; 
 but the flower of his fulfilled promise was given 
 to a united, intelligent commonwealth, a union 
 of hearts and homes, with one language, one 
 blood, one experience, and one hope. Slowly, 
 painfully, but at last gloriously, the seed sown 
 in Abraham ripened in Solomon.
 
 LIFE AND TIMES OF KING SOLOMON. 29 
 
 It was under this third king that the Hebrew 
 monarchy rose to the zenith of national splen- 
 dor. Wealth and power in all departments of 
 human achievement were greater than at any 
 epoch in Hebrew history before. 
 
 Art, science, literature, inventions, com- 
 merce, and luxury flourished. Jerusalem, once 
 merely the Philistine fortress of Jebus, con- 
 taining a collection of mud huts or wooden 
 dwellin-gs, was made a splendid capital in brick 
 and marble, full of palaces and public edifices, 
 amid which the temple glistened in lordly ma- 
 jesty. 
 
 Cities were built in favored places, and towns 
 along the caravan routes over the desert. Sea- 
 ports were established, from which white- 
 winged ships flew to foreign coasts, westward 
 especially to Italy and Spain, and eastward to 
 India and to the Golden Chersonese. The 
 peculiar phrase, " the ends of the earth," was 
 coined in the Solomonic era. 
 
 The ships of the desert and the navy on the 
 deep brought back the wonders of the tropics 
 and the treasures of " the ends of the earth " to 
 enliven the monotony of Palestinian life. Ivory 
 for the palaces and throne, apes and peacocks 
 for the garden, with all kinds of oriental stuffs, 
 perfumes, and spices, were imported, — their 
 names standing in Tamil and Chinese on the
 
 30 HISTORY AND CRITICISM. 
 
 Hebrew page of the Bible. A striking addi- 
 tion to the fauna of the country, having mani- 
 fold and far-reaching influence, was the intro- 
 duction of the horse from Egypt. Great works 
 of engineering and fortification were planned, 
 the rocks were tunneled, and aqueducts built 
 above and below ground. 
 
 Some of the stones with the Phoenician ma- 
 son's marks in red paint, as fresh as if laid on 
 yesterday, and tablets erected by Solomon's 
 contractors and engineers, or carved on the 
 rock by his workmen, have been dug up of late. 
 Just as one of the first uses of lightning har- 
 nessed to the telegraph wire was to catch 
 thieves, so the tablets of this age or later have 
 served, among other uses, to stamp the bogus 
 Deuteronomy manuscripts of the antiquarian 
 peddler Shapira and his ilk as forgeries. 
 
 Very few relics of Hebrew antiquity before 
 the time of David, except sepulchres and wells, 
 have come down intact to us ; but the actual 
 work and material of Solomon's reservoirs, the 
 beveled stones of the temple-foundation, frag- 
 ments of piers and arches in Jerusalem, and the 
 ruins of Baalbcc, still remain as mute witnesses 
 of his glory. 
 
 It is first also in Solomon's time that we 
 see clearly the beautiful things of earth joined 
 to the service of religion, and worship en-
 
 LIFE AND TIMES OF KING SOLOMON. 3 1 
 
 shrined in fitting architecture. The pillars of 
 Jachin and Boaz, probably named after young 
 sons of Solomon, possibly imitating the pillars 
 of Hercules, with their strength of bronze and 
 their beauty of carved lily work, typify the 
 union of grace and simplicity, and teach us 
 that it becomes us to be winsome in our ways 
 as well as strict in our character, that it is 
 right to unite the manners of a gentleman to 
 the sturdiness of a Puritan, and that it is a 
 good thing to be civilized as well as to be 
 saved. 
 
 The development of political ability, defen- 
 sive science, and national prosperity also kept 
 pace with progress along other lines. Gov- 
 ernment was simplified by dividing functions 
 and centralizing power. The military art was 
 improved. Cavalry was added to the other 
 arms of the service. Twelve thousand horses 
 and riders furnished new sights to the Israel- 
 ites ; for in David's time, and before, the na- 
 tional dignitaries rode on mules. 
 
 Now the streets of Jerusalem were noisy 
 with the ceaseless clatter of hoofs and the roll 
 of three-horsed chariots. A procession of the 
 royal life-guards, composed of the flower of 
 David's veterans, as it moved through the 
 country accompanying the state-carriage, was 
 everywhere a sight for the people, and drew
 
 32 HISTORY AND CRITICISM. 
 
 out crowds to witness the superb spectacle. 
 As when the Prince of Wales entered Beirut 
 in Syria, a few years ago, the municipal of- 
 ficers burnt heaps of costly incense to make 
 clouds of perfume, so Solomon's train moved 
 from his country-seat at En-gedi up to Jeru- 
 salem, the capital, amid an atmosphere murky 
 but delicious with myrrh and frankincense. 
 Riding in his palanquin, he was surrounded 
 by his mounted life-guards with their drawn 
 swords flashing, hilts at the thighs, blades at 
 ear and shoulder. Gorgeous beyond descrip- 
 tion was his traveling litter or palanquin. 
 
 Who were these body-guards of the Hebrew 
 emperor .-• They are over and over again 
 spoken of as "David's mighty men" or he- 
 roes. In the original records they are called 
 Gibborim. A glance at their history may be 
 interesting. 
 
 King David, a man of war, had organized 
 a disciplined army, which in time of peace 
 had melted away again, the soldiers returning 
 to the pursuits of peace. The nucleus of the 
 standing army, however, that remained was a 
 body of foreign mercenaries, like the Swiss 
 guard of the kings of France, or the Christian 
 janizaries of the Turkish sultan. These faith- 
 ful veterans had stood by him in that awful 
 day of the rebellion of Absalom. When the
 
 LIFE AND TIMES OF KING SOLOMON. 33 
 
 king was driven out of Jerusalem, this body- 
 guard, composed largely of Cherethites, or 
 Cretans, Pelethites, and other foreigners, un- 
 der captains Joab and Benaiah, practically 
 crushed the insurrection and kept the govern- 
 ment in place. 
 
 These veterans of many wars are frequently 
 referred to in Kings, Chronicles, and the 
 Song of Songs. Some of the oldest of them 
 may have been David's comrades, when he 
 himself was an outlaw living among the Phil- 
 istines, since the name Peleth or Pelethite is 
 probably a contraction for Philistine. Some 
 were from the island of Crete in the Mediter- 
 ranean. It would be no more remarkable in 
 the Hebrew emperor to keep Philistines in his 
 pay than for the Pope and Roman Catholic 
 kings of P'rance to be served by the Swiss 
 guards, who were often republicans in politics 
 and Protestant in faith. 
 
 In addition to these household troops or the 
 imperial guard, and to the militia, serving as 
 garrison relays, there were the city watchmen, 
 who may be called the metropolitan police of 
 Jerusalem. These night patrols, who were 
 expected always to "keep the city," were evi- 
 dently a body of vigilant and faithful men, 
 who not only protected good citizens against 
 thieves, but were objects of awe to rustics and 
 visitors.
 
 34 HISTORY AND CRITICISM. 
 
 In a word, the organization of the Hebrew 
 Empire was military, with a nucleus of foreign 
 mercenaries, who were professional soldiers of 
 fortune. These were only too ready to per- 
 form the king's behests, and unless Samuel 
 prophesied falsely, and all history is a mistake, 
 the Gibborim, despite their usefulness, were a 
 menace to the liberties of Israel. 
 
 As for the subjects of King Solomon, we 
 find ihat they were far from being a homo- 
 geneous people. The free-born Israelites, de- 
 scendants of the conquerors, who came in at 
 the conquest under Joshua, stood first in civil 
 rank and privileges after the imperial family. 
 Next below these were the native Canaanites, 
 more or less loyal to the government of Israel. 
 They constituted a numerous and important 
 body of tributary vassals who needed to be 
 wisely dealt with. 
 
 The strangers from Egypt and surround- 
 ing countries, but most especially from Phoe- 
 nicia, whose people spoke nearly the same 
 language as Hebrew, were merchants, artists, 
 decorators, and other skilled mechanics em- 
 ployed on the public works, sailors and cara- 
 van-men. They formed a special class under 
 the king's protection, while they were tempo- 
 rarily sojourning at the ports and cities, at- 
 tracted by trade and new enterprises requiring
 
 LIFE AND TIMES OF KING SOLOMON. 35 
 
 technical knowledge. They formed in Jeru- 
 salem a little community by themselves known 
 as Maktesh, or the Phoenician quarter, which 
 may have been in the deep ravine between 
 Zion and Moriah (Zeph. i. 11). 
 
 Beneath these three classes of the people 
 were numbers of slaves on whom fell the bur- 
 den of constant and unrequited toil. Whether 
 prisoners captured in war, or those born in 
 servitude, or sold for poverty or debt, the 
 slave's lot was but little if any easier under 
 Hebrew than under Roman or American op- 
 pression. 
 
 In addition to this civic ambition, Solomon 
 was smitten with the fever of architecture, 
 which is ever one of the most expensive of a 
 king's ambitions, as the people who must pay 
 the bills soon discover. This passion for 
 building was in addition to that for the ships 
 which, built and manned by Phoenician sailors, 
 he sent to the ends of the seas, eastward to 
 the Asian peninsulas, and westward to Tar- 
 shish in Spain. For the spoil they brought, 
 he erected fitting edifices. He had botanic 
 gardens and menageries, full of rare animals, 
 plants, and the substances for decoration, so 
 numerously mentioned in the Song of Songs. 
 
 In order to build and furnish his palaces, 
 harems, and public buildings, the king made
 
 36 HISTORY AND CRITICISM. 
 
 requisitions of forced labor from Israel, and 
 sent the gangs to cut down forests, to float the 
 timber by sea from Phoenicia to Joppa, and to 
 make overland transport of the logs to Jeru- 
 salem. He blasted and cut stone in quarries, 
 and dug conduits and watercourses. 
 
 Solomon had the reputation of building the 
 first temple to Jehovah, and of organizing 
 elaborate services and sacrifices. Yet the 
 temple of Solomon, as any one can see who 
 studies the dimensions, was a comparatively 
 small edifice. There are many buildings in 
 Europe and America much larger than the 
 marble tent which he pitched to the glory of 
 Jehovah in Jerusalem. Rightly did Justinian 
 cry out when St. Sophia was finished, " I have 
 surpassed thee, O Solomon." The Jerusalem 
 temple was, in the main, a noble specimen of 
 Phoenician art. While seven years were occu- 
 pied in completing the temple, the king was 
 fifteen years in building his own house. What 
 he did for the Lord was only a fraction as 
 compared with what he did for himself. Nearly 
 all the masonry, and decorative art-work, down 
 to this epoch, was done by Phoenician artists 
 while Solomon lived. When Captain Warren, 
 the excavator in the Jerusalem which belongs 
 to Turkey, sunk his shaft beneath the layers 
 and rubbish of twenty-eight centuries to get
 
 LIFE AND TIMES OF KING SOLOMON. 37 
 
 at the rock-foundation of Solomon's temple, he 
 found the quarry marks of the Phoenician stone- 
 cutters. The lowest stones of all bear inscrip- 
 tions of the men whose ancestors are reputed 
 to have given the western world alphabets. 
 
 The other famous buildings in the capital city 
 were the House of the Forest of Lebanon — 
 so-called because of its hall of many columns, 
 on which were hung the golden shields, and 
 targets, and battle trophies captured in David's 
 wars. The Hall of Judgment was another 
 renowned structure, wainscoted with cedar 
 wood, and in popular phrase called the King's 
 Gate or Sublime Porte, the title sometimes 
 bestowed on the sovereign; just as in Egypt, 
 Japan, and Turkey of to-day, Pharaoh, Mikado, 
 or the Sublime Porte in each case means the 
 Grand Gate, that is, the place where judicial 
 decisions were given. 
 
 Of the many buildings devoted to the harem, 
 or zenana, the finest was doubtless for the 
 principal or Egyptian wife. In addition to the 
 edifices in the capital city, there were in differ- 
 ent parts of the country summer palaces, vil- 
 las, hunting lodges, gardens, fish-ponds, towers, 
 cavalry quarters, stables, and chariot-houses. 
 There were also caravansaries on the main 
 road, trading stations, fortresses, and vine- 
 yards, all under the direct imperial supervis- 
 ion.
 
 38 HISTORY AND CRITICISM. 
 
 It must, however, never be forgotten that 
 all this was extravagance, and unjustifiable 
 extravagance. It was the same old story of a 
 hard-working father who toils during his life- 
 time to heap up riches, not knowing who shall 
 gather them, succeeded by a spendthrift son 
 who enjoys and squanders. These were the 
 flush times of expansion, after long and suc- 
 cessful wars, when things were, so to speak, on 
 a paper-money basis. Speculation was rife, and 
 the inevitable shrinkage had to come. Though 
 some of Solomon's schemes were successful 
 enterprises yielding revenue, most of them 
 were matters of daily expense, and the bur- 
 den of sustaining these things fell on the peo- 
 ple, who were taxed and bled beyond the limit 
 of human patience. So, in accordance with 
 all history, or divine Providence — as we will 
 — as soon as the iron hand of Solomon was 
 removed by death, the people petitioned Reho- 
 boam to ease the crushing burden of taxes in 
 money and levies of forced labor. 
 
 The new king took the advice of the youth 
 about his court instead of the warnings of the 
 old men. Then the people were goaded into 
 rebellion, and ten tribes went into secession, set 
 up a northern confederacy, and David's king- 
 dom was split in twain. The results were 
 gradual alienation in both politics and religion.
 
 LIFE AND TIMES OF KING SOLOMON. 39 
 
 and in language the swamping of Hebrew by 
 the Aramaic. 
 
 There was no bloodshed except in one no- 
 table instance. Just as after the American 
 civil war all were forgiven, except the keeper 
 of the Andersonville prison, who was hanged 
 for his personal cruelties, so no man in Israel 
 had to die, except one. The name of this es- 
 pecial culprit was Adoniram, the head superin- 
 tendent of the forced labor. He alone was 
 murdered, thus paying for his cruelties by his 
 life. 
 
 In addition to the historical books of Israel, 
 the poem of " Solomon's Song," so called, 
 opens wide windows of light upon the days 
 of Hebrew imperialism, and shows how the 
 luxury and sensualism of Solomon and his 
 favorites in the palaces of the capital meant 
 poverty and distress among the people. For 
 the few who enjoyed, there were unpaid labor 
 and cruelty for the many oppressed. 
 
 David's successor, as the Bible represents 
 him, was somewhat different from the Solo- 
 mon of unproved and baseless tradition. He 
 is the typical "wise man" of Jewish tradition 
 and oriental exaggeration whence our nursery 
 and Sunday-school literature has liberally bor- 
 rowed. He is believed by many to have been 
 the author of a considerable portion of the
 
 40 HISTORY AND CRITICISM. 
 
 Holy Scriptures. The evidence for this impres- 
 sion is summed up in the three titles of the 
 books of Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Song of 
 Songs, these titles or portions of them being 
 from authors other than Solomon, or added 
 long afterwards. The voice of modern schol- 
 arship is almost unanimously against late tra- 
 dition, as indeed the text of the Bible itself 
 seems to be. The common phrase, " the un- 
 broken testimony of all antiquity," means the 
 inherited and usually unexamined traditions 
 of Jews who lived long after the epoch of 
 Solomon. 
 
 The biblical basis of the popular notion of 
 Solomon's literary career lies in the single 
 verse of i Kings iv. 32, which says not one 
 word about writing or literary composition, 
 " he spake three thousand proverbs : and his 
 songs were a thousand and five." 
 
 There is no hint here or elsewhere in the 
 Scriptures that these songs were of a sacred, 
 much less of an inspired nature, or that they 
 were committed to writing. He spoke prov- 
 erbs or wise sayings, which in numbLT ex- 
 ceed several times over the entire collection of 
 the authors who arc represented in the book 
 of Proverbs. None of the Psalms, though 
 those numbered Ixxii. and cxxvii. bear his 
 name in the titles added by editors in later
 
 LIFE AND TIMES OF KING SOLOMON. 4I 
 
 times, is certainly from Solomon's pen or lips ; 
 nor is it probable that he had anything to 
 do with the Canticle. He encouraged learn- 
 ing, and gathered men of culture and erudi- 
 tion about his court ; and under him began 
 the age of Hebrew philosophy and the wis- 
 dom-literature, which later blossomed in those 
 deathless classics of Israel which have sur- 
 'vived the wrecks of time. Yet it is more 
 than probable that one who spent his life as 
 Solomon did, and stained his soul with so 
 many habitual sins, had very little to do with 
 the making of our Heavenly Father's book. 
 The Bible pictures the third king of the He- 
 brews not as a psalmist, scribe, poet, or 
 prophet, but as an ambitious man, a builder, 
 a trafficker, and above all an imitator of Pha- 
 raoh and the kings and courts of the nations 
 around him. He was fond of display and 
 magnificence ; he was brilliant, witty, wise, 
 learned ; but not in his mature middle life and 
 premature old age eminent as a spiritual man, 
 or one who, like David with all his sins, was 
 "a man after God's own heart." 
 
 It is almost certain that Solomon did not 
 write either Ecclesiastes or the Song of Songs. 
 His reputation as an author rests, as we have 
 shown, chiefly upon superscriptions added af- 
 ter the Babylonian captivity to certain books
 
 42 HISTORY AND CRITICISM. 
 
 or parts of books in the canon, upon apoc- 
 ryphal writings, and upon belated tradition. 
 The Bible text seems to be silent upon the 
 subject on which legend and popular notion 
 are so voluminous. Among the Hebrews he 
 stood as the representative of gnomic wisdom, 
 and had a high reputation as a judge, but his 
 profligacy, tyranny, and idolatry impressed the 
 prophets and inspired writers more than his 
 wisdom, literary power, or supposed inspira- 
 tion. Neither Jesus nor apostle, prophet, poet, 
 or reformer quotes word or writing which he 
 attributes to Solomon. Except in the books 
 of Kings, which reveal his history ; tlie post- 
 exilic Chronicles, which show what he did for 
 the priesthood ; or the book of Proverbs, which 
 gives some portion of his wisdom, he is never 
 mentioned in the text of the Old or New Tes- 
 tament apart from the temple, or except as a 
 monarch with a mighty reputation for splen- 
 dor, wisdom, or wickedness. In tlie antithe- 
 sis which Jesus m.akes between this personage 
 and the lily, Solomon stands in the shadow ; and 
 the same may be said of the sketch which 
 Stephen draws of the life of this great builder, 
 "but Solomon built Him a house." Through- 
 out the Bible Solomon is implicitly held up 
 as a warning, and in the one place in the 
 Hebrew writings, apart from Chronicles, in
 
 LIFE AND TIMES OF KING SOLOMON. 43 
 
 which during later centuries his character is 
 alluded to, his reputation is black enough. 
 Hear Nehemiah, the reformer who cleansed 
 the nation so that the folly wrought by semi- 
 heathen kings has never been nationally re- 
 peated since. (Neh. xiii, 26.) 
 
 " Did not Solomon king of Israel sin by 
 these things } yet among many nations was 
 there no king like him, who was beloved of his 
 God, and God made him king over all Israel : 
 nevertheless even him did outlandish women 
 cause to sin." 
 
 The "book of the Acts of Solomon," re- 
 ferred to in I Kings xi. 41, has not survived, 
 and belon2:s with that score or scores of lost 
 books of Hebrew literature to which the Bible 
 refers. The so-called " Psalter of Solomon " 
 saw the light probably a millennium after the 
 first temple had been built. The books of 
 Kings, which give the fullest accounts of the 
 man and his character, were composed long 
 after his death, and the Chronicles not until 
 after the Babylonian captivity. 
 
 In a word, despite tradition and rumor, 
 which always speaks most and loudest just 
 where the divine word is most silent, Solo- 
 mon's reputation as a holy man, an example, 
 is in the Bible next to nothing. 
 
 It is well in purely literary questions con-
 
 44 HISTORY AND CRITICISM. 
 
 cerning the Bible to take the advice of Paul, 
 and not give heed to Jewish fables, but to 
 reach conclusions founded on the evidence of 
 the sacred writings themselves. In thus bas- 
 ing our judgments upon what the Scriptures 
 teach, and in forming our opinions upon the 
 text itself rather than upon legend, we do but 
 follow the example of our Lord Jesus, who 
 persistently challenges the traditions of the 
 scribes, elders, and Pharisees. 
 
 Solomon, as a grown man and as a king, is 
 rather a character to be held up as an awful 
 example than as a model. Taken in all, he 
 was probably one of the worst sinners de- 
 scribed in the Old Testament. With its usual 
 truth and fearlessness, the Scriptures expose 
 his real character, and by the later prophets 
 and by Jesus he is ignored or referred to only 
 in rebuke. The peculiar sins of Solomon are 
 those against which the special genius of 
 Christianity and the direct teaching of the 
 Christ are most radically opposed. 
 
 In our exposition of the Song of Songs we 
 shall see that he is set before us by the au- 
 thor of that book as a tempter ; but we shall 
 also see that in an age of despotism, when 
 it was almost impossible for a subject, espe- 
 cially a woman, to resist a king, he was resisted 
 in the name of God and pure love. He was
 
 LIFE AND TIMES OF KING SOLOMON. 45 
 
 triumphed over by one of his plain but virtu- 
 ous subjects, the Shulaniite, a country girl, 
 who even in a great city kept her life pure 
 and her instincts true to rio-ht. 
 
 Her loyalty to Jehovah was greater than her 
 loyalty to Solomon. She was a true king's 
 daughter, but her Sovereign was Jehovah and 
 not Baal, or the patron of Baal, Solomon. 
 
 In a word, we shall find that for the thou- 
 sands of young men and young women of our 
 day, away from their childhood's home, father 
 and mother, friends, old associations, and so- 
 cial forces, in the great cities, as was the 
 maiden of Shunem in Jerusalem, there are few 
 more practical, more modern, more helpful 
 books in the Bible than this Song of Songs. 
 
 What interpretation shall we follow } The 
 fatal objection to the allegorical theory is that 
 it tears the book out of all connection with Jew- 
 ish history and the Old Testament economy ; 
 while the view of the great modern masters of 
 Hebrew, which we adopt, keeps it in vital re- 
 lation to Old Testament times, circumstances, 
 and people. Which is the truest, let even the 
 reader of the English Bible judge for himself.
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 HISTORIC CHARACTERS IN THE POEM. 
 
 In glancing at Hebrew history, we find that 
 when it became the fashion in Israel to have 
 kings and monarchical government, the Jew- 
 ish nation was a loose confederation of tribes, 
 each independent of the other, having no cen- 
 tral city, the people worshiping at a num- 
 ber of local shrines in different parts of the 
 country. 
 
 The government was a loose agglomeration 
 of clan-like republics. Not only was the po- 
 litical system very simple, but there were no 
 military resources for defense. Only here and 
 there were the men well armed, or able to 
 resist the Philistines and other warlike tribes 
 surrounding them. The needs of concentra- 
 tion and a more vigorous political life were 
 keenly felt ; but Samuel warned the people not 
 easily or lightly to exchange their republican 
 simplicity for a king and court. He prophe- 
 sied evils unheard of. Nevertheless the peo- 
 ple demanded a monarch. 
 
 Saul, the first king, was a failure both as a
 
 HISTORIC CHARACTERS IN THE POEM. 47 
 
 man and as a ruler. He administered gov- 
 ernment as if it were his private estate, dis- 
 tributing the offices and property under him 
 as spoils of a victorious party, like some of the 
 presidents who have disgraced the American 
 republic. Nearly all the men to whom he gave 
 "fields and vineyards, and made captains of 
 thousands and captains of hundreds " (i Sam. 
 xxii. 7) were his fellow-tribesmen of Benja- 
 min. In character he was weak, vacillating, 
 moody, and cowardly. 
 
 David was a man built on a nobler moral 
 scale. As a man and a king he was a mag- 
 nificent success. He planned for the whole 
 nation, without regard to his particular tribe. 
 He conquered the stronghold of Jebus, and 
 organized his government on the idea of equal 
 favor to all the tribes. He went so far as to 
 have a body-guard composed of foreigners, in- 
 stead of men of Judah, with the idea of attach- 
 ing these mercenaries loyally to his own person, 
 and detaching them from tribal or local in- 
 terests. He gave the whole people a sense 
 of nationality and left to them the traditions 
 of victory. He annihilated his enemies, or 
 turned them into tributary vassals. He also 
 prepared the wealth and material for a temple 
 to Jehovah, and to which the people, leaving 
 the scattered shrines and miscellaneous, and
 
 48 HISTORY AND CRITICISM. 
 
 more or less holy, places, should assemble for 
 national worship. David had his shortcom- 
 ings, and they were many, and yet the story 
 of his life is perennially fresh, helpful, and in- 
 teresting. He was a man of great faults and 
 great virtues. He sinned grievously, but he 
 repented nobly. God freely forgave him all 
 his faults except one, his shameful treatment 
 of the captain in his army, who, although a 
 foreigner, was so loyal to him. This Hittite 
 was a splendid example of the chivalry of the 
 Canaanites who served with the Hebrew sol- 
 diery. 
 
 After Uriah had been disposed of in battle, 
 David suffered life-long miseries at the hands 
 of Joab, the man who knew the secret of his 
 sin. The widow of the dead man who had so 
 easily and disgracefully yielded to the king, 
 and was equally guilty with her consort in 
 crime, became the head of the royal harem. 
 Instead of turning with horror from the man 
 whose hands were red with the blood of her 
 husband, she consented to be his queen, and 
 one of his many wives. For David had set 
 the bad example of having two wives during 
 his wandering life as an adventurer, five when 
 reigning as king at Hebron, and an unknown 
 number at Jerusalem. The state of morals 
 with the kings of Israel at this epoch was
 
 HISTORIC CHARACTERS IN THE POEM. 49 
 
 approximating that of Asiatic nations to-day, 
 Turkey for instance, where children are born 
 in a herd, not in a home. Bath-Sheba, whose 
 name means " the daughter of an oath," was 
 the grand-daughter of Ahitophel, a high coun- 
 selor, first of David and then of Absalom. 
 This man is known to us as a renegade lawyer, 
 who hanged himself when his advice was not 
 taken. His is the only case of suicide in civil 
 life mentioned in the Old Testament as that 
 of Judas is in the New. His name, given in 
 all probability posthumously, means " brother 
 of foolishness." We do not know much about 
 Bath-Sheba, but what we do is to her disad- 
 vantage. 
 
 Since she came to David in secret and mar- 
 ried the murderer of her husband, she serves 
 as warning rather than example. She was a 
 " door " rather than a " wall " to the royal 
 sinner. (Song of Songs viii. 8, 9.) As it is 
 woman's chief glory to resist the sacrifice of 
 her purity, so is it her deepest disgrace to 
 yield too easily to the tempter. Yet such was 
 the prestige of the king as representative of 
 Deity that it is difficult to sec how any Israel- 
 itish woman of ordinary moral strength could 
 have resisted his addresses or demand. Yet, 
 as we shall see, there was one who could and 
 did, becoming a " palace of silver," her person 
 as unassailable as "towers."
 
 50 HISTORY AND CRITICISM. 
 
 Of Bath-Sheba's five sons born to David, 
 the first died young. Solomon was the second 
 of Bath-Sheba and the tenth of David. The 
 name Solomon in Hebrew is Shelomoh, which 
 the orientals, such as the Turks and other Mo- 
 hammedans, call Suleiman. Western people, 
 following Josephus and the Jews at the time 
 of Christ, use the spelling and pronunciation 
 of Solomon. The name is equivalent to our 
 Frederick, which means " rich in peace." It 
 was given immediately at the birth of the boy, 
 and very probably by the mother herself. In 
 this name she may have intended to rear a 
 monument of gratitude to Jehovah for peace 
 after long wars, but more probably because she 
 hailed the birth of a beautiful living child, and 
 this child a son, as a sure token of the divine 
 forgiveness of her sin. 
 
 It has been well said of our revised English 
 version of the Holy Scriptures that the text 
 represents in the main tradition, while the 
 scholarship is found in the margin. Turn- 
 ing to 2 Samuel xii. 24, we read in the mar- 
 gin ".v/zr called." In the same version, in the 
 next verse, it is said that " the Lord loved him 
 (the babe), and he (David) sent by the hand of 
 Nathan the prophet, and he (Nathan) called 
 his name Jedidiah, for the Lord's sake." 
 
 Jedidiah was a name never used publicly,
 
 inSTORIC CHARACTERS IN THE POEM. 5 I 
 
 but exclusively in the home. It means " be- 
 loved," or " darling of Jah " — this name of 
 God being an abbreviation for Jehovah. This 
 word Jah, though found only once in the Eng- 
 lish Bible, in the 68th Psalm, occurs in hun- 
 dreds of words in the Hebrew original, being 
 especially common in proper names like those 
 of Elijah, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Adonijah, and in 
 superlative expressions, as in the one passage 
 in the Canticle, which the revision expresses 
 as " a very flame of the Lord " (chap. viii. 6). 
 As the margin shows, the name of the Divine 
 Being here is Jah, this shalebeth-yah being the 
 God-kindled fire of love. 
 
 This little by-play upon words as illustrated 
 in the naming of David's son, and which opens 
 such a window into his home life, is apt to be 
 lost upon us unless we remember that "Jedid" 
 and " David " both have the same meaning of 
 darling or beloved, and that David's idea was 
 that though he was the darling of his parents 
 and his people, this son of hope born of Bath- 
 Sheba was even more. He was the darling 
 of Jehovah. In the 127th Psalm this word 
 "his beloved " occurs, and the title-makers who 
 supplied the collection with editorial head- 
 lines have added "A Song of Ascents: of 
 Solomon." 
 
 Inheriting much of his father's intellectual
 
 52 HISTORY AND CRITICISM. 
 
 ability, though a poor soldier and military 
 guardian, employing his talents for the most 
 part in vastly different lines of achievement, 
 Solomon grew up first under the care of his 
 mother and of Nathan the scribe and prophet. 
 David set aside the claims of all his other off- 
 spring, and by oath made Bath-Sheba's his suc- 
 cessors to the throne. With his father too aged 
 to actively counsel him, his mother became his 
 chief guardian and adviser. Solomon is, in one 
 sense, a type and embodiment of his age. In 
 him we see a miniature of the Hebrew empire, 
 its strength and its weakness, its splendor and 
 its decay. 
 
 Pure in spirit, virgin in mind and body, de- 
 vout, meek, aspiring, humble, was Solomon's 
 youth ; firm, wise, pure. God-fearing, was his 
 earlier manhood. As the primitive Chinese 
 named their sovereign, so was Solomon the 
 "self-ruled ruler." Had he in middle life re- 
 mained simple-minded amid luxury, self-mas- 
 tered and single-eyed towards God, he might 
 have stayed the inevitable end into luxury and 
 sensualism, and his record have been vastly 
 different. But God's laws change not to suit 
 individuals. After oppression, division, and 
 extravagance comes poverty; after sensuality, 
 disease and premature old age ; after idolatry, 
 God's wrath.
 
 HISTORIC CHARACTERS IN THE POEM. 53 
 
 In the time of David's old age, when the 
 natural heat and vigor of his body failed, 
 means were taken to prolong his life by ten- 
 der care, (i Kings i. 1-4.) According to the 
 medical ideas of the age, and as recommended 
 by the physicians of Hebrew antiquity, and 
 even by Galen, and according to a custom that 
 was common even into the Middle Ages, a 
 young person was sought for to be the king's 
 nurse. The name of the young maiden se- 
 lected was Abishag, famed as the most lovely 
 girl of her day, a native of Shunam, Shunem, 
 or Shulam ; names, in dialectic variation, of the 
 same place. This village, in the north of the 
 country, was famous in early history as a Phil- 
 istine camp, and later as the home of the widow 
 visited by Elisha. It lay on the fruitful slope 
 of Mount (Little) Hermon, overlooking the 
 plain of Jezreel, in the old domain of the tribe 
 of Issachar ; Nain, Endor, and Esdraelon being 
 well-known places near by, and Mount Gilboa 
 being but a few miles south. Shunem means 
 "double rest," or "two resting-places." Her 
 childhood was spent amid the same scenes 
 familiar to the youth of our Lord Jesus. Some 
 readers of the Song of Songs see in the in- 
 cident narrated in chapter vi. 11-13 the ex- 
 planation of how this fair girl was first met, 
 and at the royal behest was brought from her
 
 54 HISTORY AND CRITICISM. 
 
 northern home in Galilee to the abode of 
 royalty in the south. 
 
 From her humble surroundings in the coun- 
 try to the post of responsibility and honor in 
 the palace, the change in Abishag's circum- 
 stances was great indeed. She served as Da- 
 vid's attendant during the presumably short 
 time of his dotage and weakness, and then at 
 his death seems to have remained in the palace, 
 though for how long we do not know. 
 
 It is more than possible, it is quite prob- 
 able, that Abishag became the object of the 
 addresses of Solomon. Covetous of beauty 
 and ambitious to fill his harem with the fairest 
 faces and loveliest figures which the woman- 
 hood, not only of Israel, but of adjoining coun- 
 tries could furnish, his inordinate desire to 
 possess this innocent Jewess, who was also, at 
 the time of his father's death, one of the most 
 important personages in the kingdom, was 
 probably one of the causes of Solomon's mur- 
 der of his brother Adonijah, as related in i 
 Kings ii. 12-26. True it is, also, that the pos- 
 session of one who had been so near the per- 
 son of great David as Abishag would have 
 given Adonijah, or any man who Solomon was 
 pleased to believe an aspirant to the throne, 
 a tremendous prestige in tiie eyes of the 
 people.
 
 HISTORIC CHARACTERS nv THE POEM. 55 
 
 In our days and in Western civilization, since 
 Jesus, who founded the mightiest democracy 
 which is yet to become world-wide, taught us to 
 honor a man because he is a man, and a king be. 
 cause he is nothing more, it is hard to under- 
 stand the popular reverence for the person of a 
 king. A relic of the ancient idea was seen in 
 Japan even as late as 1868, when the nail -par- 
 ings and combings of the hair, rinsings of the 
 mouth, and other exiivice of the Mikado, were 
 with solemn form and ceremony deposited and 
 preserved, in the one case for the fire at the 
 emperor's death, or poured into a consecrated 
 place near Lake Biwa, the people along the pub- 
 lic highway being expected to prostrate them- 
 selves before the vessels as they were borne 
 along. Solomon's motive may have been a 
 double one : to obtain for his harem a woman 
 beautiful and lovely in herself, and also by 
 attaching her to his own person to gain the 
 enormous political advantage which he very 
 naturally and even honestly may have sus- 
 pected his brother Adonijah of coveting. It is 
 probable, also, that the author of the historical 
 book of I Kings treats only of the public and 
 political phase of the transactions, while the 
 poetical book of the Canticle deals artistically 
 with the " anecdote " or private and personal 
 phase of the incident as it transpired from 
 those near Solomon to the people.
 
 56 HISTORY AND CRITICISM. 
 
 The king of Israel may have been doubly 
 angered at beholding in Adonijah, even after 
 he had, with most unoriental and almost Chris- 
 tian clemency, pardoned him, an attempt to 
 repeat treason, and for this reason ordered his 
 death. 
 
 It is more probable, however, especially 
 since Bath-Sheba saw no such plot, that Solo- 
 mon was suffering the pangs of jealousy and 
 rejection ; because Abishag would not receive 
 his attentions. At any rate, the despot dis- 
 patched his chief assassin after the man who 
 had interceded through the queen-mother for 
 the beautiful Shunamite, and Adonijah was 
 murdered in exact accord with that custom of 
 oriental monarchs which still shows traces of 
 survival among Turks and Asiatics. It is 
 quite possible too that the name Abishag, 
 " source of error," or " father of wayward- 
 ness," that is, "the heedless" or "inconsider- 
 ate one," was one bestowed in Jerusalem. 
 
 Adonijah was only one of many whom the 
 king removed by the dagger, for this was the 
 custom of the time and country ; and it would 
 be absurd to judge a Hebrew king by the 
 standards of Christianity and of our age. The 
 history of Israel on its human side, even in 
 details, is most wonderfully like the history of 
 Japan, of Corea, of India, of Turkey ; but it
 
 HISTORIC CHARACTERS IN THE POEM. 57 
 
 has a divine side also which gave the redeem- 
 ing and elevating element so notably lacking 
 in the annals of most Asiatic nations. 
 
 The inmates of the great harem which 
 Solomon assembled in Jerusalem just as he 
 collected horses and chariots, gold and silver, 
 to excel and outshine his fellow-rulers among 
 adjoining nations, are the " daughters of Je- 
 rusalem " of the Canticle. They were hand- 
 somely dressed ladies, favorites of the king, 
 living lives of luxury and idleness. In dark 
 contrast to the Shulamite, who was a devout 
 worshiper of Jehovah, many of them were 
 heathen, and opposed to the strict and holy 
 life of the upright Hebrews, the servants of 
 Jehovah, who were scandalized at Solomon's 
 new-fangled ideas and abominable innovations. 
 It is said that in Solomon's harem there were 
 seven hundred wives, princesses, and three 
 hundred concubines. There may be exagger- 
 ation through copyists' errors in these exces- 
 sive figures, though other vile imitators of his 
 bad example have excelled the great Hebrew 
 sensualist in the size of their harems. We are 
 not to suppose that Solomon idled most of his 
 time away among the princesses, concubines, 
 odalisques, singing-women, and dancing-girls ; 
 or that he was a monster of lust ; or that he 
 ever saw or spoke to, much less knew the hun-
 
 58 HISTORY AND CRITICISM. 
 
 dreds of beauties with their female relatives 
 and servants that filled his establishment. His 
 object in having so many ornamental women 
 was the same as having so many horses in a 
 country that was practically useless for cav- 
 alry. His purpose was wholly political and 
 spectacular. He married a child of the Pha- 
 raohs, and invited the daughters of the chiefs 
 of the vassal tribes to become members of his 
 court or household, and thus formed political 
 alliances with the various countries and people 
 comprehended within his empire. 
 
 The great seraglio at Constantinople — the 
 survival of barbarism in Europe — whose chief 
 supporter, the sultan, gets his example, justifi- 
 cation, and orthodoxy from Solomon, spends 
 twenty millions of dollars yearly in supporting 
 his herd of women, with their accompanying 
 hordes of servants and eunuchs, of whom 
 there are hundreds whose names are unknown 
 to him. Out of his harem he marries about 
 one hundred girls annually to favorite offi- 
 cers, for this institution is a sort of training 
 school through which pashas of note pass 
 their daughters with the view of securing for 
 them eligible marriages, with dowry and title. 
 So little can the sultan actually know of the 
 harem, which he is supposed to control, that 
 the plots of murder and assassinations which
 
 HISTORIC CHARACTERS IN THE POEM. 59 
 
 are so frequently hatched in this oven of ini- 
 quity are often unknown to him until accident 
 causes leakage of information which enables 
 him to save his own life. A virtuous sultan 
 may hate the harem system and wish to de- 
 stroy the institution, but hoary, vested inter- 
 ests are opposed to reform, and the traditional 
 glory of the dynasty forbids it. Like some 
 exceptional Asiatic rulers, Solomon may have 
 been practically a monogamist, though the 
 Scriptures do not encourage us in this charita- 
 ble surmise ; yet the faces of the poor must 
 be ground and the blood of the peasantry 
 must be wrung out of them to support this 
 abominable institution. As are the effects of 
 a royal harem now, so were they then in the 
 days of this Hebrew king, who with all his wis- 
 dom wrought such folly in Israel, 
 
 We are quite ready to believe that it was 
 a matter of politics and of decorative effect 
 rather, that so grand a zenana was maintained 
 in Jerusalem. Still, it suggests Mormonism 
 rather than Christianity. The prophets were 
 all men of one wife. Monogamy was the law 
 of God and of Israel. Though Abraham and 
 Jacob were sinners, and in this respect be- 
 queathed a bad example, besides suffering the 
 penalties of domestic unhappincss, yet the 
 model marriage and holy example is that of
 
 60 HISTORY AND CRITICISM. 
 
 Isaac and Rebecca — one man to one woman. 
 True, it is the idea of monogamy rather than 
 of a typical happy marriage in every respect, 
 that this ancient example has been chosen for 
 the marriage service of the Book of Common 
 Prayer. What domestic miseries Abraham 
 and Jacob suffered, Solomon experienced on 
 an exaggerated scale. 
 
 According to the oriental proverb, " If you 
 keep a tiger you will have nothing but trou- 
 ble," Solomon had now a family of tigresses 
 to manage. Once installed in the palace and 
 on intimate terms with royalty, the heathen 
 princess, unchanged in heart, wanted near her 
 not only relatives, maids, servants, but her 
 religious associations and facilities. To please 
 his wives, to conciliate the various tribes and 
 nationalities in his heterogeneous empire, Sol- 
 omon had shrines erected to the gods of many 
 countries. Even in a republic, and under 
 Christianity, what will not a political aspirant 
 do to capture this or that " vote," and what 
 crying injustice will remain unredressed when 
 it has potency of ballots behind it } Solomon 
 for political effect was willing to patronize 
 idols. 
 
 The inventory of paganism which flourished 
 under the very shadow of Jehovah's temple, 
 as given by the inspired historian, is a formi-
 
 HISTORIC CHARACTERS IN THE POEM. 6 1 
 
 dable one. What a confusion of tongues and 
 dialects in the zenana ! There were ladies from 
 Egypt, from the countries west and south of 
 the Dead Sea, Moab, Amnion and Edom, 
 northerners from Zidon and Phoenicia, women 
 from the once powerful nation of the Hittites, 
 besides rosy rustics and city -bred beauties 
 from all over the empire. What a succession 
 of sensations must have furnished gossip to 
 the imperial city, as it turned from brick to 
 stone and from plain sycamore to Phoenician 
 cedar ! The frequent cavalcades of camels and 
 horses bringing new personages with their 
 dowry and presents and the outflowing royal 
 embassies and gift-laden caravans to vassals 
 and princes filled the streets with spectacular 
 brilliancy and gazing crowds. Yet how must 
 the wise have grieved as they saw rising on 
 the hills near the city the painted poles under 
 which the lascivious dances were danced ; and 
 the shrines built before which the orgies of 
 Ashtoreth — goddess of beauty and voluptu- 
 ousness — were celebrated ; and, worse than 
 all, the idols before which incense smoked and 
 sacrifices were offered ! The spade of the 
 archaeologist, which to-day casts out the dead 
 relics of the past, shows that the things which 
 accompanied the gods of these various " ites " 
 once inhabiting Syria were as morally filthy as
 
 62 HISTORY AND CRITICISM. 
 
 the extant relics of Asiatic heathenism seen 
 by travelers within a generation past in Japan, 
 and two generations ago in India. 
 
 While Solomon lived, the dreadful influence 
 of his example, while bad enough, could not in 
 one lifetime be followed by many of the city 
 dwellers. Yet the shamefully large number 
 of idolatrous and morally tainted women in 
 the harem was like a mass of water kept back 
 only temporarily by a weak dam. His death, 
 however, was the signal for a moral disaster of 
 which the Conemaugh calamity furnishes the 
 analogy in the natural world. The floodgates 
 of iniquity were opened upon Jerusalem on 
 the breaking up of the great royal harem, 
 after the secession had made impossible, by 
 the curtailment of revenue, the continued main- 
 tenance of a vast seraglio. Of the awful ef- 
 fect upon city life, of this flood of iniquity let 
 loose, the book of Proverbs especially gives 
 striking proofs. 
 
 That Solomon himself personally deserted 
 utterly the worship of Jehovah for these di- 
 vinities we do not gather from the record, nor 
 believe. That he was spiritually a traitor to 
 his God in thus lending aid and comfort to 
 Jehovah's enemies, and of indirectly assisting 
 in these enormities, is certain. With this sin 
 God charged him and threatened punishment 
 upon him for it.
 
 HISTORIC CHARACTERS IN THE POEM. 63 
 
 Within an historical framework, as in the 
 books of the Kings, the Author of the Bible 
 has set a mirror, into which we in this age of 
 American prosperity and amazing wealth do 
 well to look. Within the poetical framework 
 of the Song of Songs we believe he has set 
 the contrast of chaste, pure love, maintaining 
 itself unspotted against the blandishments of 
 a sensualist. It is highly probable that the 
 Canticle had an historical basis in an episode 
 in Solomon's time, and that out of this an 
 inspired poet was impelled to write a master- 
 piece expressive of the deepest emotions of the 
 Hebrew heart. In this poem sensuality is 
 scorned and rejected, and pure love glorified 
 and its seat discerned in the bosom of God.
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 POETIC BACKGROUND OF THE CANTICLE. 
 
 One of the most profound changes in the 
 consciousness of the people of Israel was 
 wrought by the institution of monarchy. Hith- 
 erto the nation had been, according to the prev- 
 alent faith, under the direct government of 
 God. Her judges, ]Driests, and prophets were 
 ministers of Jehovah who assisted in worship 
 and in the maintenance of the institutions of 
 social order and religion. The innovation of 
 a monarchy and centralized government with 
 religious services pointing to ultimate restric- 
 tion at Jerusalem, the king claiming to be 
 God's vicegerent, caused a profound change 
 in the feelings of Jehovah's people. At first 
 all probably welcomed the new order, and dur- 
 ing the first few years of the sunshine of royal 
 popularity and the glare of worldly prosperity 
 there was little or no protest. When, however, 
 the behavior of the monarch scandalized the 
 people, and the woes foretold by Samuel fell 
 upon them, when the taxes and galling bur- 
 dens began to press upon neck and purse,
 
 POETIC BACKGROUND OF THE CANTICLE. 65 
 
 there were great searchings of heart. Mon- 
 archy meant decay of good old customs, the 
 spoiling of home, monopoly of land, and gen- 
 eral poverty. This clearly seen, there was 
 first reaction and then rebellion, followed by 
 division of the kingdom. Solomon's empire 
 was short-lived, repeating in this respect the 
 general precedent and course of empire in 
 Asia. 
 
 Then ensued a period when the memory of 
 the glory of Solomon was still bright, while 
 that of his burdens no longer felt was weak. 
 The perspective of years softened the out- 
 lines of remembered events. While the great 
 achievements of the nation under their mighty 
 king took on the glory and color of sunset 
 upon the mountain-peaks, the private sins and 
 public oppressions were lost in the shadows of 
 the valley. Oblivion covered with its purple 
 that which once caused smart. By the peo- 
 ple living in the later period of continuing 
 monarchy, Solomon was awarded reverential 
 silence, or his moral obliquity ignored. At 
 least, the sting of bitterness was extracted 
 from the memory. The ruins of history were 
 mantled with the ivy of poetry, and the scars 
 of devastation were covered with the flowery 
 luxuriance of figurative language. While Sol- 
 omon's immediate successors are never once
 
 66 HISTORY AND CRITICISM. 
 
 mentioned in the poetical books of the Bible, 
 he himself is made the chief personage in the 
 Canticle, and in others is a notable figure. 
 
 Hence the great contrast between the bald 
 prose of the books of the Kings and the ex- 
 uberant poetry of the Canticle. The prophet- 
 scribe who compiled the Kings gives the un- 
 varnished facts, the priest-writer of Chronicle 
 eulogizes Solomon and dwells in the glory of 
 the temple and the royal gifts, with measure- 
 ments and mathematical figures, though the 
 human interest is vastly less than in Kings. 
 The Ephraimite singer of the Song of Songs 
 invests everything with a poetic glow. In the 
 exuberant tropical language of the Orient, all 
 things fair in heaven and on earth are sum- 
 moned to picture the environment and to in- 
 terpret the emotions of the royal admirer and 
 the faithful lovers, while the crowning motive 
 of the piece and culmination of the thought is 
 linked to the name of Jehovah himself. 
 
 How did the Song of Songs come to be 
 written .-' Did poets in the ancient world, in- 
 spired or uninspired, strive, for original con- 
 ceptions, and attempt to create plots, scenes, 
 and characters, as is done in modern drama or 
 novel } 
 
 If anything seems established by close study 
 of the literature and life of the ancient world,
 
 POETIC BACKGROUND OF THE CANTICLE. 6? 
 
 it is this : that the abstract invention of a 
 character, or a story apart from some basis of 
 fact, by a poet ; or, the utterance of a prophecy 
 having no vital connection with the prophet's 
 own life, times, and experience, is in the He- 
 brew Scriptures unknown. In either case, of 
 poem or prophecy, there must be a starting 
 point of actual occurrence. The anecdote was 
 the seed of poem, psalm, or prophecy. Liter- 
 ally, it may be said, the poetry, fiction, drama, 
 and prophetic " burden " of the Bible is 
 "founded on fact." 
 
 By what particular historical occurrence the 
 Song of Songs was suggested, or to what event 
 it is directly related, we do not know with 
 certainty. Using the word " anecdote " in its 
 literal and historic sense, the conjecture is 
 not unreasonable that the composer of the 
 Canticle, like the poet or poets of the book of 
 Job who used the anecdote concerning the 
 " man of Uz," has heard the story of Abishag 
 and Solomon's desire to win her for himself, 
 or at least sees behind his murder of Adonijah 
 the basis of a drama in real life. Thereupon, 
 with this incident as a suggestive starting 
 point, and with exquisite literary art, he con- 
 structs the cantata which so clearly sets in 
 contrast pure and innocent love with sensual 
 passion and unholy ambition. Let us look at
 
 68 HISTORY AND CRITICISM. 
 
 the portico of this temple of Hebrew poetry, 
 so full of strength and of beauty. In the 
 superscription of the writing we have the an- 
 nouncement or argument, — "The Song of 
 Songs, which is Solomon's." It is the chief 
 song, the noblest of all, because its theme is 
 the noblest passion, love. As God, the King 
 of kings, dwells in the heaven of heavens, in 
 the true holy of holies, and is God of gods, 
 Lord of lords ; as Canaan was the " servant 
 of servants;" as life to the writer of Ecclesi- 
 astes was vanity of vanities ; as love to our 
 Heavenly Father should be in our heart of 
 hearts : so the song whose burden is love is 
 the Song of songs. The Bible itself is the 
 Canticle of God's love to us, for God is love. 
 Even the New Testament, though its lan- 
 guage is Greek, contains this Hebrew idiom, 
 for "salvation is of the Jews;" and Paul the 
 Hebrew, though using Greek, calls himself a 
 "Hebrew of the Hebrews." 
 
 Of the book now under examination, the 
 title is Shir hash Shirim, or Song of Songs; 
 yet it is quite possible that this Hebrew writ- 
 ing when first published had no title. This 
 was the case with most of the scriptures of 
 the Old Testament, the names of which as 
 now used came into use much later than the 
 time of their composition. In this respect
 
 POETIC BACKGROUND OF THE CANTICLE- 69 
 
 they were like the great vokime ranking next 
 in world-wide popularity to the Bible, and 
 which all Christians love, supposed to have 
 been written by Thomas a Kempis. It is 
 known under several titles, which take their 
 form from words or phrases in the book itself, 
 such as " The Imitation of Christ," or " On 
 the Following of Christ " ; though in Japan 
 the Jesuit missionaries translated it under the 
 title "Contempt of the World." The head- 
 line over the fifth of the poetical books of the 
 Bible, — "The Song of Songs which is Solo- 
 mon's," — the only line of prose in the form of 
 the book as we have it, is so evidently a ver- 
 sicle added as a title by a hand later than the 
 author's, that in the Revision of 1884 the old 
 heading of the page in the former English ver- 
 sions has been discarded and the name, The 
 Song of Songs, only, printed as the title to be 
 used by the people. In this matter the re- 
 visers have followed the best critical editors 
 of the Hebrew text. The study of philology 
 teaches us to pay closest attention to the 
 smallest words, for often these little " hooks 
 and eyes " of speech tell great stories, and are 
 as true evidences of time and change as the 
 geological imprints once made in clay and now 
 hardened for the ages in stone. The little pro- 
 noun "which " in the title, The Song of Songs
 
 70 HISTORY AND CRITICISM. 
 
 which is of, or about Solomon, is different in 
 form to the extent of several letters from the 
 same pronoun {sJie) which is used in every 
 other place in the Canticle. In the head-line, 
 added doubtless long after the poem v^ras 
 written, it is asher, a word rarely used in titles, 
 even of the Psalms, and containing three con- 
 sonants and two vowels ; in the body of the 
 book, the pronoun " which " is represented in 
 Hebrew by a word of one consonant letter. 
 Some scholars think the words "which is Sol- 
 omon's" are part of the text by the author who 
 intended to imitate the style of Solomon, or 
 to project himself into Solomonic times and 
 sphere of thought. 
 
 Our word Canticles, more properly Canticle, 
 is from the Latin " Canticum canticorum." 
 Luther called it " Das Hohelied," and a 
 French expositor crowns it as "the Eternal 
 Song." 
 
 Our understanding of the poem is much 
 facilitated by constant reference to the histori- 
 cal books, for often these preserve for us the 
 figurative expression which the contemporaries 
 of Solomon used to denote the objects of their 
 admiration or censure. Thus, in regard to the 
 person and appurtenances of the king, we have 
 in chapter iv. 8 of the Song references which 
 might, without the explanation in Kings, be
 
 POETIC BACKGROUND OF THE CANTICLE. /I 
 
 interpreted literally of zoology instead of met- 
 aphorically of the king's seat and companions. 
 The Shulamite's lover, in urging her to go 
 with him, mentions the various royal resi- 
 dences, and bids her to escape with him away 
 from them and from Solomon. Besides Leba- 
 non, Amana, Shenir, and Hermon, he speaks 
 of "the lions' den," and "the mountains of 
 the leopards." Are we to think here of wild 
 beasts, live quadrupeds noted for their claws 
 and teeth ; or, of the lion-supported throne of 
 Solomon and the court in which his courtiers 
 dwell ? 
 
 In both Kings and Chronicles (i Kings 
 X. 18-20 ; 2 Chron. ix. 18, 19) we read of the 
 great throne, of ivory overlaid with the finest 
 gold, with six steps leading to it and " two 
 lions standing beside the stays." In other 
 parts of the sacred writings, kings are styled 
 "lions," and the courtiers surrounding a great 
 monarch are called by the names of powerful 
 beasts. In the popular language of a distant 
 province the throne-room with its fourteen lions 
 would be called "the lions' den." 
 
 The pet names which the faithful girl gives 
 her lover are all poetical, and in accord with 
 the richness of oriental metaphor. To her, his 
 name is " spikenard," as the king's is to the 
 harem ladies "ointment poured forth " — as a
 
 72 HISTORY AND CRITICISM. 
 
 precious alabaster perfume-bottle broken and 
 poured upon the head of the guest, or crushed 
 in a napkin every piece of which is thencefor- 
 ward a bearer of sweet odors. By none of the 
 senses, more than the particular one of smell, 
 is the memory more deeply stirred and asso- 
 ciation recalled. (2 Cor. ii, 1-16.) He whom 
 her soul loveth is a neck-bag, or vial of per- 
 fume, a bundle of myrrh which she wears on 
 her bosom between her heart and her gar- 
 ments. As Job, or Job's wife, named one of 
 his daughters Keren-happuch, or toilet-box, so 
 names of things liked by ladies were often 
 applied to their human favorites. As a cluster 
 of rich yellow cypress flowers at her girdle, 
 also, so is her absent beloved. Though warm 
 and ardent, her language and images as well as 
 her thought are immaculately chaste and art- 
 lessly innocent. 
 
 In the maiden's speech we find an amazing 
 wealth of imagery, and her native tongue is as 
 full of the natural poetry of the Hebrews as 
 the plain of Sharon is full of daisies. Many 
 of the old words of the language are in them- 
 selves latent poems, but on her lips a new 
 beauty is born into many of them. As a vine- 
 yard consists of cultivated or prepared land, 
 and is a place of beauty as well as of work, so 
 she calls her own person "a vineyard." Nag-
 
 POETIC BACKGROUND OF THE CANTICLE. y$ 
 
 lected indeed it has been, as her sunburned 
 skin shows, and as she acknowledges with 
 apology in the presence of the critical court 
 beauties. The contrast however between the 
 references in the first and the last chapter is 
 striking. Pure and uninvaded, scathless from 
 the fire of trial, she is her own and not the 
 tempter's, and in presence of her husband and 
 her friends in the final scene she exclaims, 
 " My vineyard which is mine is before me," 
 she speaks with the exultation of victory. 
 
 Another lively poetic image underlies her 
 reference to her dark complexion. As the 
 "eyes of the sun " are spoken of by Nathan 
 in his speech to David, so the poet makes her 
 say that the sun, which is here feminine, has 
 "gazed" steadily upon her — like a woman 
 whose one piercing black eye looks out from 
 behind her veil. In other parts of the Bible 
 the morning "twinkles," and the moon "looks 
 forth" as the "faithful witness of the sky." 
 So also the word for mid-day is plural, or 
 rather dual ; the noons being literally the 
 "double light," when the sun's rays of the 
 morning and of the afternoon blend fn an in- 
 tensity that drives man and beast to seek 
 shade or single light. 
 
 To the pure-minded lover, the Shulamite 
 is lovely with virginal modesty and acquired
 
 74 HISTORY AND CRITICISM. 
 
 womanly virtues. She is a " lily among 
 thorns," a "dove in the cleft of the rocks," an 
 " inclosed garden," a " fountain sealed." She 
 is his "sister," his "betrothed." Unlike the 
 members of Solomon's miscellaneous herd, she 
 is " one." In her unassailable purity she is a 
 well of living water, a limpid mountain brook of 
 Lebanon. In her own self-deprecating words 
 she is "black" — the word being the same 
 as that applied to the turbid Nile, — but in his 
 eyes she is clear-skinned and white as the 
 torrent's foam. In her accomplishments and 
 charms she is "a garden of spices," a sweet 
 singer dwelling in the gardens. 
 
 As to the one beloved of the Shulamite, who 
 in the Hebrew is invariablv addressed in one 
 form of words not used of Solomon, he seems 
 in his life and ways to be more than of earthly 
 mould, of almost angelic habits of innocence, 
 purity, and high communion of soul with things 
 rare, precious, and unearthly. He is an ideal 
 personage in her eyes. His dwelling-places 
 are fields of lilies, gardens of balsam, and 
 mountains of spices. He is beautiful in body, 
 wise in mind, and free as the hinds of the field. 
 He is her leader, teacher, and exemplar. In 
 the ardor of her affection she clothes him with 
 ideal graces which all the splendors of royal 
 blandishments cannot for a moment eclipse. If
 
 POETIC BACKGROUND OF THE CANTICLE. 75 
 
 in this book there be found a true type of 
 Christ, it is the shepherd-lover, and not the 
 sensual king. 
 
 In the beloved's addresses, chaste, pure, and 
 tender, natural images are abundantly reflected. 
 He never visibly appears on the scene until 
 the last crowning event, and in all the others 
 the Shulamite seSs him only in trance or vision. 
 As in the spiritual drama of Job, where the 
 one most talked about and honored is God, not 
 man, he appears on the scene only at the very 
 last. 
 
 In Solomon's addresses to the woman of his 
 quest, whose innocence and inapproachability 
 baffle him, one easily discovers a marked con- 
 trast in thought, imagery, and language from 
 those employed by the shepherd. The royal 
 voluptuary's conceptions are not elevated, his 
 metaphors are sometimes heavy, and most of 
 his images are those borrowed from the artifi- 
 cial life of cities, courts, and stables. His lan- 
 guage is less that of the impassioned lover than 
 the ambitious seeker who does not expect to 
 be finally baffled ; it is highly rhetorical, and 
 sometimes in exquisite literary form. Only in 
 the final scene of his attentions, however, does 
 he seem to speak in terms which verge upon 
 impropriety. Indeed, except this very brief 
 speech of Solomon to the dancing-girl of
 
 76 HISTORY AND CRITICISM. 
 
 Mahanaim, the writer declares, after earnest 
 study, that he discovers nothing in discord 
 with purity of thought and sound morality in 
 all the Canticle. 
 
 To Solomon the new inmate of his palace is 
 like a mare, her cheeks and neck remind him 
 of jewels, her neck recalls the armory-tower, 
 he compares her to the rival cities of Tirzah 
 and Jerusalem. His view of nature is that of 
 a cultivated critic who enjoys the landscape 
 best when it is full of the triumphs of civiliza- 
 tion. In chapter vii. the description of the 
 dancer's person by the women is done with a 
 detail that is more pleasing to oriental than to 
 western taste. 
 
 The height of exuberance of figurative lan- 
 guage is reached in the final scene and last 
 chapter, where the obscurity or, we may say, 
 profundity of the allusions suggests the enig- 
 mas so characteristic of Solomon's age, and of 
 which the orientals are yet so fond. Here 
 love is a fire unquenchable by stream or flood, 
 equalling the grave in its irresistible power. 
 Here the little sister of undeveloped figure is 
 warned to choose between being a wall or a 
 door. The alternative prizes of a lintel of 
 cedar or of a turret of silver is set before her. 
 A marriage with a plain man, perhaps old and 
 harsh, stern and severe, or even the sale into
 
 POETIC BACKGROUND OF THE CANTICLE, yy 
 
 a harem against her will ; or, on the other hand, 
 honorable and crowned marriage to her own 
 chosen lover, is here indicated. The chief 
 treasure among the wedding gifts being the 
 horn of silver which ornamented the bride's 
 head, and from which her veil depended, the 
 "palace " or turret of silver would, should she 
 prove discreet, modest, and faithful, be built 
 upon her, and her "horn " be "exalted " with 
 the honor desired by all Hebrew daughters. 
 The vineyard of Solomon at Baal-hamon had 
 doubtless its counterpart in actual land, vines, 
 grapes, or olives, and husbandmen and rent ; 
 but throughout the poem the vineyard which 
 she neglected was her own, and "my vineyard 
 which is mine is before me" was her own per- 
 son — her virgin body, unbought, unsold. 
 
 Apart from the human actors in the Canticle 
 and the figurative language applied to them 
 in names of love and fear, there is a rich sym- 
 bolism pertaining to places and things. The 
 mountains of Lebanon, rich as they were in 
 balsam trees and cedars, were the real types of 
 those " mountains of spices " which were prob- 
 ably never seen on sea or land but grew in 
 ideal regions. The mountains of Bether, or 
 separation, refer probably to the everlasting 
 hills wrinkled with valleys or gorged with ra- 
 vines, making division and distance between
 
 ^8 HISTORY AND CRITICISM. 
 
 lover and loved. " Mountains of myrrh " and 
 "hills of frankincense" were not only the 
 ranges that strike the view in northern Israel, 
 but typified probably also the beauties of the 
 human form, or gardens found in lovers' bowers. 
 We find in Solomon's last speech palm-trees and 
 boughs, clusters of "grapes" and apples that 
 grow only in poetry, and on the fairest work 
 of God in that human form which, in the poe- 
 try of Genesis, he made of a rib instead of the 
 dust of the ground. 
 
 Of places we easily recognize those of his- 
 toric name and reality, but are there not others 
 to be discovered on no map, and existent only 
 in the geography of imagination .-' Archaeolo- 
 gists and excavators in the Hebrew texts have 
 sought in vain to locate Baal-Hamon, or the 
 Baal of Multitude. Possibly such a locality 
 did really exist in one of the "fat valleys of 
 Ephraim," and its name if not a mis-reading 
 for Baal-Hermon may perhaps be found cor- 
 rupted into the " Balamon " of the apocryphal 
 book of Judith, chapter viii. 3. It seems more 
 likely, however, that the name is a coinage 
 of the brain of the poet, and to go after it 
 might be like seeking in England John Bun- 
 yan's Vanity Fair and other places of immortal 
 note. So with " the lions' dens " and ^' the 
 mountains of leopards," as we have suggested.
 
 POETIC BACKGROUND OF THE CANTICLE. "/() 
 
 In the symbolism of flowers, and recondite 
 allusions to the sentiment associated with 
 trees, fruits, perfumes, and other delectable ob- 
 jects, in metaphor and trope, the poet is lavish. 
 The sun looks on the maiden to tan brown her 
 face, the morning peeps forth, the gazelles are 
 creatures to take solemn oath by, love is a liv- 
 ing creature with a will not to be lightly awak- 
 ened, the state car of Solomon is paved with 
 love. The Shulamite's plants and orchard of 
 pomegranates, with all the costly spices, are 
 emblems of mental and moral graces and traits 
 of temperament. She is his garden, the joys 
 of her love are his honeycomb and honey, his 
 wine and milk, making a feast of joy. Yet she 
 is " not too bright or good for human nature's 
 daily food." The apple-tree, which is among 
 the trees of the wood what the beloved is to 
 his loving betrothed among the young men, is 
 the symbol of love and affection. Its beauty, 
 usefulness, fragrance, its delicious fruit and 
 delightful shadow, the memories that cluster 
 around it as a playground and even as a birth- 
 place in the East, where life, even in its begin- 
 ning, as well as toil and joy, is in the open air, 
 make it a favorite with the poets. Probably at 
 the era of Solomon this Persian tree was first 
 introduced into Palestine ; and, becoming a 
 part of the life of the people, it formed a strik-
 
 8o HISTORY AND CRITICISM. 
 
 ing object in the landscape and a useful sym- 
 bol to the poets. This fruit of fruits is also 
 placed poetically in the eyeball, and hung on 
 the forbidden tree in Eden. Possibly, however, 
 the apple-tree of the Hebrews is more correctly 
 an apricot, or possibly a quince. 
 
 Contrast between urban and rural life, to 
 the advantage of the latter, is one of the 
 notable points in the poem. In the country 
 the maid of Shunem has all her joys ; in the 
 city, her woes, sorrows, accidents, and peculiar 
 troubles. Evidently it is the purpose of the 
 poet to paint the delights of out-door life amid 
 the beauties of nature, compelling contrast to 
 the dangers and temptations of the city. In 
 no book of the Bible is the lesson that God 
 made the country while man made the town 
 so clearly illustrated. In no other are the 
 diverse modes of life put in juxtaposition, the 
 one to be feared, and the other to be desired. 
 Like the teacher of Nazareth, who perhaps 
 never spent a night in Jerusalem except that 
 one of sorrow before his crucifixion, and who 
 avoided the city for the country, the Shulam- 
 ite ever looks longingly upon the fields and 
 hills. 
 
 Cities are the graves of health and strength, 
 the destroyers of nerve and vigor, and the 
 waste of energy needs constant replenishing
 
 POETIC BACKGROUND OF THE CANTICLE. 8 1 
 
 from the country, where life is more natural. 
 The demands which civilization makes upon 
 the physical frame could never be supplied 
 from the cities, and except for the country the 
 loss could not be remedied. 
 
 In one respect, at least, the era of the new 
 empire in Israel was noticeably like the cen- 
 tury in which we live. It was the age of 
 cities. Life began to be concentrated within 
 streets and walls. The demand for labor and 
 talent which the newly formed systems of 
 manufactures, public works, and commerce re- 
 quired drew large numbers of the young men 
 and women away from field and viney:ird, olive 
 garden and village, to the cities, and especially 
 to the capital, Jerusalem. That this was not 
 an unmixed good, but in many respects a pos- 
 itive evil, the subsequent history of the nation 
 shows. 
 
 The Song of Songs, however, is a bright 
 picture of a true servant of God reared amid 
 rural and even rustic scenes, who preserves 
 her character and religion amid the luxury and 
 glamour of the great metropolis. In this 
 respect the poem is one of timely interest and 
 present application to the tens of thousands 
 of youths who in our land have left their child- 
 hood's rural homes to seek excitement, fame, 
 or fortune in the teeming cities. May the ex-
 
 82 HISTORY AND CRITICISM. 
 
 ample of the incorruptible maiden of Shunem 
 be to them a beacon of light and inspiration, 
 while her temper ever remains a warning 
 against that " hardening of the heart which 
 brings irreverence for the dreams of youth." 
 
 What happened to the Shulamite comes to 
 pass in the history of almost every young man 
 and young woman. Especially in a country of 
 endless possibilities like our own is this true. 
 She was placed between opposite attractions 
 that represented the true and the false ideals 
 of life. Should she choose glory or duty } 
 Should she live with conscience, religion, sim- 
 plicity of life, purity, and be faithful to her 
 word and first love .' Or, for ambition's sake, 
 for an " establishment " in Jerusalem sell her- 
 self .'' Happy they who by decision and un- 
 swerving loyalty to the ideals of duty keep 
 conscience clear and enjoy peace of mind !
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 DRAMATIC STRUCTURE OF THE SONG OF SONGS. 
 
 The Song of Songs is the only book in the 
 library of the sacred writings which consists 
 wholly of poetry and conversation. All the 
 other poetical books, even the Book of Job 
 which is a drama of the spirit, contain prose 
 diction in the form of introduction, subject- 
 matter, explanation, or epilogue, in which the 
 author himself speaks. In the Song of Songs, 
 however, the author is entirely silent as to in- 
 formation given, or utterances directly made 
 from himself. There are no voices but those 
 of the dramatis personce, the characters them- 
 selves. 
 
 No other book of the Bible in the older Eng- 
 lish versions stood so much in need of the 
 reviser's touch as that of the Canticle. In 
 the Revised Version, the five thousand words 
 are arranged with some reference to their 
 order as poetry ; and as dialogue, soliloquy, 
 chorus, or conversation. It may now be read 
 intelligently by the general reader. Nor does 
 it now seem presumptuous audacity even to
 
 84 HISTORY AND CRITICISM. 
 
 talk of its consummate form as a work of 
 literary art. 
 
 What is the form of this masterpiece of 
 Hebrew poetry ? Is it a pastoral, epic, lyric, 
 cantata, or drama ? Or, is there any one word 
 which, with honest reference to our scanty 
 knowledge of its origin, purpose, and use in 
 ancient times, will accurately describe it ? This 
 is a question of great interest to scholars, who 
 have expended much learning upon this point ; 
 and research and controversy concerning the 
 corollary question whether the drama existed 
 among the Hebrews. In every Asiatic race, 
 from Japan to Phoenicia, we find dramatic ex- 
 pression in some form ; but in none of the 
 Semitic races did this reach the point of devel- 
 opment represented by the theatre. 
 
 Some assert that there is such an innate 
 estrangement in the Hebrew genius from 
 everything of the nature of plastic art, that 
 even dramatic writings would be impossible 
 among them. Both the actor on the stage 
 and the composer of the drama must, accord- 
 ing to the measure of his success, divest him- 
 self of his own personality and enter into that 
 of others. He must have a sort of double con- 
 sciousness. He must move himself with pas- 
 sions which are not his own, and identify him- 
 self with the soul of others. It is asserted
 
 DRAMA TIC S TR UC TURE. 8 5 
 
 that the Hebrews were not able to do this, and 
 hence divine inspiration, which moved the 
 penmen of the Holy Scriptures to utter their 
 God-breathed wisdom in almost every other 
 form of literary expression, found no instru- 
 ment in the drama. Even the very thought 
 of the pure drama, or of dramatic writing in 
 the Bible, shocks the minds of those educated 
 to believe that plastic art and inspiration are 
 incompatible, like the union of Christ and 
 Belial. 
 
 What foundation of truth or fact underlies 
 such notions ? Does not a critical, that is, a 
 thoroughly honest and unbiased, searching of 
 the Scriptures, according to the command of 
 Christ, modify such presuppositions ? Is it 
 not true that the Hebrews were especially 
 noted for their love of symbols, and that " sym- 
 bolism went the length of mimicry," that the 
 prophets often did enter into the feelings and 
 the very personality of others in remote times 
 and places ? Was not this, strictly speaking, 
 dramatic action ? From a purely literary 
 point of view, is not Isaiah's creation of the 
 Servant of Jehovah one of the boldest strokes 
 of dramatic genius ? Was it without point 
 that Jesus called attention to the mimic stage- 
 play, the private theatricals of the children in 
 the market-place (Matthew xi. 17), and that
 
 86 HISTORY AND CRITICISM. 
 
 he branded the Pharisees, the consummate 
 mask-wearers of his day, as "stage-actors," 
 that is, hypocrites ? 
 
 It is true, as a study of Hebrew Hterature 
 shows, that the Scriptures emanating from Ju- 
 dah or Southern Israel were more intensely 
 spiritual in their tone, and borrowed less their 
 images from nature, while in the speech and 
 writings of the prophets and poets of Ephraim 
 or Northern Israel there was, if not more of 
 dramatic movement, action, life, fire, trope, 
 metaphor, and picture word, a closer acquaint- 
 ance and sympathy with nature. The sacred 
 land of Jehovah, containing "the fat valleys of 
 Ephraim " and the perennially rich plain of 
 Jezreel, was more bountifully dowered with 
 Nature's gifts in the north than in the south. 
 The Hebrew in northern Israel lived not next 
 to the desert, as did his southern brethren, 
 but in a more fertile region and nearer to 
 Phoenicia, the land of art and the refinements 
 of civilization. Further, the natural scenery 
 of the North was more bold, variegated, and 
 impressible than in the South, where sand 
 and bare rocks and untimbercd hills prevailed. 
 It was in Ephraim that lyric poetry was most 
 cultivated and whence arose the mightiest 
 singers and poets. It was Naphthali that 
 "gave goodly words." It was in the North
 
 DRAMATIC STRUCTURE. 8/ 
 
 that the drama had a place, though it never 
 developed into the theatre. 
 
 In studying further the dramatic structure 
 of this Bible drama of pure love, we do not 
 find that the speakers are named as in the 
 Book of Job, which is a drama of the soul's 
 trials. In the Canticle, except the title, there 
 are no marks at beginning or ending, such as 
 are added by original writers or later editors 
 and title-makers of the Psalms, so we must 
 look to internal marks. A Swiss cottage 
 shows us its plan even from the outside, be- 
 cause the main timbers are visible. In a more 
 elaborate edifice, however, we must enter and 
 from within study the architect's idea. In a 
 modern drama help is given to the reader by 
 divisions and sections, by the initial letters of 
 speakers, and versicles usually printed in ital- 
 ics. All these are lacking in the Canticle. 
 As printed in a disjointed, butcher-like way in 
 the unrevised versions, with swaddling-bands 
 of impertinent chapter-headings and verse- 
 divisions, it is nearly as hard to recognize the 
 masterly poetic form of the original as to dis- 
 cover the pretty lamb of the meadow in the 
 dressed carcass on the iron hooks of the 
 market stall. 
 
 On the contrary, the original poem in the 
 Hebrew gives by unerring marks and details
 
 88 HISTORY AND CRITICISM. 
 
 of anatomy nearly as much assistance to the 
 reader as the printed helps in a modern book. 
 The Revised Version presents a much bet- 
 ter expression of this part of the Word of God 
 than the old form which is marred by the 
 mixing together of commentators' notes, dog- 
 matic interpretations, and traditions of Scribes 
 and Pharisees, with Holy Scripture. These 
 notes and comments contained in the chapter- 
 headings are intended to force upon the 
 reader the interpretation accepted first by the 
 Synagogue, and then by the Church from 
 the Synagogue. In a way that scandalizes an 
 honest reader of God's Word, they thrust a 
 scheme of purely human invention upon the 
 common people, who thus unwittingly wear 
 the spectacles provided for them and read into 
 the Scriptures what the rabbis and doctors in- 
 tended they should. In other words, the pub- 
 lishers of King James's version of the Bible 
 have effectually, for the vast majority of read- 
 ers, braved the warning in Revelation xxii. i8, 
 and added "to the words of the prophecy of 
 this book." In removing, for most people, the 
 possibility of reading it in a natural way, they 
 have also taken away from " the words of the 
 prophecy of this book." How men of the re- 
 formed or Protestant faith have so long sub- 
 milted to this dishonoring of the Holy Word 
 is hard to understand.
 
 DRAMATIC STRUCTURE. 89 
 
 The Revisers have returned to right prin- 
 ciples in setting forth a new English version 
 of the Word of God as contained in the He- 
 brew and Greek Scriptures. They have swept 
 utterly away many of the old titles and sub- 
 scriptions, the chapter headings, the arbitrary 
 verse divisions, and have restored to some- 
 thing approaching its ancient form this 
 matchless poem and Bible book of love. In 
 the Revision of 1884, we read as the title, in 
 the page-headings, not "The Song of Solo- 
 mon," nor " Solomon's Song," but "The Song 
 of Songs." 
 
 Further, they have attempted to show its 
 poetic structure, with the dialogues and re- 
 frain. One who endeavors to unlock the 
 meaning of this, the most neglected book of 
 Holy Scripture, has now his greatest ally in 
 the English Bible. The poetry, the dramatic 
 element, and the exquisite literary beauty of 
 this Hebrew drama are now fairly expressed 
 in a volume in the hands of the people, and 
 therefore accessible to all. 
 
 Nor is this arrangement of the text a mere 
 matter of opinion, taste, or guess-work. It is 
 determined by the grammar of the Hebrew 
 language, a critical study of which furnishes 
 the scholar with clews in abundance. It is 
 quite easy to distinguish in any paragraph
 
 90 HISTORY AND CRITICISM. 
 
 whether it is the Shulamite or either of her 
 suitors that is speaking. The feminine form 
 of verb, adjective, and noun in each case re- 
 veals the maiden as the speaker. Her GaHlean 
 dialect is no more to be mistaken than was 
 Peter's in the high-priest's hall in Jerusalem. 
 The addresses of the ladies of the harem are 
 easily recognized. They call her, "fairest of 
 women " ; and when spoken to they are 
 "daughters of Jerusalem," as in the six places, 
 chapters i. 5 ; ii. 7 ; iii. 5, 10 ; v. 8 ; viii. 4. 
 
 To distinguish infallibly the male speakers 
 is at present probably impossible, but to do so 
 with a fair degree of certainty is not extremely 
 difficult. Wc point out a few indications here, 
 reserving a fuller treatment for the chapter on 
 " Literary Features of the Poem." 
 
 The king, when addressing the maiden, al- 
 ludes to his position, as in i. 9, 11; vi. 4, or 
 makes use of language referring to his animals, 
 trappings, furniture, possessions, and things of 
 artificial life ; his metaphors are rather elabo- 
 rate, not to say strained ; the coloring of his 
 diction is that of a city-bred man in high life. 
 He calls the one to whom he is paying his at- 
 tentions, "my love" — as the Revision trans- 
 lates this special form of address, the old ver- 
 sion having " my friend." The word in the 
 Hebrew {rayali) is different from the forms of
 
 DRAMATIC STRUCTURE. 9I 
 
 address which the shepherd-lover uses to his 
 betrothed, though among his many terms of 
 endearment, this of "my love," or " my dear," 
 is also employed. This variety of address as- 
 sists us, though not infallibly, to distinguish 
 the male speakers. In the final colloquy, the 
 king's language strains the limits of propriety 
 never even approached by the rural lover. 
 
 On the contrary, the shepherd speaks a less 
 rhetorical, polished, and artificial language, 
 which reflects the images of rural and outdoor 
 life. His talk is of flocks, sheep, flowers, nat- 
 ural perfumes and foods, and of objects within 
 the range of his vision, or of popular knowl- 
 edge. His words have not th^ shadow of im- 
 propriety in them, though full of intense pas- 
 sion and an abandon of emotion that seems 
 at the very nadir of the modern lover whose 
 chief aim, if we may trust the average novel, 
 is to hold himself in constraint before the 
 woman he secretly worships. 
 
 The Shulamite's talk of her beloved refers to 
 an environment different from that of an inhab- 
 itant of kings' houses, though when portraying 
 him to the palace ladies she describes his per- 
 son in terms of the luxury then seen around 
 speaker and hearers. She invariably calls him 
 by one supreme pet name which she never be- 
 stows upon her royal suitor. The lover, whether
 
 92 HISTORY AND CRITICISM. 
 
 absent or present, is the " beloved." This word 
 {dod) is found like the recurring strain of 
 melody in a great symphony. The revisers 
 have carefully discriminated one phase of this 
 feature, adding in the margin to Solomon's form 
 of address " my love " (chap. i. 9), '' my friend'' 
 (and so throughout), though they have neg- 
 lected to add the equally important fact that 
 the accepted lover's title " my beloved " is also 
 "so throughout," and is never used by, or ap- 
 plied to, the royal suitor. In the plural, this 
 word {dod) signifies caresses, or other signs of 
 affection, except where in one place it refers 
 probably to friends or spectators. Indeed it 
 may be said that on the right discrimination 
 and understanding of the different Hebrew 
 words expressed in English by the one word 
 "love," rests the appreciation and comprehen- 
 sion of this apparently enigmatical book. We 
 know what staple for popular misunderstand- 
 ing, as well as for homiletic expatiation, the 
 poverty of our language affords, when in the 
 English version of the New Testament, three 
 distinct Greek words are rendered by that one 
 factotum of four letters — "love." Unfortu- 
 nately, we are put to nearly as great a strait 
 in trying to make an inadequate vagueness 
 in English do duty for clear distinctions in 
 Hebrew which serve excellently for dramatic
 
 DRAMATIC STRUCTURE. 93 
 
 as well as ideographic signs. In the refrain, 
 chapters ii. 7, iii. 5, v. 8, viii. 4, and in the 
 climax, chap. viii. 6, 7, the word for love 
 {aJiabah) refers to the sentiment and not to a 
 person ; though in chap. iii. 10, and vii. 6, this 
 same word is used in a way that partakes both 
 of the abstract and the concrete, in connection 
 with the Shulamite. The word ray ah, which 
 we may translate my "dear," my "friend," 
 my "love" (chap. i. 9, ii. 10), is used alike by 
 Solomon and the shepherd-lover, though the 
 latter calls her also by the more pronounced 
 names of bride, and sister, beside other en- 
 dearing epithets. The one name however by 
 which the Shulamite, the main character of 
 the poem, addresses or speaks of her " be- 
 loved " is dod, and this special designation 
 she bestows upon no one else. The reader 
 of the English Bible may be assisted in his 
 study of the poem by noticing how, when, 
 where, and by whom the various Hebrew 
 words for " love " are used : — 
 
 Ahabak, chapters ii. 4, 5, 7 ; iii. 5, 10 ; v. 
 8 ; vii. 6 ; viii. 4, 6, 7, 7. 
 
 Aheb, i. 3, 4, 7, 16; iii. i, 2, 3, 4. 
 Rajah, i. 9, 15; ii. 2, 10, 13; iv. i, 7 ; v. 
 2 ; vi. 4. 
 
 Dod, ii. 3, 8, 9, 10, 16, 17; iv. 16; v. i, 
 2, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 9, 10, 16; vi. I, 2, 3 ; vii. 9, 
 10, II, 13 ; viii. 5, 14.
 
 94 HISTORY AND CRITICISM. 
 
 The two words ahabah and aJieb are from the 
 same root signifying, as noun and verb, the 
 general sentiment of Affection, and are used in 
 some of the most tender and beautiful pas- 
 sages in the Old Testament, as for example 
 by Jacob, Genesis xxix. 20, David, 2 Samuel i, 
 26, and Isaiah Ixiii. 9. Rayah means dear one, 
 or (female) friend. In chapters i. 2, 4 ; iv. 10; 
 vii. 12, the word ^s'l^taT signifies the acts of love ; 
 in the other instances noted above it refers 
 to a person. 
 
 The step-brothers of the heroine are referred 
 to in three places, and their words given in 
 two of these, chap. ii. 15, and viii. 8, 9. 
 
 Of the citizens of Jerusalem who speak in 
 chapter iii. 6-1 1, there are probably three or 
 four who make question and answer, each hav- 
 ing reference to what most attracts his atten- 
 tion. The poet may have here meant also to 
 introduce a chorus. 
 
 The " daughters of Jerusalem " are the pal- 
 ace ladies belonging to the royal harem. They 
 speak frequently in chorus or solo, not only in 
 the opening scene, and in description of the 
 dancer in chapter vii. In the last part of the 
 poem the friends of the shepherd form a cho- 
 rus, as in chapter viii. 5. 
 
 It may be that we have also two snatches 
 or fragments of popular songs such as often
 
 DRAMATIC STRUCTURE. 95 
 
 echoed in the vineyards of Israel twenty-fiv^e 
 centuries ago. The words primarily uttered 
 by the step-brothers, as a command or warn- 
 ing, were probably also a ditty sung in ^act in 
 actual life, and in representation also when 
 this composition was sung at wedding festivals 
 or recited in public. 
 
 The pretty fragment in chapter vi. 13, which 
 begins chapter vii. in the Hebrew, with its four 
 repetitions of the word " return," is as musical 
 in its way as the echo-chorus in the Bugle-song 
 of Tennyson. The repeated Hebrew word 
 shube, ending in a long, open vowel, is one that 
 is found in some of the most melodious pas- 
 sages in the Bible, the music of which so 
 charms the ear. It is the same as that which 
 Ruth used in her immortal refusal to forsake 
 Naomi, " Entreat me not to leave thee, or to re- 
 turn from following after thee," etc. It is one 
 of the most effective words to the ear either 
 in Hebrew or English. It is often used in the 
 poetical books, but nowhere else in such strik- 
 ing repetitions as in this passage. If this can- 
 tata was ever enacted in public with musical 
 accompaniment, the effect of this echo-chorus 
 must have been very sweet to the ear. In the 
 poem the words may have been uttered by 
 Solomon, but more probably by the court 
 ladies.
 
 96 HISTORY AND CRITICISM. 
 
 Most Striking of the features which reveal 
 the dramatic structure of this consummate 
 work of Hebrew poetical art, is the formula 
 of adjuration, " I adjure you, O ye daughters 
 of Jerusalem, by the roes and by the hinds of 
 the field, that ye stir not up nor awaken love 
 till it please." 
 
 The recurrence of this formula four differ- 
 ent times at the end of decisive scenes divides 
 the composition into six parts ; or, shall we 
 say, acts ? As a division-mark it reminds us 
 of the Selah of the Psalms, indicating a pause 
 of considerable length. Its words are always 
 addressed to the court ladies. Instead of 
 being a "slumber-song" or lullaby, it is more 
 than a " charge " not to awaken a beloved one 
 who wishes to sleep; it is an impassioned, sol- 
 emn appeal to those who would wantonly, even 
 frivolously, stir up the God-born emotion. The 
 word used by the Shulamite, or put into her 
 mouth by the poet, is the same which in other 
 parts of the Bible is rendered to " swear by an 
 oath," to " confirm by an oath," to " bind with 
 an oath," being so rendered about one hun- 
 dred and fifty times in most of the English 
 versions of the Bible. 
 
 The translators of 1611, however, allowed 
 their notions of interpretation to warp the 
 plain meaning of the text, and so, curiously
 
 DRAMATIC STRUCTURE. 97 
 
 enough, the " Solomon's Song " of the old 
 version is the one book in the Bible in which 
 the Hebrew sheba (as in Beer-sheba the well 
 of the oath, Bath-sheba daughter of an oath, 
 etc.) was translated " charge." The Revisers 
 of 1884, honestly conforming to the text, have 
 rightly rendered this strong word "adjure." 
 
 Whether it was right for a Hebrew, a wor- 
 shiper of Jehovah, to swear by the roes and 
 gazelles of the fields instead of by some name 
 of the Deity, we do not here discuss. When 
 long afterwards in Egypt the Canticle was 
 translated into their own Greek speech by the 
 Alexandrian Jews, they evidently found offense 
 in this appeal to wild creatures, and translated 
 "By the powers and virtues of the field," etc. 
 Certainly the Bible gives many forms and 
 fashions of oaths, with much variety both of 
 language and gesture. Perhaps with uplifted 
 hand and flashing eyes, the Shulamite called 
 upon the creatures most free, most untram- 
 meled, most timorous, as well as most familiar 
 to her childhood's life, to be witnesses ; even 
 as Abraham in taking oath with Abimelech 
 at Beer-shcba, the well of the oath, set forth 
 seven female lambs as witnesses (Genesis 
 xxi. 27-30). The country girl of the North 
 was probably accustomed thus to swear by 
 creatures that had impressed her imagination,
 
 98 HISTORY AND CRITICISM. 
 
 even as her neighbors swore by their head, 
 beard, tent-pole, or by other objects often in 
 themselves trivial or commonplace, as well as 
 by the temple, by the blood, or by Heaven. 
 
 There are in the Song many plays on words, 
 alliterations, and brilliant repartees which take 
 their cue from the last speaker. It is as hard 
 to transfer these from Hebrew poetry over into 
 English prose as to keep the perfume in a 
 pressed flower. There are also some obscu- 
 rities that have not yet yielded their secret to 
 investigation. 
 
 The various scenes in which the heroine 
 finds herself are laid either in Jerusalem, both 
 within and without the palace, in the streets 
 and open squares of the city, and on or near 
 the walls ; or, in Northern Israel, in the vine- 
 yards, fields, gardens, mountain slopes, and 
 childhood's scenes under the trees. To the ac- 
 cepted lover, " my beloved " of the poem, who 
 is the shepherd, the maiden often speaks, or 
 talks, as if he were in her presence. Appar- 
 ently he is in Jerusalem, and at the palace, as 
 well as in Hermon and the land of Issachar in 
 the far North. 
 
 Since by far the greater portion of the poem 
 consists of addresses or references to " the be- 
 loved " or of his words to the Shulamite, the 
 question naturally arises. How does the author
 
 DRAMATIC STRUCTURE. 99 
 
 intend to represent the movements of "the be- 
 loved " ? Does he mean us to understand that 
 the shepherd appears on the scene in objective 
 reality, bodily in the flesh, in presence of, 
 alongside of, or embracing the maiden ? Does 
 he come to Jerusalem, walk in the gardens, 
 or under the windows of the palace ? Is he a 
 visible speaker on the stage ? Does he with 
 actual and audible voice bid her fly with him ? 
 Is the scene meant to be shifted in objective 
 reality from Jerusalem to Hermon, from city 
 to country, from palace to cottage ? 
 
 Or, does the poet down to chapter vii. 10 
 represent the home-sick and love-sick girl in 
 one place, the royal palace or Jerusalem, all 
 the time ; and are the various scenes of the 
 meetings of the lovers subjective only in vis- 
 ion, trance, or ecstasy ? 
 
 However it may have been exhibited, when, 
 or if, the cantata was publicly sung or enacted, 
 we think that all the scenes containing an ap- 
 parent dialogue between the lovers, except in 
 the final union in chapter viii., are ideal. The 
 purpose of the poet is manifestly to represent 
 the shepherd-lover as invisible until the final 
 scene of triumph, when he leads this lily, no 
 longer among thorns, to the gardens of happy 
 home and marriage. From the opening of the 
 first scene, until the beginning of the final
 
 lOO HISTORY AND CRITICISM. 
 
 ones in chapter viii., the actual movement of 
 the drama is in or near the royal quarters, 
 whether in pavilion in Galilee, or palace at 
 Jerusalem. The lover is seen and heard, re- 
 membered as in the dream, or thought of as 
 present in the spirit, but all this is only in the 
 mind of the Shulamite, who is severed in the 
 flesh from him. 
 
 In other words, this biblical drama is enacted 
 mainly in the soul of the maiden. The chief 
 centre of the reader's thought and attention is 
 the woman's heart, and all else is but subordi- 
 nate and illustrative. The order of importance 
 of the characters is, first, the Shulamite ; sec- 
 ond, the shepherd-lover ; and third, Solomon ; 
 but the dramatic and psychological importance 
 of the two men is of small importance. The 
 real motion and arena are in the feelings of the 
 woman. As on the Chinese stage, on account 
 of the gorgeous colors and drapery of the 
 actors, no scenery is needed, so in this He- 
 brew drama the changing mood and intense 
 feelings of the heroine make everything else 
 only subordinately necessary. The minor char- 
 acters, indispensable as machinery, might, as 
 in the drama of Japan, wear masks or blacken 
 their faces to prevent recognition, yet would 
 the soul of the Shulamite be visible in all its 
 moods.
 
 DRAMATIC STRUCTURE. lOI 
 
 We have called this unique book in the libra- 
 ry of inspiration a drama, and its various parts, 
 acts and scenes, not because it has the logical 
 progress and harmonies of the Greek trage- 
 dies, for these the Song of Songs has not. It 
 is lacking in those striking sequences of move- 
 ment, as well as of thought, which we associate 
 with the plays of Euripides or Shakespeare. 
 The change of scene to scene is abrupt, with- 
 out close connection one with the other, though 
 there is a plot, development, and climax. 
 
 What is even more noticeable is the almost 
 utter absence of effect of the addresses of the 
 speaker upon the person addressed. In this 
 drama of feeling, and not of logic and reason, 
 each actor seems utterly uninfluenced by the 
 arguments or inducements of the other, while 
 all the time the moods of these people who feel 
 intensely are expressed with the exactness of a 
 photograph, with the rapidity of rays of light, 
 and with a variety of words which in their 
 shadings defy the translator, even as the whole 
 book mocks and disdains the commentator. 
 
 In other words, in this drama we find as the 
 result of dialogue little modification of ideas, 
 but much of feeling. Whereas in Western 
 love-making there is, among men at least, a 
 dread lest the suitor should give way to his 
 real emotions, we find here the real lover aban-
 
 I02 HISTORY AND CRITICISM. 
 
 doning himself in a torrent of emotion ; while 
 in the woman's heart the storm is unceasing 
 until peace is won, when the genuine woman 
 asserts her delight in the kind of coquetry that 
 gilds man's life and gives it charm. 
 
 Hebrew dramatic writing in so far as we 
 know it, like other poetry of this hot-blooded 
 people, is intensely subjective, and before the 
 stress or glow of feeling in the heroine's bosom 
 all else bends and pales. This idea of the poet 
 is especially illustrated in the fact that in con- 
 structing his work he makes at least four of 
 the scenes, and parts of others, ideal ; that is, 
 in reminiscence or dream. The two dreams 
 are notable features, and occur immediately 
 after the heroine's feelings have been especially 
 excited. We comclude that it is the object of 
 the sacred dramatist to keep in shadow and 
 distance the lover, so that the trials of the " lily 
 among thorns" may be shown to be all the 
 more real and severe. The internal dramatic 
 unity of the poem is most perfectly maintained 
 in the character of this tried and proved Shu- 
 lamite, to whom the king and the peasant-lover 
 are dramatically subordinate. 
 
 Further, the love which is pure, holy, and 
 God-born, is of purpose set forth as far as pos- 
 sible without trace of coarseness, fleshliness, or 
 impurity. As stainless as a marble statue is
 
 DRAMATIC STRUCTURE. I03 
 
 this inspired drama of love. The virgin hero- 
 ine is absolutely chaste and guileless. The 
 only possible approach to indelicacy in the 
 whole poem is found immediately after the de- 
 scription, by the court ladies, of the dancer of 
 Mahanaim ; and this brief passage is put into 
 the mouth of the royal voluptuary, who is in- 
 dignantly and boldly interrupted by the virgin 
 heroine. 
 
 At this point, chapter vii. 9, second line, 
 Delitzsch and most Hebraists, even though 
 differing in their interpretations, agree as to 
 the fact that the Shulamite interrupts the king. 
 " The dramatic structure of the Song becomes 
 here more strongly manifest than elsewhere be- 
 fore." The reader of the English Bible may 
 ask, " How do you know this } " We answer, 
 that the Shulamite has one invariable desig- 
 nation for her lover ; which is " my beloved " 
 {dod), which she never applies to the royal 
 suitor, and which is never used by Solomon. 
 It is her language and hers only. Further, as 
 Delitzsch says, "The text as it stands before 
 us requires an interchange of the speakers, and 
 nothing prevents the supposition of such an 
 interchange." 
 
 The various ideal scenes in which the lovers 
 talk or walk together are in general clearly in- 
 dicated by rhetorical guide-marks as manifest
 
 104 HISTORY AND CRITICISM. 
 
 as the shifting of actual scenery of board and 
 canvas on a stage, or the rise and fall of a 
 curtain. The chief demarkation point is the 
 refrain of adjuration, — "I adjure you, O ye 
 daughters of Jerusalem, by the roes and by the 
 hinds of the field, that ye stir not up nor 
 awaken love till it please." This marked fea- 
 ture in the drama occurring four times, divides 
 the movement into five separate acts. 
 
 The various scenes, which number fourteen 
 in all, are separated from each other by minor 
 refrains, such as " My beloved is mine, and I 
 am his," which occurs three times ; as likewise 
 the three references to the mountains, by 
 which three of the scenes are closed. The 
 reveries, dreams, or night-visions of the Shu- 
 lamite are indicated by the words which begin 
 a new scene, "By night on my bed, I sought;" 
 " I sleep, but my heart waketh." The two spec- 
 tacular scenes in which a procession appears, 
 and choruses of spectators take part as the 
 heroine enters Jerusalem in the royal litter, or 
 returns home with her beloved, are introduced 
 by the question " Who is this .-• " Indeed, con- 
 sidering that the Song of Songs consists en- 
 tirely of continuous dialogue without any ex- 
 ternal marks or prose versicles to guide the 
 reader, as in Job, the artistic form is all the 
 more remarkable and its consummate art all 
 the more demonstrable.
 
 DRAMATIC STRUCTURE. 
 
 105 
 
 In our view of the poem, the scene of the 
 first two acts is in the women's quarters of 
 the royal tents in northern Palestine ; that 
 of the third and fourth acts is in Jerusalem, 
 and the palace ; while in the fifth act, the 
 scene again recurs to the mountain home of 
 the shepherd and the Shulamite. The divi- 
 sions of the drama, referred to the chapters 
 and verses of the English Bible, which with a 
 few exceptions are similar to those appended 
 to the Hebrew text, are as follows : 
 
 Act I. 
 
 Scene I. 
 
 Scene 11. 
 Act II. 
 
 Scene I. 
 
 Scene II. 
 Act III. 
 
 Scene I. 
 
 Scene II. 
 
 Scene III. 
 
 Scene IV. 
 Act IV. 
 
 Scene I. 
 
 Scene II. 
 
 Scene III 
 
 Scene IV. 
 Act V. 
 
 Scene I. 
 
 Scene II. 
 
 Chapter and Verse. 
 I. 2-8. 
 
 I. 9-II. 7. 
 
 II. 8-17. 
 
 III. 1-5. 
 
 III. 6-1 1. 
 
 IV. 1-7. 
 
 IV. 8-V. I. 
 
 V. 2-8. 
 
 V. 9-VI. 3. 
 
 vr. 4-9. 
 
 VI. lo-VII. 7. 
 
 VII. 8-VIII. 4. 
 
 VIII. 5-7. 
 VIII, 8-14.
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 HISTORY OF THE BOOK ITSELF. 
 
 The fate of the finest of Hebrew poems, the 
 history of the book itself, both as to its out- 
 ward form and inward purpose, forms a most 
 extraordinary chapter in the annals of litera- 
 ture. We shall here attempt to show how it 
 came to pass that so simple and beautiful a 
 piece of poetry was in the process of time 
 turned into an allegory, and later into a mys- 
 terious symbol full of the most advanced dog- 
 matic theology ; and shall then, glancing at its 
 remarkable literary history, try to explain the 
 process by which a matchless poem was pul- 
 verized into common prose. 
 
 Let us first explain what an allegory is, giv- 
 ing several examples ; then detail the process 
 by which Canticles lost its historic and literal 
 character, and gained the reputation of hav- 
 ing a purely mystic nature and purpose, which 
 did not originally belong to it, and of which 
 the Bible, apart from uncertain analogies, gives 
 no hint whatever. 
 
 An allegory is the description of one thing
 
 HISTORY OF THE BOOK ITSELF. 10/ 
 
 under the image of another. In an allegory 
 we use the concrete to enforce the abstract, 
 represent one thing in pictures or narrative in 
 order to consider something else. An allegory 
 is a metaphor long drawn out, or a chain of 
 metaphors constantly involving a transfer of 
 meaning. The current of thought must con- 
 stantly break contact with the words. All lit- 
 erature is full of short allegories, like that of 
 Plato's comparison of the soul to a charioteer 
 drawn by two horses, one white, the other 
 black. Shakespeare's text is rich with these 
 tropical pictures ; but the longest as well as 
 the most perfect allegories in the English 
 language are Spencer's " Fairie Queen " and 
 Bunyan's " Pilgrim's Progress." On Spencer's 
 field of the cloth of gold, knights, ladies, lions, 
 lambs, monsters, and demons move briskly ; 
 but by these he means to tell us about Holi- 
 ness, Temperance, Chastity, Mammon, De- 
 spair, Cruelty, etc. The lions and lambs are 
 only emblems of virtues. So John Bunyan 
 pictures a variety of characters, pilgrims, trav- 
 elers, and shopmen, and shows the every- 
 day people of middle England two hundred 
 years ago, and what one may see at Coney 
 Island, on Broadway, or at a county fair to- 
 day. The immortal dreamer's object is to 
 show us moral truths and the temptations,
 
 I08 HISTORY AND CRITICISM. 
 
 joys, and trials of a Christian on his journey to 
 Heaven. 
 
 An allegory is somewhat different from a 
 parable ; for a parable is a narrative of im- 
 agined facts or of events not supposed as a 
 whole to have actually happened, while an al- 
 legory is usually a continuation of similitudes 
 without the signs of comparisons at hand. Its 
 sense is twofold ; thus, " Israel is a cake not 
 turned." Parables do not have metaphors in 
 the telling of them ; the seed is seed, the lamp 
 is a lamp, the fish a fish. Allegories are full 
 of metaphors : the grasshopper is some bodily 
 organ, the silver cord is the spinal marrow, the 
 golden bowl is the human skull, etc. 
 
 There are many allegories in the Bible. In 
 the eightieth Psalm, Israel is described as a 
 vine brought out of Egypt, planted, tended, 
 rent by the wild boars, trampled down, etc.; 
 which means that the Hebrew nation is in 
 great distress and has many enemies. The 
 description of old age in Ecclesiastes, under 
 the similes belonging to a house, is a superbly 
 beautiful allegory in which windows, doors, pil- 
 lars, wheels, pitchers, cisterns, etc., refer to 
 the eyes, mouth, heart, limbs, and trunk of the 
 aged human body. Nathan's allegory of the 
 traveler stealing the poor man's pet lamb is 
 another example. So also is the parliament of
 
 HISTORY OF THE BOOK ITSELF. IO9 
 
 the trees and plants in Judges ix., in which 
 the only one that wants to be king is the 
 bramble ; as well as the happy family in Isaiah 
 xi., of the lion and the lamb lying down to- 
 gether, and a little child leading them. 
 
 A first-rate allegory explains itself, and does 
 not need an interpreter because the interpreta- 
 tion is transparent to all. You can see the fly 
 through the amber at once. As, for example, 
 Christ says, " I am the Vine and my Father 
 is the Husbandman." Sometimes, however, a 
 mixed or inferior sort of allegory must be ex- 
 plained. Then the danger is that the inter- 
 preter will discover too many coincidences, 
 and make the application of too many details. 
 
 There are some people whose minds revel in 
 allegories. They would find types, shadows, 
 meanings, coincidences everywhere. They 
 ransack the whole Old Testament and reduce 
 everything to symbolism. They would de- 
 grade pure history into fiction and try to paint 
 God's lilies and gild his gold. Wherever the 
 number three occurs, they discover the doc- 
 trine of the Trinity ; twelve, the apostles of 
 Christ ; in the color red, blood ; in this thing 
 the cross, in that the crown. Every scripture 
 passage has to them a mystic sense, a deep 
 hidden signification, and the plainest state- 
 ment is an emblem of something different.
 
 no HISTORY AND CRITICISM. 
 
 Such people turn the Bible upside down, and 
 defeat the very purpose of revelation, God's 
 Word is a book for the race, for plain men, and 
 till the end of time the grammar and diction- 
 ary will be the best books to get at what the 
 writers said and meant ; while common sense, 
 an humble and willing heart, and prayer for 
 the Holy Spirit will be the best aids to under- 
 stand just what God means. Just now the 
 grammar and dictionary are battering down 
 the walls of Jewish fables which rabbis have 
 raised around the Old Testament. 
 
 Although the Scriptures are abused and 
 turned into excess of allegory through unbridled 
 imagination, or more often through the vagaries 
 of fancy, we must not despise parables, em- 
 blems, or types, but must discover, employ, 
 and enjoy them as the apostles did, — soberly, 
 carefully, moderately ; as, for instance, in the 
 Epistle to the Hebrews, one of the sublimest 
 and most edifying books in the New Testa- 
 ment. 
 
 Sometimes Paul draws an allegory from ac- 
 tual facts of history, but he does not turn the 
 history into an allegory ; it is to him actual 
 narration of facts, but facts so related as to be 
 typical. 
 
 Between Mount Sinai and Jerusalem, be- 
 tween the son of the slave woman and the
 
 HISTORY OF THE BOOK ITSELF. Ill 
 
 children of the free mother, he draws a com- 
 parison in Galatians iv. 22-31. This he does 
 to show Christian freedom by grace as against 
 bondage to a ceremonial law ; that is, a man is 
 saved by Christ, and not by the blood of goats 
 and bullocks ; and his life must be by faith 
 and good works to God and man, not by ques- 
 tions of meats and drinks and holy days. 
 
 A good allegory is a good thing, but to turn 
 a whole book of history or poetry founded on 
 historical facts into an allegory is to smother a 
 living thing and make it a mummy. It is add- 
 ing to the scripture something not there and 
 taking away what is. Paul made use of Hagar 
 and Sarah to point an argument, but he did 
 not thereby make the historical fact any the 
 less true, or the women any less real flesh and 
 blood of decidedly feminine quality. In show- 
 ing that freedom was better than slavery, he 
 did not declare that the story of Abraham's 
 casting out of Hagar was a fiction or a myth. 
 Even an apostle had no right to do this. It 
 was still a fact, and the history is true. Paul 
 was careful to state what he was doing : said 
 he, " Which things," that is, which solid facts 
 of history, ^'contain an allegory, for there are 
 two covenants." In the Revised Version we 
 see how clear the apostle makes this matter. 
 The historic facts are also allegorical, because
 
 112 HISTORY AND CRITICISM. 
 
 the women represent covenants. He does not 
 say these events are only an allegory, but that 
 they contain one. Now from this example of 
 the inspired apostle let us draw our rule of in- 
 terpreting the Scriptures of the Old Testament 
 and especially the Song of Songs. 
 
 A tendency to discover allegories may be 
 as much a proof of poverty of imagination as 
 of exuberance of fancy, the latter being the 
 servant of sense, the former the servant of rea- 
 son. Most of the ten thousand fanciful alle- 
 gories and meanings which people find in the 
 Scriptures may be safely rejected. We are to 
 beware how we consider any Bible history as 
 allegorical, except that which Christ, the apos- 
 tles, or inspired persons have treated allegori- 
 cally. Paul in his use of allegory was strik- 
 ingly temperate, but the moderation of most 
 commentators on Canticles is not manifest. 
 
 Ever let us proceed soberly and in depend- 
 ence upon the Holy Spirit. How dare we 
 turn the Song of Songs, a whole book of the 
 Bible, into allegories and emblems, when 
 neither prophet, apostle, nor the Christ gives 
 us a shadow of right to do so } Surely if the 
 Canticle were an allegory, the New Testament 
 writers, especially Paul, or the primitive 
 Christians, would have seized upon it, used it, 
 and told us this article of their faith.
 
 HISTORY OF THE BOOK ITSELF. II3 
 
 Furthermore, in all allegories there are hints 
 of their meaning and internal marks of their 
 mystical design. Any child can soon see what 
 John Bunyan is teaching in Pilgrim's Progress. 
 In the Canticle there is nothing of this appa- 
 ratus of interpretation. Of Christ or of the 
 Church, of the Virgin Mary, of the Resurrec- 
 tion, of the history of Christianity, there is in 
 the language no intimation whatever. Further 
 yet, even the Jews of Alexandria, or those who 
 lived in the time of Christ, who were famous 
 for making allegories, read the Canticle as a 
 poem with a story, but never as a vehicle of 
 dogmatics. 
 
 Let us now trace the steps which led to the 
 modern view, such as is set forth in the chap- 
 ter-headings in the unrevised versions, which 
 do not — despite the profession of the Bible 
 Societies — contain " the Holy Scriptures with- 
 out note or comment," but a mixture. In 
 these profane additions of printers and com- 
 mentators to the ancient manuscripts, the 
 mediaeval view of the Song of Songs is fossil- 
 ized. Probably the very first trace of the al- 
 legorical interpretation which identifies the 
 Church specifically as the bride of the Canticle 
 is found in a passage in a weak apocryphal 
 book called the fourth book of Ezra, or 2 
 Esdras. Luther declared this writing worse
 
 I 14 HISTORY AND CRITICISM. 
 
 than -^sop's fables. Even the Church of 
 Rome refuses to receive it as Scripture, and it 
 is not usually bound up with the other books of 
 the Apocrypha. In 2 Esdras, v. 23, we read : 
 
 " O Lord who bearest rule, from every 
 wood of the earth, and from all the trees 
 thereof, thou hast chosen one vine ; and from 
 all lands of the world thou hast chosen thee 
 one land ; and from all the flowers thereof one 
 lily ; and from all the depths of the sea thou 
 hast filled thee one river; and from all cities 
 built thou hast hallowed Sion unto thyself ; 
 and from all flying things that are created 
 thou hast called thee one dove ; and from all 
 cattle that are made thou hast provided thee 
 one sheep ; and from all the multitudes of 
 peoples thou hast gotten thee one people ; and 
 unto this people, whom thou lovedst, thou 
 gavest a law that is approved by all." 
 
 Now from this mention of the lily and the 
 dove, and the one people beloved, and in all 
 comparisons Israel as the chiefest among ten 
 thousand, came the idea of the church of Is- 
 rael, that is of the Old Testament, as a bride ; 
 which in the seventh chapter and twenty-eighth 
 verse of this same apocryphal book is thus 
 spoken of : " For the time shall come, and it 
 shall come to pass, that when these tokens 
 which I have told thee of shall come, the bride
 
 HISTORY OF THE BOOK ITSELF. 1 15 
 
 shall appear and the city shine forth, that is 
 now withdrawn, for my son Jesus shall be re- 
 vealed with those that are with him, and they 
 that remain shall rejoice for 400 years. And 
 it shall come to pass after these years, that 
 my son Christ shall die, and all men that have 
 breath," etc. 
 
 Here then, one thousand years after the 
 writing of the Canticle, when many of its local 
 allusions had been forgotten, and the niceties 
 of its language lost, because Hebrew was a 
 dead language to the majority, when nearly 
 every one of the Jews talked Aramaic, Greek, 
 or other foreign tongues, instead of the ancient 
 language of Palestine, and when allegory had 
 reached the point of a craze among learned 
 m.en, the first germ of the idea of altering 
 the original meaning of the Song of Songs 
 came into being. A hundred years later, when 
 the Jews had rejected Jesus as the Messiah, 
 and Jerusalem had been destroyed, when He- 
 brew was rapidly becoming an absolutely dead 
 language, and the Talmud was being formed, 
 in which endless tradition wove its web like a 
 spider over the Old Testament as over a closed 
 door, then the learned rabbi Akiba completed 
 in the Jewish church the ascendancy of the 
 allegorical over the literal interpretation. 
 
 Another hundred years later, Origen, the
 
 Il6 HISTORY AND CRITICISM. 
 
 learned divine of Alexandria who first intro- 
 duced into the Christian church the allegoriz- 
 ing method, wrote a commentary in ten vol- 
 umes on the Canticle. In this famous book he 
 made the Shulamite to mean the Church of 
 Christ, and Solomon to mean Jesus, and other 
 persons in the poem to stand for friends or 
 enemies of the Church. His tremendous au- 
 thority settled the question and made the or- 
 thodoxy of the time. To doubt his opinions 
 was to become a heretic. Grand old fighter of 
 the heathen, and noble witness to the faith as 
 he was, he filled the Bible with cobwebs. In 
 the Middle Ages this system of interpretation 
 became almost universal. Bernard of Clair- 
 vaux preached over fourscore sermons on the 
 first two chapters of the book, and nearly all 
 commentators until the eighteenth century was 
 well past, followed along this track. 
 
 Now the long-handled dust-brushes of re- 
 search and new brooms of fresh study — not of 
 the fathers or of the Jewish rabbis, but of the 
 Bible itself — are sweeping away these purely 
 human imaginations. We are more and more 
 seeing as the Israelites of two thousand and 
 more years ago saw, and reading as they read. 
 We do not now go to the Jews to learn He- 
 brew or find out what the Old Testament 
 means. We go to the original Scriptures them-
 
 HISTORY OF THE BOOK ITSELF. 1 17 
 
 selves. Believing that the Lord is in his holy 
 temple, we expect all the earth to keep silence 
 before Him. We listen to the lively oracles 
 while the voices of scribe and commentator 
 are stilled. The Jews, since the Talmud was 
 formed, have not been nor are they now fed 
 on the pure milk of the Word. They are 
 nursed on rabbinical notions. The veil over 
 their eyes is this Talmud. Probably not more 
 than one out of a thousand can or does read 
 the Old Testament in a fair, and unprejudiced 
 manner. They wear the spectacles put on 
 their eyes by the Talmudical writers, without 
 even suspecting it. But let us as Christians 
 beware lest we too err in like manner, by be- 
 ing led away by the fathers, or the commen- 
 tators, or the makers of chapter-headings or 
 church lectionaries. 
 
 Origen was a man of extremes. Because 
 he at first took the Bible too literally, and 
 on the strength of Christ's words about the 
 offending member actually mutilated himself, 
 he afterwards went to the other extreme and 
 took nothing literally. He borrowed the intel- 
 lectual vices of heathen teachers, and applied 
 to the Holy Scriptures a method of interpre- 
 tation radically false. He found three or four 
 senses in every text. Said he : " The Scrip- 
 tures are of little use to those who understand
 
 Il8 HISTORY AND CRITICISM. 
 
 them as they are written." Hence he ever 
 sought for the hidden and mysterious mean- 
 ings, and many people still follow him, revel- 
 ing in the delights of turning one simple 
 piece of glass into a kaleidoscope, and the 
 Bible into a secret society's lodge -room and 
 chamber of mystery. Let us rather follow 
 Christ and Paul, be very sparing of the use of 
 allegory, and travel on the humble but safe 
 road of Bible facts. 
 
 We need not go any further and trace out 
 the full history of this unbiblical interpreta- 
 tion of the book before us, nor show how 
 Origen's successors enlarged upon his views, 
 and how subsequent interpreters found nearly 
 everything, even down to the last absurdities 
 of sectarian rhapsody, in the Canticle. This 
 one book has stood for many centuries among 
 the other Scriptures like the heroine of it — 
 cast out of her own place, having no vineyard 
 of her own, keeping the vineyards of her moth- 
 er's sons, but her own not kept. Being the 
 first of the five Megilloth or rolls, it is read 
 annually once at the feast of the Passover, but 
 is otherwise neglected by the Jewish people. 
 The Church of England has cast it out of her 
 tables of Scripture lessons, though retaining 
 portions of the apocryphal books, such as 
 Tobit, Baruch, Wisdom, and Ecclesiasticus ;
 
 HISTORY OF THE BOOK ITSELF. I 19 
 
 and, emboldened by her example, editors of 
 the Bible in private translation reject this 
 book and insert instead texts from Babylonian 
 Tablets. Alchemists, fortune-tellers, and pol- 
 iticians have let loose their vagrant fancies 
 upon it, until this divine picture of love has 
 lain buried under the rubbish and whitewash 
 of ages of nonsense. Nor is this assertion 
 any the less true because devout souls have in 
 every age found in this writing the parable of 
 the soul's affections and their vocabulary of 
 adoration. Suffice it to say that, on the other 
 hand, since Theodoret of Syria, who died a. d. 
 457, there have always been Christian scholars 
 who have denied anything either impure in 
 the thought or language of the book, or that it 
 needed an occult scheme of philosophy to ex- 
 plain it, or that it was an allegory relating to 
 Christ and the Church. 
 
 Now, thanks to the labors of many students 
 in many countries, yet all coming to substan- 
 tial agreement, the ancient understanding of 
 it has been regained. Many ministers of the 
 gospel believe, even if they hesitate to preach, 
 the original ancient view, while in a few of 
 our own theological seminaries the simple 
 natural interpretation is taught and demon- 
 strated. It is shown that the title " Song of 
 Solomon " is a literary anachronism and does
 
 120 HISTORY AND CRITICISM. 
 
 not belong to the book, but has been added by- 
 tradition ; while its own contents prove that 
 Solomon did not write it ; and finally that the 
 first and oldest translation of the book from 
 Hebrew into Greek, made three centuries be- 
 fore Christ, lends no color to the popular idea 
 of an allegory. The same may be declared of 
 the pre-Christian works of Hebrew literature 
 entitled the book of Ecclesiasticus, The Wis- 
 dom of Solomon, and the writings of Josephus. 
 
 To sum up what has been said concerning 
 the internal purpose: (i) There is not a word 
 or a scrap of evidence in the Old or New Tes- 
 tament that gives basis to the notion that 
 the Song of Songs refers in detailed allegory 
 to Christ and the Church, or that bears out 
 this fanciful interpretation. This turning of 
 the poem into an allegory began long after the 
 time of Christ, and was introduced into the 
 Christian Church by Origen, but the Bible 
 gives no countenance to it. 
 
 (2) We are to remember that all the head- 
 ings of chapters and pages, as well as the 
 divisions of the texts of the Bible into chap- 
 ters and verses, are the work of printers, edi- 
 tors, and uninspired men, and have no divine 
 or rational authority. This method of surrep- 
 titious note and comment, amounting virtu- 
 ally to a system of interpretation, is no part of
 
 HISTORY OF THE BOOK ITSELF. 121 
 
 Holy Scripture, and it improperly influences 
 many people in their conception of the mean- 
 ing of God's Word. 
 
 (3) We are to bear in mind that the words 
 printed in italics are not found in the original 
 language, but are put in simply to make sense 
 or complete sentences, so as to read more ea- 
 sily in English. Very often these words ob- 
 scure rather than make clear the intent of a 
 passage, and Bible students will often find that 
 a verse becomes stronger, clearer, and better 
 in every way by omitting the italics. Often 
 they unwarrantably convert a lively metaphor 
 or a little allegory into a prosy simile or com- 
 parison. 
 
 Further, there is not one book in the Eng- 
 lish version of the Bible, called " King James's," 
 except possibly Job, that needed more revision% 
 and retranslation than the Song of Songs, and 
 for the closer approach to its dramatic struc- 
 ture, made by the revisers of 1884, we should 
 be grateful. 
 
 Concerning the external history of the poem, 
 the mutations in its literary form, our words 
 need not be many. The ordinary reader of 
 the English Bible notices that in the version 
 of 1884, not only the Song of Songs, but 
 the books of Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Lamenta- 
 tions, and even parts of Deuteronomy and
 
 122 HISTORY AND CRITICISM. 
 
 Judges, are printed in a fashion that reveals, 
 to some extent, the poetic structure of the 
 original. Easily distinguishable to the eye 
 from the mass of prose, even the song of 
 Lamech stands out like a crystal of garnet in 
 its bed of rock. 
 
 Much as has already been done towards im- 
 proving the outward guise, as well as develop- 
 ing the real meaning and inward spirit of the 
 sacred writings, more yet remains to be ac- 
 complished. The researches of scholars into 
 the literary history of Israel, into the nature 
 of the Hebrew language, and their prolonged 
 critical examination of the texts, have revealed 
 beauties of structure and artistic forms never 
 dreamed of since this vehicle of revelation 
 became a dead language. Even yet, with all 
 •the wealth of scholarship lavished upon the 
 subject, the record of the psalmists, prophets, 
 and poets of the Old Testament still remains 
 like the negative of a photograph which has 
 been imperfectly developed. A version, a 
 translation, is like a copy printed from the 
 original, in which clearness of impression, 
 tone, light, and shade, and all the details that 
 go to form a perfect picture, are according to 
 the skill and resources of the operator. Other 
 exquisite poems, now unrecognizable as such 
 in the common prose of the Old Testament,
 
 HISTORY OF THE BOOK ITSELF. 12$ 
 
 are yet to stand out clearly in a perfected ver- 
 sion. 
 
 The student of the English Bible may ask 
 how it came to pass that the poetry of the He- 
 brews was turned into prose. How happened 
 it that the mass even of Jewish worshipers in 
 modern times, though hearing the sacred rolls 
 read in the synagogue so often, never sus- 
 pected the beauty of the real form within the 
 words they listened to or chanted ? Like the 
 men of two centuries ago who looked upon a 
 fossil as only a freak of nature, or an Oriental 
 shepherd who to-day feeds his fiock ignorantly 
 among Corinthian capitals or cuneiform in- 
 scriptions, there was no suspicion of the origi- 
 nal purpose and the actual truth. Utterly lost 
 as to its intrinsic charms, the Song of Songs, 
 as read alike in the synagogue in medieval and 
 modern times, and in the English Bible, was 
 like the mounds of earth which in Egypt and 
 Chaldea cover grand ruins. 
 
 The story of decay, ruin, sleep, and resurrec- 
 tion of the exquisite poem of the Canticle is 
 somewhat like that of an ancient city, except 
 that the lapses happened under guardians and 
 not under enemies. Composed probably in 
 the age of classic Hebrew in northern Israel, 
 its delicate allusions and local color were for- 
 gotten in later centuries. When, too, Hebrew
 
 124 HISTORY AND CRITICISM. 
 
 ceased to be spoken and became a dead lan- 
 guage, lost to poets and original writers, and 
 only a corpse to be embalmed or dissected by 
 scribes and dogmatists, its poetry was forgot- 
 ten. The ear and eye of proof-text hunter 
 and disputant of words became dull to literary 
 beauties and harmonies, and the cast of mind 
 common to the Jews was that of the Chinese 
 scholars to-day, between whom and the post- 
 biblical Hebrews there are surprising points 
 of likeness. 
 
 Yet these men of Talmud-making times 
 were, after all, only famous according as they 
 lifted up axes upon thick trees, and reduced 
 the living forest of Hebrew inspired literature 
 to a mass of dead timber. They did indeed 
 preserve this timber most carefully by an elab- 
 orately artificial system. The traditional pro- 
 nunciation of the words of the Scriptures was 
 embalmed in a remarkable system of dots, 
 dashes, and other diacritical marks represent- 
 ing vowels, and which to the eye appear not 
 vastly different from the telegraphic alphabet. 
 These tiny marks written outside the letter, or 
 inside of its " bosom " without touching its 
 outline, represent the vowels, double the con- 
 sonants, and otherwise preserve or affect the 
 sense of the writing. Yet after the best is 
 said that can be said about this Massorctic
 
 HISTORY OF THE BOOK ITSELF. 12$ 
 
 or traditional system, it represents tradition, 
 and the tradition only of a time later than 
 the period when the Hebrew was a living lan- 
 guage. Providentially, it may be, this highly 
 artificial system, the growth of centuries, pre- 
 served from absolute extinction the Hebrew 
 records. 
 
 As if, however, the change from a living to 
 a dead language were not enough, the artistic 
 beauty of Hebrew poetry was still further de- 
 stroyed by the new and peculiar use of the 
 Scriptures in the synagogue. Now came the 
 blows of hammers on the carved work. Any 
 one who attends upon the modern worship of 
 the Jews knows how large a part of the service 
 consists of chanting by the congregation, or 
 reading of the rolls by the preacher, who is a 
 "reader of the law." When the utterances 
 and writings of the holy men of Israel were no 
 longer stern law, eloquent prophecy, or exqui- 
 site poetry, when inspiration had ceased, when 
 temple and sacrifices were no more, and mere 
 erudition or tradition-making occupied the He- 
 brew wise men, then the whole body of Scrip- 
 ture was reduced to a mass of " edifying " 
 reading, or material for synagogue chants. 
 The living word of God was thus turned into a 
 formal liturgy, the exponent of fossilized Jew- 
 ish orthodoxy.
 
 126 HISTORY AND CRITICISM. 
 
 To fit this artificial method of using the in- 
 spired Word, an elaborate system of marks, 
 tones, and accents was gradually developed and 
 set upon the Scripture text ; at first honestly, 
 on it but not of it. As cunningly as a spider 
 weaves its web over a flower-bed was this 
 wonderful system which facilitated cantillation 
 woven over the ancient texts. In time, these 
 readijig marks became Holy Scripture to the peo- 
 ple. The old Bible of Jesus and Paul and John 
 was transformed to the popular mind into a dead 
 unity of orthodox and edifying reading matter. 
 Its marvelous diversity of literary form was 
 forgotten in dull uniformity. Jews and Chris- 
 tians alike came to believe in the divine inspi- 
 ration even of this double system of points and 
 accents, which as with axes and hammers had 
 broken down the carved work of the once 
 splendid temple of living literature. For cen- 
 turies the marvelous beauties of form, and the 
 spirit and meaning of their ancestral poetry, 
 were forgotten even by the Jews themselves. 
 Practically unknown to Christian scholars un- 
 til the Reformation period, the Hebrew re- 
 mained unstudied, and the Church inherited 
 unsuspectingly the vast mass of Jewish tradi- 
 tion. Even when the language of the Old 
 Testament was studied in the universities of 
 Europe and America, it was in the spirit of the
 
 HISTORY OF THE BOOK ITSELF. 12/ 
 
 scribes and lawyers, against whom Jesus con- 
 stantly sent the shafts of his criticism. 
 
 Hence, though there was vast erudition, and 
 mighty stores in the memory, and much stuff- 
 ing of texts into dogmatic cartridges, there was 
 little real understanding of the Bible as litera- 
 ture. It has been only during the past century 
 that the critical and comparative methods, so 
 commended of our Lord Jesus, have been 
 adopted by scholars. The fruit of the toil of 
 the great Hebraists is now before us, and into 
 their labors we may wisely enter. In the Re- 
 vised Version of 1884, a very cautious and ul- 
 tra-conservative use of the materials accumu- 
 lated has been made use of in the text, though 
 a more generous and courageous utilization of 
 them is found in the margin. For even this 
 result, compromise though it be, we ministers 
 and Bible readers may be thankful. The day 
 may yet come when this one of the deathless 
 literatures of the world may be restored to us. 
 To the recovery of the Old Testament as 
 matchless literature, as a temple of glory and 
 delights into which even the ordinary English 
 reader may enter to behold a miracle of purity, 
 beauty, and divine love, the Revision of 1884 
 has grandly contributed. Whether it shall be 
 accepted in its present form or not, it will serve, 
 nay it has already served, to overthrow the
 
 128 HISTORY AND CRITICISM. 
 
 idols that have too long held their place in the 
 Christian church, like the Baalim beside Jeho- 
 vah's altar. The revisers have not only helped 
 to show us that he who builded the house hath 
 more honor than the house, but that He that 
 built all things is God.
 
 PART II. 
 
 THE TEXT IN THE REVISED VERSION. 
 THE REVISED VERSION OF A. D. 18S4 * 
 
 1 THE SONG OF SONGS. 
 
 (which is Solomon's.) 
 
 ACT I. SCENE I. 
 
 (/« the women's quarters of the royal tents. Court Ladies and 
 the Skulamite.) 
 
 COURT LADY. 
 
 2 Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth : 
 For thy love is better than wine. 
 
 CHORUS. 
 
 3 Thine ointments have a goodly fragrance ; 
 Thy name is as ointment poured forth ; 
 Therefore do the ^ virgins love thee. 
 
 SOLO. 
 
 4 Draw me ; 
 
 * Unaltered as to words, except in chapter iv. 5-7. 
 ^ Or, maidens.
 
 130 TEXT IN THE REVISED VERSION. 
 
 CHORUS. 
 
 we will run after thee : 
 
 SOLO. 
 
 The king hath brought me into his chambers : 
 
 CHORUS. 
 
 We will be glad and rejoice in thee, 
 We will make mention of thy love more than of 
 wine : 
 * Rightly do they love thee. 
 
 SHULAMITE. 
 
 5 I am black, 
 
 CHORUS. 
 
 but comely, 
 
 SHULAMITE. 
 
 O ye daughters of Jerusalem. 
 As the tents of Kedar, 
 
 CHORUS. 
 
 as the curtains of Solomon. 
 
 SHULAMITE. 
 
 6 Look not upon me, because I am swarthy, 
 Because the sun hath - scorched me. 
 
 My mother's sons were incensed against me, 
 They made me keeper of the vineyards ; 
 But mine own vineyard have I not kept. 
 
 ' Or, In uprightness. ^ Or, looked upon.
 
 THE SONG OF SONGS. 131 
 
 7 Tell me, O thou whom my soul loveth, 
 Where thou feedest thy JJock, where thou 
 
 makest // to rest at noon : 
 For why should I be as one that ^ is veiled 
 Beside the flocks of thy companions ? 
 
 CHORUS. 
 
 8 If thou know not, O thou fairest among women, 
 Go thy way forth by the footsteps of the flock. 
 And feed thy kids beside the shepherds' tents. 
 
 SCENE II. 
 {Royal tent. Solomon and the S/iulamite.) 
 
 SOLOMON. 
 
 9 I have compared thee, O "^ my love, 
 * To a steed in Pharaoh's chariots. 
 
 10 Thy cheeks are comely with plaits of hair , 
 Thy neck with strings of jewels. 
 
 11 We will make thee plaits of gold 
 With studs of silver. 
 
 SHULAMrrE. 
 
 12 While the king sat at his table. 
 
 My spikenard sent forth its fragrance. 
 
 13 My beloved is unto me as a * bundle of myrrh, 
 That lieth betwixt my breasts. 
 
 1 Most ancient versions have, wandereth. 
 
 2 Or, 7ny friend (and so throughout). 
 8 Or, To the steeds. Or, To my steed. 
 * Or, bag.
 
 132 TEXT IN THE REVISED VERSION. 
 
 14 My beloved is unto me as a cluster of ^henna- 
 
 flowers 
 In the vineyards of En-gedi. 
 
 SOLOMON. 
 
 15 Behold, thou art fair, my love j behold, thou art 
 
 fair ; 
 "^ Thine eyes are as doves. 
 
 SHULAMITE. 
 
 16 Behold, thou art fair, my beloved, yea, pleasant : 
 Also our couch is green. 
 
 SOLOMON. 
 
 17 The beams of our 'house are * cedars, 
 And our rafters are * firs. 
 
 2 
 
 SHULAMITE. 
 
 1 I am a *^ rose of ' Sharon, 
 A lily of the valleys. 
 
 SOLOMON. 
 
 2 As a lily among thorns, 
 
 So is my love among the daughters. 
 
 SHULAMITE. 
 
 3 As the apple tree among the trees of the wood, 
 So is my beloved among the sons. 
 
 ^ Heb. copher. ^ Or, Thou hast doves' eyes. 
 
 * Or, houses. * Or, 0/ cedar . . . of fir. 
 
 ^ Or, cypresses. ^ Heb. habazzeleth, the autumn crocus. 
 
 ^ Or, the plain.
 
 THE SONG OF SONGS. 1 33 
 
 ^I sat down under his shadow with great delight, 
 And his fruit was sweet to my taste. 
 
 4 He brought me to the ^ banqueting house, 
 And his banner over me was love. 
 
 5 Stay ye me with "raisins, comfort me with 
 
 apples : 
 For I am sick of love. 
 
 6 * His left hand is under my head, 
 
 And his right hand doth embrace me. 
 
 7 I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem, 
 By the ^ roes, and by the hinds of the field, 
 That ye stir not up, nor awaken love, 
 Until it please. 
 
 ACT II. SCENE I. 
 ( T%e Shulamite's reminiscence of her lover's visit.) 
 
 SHULAMITE. 
 
 8 The voice of my beloved ! behold, he cometh, 
 Leaping upon the mountains, skipping upon the 
 
 hills. 
 
 9 My beloved is like a ® roe or a young hart : 
 Behold, he standeth behind our wall, 
 
 He looketh in at the windows, 
 
 * Heb. / delighted and sat down etc. 
 
 2 Hth. house 0/ wine. ' Heh. cakes o/raisitis, 
 
 * Or, Let his left handht etc. ^ Or, gazelles. 
 ' Or, gazelle.
 
 134 TEXT IN THE REVISED VERSION. 
 
 He ^ sheweth himself through the lattice. 
 
 10 My beloved spake, and said unto me, 
 
 THE LOVER. 
 
 " Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away. 
 
 11 For, lo, the winter is past, 
 The rain is over and gone ; 
 
 The flowers appear on the earth ; 
 The time of the ^singing of birds is come, 
 And the voice of the turtle is heard in our 
 land ; 
 
 13 The fig tree ripeneth her green figs, 
 And the vines are in blossom, 
 They give forth their fragrance. 
 
 Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away. 
 
 14 O my dove, that art in the clefts of the rock, in 
 
 the covert of the steep place, 
 Let me see thy countenance, let me hear thy 
 
 voice ; 
 For sweet is thy voice, and thy countenance is 
 
 comely." 
 
 SONG. 
 
 15 "Take us the foxes, the little foxes, that spoil 
 
 the vineyards ; 
 For our vineyards are in blossom." 
 
 SHULAMITE. 
 
 16 My beloved is mine, and I am his : 
 He feedeth his flock among the lilies. 
 
 * Or, glartceth through. "^ Or, pruning of vines.
 
 THE SONG OF SONGS. I 3 5 
 
 17 ^ Until the day '^ be cool, and the shadows flee 
 away, 
 Turn, my beloved, and be thou like a ' roe or a 
 
 young hart 
 Upon the * mountains of ^ Bether. 
 
 SCENE II. 
 (/« a dream, the Shulamite seeks and finds her lover. ) 
 
 3 
 
 1 By night on my bed I sought him whom my 
 
 soul loveth : 
 I sought him, but I found him not. 
 
 2 / said, " I will rise now, and go about the city, 
 In the streets and in the broad ways, 
 
 I will seek him whom my soul loveth : " 
 I sought him, but I found him not. 
 
 3 The watchmen that go about the city found me : 
 To whom I said, " Saw ye him whom my soul 
 
 loveth ? " 
 
 4 It was but a little that I passed from them, 
 When I found him whom my soul loveth : 
 I held him, and would not let him go, 
 
 Until I had brought him into my mother's 
 
 house. 
 And into the chamber of her that conceived me. 
 
 1 Or, Whe7i the day is cool. 
 
 2 Or, break. Heb. breathe. 
 8 Or, gazelle. 
 
 * Or, mountains of separation. 
 6 Perhaps, the spice malobathron.
 
 136 TEXT IN THE REVISED VERSION. 
 
 5 ^I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem, 
 By the roes, and by the hinds of the field, 
 That ye stir not up, nor awaken love, 
 Until it please. 
 
 ACT III. SCENE I. 
 
 (A royal procession in the streets of yerusalem. Citizens 
 talking.) 
 
 CHORUS OF PEOPLE. 
 
 6 Who is this that cometh up out of the wilder- 
 
 ness like pillars of smoke. 
 Perfumed with myrrh and frankincense, 
 With all powders of the merchant ? 
 
 CITIZEN. 
 
 7 Behold, it is the litter of Solomon ; 
 Threescore mighty men are about it, 
 Of the mighty men of Israel. 
 
 CITIZEN. 
 
 8 They all handle the sword, and are expert in 
 
 war : 
 Every man hath his sword upon his thigh, 
 Because of fear in the night. 
 
 CITIZEN. 
 
 9 King Solomon made himself a * palanquin 
 Of the wood of Lebanon. 
 
 10 He made the pillars thereof of silver, 
 
 1 See ch. ii, 7. 2 Or, car 0/ state.
 
 THE SONG OF SONGS. 1 37 
 
 The bottom thereof of gold, the seat of it of 
 
 purple, 
 The midst thereof being ^ paved with love, 
 From the daughters of Jerusalem. 
 
 CHORUS OF PEOPLE. 
 
 II Go forth, O ye daughters of Zion, and behold 
 
 king Solomon, 
 With the crown wherewith his mother hath 
 
 crowned him in the day of his espousals. 
 And in the day of the gladness of his heart. 
 
 SCENE II. 
 {Solomon's visitto the Shulamite in the palace in Jerusalem.) 
 
 4 
 
 SOLOMON. 
 
 1 Behold, thou art fair, my love ; behold, thou art 
 
 fair; 
 ''' Thine eyes are as doves behind thy ^ veil : 
 Thy hair is as a flock of goats, 
 That ^lie along the side of mount Gilead. 
 
 2 Thy teeth are like a flock of ewes that are newly 
 
 shorn. 
 Which are come up from the washing ; 
 * Whereof every one hath twins, 
 And none is bereaved among them. 
 
 1 Or, inlaid. ^ Or, Thou hast doves' eyes. 
 
 8 Or, locks. * Or, appear on mount Gilead. 
 
 ^ Or, Which are all of them in pairs.
 
 T38 TEXT IN THE REVISED VERSION. 
 
 3 Thy lips are like a thread of scarlet, 
 And thy ^ mouth is comely : 
 
 Thy temples are like a piece of a pomegranate 
 Behind thy '^ veil. 
 
 4 Thy neck is like the tower of David builded * for 
 
 an armoury, 
 Whereon there hang a thousand bucklers. 
 All the shields of the mighty men. 
 
 5 Thy two breasts are like two fawns that are twins 
 
 of a * roe. 
 7 Thou art all fair, my love ; 
 And there is no spot in thee. 
 
 SHULAMITE. 
 
 My beloved is mine, and I am his, * 
 Who feedeth his flock among the lilies. 
 
 6 ^ Until the day be cool, and the shadows flee 
 
 away, 
 I will get me to the mountain of myrrh, 
 And to the hill of frankincense. 
 
 ^ Or, speech. 2 Qx, locks. * Or, with turrets. 
 
 * Or, gazelle. ' ^ See ch. ii. 17. 
 
 * For the re-arrangement of the text in verses 5-7, see 
 pages 204-207.
 
 THE SONG OF SONGS. 1 39 
 
 SCENE III. 
 
 {^The Skulamite and her lover ^ in ideal interview.^ 
 
 THE LOVER. 
 
 8 " Come with me from Lebanon, my bride, 
 With me from Lebanon : 
 
 ^ Look from the top of Amana, 
 From the top of Senir and Hermon, 
 From the Hons' dens, 
 From the mountains of the leopards. 
 
 9 Thou hast '^ravished my heart, my sister, my 
 
 bride ; 
 Thou hast '^ravished my heart with 'one of 
 
 thine eyes, 
 With one chain of thy neck. 
 
 10 How fair is thy love, my sister, my bride ! 
 How much better is thy love than wine ! 
 
 And the smell of thine ointments than all man- 
 ner of spices ! 
 
 11 Thy lips, O my bride, *drop as the honeycomb : 
 Honey and milk are under thy tongue ; 
 
 And the smell of thy garments is like the smell 
 of Lebanon. 
 
 12 A garden *shut up is my sister, my bride ; 
 A ^ spring shut up, a fountain sealed. 
 
 ^ Or, Go. 2 Ox , given me courage, 
 
 * Or, one \o6kfrom thine eyes. 
 
 * Or, drop honey. 6 Heb. barred. 
 
 * Or, according to many ancient autliorities, garden.
 
 I40 TEXT IN THE REVISED VERSION. 
 
 13 Thy shoots are * an orchard of pomegranates, 
 
 with precious fruits ; 
 Henna with spikenard plants, 
 
 14 Spikenard and saffron, 
 
 Calamus and cinnamon, with all trees of frank- 
 incense ; 
 Myrrh and aloes, with all the chief spices. 
 
 15 Thou art a fountain of gardens, 
 A well of living waters. 
 
 And flowing streams from Lebanon." 
 
 SHULAMITE. 
 
 16 Awake, O north wind ; and come, thou south ; 
 Blow upon my garden, that the spices thereof 
 
 may flow out. 
 Let my beloved come into his garden, 
 And eat his precious fruits. 
 
 THE LOVER. 
 
 I " I am come into my garden, my sister, my bride : 
 I have gathered my myrrh with my ' spice ; 
 I have eaten my honeycomb with my honey ; 
 I have drunk my wine with my milk. 
 \Aside.'\ Eat, O friends \ 
 Drink, yea, drink abundantly, 'O beloved." 
 
 ' Ox, a paradise. ^ Ox, balsam. ' Ox, of love.
 
 THE SONG OF SONGS. I4I 
 
 SCENE IV. 
 {First Dream of the Shulamite.) 
 
 SHULAMITE. 
 
 2^1 was asleep, but my heart waked : 
 
 It is the voice of my beloved that knocketh, 
 saying, 
 
 THE LOVER. 
 
 "Open to me, my sister, my love, my dove, my 
 ' undefiled : 
 For my head is filled with dew, 
 My locks with the drops of the night." 
 
 SHULAMITE. 
 
 3 I have put off my coat ; how shall I put it on ? 
 
 I have washed my feet ; how shall I defile them ? 
 
 4 My beloved put in his hand by the hole 0/ the 
 
 door, 
 And my ^ heart was moved * for him. 
 
 5 I rose up to open to my beloved ; 
 And my hands dropped with myrrh. 
 And my fingers with liquid myrrh. 
 Upon the handles of the bolt. 
 
 6 I opened to my beloved ; 
 
 But my beloved had ^ withdrawn himself, and was 
 
 gone. 
 My soul ' had failed me when he spake : 
 
 1 Or, / sleep, but my heart waketh. 
 
 " B eh. perfect. ^ Heh. bowels, 
 
 * According to many MSS., wit/tin me. 
 
 * Or, turned away. « Heb. went forth.
 
 142 TEXT IN THE REVISED VERSION. 
 
 I sought him, but I could not find him ; 
 I called him, but he gave me no answer. 
 
 7 The watchmen that go about the city found me, 
 They smote me, they wounded me ; 
 
 The keepers of the walls took away my * mantle 
 from me. 
 
 TO THE LADIES. 
 
 8 I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem, if ye 
 
 find my beloved, 
 
 * That ye tell him, that I am sick of love. 
 
 ACT IV. SCENE I. 
 {Dialogue about the Belo7)ed.) 
 
 CHORUS OF LADIES. 
 
 9 What is thy beloved more than another beloved, 
 O thou fairest among women .'' 
 
 What is thy beloved more than another beloved, 
 That thou dost so adjure us .-' 
 
 SHULAMITE. 
 
 10 My beloved is white and ruddy, 
 'The chiefest among ten thousand. 
 
 11 His head is as the most fine gold, 
 
 His locks are * bushy, and black as a raven. 
 
 12 His eyes are like doves beside the water brooks ; 
 Washed with milk, and ^ fitly set. 
 
 1 Or, veil. 
 
 2 Heb. What will ye tell him ? That,etc. 
 ' Heb. /Marked out by a banner. 
 
 * Or, curling. ' Or, sitting by full streams.
 
 THE SONG OF SONGS. 1 43 
 
 13 His cheeks are as a bed of ^ spices, as ^ banks of 
 
 sweet herbs : 
 His lips are as lilies, dropping liquid myrrh. 
 
 14 His hands are as ^ rings of gold set with ^ beryl : 
 His body is as ^ ivory work ^overlaid with sap- 
 phires. 
 
 15 His legs are as pillars of marble, set upon sock- 
 
 ets of fine gold : 
 His aspect is like Lebanon, excellent as the 
 cedars. 
 
 16 His '^ mouth is most sweet : yea, he is altogether 
 
 lovely. 
 
 This is my beloved, and this is my friend, 
 O daughters of Jerusalem. 
 
 6 
 
 CHORUS OF LADIES. 
 
 1 Whither is thy beloved gone, 
 O thou fairest among women ? 
 Whither hath thy beloved turned him. 
 That we may seek him with thee t 
 
 SHULAMITE. 
 
 2 My beloved is gone down to his garden, to 
 
 the beds of ^ spices, 
 To feed in the gardens, and to gather lilies. 
 
 1 Or, balsam. 2 q^^ towers of perfumes. 
 
 ^ Or, cylinders. * Or, topaz. 
 
 ' Or, bright ivory. 6 Qr, encrusted. 
 ' Ox, speech. Heh. palate.
 
 144 TEXT IN THE REVISED VERSION. 
 
 3 ^ I am my beloved's, and my beloved is mine : 
 He feedeth his flock among the lilies. 
 
 SCENE II. 
 
 (Solonioti's third wooing. His praises of the Shulamite.) 
 
 SOLOMON. 
 
 4 Thou art beautiful, O my love, as Tirzah, 
 Comely as Jerusalem, 
 
 Terrible as ^an army with banners. 
 
 5 Turn away thine eyes from me. 
 For they ^have overcome me. 
 
 * Thy hair is as a flock of goats, 
 That lie along the side of Gilead. 
 
 6 ^Thy teeth are like a flock of ewes. 
 Which are come up from the washing ; 
 Whereof every one hath twins, 
 
 And none is bereaved among them. 
 
 7 ® Thy temples are like a piece of a pome- 
 
 granate 
 Behind thy veil. 
 
 8 There are threescore queens, and fourscore 
 
 concubines. 
 And ^ virgins without number. 
 
 9 My dove, my ^ undefiled, is but one ; 
 She is the only one of her mother ; 
 
 * See chap. ii. i6. ^ Heb. bannered hosts. 
 
 * Or, make me afraid. * See chap. iv. i. 
 ^ See chap. iv. 2. * See chap. iv. 3. 
 "^ Or, maidens. * Heb. perfect.
 
 THE SONG OF SONGS. 1 45 
 
 She is the ^ choice one of her that bare her. 
 The daughters saw her, and called her 
 
 blessed ; 
 Yea^ the queens and the concubines, and they 
 
 praised her. 
 
 SCENE III. 
 
 ( The Shulamite narrates an incident in her life, and dances 
 before the ladies of the court!) 
 
 CHORUS OF LADIES. 
 
 10 Who is she that looketh forth as the morning, 
 Fair as the moon, 
 
 * Clear as the sun, 
 
 * Terrible as an army with banners ? 
 
 SHULAMITE. 
 
 Ill went down into the garden of nuts, 
 To see the green plants of the valley, 
 To see whether the vine budded, 
 And the pomegranates were in flower. 
 
 12 Or ever I was aware, my * soul ^set me 
 Among \kiQ. chariots of my ® princely people. 
 
 CHORUS. 
 
 13 Return, return, O Shulamite; 
 
 Return, return, that we may look upon thee. 
 
 1 Or, Pure. 2 Or, pure. 
 
 8 See ver. 4. ♦ Or, desire. 
 
 ' Or, made me like the chariots of Ammi-nadib. 
 
 * Or, uuilling.
 
 146 TEXT IN THE REVISED VERSION. 
 
 SHULAMITE. 
 
 Why will ye look upon the Shulamite ? 
 
 CHORUS. 
 
 As upon the dance ^ of Mahanaim. 
 
 7 
 
 ( The ladies, admiring the dancer.) 
 
 1 How beautiful are thy '^ feet in sandals, O 
 
 prince's daughter ! 
 * The joints of thy thighs are like jewels, 
 The work of the hands of a cunning workman. 
 
 2 Thy navel is like a round goblet. 
 
 Wherein no mingled wine is wanting: 
 Thy belly is like an heap of wheat 
 Set about with lilies. 
 
 3 *Thy two breasts are like two fawns 
 That are twins of a roe. 
 
 4 Thy neck is like the tower of ivory ; 
 
 Thine eyes as the pools in Heshbon, by the 
 
 gate of Bath-rabbi m ; 
 Thy nose is like the lower of Lebanon 
 Which looketh toward Damascus. 
 
 5 Thine head upon thee is like Carmel, 
 And the hair of thine head ^like purple ; 
 
 The king is held captive in the tresses 
 thereof. 
 
 * Or, of two companies. ^ Or, steps. 
 
 8 Or, Thy rounded thighs. * See ch. iv. 5. 
 
 ^ Some ancient versions have, like the purple of a king, 
 bound, etc.
 
 THE SONG OF SONGS. 1 47 
 
 6 How fair and how pleasant art thou, 
 
 love, for delights ! 
 
 7 This thy stature is like to a palm tree, 
 And thy breasts to clusters of grapes. 
 
 SOLOMON. 
 
 8 I said, " I will climb up into the palm tree, 
 
 1 will take hold of the branches thereof : 
 Let thy breasts be as clusters of the vine, 
 And the smell of thy ^ breath like apples ; 
 
 9 And thy ^ mouth like the best wine " — 
 
 SHULAMITE (interrupting). 
 
 That goeth down ' smoothly for my beloved, 
 * Gliding through the lips of those that are 
 asleep. 
 
 {Her final decision.") 
 
 10 I am my beloved's. 
 
 And his desire is toward me. 
 
 SHULAMITE (to her expected lover). 
 
 11 Come, my beloved, let us go forth into the 
 
 field ; 
 Let us lodge in the villages. 
 
 12 Let us get up early to the vineyards ; 
 
 Let us see whether the vine hath budded, and 
 ^ its blossom be open, 
 
 ^ Heb. nose. ^ Helj. palate. 8 Heb. aright. 
 
 * Or, Causing the lips of those that are asleep to move or 
 speak. 
 
 ' Or, the tender grape appear.
 
 148 TEXT IN THE REVISED VERSION. 
 
 And the pomegranates be in flower : 
 There will I give thee my love. 
 13 The ^ mandrakes give forth fragrance, 
 
 And ^ at our doors are all manner of precious 
 
 fruits, new and old, 
 Which I have laid up for thee, O my beloved. 
 
 8 
 
 1 Oh that thou wert as my brother, 
 That sucked the breasts of my mother ! 
 
 Whe?i I should find thee without, I would kiss 
 
 thee ; 
 Yea, and none would despise me, 
 
 2 I would lead thee, and bring thee into my 
 
 mother's house, 
 * Who would instruct me ; 
 I would cause thee to drink of spiced wine, 
 Of the ^ juice of my pomegranate. 
 
 3 ^ His left hand should be under my head, 
 And his right hand should embrace me. 
 
 ( To the ladies^ 
 
 4 I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem, 
 ® That ye stir not up, nor awaken love, 
 
 Until it please. 
 
 1 See Gen. xxx. 14. ^ Or, over. 
 
 " Or, That thou mightest. * Or, sweet wine. 
 
 * Sec ch. ii. 6, 7. 
 
 * Heb. Why should ye stir tip ? or why, etc.
 
 THE SONG OF SONGS. 1 49 
 
 ACT V. SCENE I. 
 
 (The Shepherd-lover and the Shulatnite approaching their 
 mountain home.) 
 
 CHORUS OF COUNTRY PEOPLE. 
 
 5 Who is this that cometh up from the wilder- 
 
 ness, 
 Leaning upon her beloved ? 
 
 SHULAMITE. 
 
 Under the apple tree I awakened thee 
 There thy mother was in travail with thee, 
 There was she in travail ^ that brought thee 
 forth. 
 
 ( The bride's prayer^ 
 
 6 Set me as a seal upon thine heart, as a seal 
 
 upon thine arm : 
 For love is strong as death ; 
 Jealousy is ^ cruel as ^ the grave : 
 The flashes thereof are flashes of fire, 
 * A very flame of ^ the Lord. 
 
 7 Many waters cannot quench love, 
 Neither can the floods drown it : 
 
 If a man would give all the substance of his 
 
 house for love, 
 ^ He would utterly be contemned. 
 
 1 Or, and. 2 Heb. hard. 
 
 ' Heb. Sheol. * Or, A most vehement flame. 
 
 6 Heb. Jah. « Or, //.
 
 150 TEXT IN THE REVISED VERSION. 
 
 ACT V. SCENE II. 
 ( The Bride and her brothers. Parable of the two vineyards.) 
 
 FIRST BROTHER. 
 
 8 We have a little sister, 
 And she hath no breasts : 
 What shall we do for our sister 
 
 In the day when she shall be spoken for t 
 
 SECOND BROTHER. 
 
 9 If she be a wall, 
 
 We will build upon her ^ a turret of silver : 
 
 THIRD BROTHER. 
 
 And if she be a door, 
 
 We will inclose her with boards of cedar. 
 
 SHULAMITE. 
 
 ID I '^am a wall, and my breasts like the towers 
 thereof : 
 Then was I in his eyes as one that found 
 peace. 
 
 11 Solomon had a vineyard at Baal-hamon ; 
 He let out the vineyard unto keepers; 
 
 Every one for the fruit thereof was to bring 
 a thousand //Vr^rj- of silver. 
 
 12 My vineyard, which is mine, is before me : 
 Thou, O Solomon, shalt have the thousand, 
 
 1 Or, battlements. 2 Qr, was.
 
 THE SONG OF SONGS. 1 5 I 
 
 And those that keep the fruit thereof two 
 hundred. 
 
 LOVER AND BRIDEGROOM. 
 
 13 Thou that dwellest in the gardens, 
 
 The companions hearken ^ for thy voice : 
 Cause me to hear it. 
 
 SHULAMITE. 
 
 14 'Make haste, my beloved, 
 
 And be thou like to a ' roe or to a young hart 
 Upon the mountains of spices. 
 1 Or, to. 2 Heb. Flee. « Or, gazelle.
 
 PART III. 
 
 STUDIES AND COMMENTS. 
 
 ACT I. SCENE I. 
 THE VINEYARD-GIRL IN THE KING's HAREM. 
 
 Chapter I. i-8. 
 
 The curtain rises upon a scene of Orien- 
 tal splendor. It is springtime in the land of 
 Issachar. Solomon and the royal household 
 are on a pleasure tour in the northern part of 
 his dominions. In one of the "fat valleys" 
 between the mountains of Tabor and Gilboa, 
 near the hill of Little Hermon, the royal tents 
 are pitched. Horses and chariots, state-palan- 
 quins, gorgeous trappings, and brilliantly uni- 
 formed body-guards, snow-white pavilions and 
 luxuriant camp equipage, compel comparison 
 with the loveliness of the natural foreground 
 and the grandeur of the distant scenery. 
 
 Vineyards, wheat -fields, and olive gardens 
 full of life, labor, song, and color, with vine- 
 clad cottages and flocks of sheep under shade
 
 VINEYARD-GIRL IN KINGS HAREM. I 53 
 
 in sight of shepherds fill the foreground. It 
 is the time of the washing and shearing of 
 fleece, and busy have been the owners of the 
 rams and ewes at the Jordan and its affluents. 
 Rising out of the water, and frisking up the 
 mountain sides of Gilead across the river, their 
 snowy coats glisten in the distance, contrasting 
 with the sleek black hair of the goats that lie 
 or gambol along the mountain side. Every- 
 where from the dove-cotes is heard the cooing: 
 of the happy pet-birds, blending with the soft 
 voices of the turtle and the shy rock-pigeon. 
 The dark-green leaves and scarlet blossoms of 
 the pomegranate adorn the gardens, and the 
 air is laden with the fragrance of gums, grasses, 
 and all manner of nature's perfumes. Afar off 
 gleams the snow-crown of "the white moun- 
 tain," Lebanon ; westward is Carmel and the 
 plain of Esdraelon ; while southward are the 
 ever-fertile valleys of Ephraim, and to the 
 west lie the Jordan valley and the hills of 
 Manasseh. 
 
 Dazzling to the eyes of the rustics must 
 have been this court splendor brought into 
 their neighborhood. Familiar with the black 
 goat's-hair cloth tents of the Kedar Ishma- 
 elites who wandered restlessly from place to 
 place, they had as yet seen no such upholstery 
 and pomp as that of Solomon's. Those who
 
 154 STUDIES AND COMMENTS. 
 
 looked within these temporary palaces of lux- 
 ury, or even caught glimpses of the interiors 
 filled with ivory and jewels, India perfumes, 
 and strange pets, went home to tell wonderful 
 stories to eager listeners. The height of in- 
 terest was reached when it was bruited about 
 at well-curb and evening rest that a maiden 
 of Shunem had been invited — when invita- 
 tion meant command, and disobedience peril — 
 to join the king's harem. What a dazzling 
 vista opened to the imagination of the country 
 maids and vineyard toilers, as they thought of 
 one of their number established amid such 
 magnificence, with no hard work to soil the 
 hands or exposure to brown the face, with ser- 
 vants and finest clothing and perfume and 
 music and dancing all the day long. All that 
 could fascinate youth, when the senses are 
 most keen, and fancy is most warm, and day- 
 dreams are most bright, lay in the royal invita- 
 tion. In a few days the tents would be broken 
 up, the cavalcade move to Jerusalem, and then 
 the young girl would behold the splendors of 
 the capital, where silver and gold were as com- 
 mon as stones, and cedarwood as plentiful as 
 fig-mulberry in the lowlands. Who would not 
 envy the good fortune of their neighbor ? But, 
 let us glance within. 
 
 It is upon the royal harem that the poet
 
 VINEYARD-GIRL IN KINGS HAREM. 1 55 
 
 bids us look. Out of his mighty host of 
 women who live to amuse the king, he has 
 selected as part of his traveling household 
 sixty ladies of noble rank, eighty of the grade 
 called pilcgesh or secondary wives, with per- 
 haps hundreds of fair young girls who are 
 attendants, musicians, and dancers, together 
 with the ordinary women servants. Only one 
 idea, one ambition, have these ladies of the 
 court : it is to please Solomon, to enjoy his 
 favor, his condescension, and to receive tokens 
 of his regard in gifts or the honor of his 
 presence. Hear them ! 
 
 Lady. O for a kiss from the kisses of his 
 mouth, for thy love is better than wine. 
 
 In enthusiastic agreement, the other ladies 
 join in the praise of the king. 
 
 Chorus. Sweet is the fragrance of thy perfumes, 
 but thy name itself is as ointment poured out ; be- 
 cause of this, the maidens love thee. 
 
 Has the maid of Shunem listened to these 
 praises, or does she here enter, and is it her 
 voice which speaks ? 
 
 Solo. The king has brought me into his apart- 
 ments. 
 
 Chorus. We will be glad and rejoice with thee, 
 we will celebrate thy caresses more than wine ; 
 rightly do they love thee.
 
 156 STUDIES AND COMMENTS. 
 
 Or does the chorus respond to a wish — 
 since the words might be rendered, " O that 
 the king would bring me " — expressed by one 
 longing for royal fa\'or ? 
 
 Readers may differ in reproducing the first 
 part of the opening scene to eye and ear, but 
 at verse fifth the Shulamite speaks, as the poet 
 does, with no uncertain sound. It is no pallid 
 beauty of the harem, but a child of out-door 
 life who says, probably in answer to their in- 
 quiring glances, and possibly having just en- 
 tered : 
 
 " I am dark " — "but comely," interrupt the 
 ladies. 
 
 "O ye daughters of Jerusalem," continues 
 the Shulamite, " as the tents of Kedar " — " as 
 the curtains of Solomon," they rejoin flatter- 
 ingly. 
 
 In her own eyes she is sunburnt and swarthy, 
 and like the dark goat's-hair cloth of the shep- 
 herd's tents of the tribe of Kedar ; but they 
 praise her rustic beauty as comparable with 
 the royal upholstery. 
 
 " Look not in disdain upon me, because I am 
 tanned, because the sun has looked hard at me. 
 My mother's sons were severe with me, they made 
 me keeper of their vineyards, but my own vineyard 
 I have neglected to keep." 
 
 Here the heroine of the poem gives us a
 
 VINEYARD-GIRL IN KING'S HAREM. 15/ 
 
 little bit of autobiography. In terms of true 
 Oriental self-depreciation, in which every one, 
 especially a girl, is trained from infancy to 
 speak, she has described her neglected per- 
 sonal appearance, which seems to herself in 
 such marked contrast with that of the hand- 
 somely attired and soft-complexioned women 
 around her. In the full dress of a state occa- 
 sion, or in society where the chief work of life 
 is to wear fine clothes, even a man feels keenly 
 the pain of not having on the appropriate gar- 
 ments. How much more a woman, to whom 
 the love of beautiful raiment is innate, and in 
 whose sex the tyranny of costume is relentless. 
 For one like the girl from the country, who is 
 chosen for Solomon's pleasure, as with Esther 
 for Ahasuerus, preparation was doubtless made 
 as to a fitting wardrobe, but yet the sun- 
 browned face could not at once take on the 
 more delicate and pallid hue of those who lived 
 in ease within doors. 
 
 Rightly or wrongly, some one is to blame 
 for this, and the maiden from the vineyards 
 lets us into another secret of her home life, as 
 she becomes communicative with the other 
 women. Her step-brothers — so we take them 
 to be, for she calls them her " mother's," not 
 her father's, sons — have not been generous 
 with her. Not only has the sun been scorch-
 
 158 STUDIES AND COMMENTS. 
 
 ing in its effect upon her face, but the heat of 
 their anger has been severe against her. By a 
 pretty play on words, the poet places her be- 
 tween two fires. So, with a young girl's ex- 
 aggeration, and witli prismatics of wit which 
 are better appreciated in the Hebrew than in 
 the English, the author introduces the step- 
 brothers as the second group of the minor 
 characters in the cantata, the ladies of the 
 harem being the first. Three times or more in 
 the piece are the step-brothers heard from. 
 These burly fellows, hard-headed countrymen 
 as they seem in their matter-of-fact humor and 
 practical view of things, are really the guard- 
 ians of their "little sister" (viii. 8), and make 
 not only her behavior, but her matrimonial 
 prospects, their concern (viii. 8-9). 
 
 According to the ancient law of Israel, to 
 use the words of Ewald, " The special and 
 most natural protectors of a free maiden were, 
 besides her parents, her brothers, especially 
 the eldest of them, who often showed them- 
 selves far more jealous and active in the matter 
 than the father while he was yet alive. This 
 caused the betrothal and marriage of a daugh- 
 ter only too often to be a pecuniary transaction 
 between these protectors and their future hus- 
 bands." 
 
 This we sec illustrated especially in Genesis.
 
 VINEYARD-GIRL IN KING'S HAREM. 1 59 
 
 Here in the Song, it seems, the brothers, daz- 
 zled by the honor, and perhaps pleased with 
 the worldly or financial advantages, have con- 
 sented to have their step-sister become an in- 
 mate of the royal household. 
 
 This allusion to herself and her domestic 
 history is only a parenthesis, for her thoughts 
 are still with her lover, and she thus addresses 
 the absent one. Is it in silent thought, or is 
 she overheard murmurins^ to herself .'' 
 
 " Tell me, O thou whom my soul loveth, where 
 thou feedest thy flock, where thou makest it rest at 
 noon : for why should I be as a wanderer beside 
 the flocks of thy companions ? " 
 
 In this, the first of several descriptions of the 
 one beloved of the heroine of the poem, we 
 read the pet name used by her of the shepherd, 
 but never of Solomon. He is pictured here 
 and always as one in the pasture, or on the 
 mountains, never as a dweller in a city, a king, 
 a monarch, or one busy with the work of gov- 
 ernment or surrounded with luxury. She longs 
 to know where her lover is, under what shadow 
 of a great rock, or beneath what wide-spreading 
 tree, he has been driven by the " double light " 
 and intense heat of noon ; but, to go roaming 
 among the shepherds who were strangers to 
 her, and perhaps free in their remarks about 
 a love-sick girl, to find his particular flock.
 
 l6o STUDIES AND COMMENTS. 
 
 would expose her modest feelings to a severe 
 trial. 
 
 In all this, the Shulamite talks in a real 
 country dialect, in Galilean speech that " be- 
 wrays " her Northern origin, as surely as Peter's 
 pronunciation revealed his personality to the 
 quick-eared servant girl in Herod's palace cen- 
 turies afterward. 
 
 The city -bred ladies, overhearing her talking 
 to herself, make answer to the rustic maiden. 
 Is not this a touch of sarcasm or jealousy, pos-. 
 sibly of contempt for her lover's occupation .'' 
 The chief lady of Solomon's household was the 
 daughter of Pharaoh ; and very possibly the 
 Egyptian, to whom " shepherds were an abom- 
 ination," set the fashion at Solomon's court, 
 and the chief lady shaped the views of the 
 harem. They answer : 
 
 " If you do not really know in secret, you prettiest 
 of women in the world, you had better go out 
 among the hoof-tracks left by the flock, and feed 
 your kids among the shepherds' tents." 
 
 In other words, these pampered beauties 
 deem her a foolish virgin indeed to keep think- 
 ing of a plain country lad, when King Solomon 
 offers her a place in his royal, albeit rather 
 miscellaneous, affections. In their reference 
 to kids instead of lambs in the shepherd's 
 flock, there may be an allusion to the worship
 
 VINEYARD-GIKL IN KING'S HAREM. l6l 
 
 of the Phoenician goddess Astarte, or Ash- 
 taroth, as the Hebrews called her. In the rites 
 of this moon-goddess a kid was the emblem of 
 love. The pure virgin of Shunem was a devout 
 servant of Jehovah, while many of the women 
 in Solomon's harem were idolaters to this 
 Phoenician Venus. For that very reason they 
 were as unable to understand or sympathize 
 with the strict principles of the chaste Shula- 
 mite, as is the heathen woman of to-day in 
 polygamy to enter into the mind of the Chris- 
 tian maiden. To one familiar with the litera- 
 ture, customs, speech, and ideas of the women 
 who live where idolatry prevails, and the rulers 
 and chief men of the country keep harems, the 
 amazing pnrity and modesty of maidens reared 
 in Christian homes is like a revelation from 
 Heaven. The witness of the stone-lore of 
 Tyre and Sidon shows that not only did Phoe- 
 nician women bear such names as " Devoted to 
 Baal," but that many of them were consecrated 
 to impurity by vows and religious rites in the 
 temples of Astarte. 
 
 Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed in 
 spirit like this fair lily of the northern fields. 
 Left alone by the women, a greater trial now 
 awaits her.
 
 ACT I. SCENE II. 
 THE LILY AMONG THORNS. 
 
 Chapter I. 8-II. 7. 
 
 A NEW character appears upon the scene 
 and speaks for the first time in verse ninth. 
 It is his Imperial Majesty, Solomon himself, 
 suzerain of the vassal nations, lord of all Israel, 
 commander of the armies, who " fills the places 
 with dead bodies," whose enemies bite the 
 dust in death at his word. Who can resist 
 him who has sent even princes to their grave 
 under the assassin's knife ? It is fearful even 
 to think of crossing his will. 
 
 The Hebrew emperor is a judge of beauty. 
 Having a host of fair faces daily before him, 
 he is not easily led captive by raven tresses, a 
 rosy cheek, or a sparkling eye. Despite her 
 own dispraise, the Shulamite must indeed have 
 graces all her own to attract this jaded man. 
 
 "How men propose" is a subject of peren- 
 nial interest to women, and all literature has 
 been searched to find pictures of the wooing 
 scene. The Bible opens to our view more 
 than one picture of ardent swain seeking the
 
 THE LILY AMONG THORNS. 1 63 
 
 heart and hand of willing maiden in pure and 
 honorable love. 
 
 Solomon makes love in a business way, much 
 as a purchaser would contract for a perch of 
 building stone, or a cargo of provisions. Sen- 
 suality knows no eloquence, but purity and sin- 
 cerity make the silver tongue. Critical and 
 unimpassioned, yet complimentary and polite, 
 the royal voluptuary, using a term the mean- 
 ing of which hovers between " companion " 
 and "loved one," thus addresses the rustic 
 damsel : 
 
 " I have compared thee, my friend, to steeds 
 caparisoned for Pharaoh's chariot. Thy cheeks 
 are comely in their fringes of coins, thy neck in its 
 necklace of beads. We will make thee head-bands 
 of gold and a necklace of knobs of silver." 
 
 Think not the king a jockey because he 
 compares his lady friend to one of his mares, 
 and possibly draws the imagery of his prom- 
 ises from the head-frame and gay tassels of 
 his noble black steed. In our Western eyes it 
 is not in good taste to compare maiden, sweet- 
 heart, or wife to a horse. The Roman poets, 
 however, did it, and the Arabs do it yet, the 
 comparison being accepted as delightful flat- 
 tery. Remember, too, that horses, once asso- 
 ciated only with Egyptian slavery and long 
 forbidden in Israel, were at this time new and
 
 164 STUDIES AND COMMENTS. 
 
 wonderful things in the cities of Israel. It 
 may have been a poet of Solomon's time who 
 described in matchless apostrophe the war- 
 horse in the book of Job. Even now, the love 
 of the fleet animal sometimes turns a man's 
 thoughts away from his wife and family. It 
 is not certain but that some men love their 
 pet trotters and pacers more than their chil- 
 dren, and the excitement of the races more 
 than the simple joys of home. 
 
 To the Galilean maiden, adorned it may be 
 with rich braided hair within a simple head- 
 dress, bordered perhaps with rows of bronze 
 or silver coins, and her neck decorated with 
 uncostly jewelry made by Phoenician bronze- 
 smiths, the great king promises golden cir- 
 clets, row upon row of gold coin, and necklace 
 damascened with points of silver like the horse- 
 bridles of his cavalry. It is no princess or 
 earthly king's daughter to whom Solomon thus 
 condescends. It is one unused to rich gifts^ 
 
 Is the rustic maiden won by the promises of 
 jewelry and finery, such as young women are 
 usually anxious to own .-' Such presents might 
 easily influence her favorably. Is she inclined 
 to yield .-* 
 
 Not yet. The " ointment poured forth," as 
 the court ladies named the king, is not yet her 
 accepted perfume. The savor sweet to her soul
 
 THE LILY AMONG THORNS. 1 65 
 
 is wafted from pastures, not from divans. She 
 intimates that while the king sat at his table, or 
 rested on his couch, that is, when he was ab- 
 sent, she was most happy. As it is, she thinks 
 of her beloved, who is to her as precious nard. 
 Maidens of to-day, as in all the ages since 
 love was born in Eden, call their absent lovers 
 sweet pet names, using the terms of endear- 
 ment borrowed from things most familiar and 
 also most precious. The Shulamite's names for 
 her shepherd-lover are, "my nard," my "bag 
 of myrrh," my "bunch of cypress flowers." 
 Hear her : 
 
 " Even while the king sat at his table, my spike- 
 nard yielded its sweet odor. A vial of myrrh rest- 
 ing in my bosom is my beloved to me. As a cluster 
 of cypress-blossoms from the gardens of En-gedi is 
 my beloved to me." 
 
 Note here how differently the words inverse 
 thirteenth sound as we re-read them naturally. 
 In the proper rendering of the Hebrew, the 
 unrevised and offensive phrase "' he shall lie all 
 night," etc., disappears, and with it the last 
 suggestion of anything inconsistent with pro- 
 priety. Grammar and parallelism show that 
 the reference of place is to the myrrh and not 
 to the lover. The young girl is simply com- 
 paring her betrothed, her spikenard, myrrh, 
 and cypress flower, to what is sentimentally
 
 1 66 STUDIES AND COMMENTS. 
 
 equal to our buttonhole, belt, or corsage bou- 
 quet, which she wears for ornament, instead of 
 the jewelry promised by Solomon, The maid- 
 ens of Israel, as we learn from the Hebrew 
 of Isaiah, called the pretty vials of perfume, 
 made of snow-white onyx or alabaster, which 
 they wore suspended round their necks be- 
 tween their heart and their garments, "soul- 
 dwellings," or " the houses of the soul," the 
 perfume inclosed being the soul of their fa- 
 vorite friend or lover. While virgin modesty 
 bows her head under the royal flatteries, the 
 sweet odor on her own bosom ascends grate- 
 fully to the sense of smell, reminding her of 
 him whom she always calls " the beloved," now 
 far away. 
 
 Thus, under a critical study of this lovely 
 Bible picture of true love, all suspicion of any- 
 thing that could shock propriety vanishes. 
 The purest-minded virgin may safely read the 
 Song of Songs, in which is no trace of immoral 
 thought. " Marked with Oriental abandon, yet 
 unlike all other pastorals, Latin, Greek, or 
 Eastern, it has not the vestige of a putrid 
 stain." No expurgations, omissions, or apology 
 are needed for this book. It stands forth amid 
 erotic literature as chaste as unsunned snow, 
 a miracle of purest thought and diction as 
 compared with the love poems of Asia.
 
 THE LILY AMONG THORNS. 16/ 
 
 The conversation continues, Solomon talk- 
 ing to this new addition to the list of "virgins 
 without number " in his train ; but though her 
 words seem directed to the king, her heart is 
 with her "beloved," and her thoughts are 
 upon the life amid nature which she so loves. 
 Not only is her speech in the Galilean rustic 
 dialect, while the king's is in the polished lan- 
 guage of Judea, but while her talk is of things 
 home-made and out-doors, his is of works of 
 art and of skilled workmen. 
 
 Solomon. Lo, thou art lovely, my dear. Lo, 
 thine eyes are as doves. 
 
 Shulamite. Lo, thou art lovely, my beloved, yea, 
 pleasant ; our arbor is green. 
 
 Solomon. The roof-beams of our house are of 
 cedar, the wainscoting of cypress. 
 
 Shulamite. I am only a wild flower of the plain, 
 a lily of the valley. 
 
 Thus she refuses to be identified with the 
 hot-house blooms, delicate and frail, that thrive 
 in courts, love the warm breath of flattery, and 
 hang on princes' favors. 
 
 The place called Sharon, usually written as 
 a proper name, is throughout the Bible the 
 sharon, or the great plain or broad field which 
 contains the largest space of level land in t*al- 
 estine. Instead of the "rose," — our queen 
 of flowers, brought long after Solomon's time
 
 1 68 STUDIES AND COMMENTS. 
 
 from Persia, — a simple wild flower is what the 
 Shulamite calls herself. She is only a daisy 
 of the meadow, only the lily that modestly 
 hides in the glen. It was probably this idea 
 and her own words, very probably this very 
 passage, which Jesus had in mind, when in the 
 region of her home he said, " Consider the 
 lilies of the field." As he commends simple 
 purity rather than gaudy display, so here the 
 poet sets in antithesis the stainless girl and 
 the luxurious and sin-dyed king. 
 
 The quick and happy repartee now put by 
 the poet in the mouth of her admirer shows 
 the character as well as the beauty of the 
 heroine. She is of a different temper from the 
 other women who throng the royal harem, — 
 the worshipers of Astarte, the odalisques, 
 the dancing-girls, the heathen beauties, and 
 the frivolous playthings, — women in form, but 
 silly children in nature. Here is one pure, 
 strong, real, sincere woman, true even amid 
 unwonted allurements to vows made and faith 
 plighted. 
 
 " As a lily among thorns, so is my love 
 among the daughters," answers Solomon. 
 
 A holy character flourishing amid uncon- 
 genial circumstances, the seed of the kingdom 
 unchoked of the brambles, pure religion main- 
 tained amid persecution, has in all the ages of
 
 THE LILY AMONG THORNS. 1 69 
 
 the Christian Church been a favorite symbol. 
 "The Church under the Cross " in the Nether- 
 lands, and of the Waldenses, early chose this 
 as their emblem. The thorns of oppression, 
 of flattery, of false religion, could no more con- 
 taminate or kill the pure faith of the churches 
 of Holland or Italy, than could uncongenial 
 influences wither this flower of Israel. 
 
 The maiden in return sings the praises of 
 her " beloved," comparing him to the sweet- 
 breathed apple-tree, which in the springtime is 
 all glorious with beauty, and in autumn all 
 golden with fruit. In the natural poetry of 
 the Hebrews, the apple-tree takes its name 
 from a word meaning to breathe, — the fra- 
 grant breath of the tree, the perfume of the 
 fruit being especially esteemed. It is triply 
 valuable for shade, blossom, and refreshment, 
 
 " As the apple-tree among the wild trees of the 
 wood, so is my beloved among the sons. Delight- 
 edly I sit under his shade, and his fruit is delicious 
 to my taste. O that he would bring me into the 
 vineyard, his very shadow over me being love." 
 
 In memory of past hours of joy, and in hope 
 of future meeting, the love-lorn girl cries out 
 for the fruits of the grape-vine and of the apple- 
 tree, which, in figurative language, stand for 
 the joys of the communion of innocent love,
 
 I/O STUDIES AND COMMENTS. 
 
 the kiss and caress, enjoyed in vineyard and 
 orchard. 
 
 " O comfort me with (such) raisin-cakes. Re- 
 fresh me with (such) apples, for I am faint with 
 love." 
 
 Thus, in heart-sickness of pining and loneli- 
 ness, the heroine gives \vay to her feelings in 
 desiring to be with her lover : 
 
 " Let his left hand be under my head, and his 
 right arm support me." 
 
 How true the poet here is to the actual facts 
 of the young girl's life. These being the 
 words of a maiden absolutely without guile, 
 they can bear but one meaning of innocent 
 longing for the companionship of one beloved. 
 Yet if heard or overheard by less guileless 
 ears, whether inmate of harem, or auditor of 
 the cantata, whether seen by spectator in 
 Palestine or reader of the English Bible, other 
 meanings more or less turbid might be dis- 
 cerned. To the pure all things are pure, and 
 if there be one thing pure under the blue sky 
 it is a young virgin ; but the Bible and this 
 poem are read by others besides the daugh- 
 ters reared in Hebrew and Christian homes. 
 
 Did the lip of proud princess curl, or the 
 eye of odalisque in Solomon's zenana shoot 
 out the darts of suspicion at the Shulamite }
 
 THE LILY AMONG THORNS. 171 
 
 Was it woman's unbelief of woman, the mock- 
 ing, incredulous sneer on lij^ or eye, that drew 
 out the stern adjuration of the Hebrew 
 maiden ? Or is it the pasan of triumphant 
 fidelity which fills the exultant and defiant 
 strain that thrice echoes through this drama ? 
 Compared with the gentleness of her other 
 speeches, this oath seems like a peal of 
 thunder. 
 
 " I adjure you, O ye daughters of Jerusalem, by 
 the gazelles and by the hinds of the fields that ye 
 rouse not my love till it please." 
 
 This is no soothing ditty which the poet 
 makes issue from her mouth. The rustic 
 maid swears by the creatures most free and 
 least influenced by artificial life that her affec- 
 tions are not to be either incited or excited 
 except by her own inclination. "Till it 
 please," is the word ; for love must be born of 
 God, not roused by gifts or bribe. In the same 
 word with which Jehovah names his people 
 when purified and restored, — Hephzibah, my 
 delight is in her, — we find this same strong 
 word JiepJisi, meaning delight, inclination ap- 
 plied to love. This fire of God is not to be 
 wantonly excited, but is to delight in its ob- 
 ject. This may not be good or palatable doc- 
 trine to those managers of the marriage
 
 172 STUDIES AND COMMENTS. 
 
 market who consider all poor, or rising but 
 impecunious, young men as "detrimentals." 
 Too many women and match-makers have 
 *' the world set in their heart," and parents, 
 who have survived and forgotten all sentiment, 
 regard anything like real love between young- 
 people not on the same social and financial 
 level as hurtful nonsense. 
 
 We can easily imagine the advice given to 
 the poor maiden of Shunem about choosing 
 between " a lion and a mouse," in the form of 
 Israel's king and one of Galilee's ten thousand 
 shepherds. It is quite certain that the natural 
 interpretation of the Song of Songs will never 
 be popular with those who have come to years 
 or condition of heart when sentiment is so 
 often dead, and who believe in marriages of 
 property and convenience rather than of true 
 affection. Yet the lesson of this part of God's 
 Word comes with equal force to the young man 
 who is seeking to win a maiden's heart. It is 
 best not to awaken love till it please. The 
 would-be husband risks an awful peril in rous- 
 ing a young girl to too hasty decision. How 
 many men wish to marry in a hurry ! Delay- 
 ing for years on account of business' or ambi- 
 tion's sake the choice of a partner and the 
 gentle art of winning a helpmeet, many a fool- 
 ish man makes himself all ready, after months
 
 THE LILY AMONG THORNS. 1 73 
 
 it may be of self-preparation, and then expects 
 a maiden to give answer with promptness, 
 even though his proposal may have come at 
 her Hke a battering-ram. Is it not best not 
 to hurry a woman until she is sure of herself ? 
 Is it not a wrong to rob her of the season of 
 romance, the time for courtship ? Does not 
 God in nature teach us the lesson of bud and 
 blossom before ripe fruit, of blade and ear 
 before the ripe corn in the ear ? Even to the 
 coquette, this adjuration may give food for 
 solemn thought. The awful record of unhappy 
 marriages and divorces would be marvelously 
 shortened, if these words were deeply pon- 
 dered by young and old.
 
 ACT II. SCENE I. 
 THE DOVE IN THE CLEFT OF THE ROCKS. 
 
 Chapter II. 8-17. 
 
 In Act II. the heroine's environment changes 
 from the surroundin^^s of royalty to the vine- 
 clad cottage among her native hills. Here are 
 pictured gardens and fig-trees, hill-pastures 
 and mountains, and the characteristic vicinage 
 of a north Palestinian home. The rainy sea- 
 son of winter is over, and all nature wears the 
 festal garments of springtime. We listen now 
 to the narrative, by the Shulamite to the court 
 ladies, of a sweet experience of her life before 
 she was brought to the royal quarters. As 
 usual, her talk is in the Galilean dialect. 
 
 She hears a voice beloved and a footstep 
 familiar. 
 
 " Hark ! my beloved ! Ha ! here he comes, leap- 
 ing over the mountains, bounding over the hills. 
 Mv love is like a fjazelle or a fawn. There ! he 
 Stands beliind our garden wall, his eyes twinkle 
 through the window, his face blooms at the lattice." 
 
 As a vine of honeysuckle or morning glory
 
 DOVE IN THE CLEFT OF THE ROCKS. 1 75 
 
 winding its perfumed way over the trellis will 
 come in through the meshes to open bright 
 petals on the inner side, so the maid at home 
 sees her lover's face blooming through the 
 lattice, flushed with the joy of seeing her 
 whose face is on his heart ever. Hear his 
 poetic invitation, his serenade song, in genuine 
 lover's language, for as she tells this reminis- 
 cence of her life to the court ladies she con- 
 tinues : 
 
 " Called my beloved and sang to me : 
 " ' Up, my love, my fair one, and come forth ; for 
 see, the winter is gone, the rain is over, is past^ 
 the flowers appear in the fields, the time for sing- 
 ing (while we prune the vines) has come, and the 
 voice of the turtle-dove is heard in our land. The 
 fig-tree sends forth the aroma of its figs, and the 
 tender buds of the grape-vine yield fragrance. Up, 
 my love, my beauty, and come away.' " 
 
 So invites the young mountaineer, who is 
 here and always in the poem the " beloved," 
 in words whose images are very different from 
 those that saluted the maiden's ear and imag- 
 ination when Solomon flattered her in the 
 palace. The royal suitor's compliments were 
 borrowed from horses and chariots, harness, 
 jewels, ceiling-beams, and dados, — all the ar- 
 tificial luxury of gorgeous pavilions or city 
 houses. The homespun lover invites to out-
 
 176 STUDIES AND COMMENTS. 
 
 door delights, to simple and innocent enjoy- 
 ment of nature. Not horses, but birds ; not 
 imported cosmetics and apothecary's perfum- 
 ery, but nature's fragrance in vine and blos- 
 som ; not the harp and zither, but the sweet 
 note of the turtle-dove, shall she have and 
 hear. Nothing can be in greater contrast 
 than the love-sonnets of the royal suitor and 
 the glowing strains of the plebeian lover, in 
 this exquisite cantata. The formal advances of 
 the one and the spontaneous grace of the other 
 are apparent. 
 
 How does the maiden answer her Galilean 
 shepherd lover ? 
 
 Perhaps she is coy. She lingers. 
 
 Just here let us pause to analyze the feelings 
 in her bosom as she stands on the threshold 
 of her home, eager, yet self-restrained, while 
 the war of the roses make a battlefield of her 
 cheeks, as red and white struggle for victory. 
 
 Is it modesty, bashfulness, diffidence, or 
 shyness that puts feet and heart at odds, that 
 makes her waver between " go " and "stay " } 
 Let us analyze these four words. Modesty is 
 a full, first-class virtue, and arises from a low 
 estimate of ourselves, and often is but a candle 
 to show one's real merit. Bashfulness is an 
 agitation of the spirits in coming into the pres- 
 ence of others. Diffidence springs from too
 
 DOVE IN THE CLEFT OF THE ROCKS. 1 77 
 
 much distrust of self. Shyness comes from 
 excessive self-consciousness, and a painful im- 
 pression that every one is really looking at us. 
 It is really a kind of vanity. 
 
 So say the oracles of lexicography. 
 
 Now, modesty in deportment is becoming 
 to all, maid or married, child or adult, man or 
 woman ; but bashfulness usually results in 
 blunders ; diffidence makes a man a burden to 
 himself, especially in society ; while shyness 
 creates a reserve which is often mistaken for 
 haughtiness, so that persons least inclined 
 to severity are not infrequently taxed with 
 pride and an unsociable and even unfriendly 
 spirit. 
 
 Shall not we, like this fair Hebrew, ever 
 cultivate modesty ; leave bashfulness for nerv- 
 ous people and ill-bred children ; educate our- 
 selves out of diffidence ; and give over shyness 
 to vain and light-headed folks, and especially 
 to hermits and narrow individuals who think 
 all the world is gazing at them and is inter- 
 ested in their least concerns .'' 
 
 Modesty is the jewel of the Shulamite 
 maiden. She waits at her lover's call. Her 
 coyness induces him to begin again his invita- 
 tion. He calls her by no pet name of city 
 bauble, of hot-house flower, or of India spice. 
 She is a dove, not of the ordinary tamed sort
 
 178 STUDIES AND COMMENTS. 
 
 in dove-cote or pigeon-tower, but one hiding 
 modestly away. 
 
 " O my dove, in the clefts of the rocks, in the 
 recesses of the cliffs, let me see thy form, let me 
 hear thy voice, for sweet is thy voice and lovely is 
 thy figure." 
 
 Does she yield sweetly, and do the lovers 
 then hand in hand saunter forth for holiday 
 and delight .'* Or do the step-brothers here 
 interrupt and postpone the meeting, and send 
 her to her work with rough words .'' Have 
 they given her orders to catch the little foxes 
 and exterminate the pests of the vineyard } 
 Is this the explanation of her mother's sons' 
 being angry with her .'' If so, may we not sup- 
 pose that she turns their commands into a song, 
 and goes forth singing the words with glee .■' 
 Possibly we have here, however, the song of 
 the rustic lover himself, and this supposition 
 has support in the idea that the word " spake " 
 {ana/i) of verse tenth means also to sing. It 
 is more than probable that, whatever view we 
 take, we have here a snatch of the popular 
 balladry, such as might often have been heard 
 on the hills of Issachar twenty-five centuries 
 ago. 
 
 " Catch us the foxes, 
 The little foxes, spoiling the vineyards, 
 For our vineyards are in bloom."
 
 DOVE IN THE CLEFT OF THE ROCKS. 179 
 
 So, the Israelitish lads and lassies lightened 
 their toil. It is springtime, and the long- 
 nosed cubs are coming out of their holes. At 
 this season they are especially apt to injure 
 the vineyards by undermining the walls, cut- 
 ting the roots of the vines, and gnawing the 
 stems and young shoots. The little foxes are 
 even more dangerous than the old ones. A 
 vine-dresser would gladly let the young brush- 
 tails have a few bunches of grapes when ripe, 
 but he objects seriously to having his roots 
 and sprouts nibbled to pieces. All foxes are 
 fond of the luscious clusters, as we well know, 
 and Reynard has furnished us with the well- 
 known proverb of "sour grapes," — evidently 
 known even in Solomon's time, — which is the 
 symbol of impotent jealousy, or unattainable 
 desire curdled even to envy. Big foxes allow 
 at least the grapes to grow, be they sweet or 
 sour, but little foxes spoil the growth of either. 
 For other beasts there may be some law and 
 mercy, but of the vineyard-destroyers, be they 
 Hebrew j-////rt/( I Sam. xiii. 17), fox, or jackal, the 
 law then as now is told us by Walter Scott : 
 
 " Who ever recked where, how or when 
 The prowling fox was trapped or slain ? " 
 
 Whether we are to understand the poet as 
 intimating that the severe and magisterial 
 step-brothers interrupted and separated the
 
 l80 STUDIES AND COMMENTS. 
 
 lovers by their command to their younger sis- 
 ter to be about her work of guarding the vine- 
 yard against the foxes, or not, it makes little 
 difference in her feelings to her beloved except 
 to intensify them. Love makes second spring- 
 time in her heart. She assures the daughters 
 of Jerusalem of her unswerving affection to 
 the absent one. 
 
 " My beloved is mine and I am his, who feedeth 
 his flock among the lilies." 
 
 In their life in the home highlands, the one 
 toils in her vineyard, the other feeds his sheep 
 in the meadows ; but once the allotted work 
 done, then comes the cool of the day, and this 
 is the time for the lovers' meeting, from twi- 
 light until the hour of separation. The pros- 
 pect of this reunion cheers and lightens the 
 labors of both during the heat and burden un- 
 til the day cools, that is, until evening ap- 
 proaches, the sunset breeze blows, and the 
 moving shadows have lengthened and fled 
 along the ground until in dusk they disappear. 
 Then, in the poetry of the Hebrew idiom, "the 
 day breathes itself away." 
 
 " When the day cools, and the shadows flee away, 
 return, haste, O my beloved, and be thou like a 
 gazelle over the separating mountains." 
 
 The sentences of this pretty refrain, full
 
 DOVE IN THE CLEFT OF THE ROCKS. l8l 
 
 of the poetry of the sunset breeze, the last 
 breath of day, the racing shadows, the leaping 
 hind, and the old mountains wrinkled with 
 gorge and ravine, vibrate true poetry. More 
 than once it recurs in the poem, and if this 
 cantata were ever sung in the open air we can 
 easily imagine the effect of this sweet song of 
 love's invitation. 
 
 It is noticeable how the Shulamite describes 
 the man of her choice : never as a king, or 
 courtier, or a dweller in cities, but always as a 
 fleet-footed mountaineer, or shepherd who pas- 
 tures his flock amid the flowery meadows, or 
 in the dales where the lilies bloom. The sen- 
 tence descriptive of his occupation is added 
 with emphasis. " My beloved to me and I to 
 him, — he who feedeth [his flock] among the 
 lilies," is the picture which, briefly and vividly, 
 she draws of her beloved, who is not Solomon.
 
 ACT II. SCENE II. 
 IN DREAM-LAND. 
 
 Chapter III. 1-5. 
 
 The next scene in the cantata, beginning 
 chapter iii., takes us back to the city. It is a 
 dream, and here, as always in the Bible, the 
 description of the dream-scenery, dissolving 
 views, and persons is felicitously true to life. 
 We may not always dream of what we think 
 most about, but our sleep-closed eyes will see 
 only what is upon the landscape of our experi- 
 ence. 
 
 Men whose talk is of oxen will dream of 
 oxen, shepherds have visions of their flocks, 
 engineers of cars and railways, tennis players 
 of tennis, students of books and recitations ; 
 while the clergymen have their one typical 
 dream, with variations, of being in church with 
 something lacking or out of order, of facing an 
 audience without due preparation, of failing to 
 find hymn, text, or robe, or to do properly what 
 in actual life they do with propriety a hundred 
 times a year. The country girl in her sleep
 
 IN DREAM-LAND. 1 83 
 
 will imagine herself lost in the streets of a 
 great city. Many things absurd and fantastic 
 will start before our sleeping consciousness, 
 but all the elements will come out of our ex- 
 perience — what we feel or know, think or read 
 about. We dream only about that which has 
 met our waking eye or thoughts, although we 
 cannot always trace the links of connection. 
 The combinations of the kaleidoscope of dreams 
 are strange, but the parts are familiar. The 
 images on the brain are rearranged into new 
 forms without judgment or the regulating fac- 
 ulty. Whereas the root-sense of our English 
 word " dream " is that of sound or music, and 
 the Greek idea that of noise or tumult, the He- 
 brew word photographs the thought of a man 
 tied or bound, his senses congealed or closed, 
 so that surprise or wonder cannot enter to take 
 part with the other faculties of the mind. 
 
 Chapter iii. begins a dream which the Shu- 
 lamite thus narrates : 
 
 " Lying upon my bed in the darkness of night, I 
 was looking for him whom my soul loveth : I 
 sought him, but I found him not. I said to myself : 
 
 " ' I shall arise now, and go about the city in tlie 
 streets and squares. I shall seek him whom my 
 soul loveth.' 
 
 "I sought him but I found him not. 
 
 " Then the night watchmen who patrol the city
 
 1 84 STUDIES AND COMMENTS. 
 
 met me. I asked them, ' Him whom my soul lov- 
 eth, have you seen him ? ' but I had hardly more 
 than passed by them when I found him whom my 
 soul loveth. I grasped him and would not let him 
 go until I had brought him into my mother's house, 
 yes, even into my mother's room in presence of the 
 author of my being." 
 
 Note here one of the characteristics of a 
 dream. The dreamer's home, remember, is in 
 northern Palestine, at Shunem in Galilee. 
 Jerusalem, with its avenues and plazas, about 
 which the court ladies have told her, and about 
 which her fancy has been busy, lies in the far 
 South. She dreams that she is seeking her 
 lover, and imagines herself doing an impossible 
 thing — walking about " the city," Jerusalem, 
 at night, when the streets are full of revelers, 
 requiring police to patrol the thoroughfares to 
 look out for fire, thieves, drunkards, and the 
 disorderly characters so numerously mentioned 
 in the book of Proverbs. 
 
 Innocently she supposes every one is ac- 
 quainted with her lover and knows him, though 
 he most probably has never been heard of be- 
 yond his native pastures. 
 
 How true is this to human nature, to peo- 
 ple absorbed in one idea, especially to simple 
 folk without much knowledge of the world. 
 Many young folks of the present day are apt
 
 JN DREAM-LAND. 1 85 
 
 to suppose the whole world is moved at the re- 
 port of their engagement, or marriage, or busi- 
 ness concerns. The centre of the universe, to 
 most people, is the pronoun I. The little child 
 with a new pair of shoes, who walks into 
 church thinking that every man, woman, and 
 child from pulpit to front door is gazing on 
 that particular purchase, is a type of the self- 
 conscious and self-important lad or lassie 
 wrapped up in one idea. 
 
 The Shulamite evidently believed her lover 
 was a public man of vast importance. She 
 knew him well, therefore every one else surely 
 must, for she asks the watchmen, without men- 
 tioning name, date, or place, " Have you seen 
 him, my lover, the one I love .-' " 
 
 But the watchmen most probably gave her 
 a policeman's stare instead of a drawing-room 
 answer. 
 
 Then suddenly she sees him whom she loves 
 and grasps him by the hand, leading him — by 
 one of those curious possibilities of dreams, by 
 which space and distance are annihilated — 
 out of the thoroughfare of the capital to her 
 mother's house, or from Jerusalem to Shunem 
 — a hundred miles in a second 
 
 This act of taking her lover into her mother's 
 presence to show to her parent her conquest, 
 and to introduce him to her family, shows the
 
 1 86 STUDIES AND COMMENTS. 
 
 childlike, artless, and dutiful disposition of the 
 girl. It is a proof of the absolute guilelessness 
 of maidenhood. 
 
 In this respect, even in her dream, the Shu- 
 lamite is an example to modern youths and 
 maidens. It would certainly save many broken 
 hearts and ruined lives if daughters now would 
 make confidants of their mothers, and in pres- 
 ence of those who love them best enjoy the 
 innocent pleasures that spring from the asso- 
 ciation with young men. How many foolish 
 people come to the parson's to get married, 
 and, after the ceremony is over, plead that it 
 be kept quiet, — "Don't advertise it, for the 
 world ! " Better the innocence of the Shula- 
 mite than the smart secrecy of the clandestine 
 marriage. 
 
 Finally, whether waking or sleeping, whether 
 at rustic labor at home, or enjoying the luxury 
 of king's palaces, whether in the hamlet of 
 Shunem, in the royal tent on its way to the 
 capital, or in the city of Jerusalem, but espe- 
 cially exultant in the presence, real, remem- 
 bered, or expected, of her true and accepted 
 lover, the heroine of the poem concludes this, 
 as she does every experience, with the solemn 
 adjuration which thrice recurs. It is in fresh 
 memory of her mother's home with her lover 
 beside her that she now cries out :
 
 IN DREAM-LAND. 1 8/ 
 
 " I adjure you, O ye daughters of Jerusalem, by 
 the roes, and by the hinds of the field, that ye stir 
 not up nor excite love till it please." 
 
 Note here that some of the expressions in 
 Canticles, as we have rendered them, differ in 
 sense from those in the English version of 
 1611 ; and, as we give them, they are less ob- 
 jectionable to the moral sense of the Christian, 
 than in the old unrevised version of the Eng- 
 lish Bible. Now it is true that different trans- 
 lators render certain passages differently, and 
 the reason is plain. The expression in English 
 will be according to the theory of the poem 
 and the thought of the translator or reader. 
 Bring to Canticles a frivolous or prurient mind, 
 and one can find much that gratifies a depraved 
 taste. Read it with a chaste, nay even with a 
 fairly unbiased mind, and there is nothing im- 
 pure or improperly suggestive. 
 
 King James's translators acted on the theory 
 that Solomon wrote the poem and refers to 
 the Shulamite as his bride ; hence the sen- 
 tences not in harmony with good taste, though 
 they may have suited the taste of the age in 
 the England of three centuries ago. The 
 translators seem to have been more familiar 
 with the Vulgate and Scptuagint than with 
 the original text, besides needlessly marring 
 many tender Hebrew passages, especially in
 
 1 88 STUDIES AND COMMENTS. 
 
 Isaiah, with a truly Saxon coarseness. Renan, 
 who sees in Christ only a Galilean peasant, in 
 Ecclesiastes a dyspeptic cynic, and in all the 
 Old Testament nothing divine, will of course 
 discover in Le Cantique only the coarse flirta- 
 tions of a dancing-girl and dialogues fitted for 
 beer saloons. But honest-minded scholars, and 
 especially those who reject the allegorical the- 
 ory, find what we believe, that there is nothing 
 objectionable or offensive to refined taste in 
 the entire language of the cantata, except pos- 
 sibly a passage in chapter vii. which the poet 
 rightly puts into the mouth of the voluptuary 
 Solomon. According to the natural theory of 
 the poem, there is no need for improper lan- 
 guage or words of double meaning. In sen- 
 tences fitting, glowing, passionate, poetic yet 
 pure, modest yet strong ; in noble suggestion 
 of naive simplicity, with hearty delight in na- 
 ture, and with artless filial affection, the Gali- 
 lean maiden speaks, her chastity of thought 
 ever prevailing over the ardor of her images. 
 
 We pity those whose eyes cannot enjoy the 
 study of an undraped statue or a picture in 
 which Art touches chastely her noblest sub- 
 jects ; and if we pity those whose culture is so 
 lacking, in whom is absent the sense of appre- 
 ciation of the divine masterpieces of beauty in 
 the human body, how much more should we
 
 IN DREAM-LAND. l8g 
 
 pity those who cannot enjoy with holy pleas- 
 ure the study of the Song of Songs. 
 
 The inspired poet does not here sing of the 
 spiritual love of Christ and the Church, for the 
 simple reason that in his view the pure love of 
 man and woman in itself is divine, even kin- 
 dled by Jehovah himself.
 
 ACT III. SCENE I. 
 THE ROYAL PROCESSION. 
 
 Chapter III. 6-11. 
 
 Into the Jerusalem of Jehovah's temple, pal- 
 aces of marble ornamented with ivory, grand 
 buildings in new and strange designs of archi- 
 tecture which compel contrast with the wooden 
 dwellings of David's time, the royal procession 
 now enters amid the gleaming of steel and the 
 waving of banners. The tents of the king's 
 household, which had been pitched in the re- 
 gion of the Shulamite's home, have been folded 
 up, and the journey to the capital taken down 
 the Jordan valley to the low lands of Jericho, 
 whence began the ascent through " the wilder- 
 ness," that is, the country remote from towns 
 or cities. 
 
 On approaching the city of the great king, 
 clouds of incense envelop the cortege, from 
 fragrant gums and spices burned according to 
 Oriental customs, still prevalent, during the 
 movements of royalty or dignitaries of highest 
 rank. The perfumes of Arabia and India are
 
 THE ROYAL PROCESSION. I9I 
 
 wafted on the breeze, and as the glitter of the 
 king's car of state and of the flashing blades 
 of the cavalry escort is caught sight of from 
 the battlements of Jerusalem, we hear the 
 cry of the crowds of spectators lining the 
 walls and eminences. Each of the various 
 speakers points out what especially rivets his 
 attention. 
 
 First citizen, or chorus of spectators : " \\'ho is this 
 coming up out of the wilderness as in pillars of 
 smoke, perfumed with myrrh and frankincense, with 
 all the powders imported by the merchants ? " 
 
 Second citizen : " Look, it is the palanquin of Sol- 
 omon. Threescore mighty men are round about 
 it of the veterans of Israel." 
 
 The admiration of the people for the Gib- 
 borim, or veterans, many of them, it may be, 
 scarred in numerous battles, is very great, al- 
 beit most of them were foreigners. They 
 formed the life-guard of the king, and carried 
 out his orders, however terrible or despotic. 
 Such a military convoy was needed, for even 
 Solomon, who had sent so many others to 
 death, could not travel through his own domin- 
 ions, in which were many tribes and national- 
 ities, with entire safety. Besides, with all his 
 public works, extravagant architecture, and 
 costly navy, dazzling luxuriance in the city 
 and lavish expenditure on pleasure-seats, he
 
 192 STUDIES AND COMMENTS. 
 
 never gave the country either a good police 
 system, or first-class administration of public 
 roads. The robber by day on the road to 
 Jericho still waylaid, and the nocturnal ma- 
 rauder still prowled, so that the keen blades of 
 the Gibborim guards were very apt to be use- 
 ful as well as ornamental. Of the valor and 
 ability of this superb corps, there was no pop- 
 ular doubt. 
 
 Third citizen: "They all handle the sword and 
 are expert in war. Every man hath his sword 
 upon his thigh because of fear in the night." 
 
 With the introduction of horses and chariots 
 into Israel, not only the war vehicles and facil- 
 ities for ordinary transportation were greatly 
 improved upon, as compared with the old days 
 of the mule and litter, but in traveling equi- 
 page also wonders of comfort and luxury were 
 wrought. The inittah here spoken of was a 
 palanquin or reclining bed, or more properly a 
 portable room or chamber, borne on the backs 
 of draught animals, and as luxuriant in its way 
 as the palace or boudoir car of to-day. In his 
 own " private car," Solomon was accustomed 
 to travel from Beersheba, where the limits of 
 fertile land met the southern desert, to Dan, 
 where the mountains of Lebanon made the 
 northern frontier. In cars or palanquins sim- 
 ilarly transported, but probably far less costly
 
 THE ROYAL PROCESSION. 1 93 
 
 in construction and gorgeous in decoration, the 
 veiled ladies of the harem traveled. In one of 
 these wheelless carriages of the royal train we 
 may imagine the Shulamite traveling far from 
 her home to the great city, possibly even with 
 the honors of a queen. 
 
 All eyes, however, are directed to the royal 
 palanquin, ordinarily set apart for the king's 
 use only, yet to-day holding a new occupant. 
 The fame of the beautiful Shulamite, the lat- 
 est object of the favor of Solomon, has pre- 
 ceded both to the capital city ; and now, 
 though the cedar and fragrant woods, the gold 
 and silver ornaments, the railings of precious 
 metal and cushions of Tyrian purple, the em- 
 broidered rugs and inlaid floor, are admired, 
 yet the target of all eyes is the lily of the 
 northern valleys. 
 
 Fourth citizen: "King Solomon had made for 
 himself a traveling-room of the wood of Lebanon. 
 The pillars of it are of silver, the back-rest of gold, 
 the seat of purple, the interior beautified by the 
 one called ' love ' above the daughters of Jerusa- 
 lem." 
 
 The voice of a fifth spectator, or of a chorus, 
 bids the women of the old city, Zion, to come 
 out of their houses and look forth from the ter- 
 races, roofs, and gardens, as the train sweeps 
 through the city gates and up into the avenues
 
 194 STUDIES AND COMMENTS. 
 
 of the new city built upon Moriah and the 
 hills. 
 
 " Come forth, O ye daughters of Zion, and be- 
 hold King Solomon with the crown with which his 
 mother crowned him in the day of his espousals, 
 and in the day of his gladness of heart." 
 
 In Hebrew idea the city was the mother, 
 and the inhabitants the sons and daughters. 
 The " daughters of Zion," who here appear in 
 public, are the honorable women living in the 
 old city of David, the city proper of homes and 
 dwellings, and not in the new and garish part 
 of the capital where the "daughters of Jeru- 
 salem," or inmates of the harem, dwelt. Be- 
 tween the two hills of Zion and Moriah there 
 was a valley or ravine, called later the Tyro- 
 poeon, one hundred feet deep, which Solomon 
 had crossed by a massive viaduct built on piers 
 and arches. The bridge, from the solid ma- 
 sonry on the southwest angle of the temple to 
 the first of the series of piers built over the 
 valley, was nearly fifty feet long, a fragment of 
 its northern end being yet seen in "Robinson's 
 arch." The daughters, or women of Zion, are 
 invited to take a look at their sovereign, who 
 to-day wears his kingly robes, and on his head, 
 if not the emblem of kingly power, the chaplet 
 of the expectant bridegroom. Is it possible 
 that he offers to make the Shulamite one of
 
 THE ROYAL PROCESSION. 1 95 
 
 his wives of first grade ? That the country- 
 maid is not only to join the harem, but to take 
 high rank in it, as a princess ? 
 
 So ends the first strophe of the third canto. 
 The reference to Solomon's day of nuptials 
 and coronation recalls his marriage with the 
 Egyptian princess ; and, as is yet the custom 
 in the East, the chaplet or floral diadem was 
 placed on his head by the queen mother, the 
 beautiful Bath-sheba. 
 
 How times must have changed since the 
 days of Moses ! Then, Israel was a slave na- 
 tion, and an Egyptian looked down on a He- 
 brew as one of a degraded race, as a chattel, 
 but not a person. Now, Pharaoh makes an al- 
 liance with Solomon at the very beginning of 
 his reign, — with the king of these Hebrews 
 whom his ancestors held as slaves. He even 
 assists the armies of Israel in putting down 
 the Canaanitish rebels, and gives to David's 
 son his daughter in marriage. To furnish her 
 with a dowry, the Egyptian father sent a naval 
 expedition of war-galleys across the Mediter- 
 ranean, and, landing at Joppa, reduced and set 
 on fire the town of Gezer, treated the Canaan- 
 itish inhabitants with the severity of a con- 
 queror's rights, and then bestowed the reve- 
 nues of the territory upon his daughter for her 
 "pin money," or, according to ancient Ian-
 
 196 STUDIES AND COMMENTS. 
 
 guage, "girdle money." It was possibly in 
 honor of Solomon and his bride that the 45th 
 psalm, which is a bridal hymn, an epithala- 
 niium, was written, and it is of her, the daugh- 
 ter, probably, of that Shishak whose portraits 
 yet look at us with their granite eyes in the 
 Egyptian monuments, that it is said : 
 
 "The king's daughter is all glorious within : her 
 clothing is of wrought gold. She shall be brought 
 unto the king in raiment of needlework : the vir- 
 gins her companions that follow her shall be 
 brought unto thee. V\\\\\ gladness and rejoicing 
 shall they be brought : they shall enter into the 
 king's palace." 
 
 This was in the days of Solomon's innocence 
 and youth. And if the pretty princess out 
 of sunny rainless Egypt with its overflowing 
 plenty should, when leaving father and mother 
 to live in a foreign land, sometimes feci home- 
 sick in the comparatively damp climate of 
 cloudy and rainy Judea, notwithstanding that 
 she dwelt in an ivory palace, that her lover 
 was royal, and that her husband was a king, 
 what then } 
 
 Hear what is said : 
 
 " Hearken, O daughter, and consider, and incline 
 thine ear ; forget also thine own people, and thy 
 father's house. So shall the king greatly desire thy 
 beauty ; for he is thy Lord, worship thou him. . . .
 
 THE ROYAL PROCESSION. 197 
 
 Instead of thy fathers shall be thy children, 
 whom thou mayest make princes in all the earth. 
 I will make thy name to be remembered in all gen- 
 erations : therefore shall the people praise thee for- 
 ever and ever." 
 
 This happy event, remember, was at the 
 opening of Solomon's reign, before even the 
 temple had been built, before Jerusalem had 
 become the superbly adorned city full of the 
 metropolitan splendor of later days ; so that the 
 lovely princess at first lived for some years in 
 the old part of David's city, on Zion hill, until 
 her palace was built. 
 
 Now, let us ask. How did Solomon the bride- 
 groom in his later years act out the spirit of 
 husbandly loyalty.-* Alas, we know too well 
 what the years brought ; for Solomon's life de- 
 generated from spirituality to worldliness and 
 lust. He violated the express commands of 
 God, and multiplied wives, dancing-girls, and 
 concubines until he became a sultan with a 
 harem. True, there have been harems larger 
 than those which the Hebrew emperor reared 
 and filled, but this is slight palliation of his 
 iniquity. Well said a certain writer, " Europe 
 could not have had a Solomon," for Israel's 
 king was an Asiatic of Asiatics. 
 
 Here, in the Canticle, we find him, in addi- 
 tion to his heathen wives, endeavoring to win
 
 198 STUDIES AND COMMENTS. 
 
 over to his harem the Hebrew maiden, the 
 Shulamite, who has thus far resisted royal bland- 
 ishments, and remains faithful to her shepherd 
 affianced. Having failed to gain her by or- 
 dinary addresses, or possibly taking it for 
 granted that his spoken wish was enough, 
 Solomon puts on his royal robes and the 
 crown of a prospective bridegroom, and in all 
 the pomp of a public procession enters city 
 and palace with the idea that the "fairest 
 woman in the kingdom " is already his own. 
 
 Far away from home in a gilded prison, the 
 palace in Jerusalem, the maiden of Shunem 
 still remembers her beloved.
 
 ACT III. SCENE II. 
 LOVE-MAKING IN THE PALACE. 
 
 Chapter IV. 1-5, 7. 
 
 The difficulty of interpretation of the poem 
 is illustrated to the student of the various com- 
 mentators on the Hebrew text who disagree 
 as to the exact situation here. Ginsburg thinks 
 " the shepherd, who had followed afar off the 
 royal train in which his beloved was conveyed 
 to the capital, obtains an interview with her, 
 and is now addressing her." Renan, Delitzsch, 
 and many others consider that it is Solomon 
 who is speaking these words of praise. To 
 our mind the idea of the poet seems to be to 
 represent the lover as absent in body until the 
 final scene, but ever present in spirit to the 
 imagination of the Shulamite. The apparent 
 interviews are those of dream, trance, nar- 
 ration, or reminiscence. The real trial of the 
 maiden's pure love consists, as it seems to 
 us, in the actual absence of her beloved even 
 when her temptations are greatest in the pres- 
 ence of a king who wills to woo, but who may 
 command.
 
 200 STUDIES AXD COMMENTS. 
 
 Having braided her long black hair, made 
 her toilet, and arrayed herself in the apparel 
 befitting an inmate of the palace, we may im- 
 agine her looking more like a princess than 
 before. How the toilette of the Hebrew lady 
 impressed Isaiah may be read in that remarka- 
 ble passage in his third chapter, which contains 
 an inventory of a lady's costume. Viewing 
 herself in the mirror, we can imagine the fair 
 young girl murmuring to herself, " I know 
 what my beloved would say to me, could he 
 see me now. Would he not repeat what he 
 has told me before .•* " 
 
 We can imagine the " beloved " speaking 
 soft words of love, and praising her in terms 
 of Oriental metaphors too warm for our cold 
 Western taste ; but the speaker who now ad- 
 dresses the Shulamite is a man of the world, 
 who is familiar with refinements and the artifi- 
 cial adornments of nature. He takes a poetic 
 and critical view of the landscape, and the 
 features he most dwells upon are not those of 
 untamed nature, but of a cultivated country. 
 There is no white heat of passion here, only 
 propriety and faultless rhetoric. Hear this 
 connoisseur of beauty in the human figure and 
 in civilization pour out his praises : 
 
 " Behold thou art lovely, my dear. Thine eyes are 
 as doves between thy locks. Thy hair is like a
 
 LOVE-MAKING IN THE PALACE. 20I 
 
 flock of goats springing down mount Gilead. Thy 
 teeth are like sheep coming up white from the 
 washing, all bearing twins and not one of them 
 sterile. Thy lips are like a crimson thread, thy 
 mouth is lovely, and like cut pomegranates are the 
 temples between thy locks. Thy neck is like the 
 tower of David built for trophies, whereon are 
 hung a thousand bucklers, all the shields of mighty 
 men. Thy two breasts are like two fawns, that are 
 twins of a gazelle." 
 
 Does the king's speech end here.? Or, after 
 this sevenfold description of her charms, does 
 he add the words which may have slipped out 
 of their place under the pen of a copyist, and 
 which are found just below in verse seventh, — 
 "Thou art all fair my love, and there is no 
 spot in thee " .-• This is sometimes the Hebrew 
 method of beginning and ending a poem, to 
 have the first and last line alike, or nearly so 
 in form. 
 
 Snow-white sheep, ebony-black goats, pome- 
 granates cut for the table, and silken or byssus 
 thread dyed red, the memorial tower hung with 
 war-trophies, are the terms of comparison with 
 which the polished royal suitor praises teeth, 
 hair, complexion, neck, and charms of the 
 maiden who has fascinated him. His diction 
 is as different from the shepherd's as that of 
 the Norman conquerors, from whom came our
 
 202 STUDIES AND COMMENTS. 
 
 words beef, veal, mutton, and pork, was from 
 that of the Saxons, who have given us the 
 names of ox, calf, sheep, and hog. The Nor- 
 man saw on the table the dressed meat selected 
 from the animal tended in the fields by his serf 
 or swineherd. Solomon sees the landscape 
 from a pavilion or out of a palace window. 
 
 Is the Shulamite won by his praises } 
 Brought into the lion's den, does she yield } 
 The king's wrath is as the roaring of a lion ; 
 to provoke it may mean death. Yet will not 
 Jehovah deliver her from his power ? 
 
 Her love, strong as death, braves even the 
 occupant of the lion-throne. Unyielding as 
 Sheol, she remains loyal to her betrothed. We 
 have heard her cry before, " My beloved is 
 mine, and I am his." In like manner, and 
 with the same intent, she tells Solomon her 
 unmistakable preference, as heart and thought 
 fly northward. 
 
 " Until the day cool, and the shadows flee away, 
 I will get me to the mountain of myrrh and to the 
 hill of frankincense." 
 
 In thought she transports herself to her 
 mountain home, where all around, or in sight 
 of her cottage, rise the verdant and fragrant 
 mountains rich in odorous forests — vastly 
 different in this respect from the less richly
 
 LOVE-MAKING IN THE PALACE. 203 
 
 timbered and often bare hills surrounding Jeru- 
 salem. Into this region, and over mountains 
 within the horizon of the Shulamite and of 
 the northern poet, that is, over Lebanon and 
 through the more distant Damascus, which is 
 mentioned in the Canticle, Pompey the Great 
 marched centuries afterward on his way to 
 subdue the Jewish nation. Florus, the his- 
 torian, tells us he passed "on that way through 
 perfumed groves, through woods of frankin- 
 cense and balsam." 
 
 As appreciative as an Indian of the sweet 
 grass which he plucks to weave into his gayly 
 dyed baskets, or as a Thoreau of the witchery 
 of the woody odors, so these unspoiled chil- 
 dren of Israel appreciated more than the mer- 
 chant's powders and the apothecaries' mix- 
 tures the natural fragrance of nature. They 
 long to walk together in the forest aisles, to 
 enjoy the sweet breath of the balsam-woods 
 when the summer sun distills a charm for the 
 senses, which only Lebanon yields. If even a 
 whiff from the pillow which imprisons the for- 
 est odors is grateful to the jaded dweller within 
 walls, how must the homesick girl have longed 
 for freedom and joy again ! This, then, is her 
 answer out of the lion's den — from Judah and 
 Jerusalem, from Solomon and the palace, she 
 longs to fly to her true love's home and be 
 with him to whom is her desire.
 
 204 STUDIES AND COMMENTS. 
 
 A word here as to the artistic form of the 
 charming little poem which the author puts 
 into Solomon's mouth, and also upon the whole 
 drama as a work of art in letters. Launched 
 twenty or even twenty-five centuries ago, and 
 once fresh, trim, beautiful, and perfect in all 
 its detail as a new ship making first voyage, 
 how looks this poetic craft now ? Once com- 
 plete from the master's hand, can it have 
 sailed the seas of time without losing spar, 
 sail, or aught of use or beauty ? Or, like ves- 
 sels home from long cruises, are marks of 
 strain and stress visible ? If it be almost a 
 miracle to write a manuscript or print a book 
 with absolute correctness, despite manifold 
 methods of scrutiny and platoons of vigilant 
 proof-readers, can we suppose a poem, which 
 is possibly two and a half millenniums old, to 
 reach us unscathed ? 
 
 These questions arise when we study the 
 form of the whole poem, and then compare its 
 parts one with the other. Hebrew poetry has 
 not rhyme or metre like the Greek, nor is it 
 blank verse, nor is it in unrhymed stanza ; 
 nevertheless it has a metrical form, a rhythm, 
 and a music all its own, in addition to its strik- 
 ing feature of parallelism. Some scholars 
 whose ears are attuned to the harmonies, and 
 whose eyes see the beautiful interior anatomy,
 
 LOVE-MAKING IN THE PALACE. 20$ 
 
 as well as the exquisite outward form of the 
 Canticle, say that the lines of the poetry are 
 dislocated between verses 5 and 8. Through 
 the mistake of a scribe, a line has been lost, and 
 two others have changed places. The restora- 
 tion which they suggest brings both the metri- 
 cal and artistic forms into closer correspon- 
 dence with the other members of the poem, 
 thus making unity. However interpreters may 
 disagree, there is hardly standing room to one 
 who doubts the consummate beauty of the 
 Canticle as a work of art. 
 
 Making the proposed alteration, we have the 
 end of Solomon's address quite similar to the 
 beginning, while the reply of the Shulamite 
 (remembering that the words " his flock " are 
 supplied in each case) is likewise nearly the 
 same as in chapter ii. 16, 17 ; and vi. 3. 
 
 " My beloved is mine and I am his, he feeds [his 
 
 flock] among the lilies. 
 
 " Until the day be cool, and the shadows flee 
 away," etc. 
 
 Unfortunately, in the discussion of the ques- 
 tion of literary form, the element of doctrinal 
 interpretation enters in to confuse the inquiry 
 as to fact and truth. The allegorists violently 
 oppose the emendation which the upholders 
 of the natural theory propose. It may be 
 said, as helping the English reader, that in the
 
 206 STUDIES AND COMMENTS. 
 
 poem it is only the shepherd who " feeds [his 
 flock] among the lilies" (chap. i. 7 ; ii. 16 ; vi. 
 3); and that the Hebrew word for "feed" 
 does not signify to eat or to partake of food, 
 but means to lead or conduct [to pasture], and 
 is almost exclusively used of shepherds with 
 domesticated animals. The roe or gazelle is 
 nowhere mentioned in the Scriptures as feed- 
 ing, but as being in motion, as hunted, or as 
 furnishing game food. In Proverbs, chapter v. 
 19, where we have probably a reference to the 
 passage before us (Song of Songs, iv. 5), the 
 thought and sensuous imagery are nearly sim- 
 ilar, but there is nothing said as to "feeding" 
 or "lilies." These special words in the Canti- 
 cle are applied to the shepherd only. 
 
 Concerning the pretty poem of Solomon in 
 praise of the Shulamite, which begins and ends 
 with "Thou art fair, my love," does it not sug- 
 gest, as to this point of literary likeness, both 
 the " Bow-song," or lament of David over Saul 
 and Jonathan (2 Samuel i. 19-27), and the 
 eighth psalm } Of the author of this latter 
 praise-song of Israel, the writer of the Epistle 
 to the Hebrews says, " one in a certain place ; " 
 while the title-maker and editor of the first 
 great Hebrew hymn-book says, " A Psalm of 
 David." 
 
 The true text of the Bible does not contra-
 
 LOVE-MAKING IN THE PALACE. 207 
 
 diet itself. Did the poet of the Canticle write 
 both the " Psalm of the Astronomer " and the 
 passage in Canticles we have just studied ? It 
 seems reasonably certain, at least, that the liter- 
 ary model of the three poems was the same. 
 
 Such questions may never receive satisfying 
 answers. For spiritual nourishment, for edifi- 
 cation, we do not need certainty ; but this is 
 sure, — we readers of the Bible have as much 
 right, God -given and Christ-commanded, to 
 search the Scriptures to-day and form our opin- 
 ions, as had the scribes, Pharisees, priests, edi- 
 tors, title-makers, custodians, and traditionists 
 of the past. As our fathers of Germany and 
 England and in the centuries past did, it is 
 ours to reverently inquire, study, and make up 
 our minds concerning things left unexplained 
 in the Scriptures. " If any man lack wisdom, 
 let him ask of God, who giveth liberally and 
 upbraideth not."
 
 ACT III. SCENE III. 
 THE GARDEN OF SPICES. 
 
 Chapter IV. 8-V. i. 
 
 Solomon has disappeared from the scene, 
 but the Shulamite is wrought to a frenzy of 
 excitement in view of her situation, and the 
 possibility of a forced marriage. In vision, 
 the wish being parent to the thought, she sees 
 her lover coming to defy the lion and leopards 
 of authority, and escaping with her to the 
 mountain fastnesses of the North. In the lan- 
 guage which we now read, the beating of a 
 true lover's heart is felt, and the passionate ap- 
 peal sheds a glow over this whole strophe of 
 the poem. The language is at white heat. 
 He calls her not " my dear," "my friend," but 
 " my bride," and she delights to hear him. 
 
 " Escape with me ! from Lebanon, my bride, with 
 me from Lebanon thou shalt go ; thou shalt go 
 from the top of Amana, from the summit of Senir, 
 from the dens of the lions, from the mountains of 
 the leopards. Thou hast given me courage, my 
 sister, my bride, thou hast ravished my heart with 
 one look of thine eyes, with one jewel of thy neck- 
 lace."
 
 THE GARDEN OF SPICES. 209 
 
 Even one eye-glance of his beloved has em- 
 boldened him, exciting him even to rebellion, 
 to lift his hand against king and law to secure 
 the object of his love. He is ready at every 
 hazard to elope with her, even though he must 
 know the fate of all who cross the will of Is- 
 rael's despot. The keen sword of the secret 
 assassin would soon find out the man whom 
 " the lion " orders to death, but her lover, she 
 knows, will dare all things if she but say the 
 word. 
 
 Did the shepherd in actual clandestine inter- 
 view read in her flashing eyes the suggestion 
 of elopement, or was it his own impulse ; or is 
 the whole scene an ideal one .■' To our mind, 
 it is in accordance with the art of the Hebrew 
 literature of wisdom to represent here an ideal 
 scene. 
 
 It is the aim of the poet, as we read between 
 the lines, to portray this pure Hebrew girl as 
 finally victorious, but as conquering only by 
 gentleness and obedience to law. She is one 
 of the King's daughters, the handmaid of Je- 
 hovah. She obeys God and conscience first 
 and always, hoping thereby to save herself 
 from the embraces of a polygamist king, and 
 to keep, in obedience to law, her own beloved. 
 Hers was the might of gentleness which makes 
 great.
 
 2IO STUDIES AND COMMENTS. 
 
 The changes in the literary form of the 
 strophes of the poem reflect the conflicting 
 emotions, the changing moods, of the maiden's 
 excited mind. She feels intensely, and in her 
 day-dream of tumultuous feeling her lover is 
 as if really present to her, breathing in her ears 
 the proposal to escape from the harem to her 
 free life of the hills. As in the other ideal 
 scene in chapter ii., this waking vision of her 
 active imagination will be succeeded by a night- 
 dream, wherein her thoughts again wander 
 afar off, always to find her beloved, but in this 
 case to lose him again. 
 
 That is Hebrew poetry — utterly vague and 
 misty as to chronological relation, or the pro- 
 cesses of logic, but as quickly as a turning 
 kaleidoscope expressing every impulse, every 
 impression and emotion, or mixture of them. 
 The Western mind, that looks for the se- 
 quences of orderly reasoning, is constantly put 
 out at noticing the gaps and want of connec- 
 tion in the poetical books of the Bible. To 
 expect close reasoning, or the perfect dramatic 
 movement of a Greek tragedy, is to insure 
 disappointment. The utterances of psalmist, 
 poet, and prophet remind us of lovers' con- 
 versations, which lack logic, are full of tan- 
 gents, and contain spaces of silence even 
 when the speakers feel most intensely. One
 
 THE GARDEN OF SPICES. 211 
 
 emotion gives place rapidly to another, in a 
 manner that makes a cold-blooded translator 
 or commentator despair. If one adopts the 
 allegorical method of interpretation, by which 
 language can be made to mean anything and 
 everything, there is no difficulty ; but to keep 
 track of the movement of sentiment and play 
 of feeling taxes one's powers of attention se- 
 verely. 
 
 In the mind of the maiden there is a strug- 
 gle. Shall she yield to the proposition ? 
 
 No, she will not encourage the shepherd in 
 wild schemes of lawlessness. She gently dis- 
 suades him with a kiss, and with love's weap- 
 onry she is successful. The kiss and caress 
 are invincible. The beloved becomes calm, 
 and his words change in tone and subject. 
 With a lover's guile, he makes further ad- 
 vances in the triumphs of the master passion. 
 
 " How fair is thy caress, my sister, my bride : 
 How much better thy love than wine, and the fra- 
 grance of thy perfume than all spices. Thy lips drop 
 honey, my bride ; honey and milk are under thy 
 tongue, and the fragrance of thy garments is like 
 the fragrance of Lebanon." 
 
 So flow the lover's words, in a torrent of 
 rapturous exaggerations. As the bouquet of 
 wine and the perfume of the "soul-house," so 
 the luscious lips and the loveliness of her per-
 
 212 STUDIES AND COMMENTS. 
 
 son enthrall him. Yet now he adds a more 
 delicate compliment to her modesty, her in- 
 stinctive refinement, her chaste life, her purity 
 amid court temptation. He praises her inward 
 ornaments, her soul's charms. He antedates 
 and precedes Solomon in looking from sensu- 
 ous charms to the interior graces of the spirit. 
 With consummate art, the poet puts the shep- 
 herd in advance of the king in this. 
 
 " A garden locked, thou art, my sister, my bride ; 
 a garden inclosed, a fountain sealed. What sprouts 
 for thee therein makes a paradise of pomegranates 
 with most excellent fruit, henna and spices, nard 
 and saffron, calamus and cinnamon, with all trees 
 of frankincense, myrrh and aloes, with all the chief 
 spices. Yea, a garden fountain, a well of living 
 waters, a flowing stream from Lebanon, art thou." 
 
 In this rhetorical coloring and allusions to 
 the scenery of his home, the speeches of the 
 young man beloved of the Shulamite are quite 
 different from those of the roval suitor. In 
 free unstudied diction, which lacks the perfect 
 rhetorical finish of the king's addresses^ and 
 drawing his metaphors from wild nature within 
 the view of the life of the toiler, his words burn 
 with passion. With many a glowing word of 
 compliment and flow of pretty diminutives, 
 which especially puzzle the commentators who 
 seek in the text material for dogmatic theology,
 
 THE GARDEN OF SPICES. 21 3 
 
 yet with thought as pure as the waters of 
 Naaman's favorite stream of Amana, to which 
 he compares his love, the young mountaineer 
 utters his heart to her who owns it. 
 
 Flattery, with a selfish object in view, is one 
 thing. Ardent love, breathing out sincere 
 praise, is another. Flattery of the wise breeds 
 in them disgust, but the foolish and vain are 
 led captive to the designs of the flatterer. 
 True praise from the honest should encourage 
 us, but the honeyed words of the wicked 
 should humble us. When the wise and loving 
 and true say kindly things of us, holding us 
 high in their estimation, then ought this to 
 stimulate us to fulfill their ideal. Woman's 
 ears were made to hear the music of love. 
 Alas, for her who never once hears the tale ! 
 
 In truest womanly spirit the Shulamite 
 maiden, who gave no response of favor to the 
 polygamous king's advances, now encourages 
 her betrothed ; while she prays that she may 
 fill his ideal of her, and be in sober reality 
 what he fondly believes she is. We must re- 
 member that in Palestine the east wind is with- 
 ering, and the west brings storm, while the 
 north is cooling and refreshing, and the south 
 heals and ripens. The north wind, powerful 
 and strong, awakes or arises ; the south wind 
 comes as the soft breathing zephyr. She in-
 
 214 STUDIES AND COMMENTS. 
 
 vokes the winds of heaven to make her even 
 more lovely. 
 
 " Arise, O north wind, and come, thou south 
 wind, blow upon my garden, that its spice-odors 
 may be wafted out." 
 
 With sweet responsiveness, in guileless love 
 and childlike confidence, the maiden yields 
 thus her heart and her all to her accepted 
 lover. Her desire is that in all womanly 
 graces and character she may be all he hopes 
 of her. This is her " yes," her full surrender : 
 
 " Let my beloved come into his garden and eat 
 its precious fruits." 
 
 Her sweet yielding fills him with a lover's 
 bliss, and the second and last scene in the 
 third canto of the poem ends with the first 
 verse of chapter v. The accepted and happy 
 shepherd-lover responds to her encouragement, 
 saying to his beloved, this " faithful found 
 among the faithless," this peasant girl who re- 
 sists a king in order to be true to her plighted 
 troth : 
 
 " I am coming into my garden, my sister, my 
 bride. I am gathering my myrrh with my balsam. 
 I am eating my honeycomb with my honey. I am 
 drinking my wine with my milk." 
 
 In true Oriental rhetoric, under the poetic
 
 THE GARDEN OF SPICES. 21 5 
 
 figures of delicious fruits, sweets, spices, and 
 drinks, the lover alike signifies his joy, his 
 triumph, his rapture, and his embodied ideal. 
 To the affianced couple, happy in each other's 
 affection, the poet adds approving words. Shall 
 we put them in the mouths of the court ladies, 
 who overhear the Shulamite talking to herself ? 
 Or, do we recognize here, in the refrain of a 
 chorus, the poet's own heart ? 
 
 " Eat, O friends, drink, O beloved, yea, drink 
 abundantly [of love]." 
 
 Thus, if our interpretation of this last line 
 be correct, the seal of inspiration and divine 
 approval is set again on pure love between one 
 man and one woman. Between two great 
 events — the nuptials in Eden, wherein God 
 consummated the first marriage, and the 
 wedding of Cana in Galilee, at which Jesus 
 sat with approving smile — this divine poem 
 stands midway, to testify to the heavenly or- 
 igin of love and the holiness of marriage. For 
 love is as strong as death, its passion as in- 
 flexible as Sheol, its coals are as coals at white 
 heat, because love is a fire-flame kindled by 
 Jehovah himself
 
 ACT III. SCENE IV. 
 THE WAKING HEART. 
 
 Chapter V. 2-VI. 3. 
 
 As in the second movement of the poem, 
 which we have called Act II., so in this part 
 of the development of the plot, a night-dream 
 succeeds the day-vision or ideal scene. The 
 young girl falls into slumber ; her body re- 
 maining in the palace, while her soul goes out 
 to play. 
 
 "Hark, my beloved is knocking! Hear his 
 voice ! ' Open to me, my sister, my dear, my dove, 
 my perfect. My head is filled with dew, and my 
 locks with the drops of the night.' " 
 
 The Shulamite girl, by the dream-magic 
 which annihilates distance, is no longer in the 
 Jerusalem palace, but in her northern home, 
 among her native hills. She is not now attired 
 in silk and jewels and embroidered sandals, 
 but in her vineyard dress and with bare feet. 
 Wearied, after the day's hard toil, she has re- 
 tired very early to rest, expecting no visit. In 
 her dream she is again the simple country maid
 
 THE WAKING HEART. 21/ 
 
 under her mother's cottage roof. Suddenly 
 she hears a knock at the door and a familiar 
 voice pleading. He has come a long distance, 
 he is standing out in the cold air after sunset, 
 in the chill night of Palestine, in which the 
 dews fall like rain. He calls her in that par- 
 ticular tone of address such as the king never 
 uses, and by which we may easily distinguish 
 the speakers in each of the dialogues. He did 
 not know the house would be closed at so early 
 an hour. He pleads that she will arise, dress, 
 and meet him. 
 
 She, on the contrary, wishing not to be dis- 
 turbed, answers coldly, petulantly, almost 
 rudely. Just as a Hindoo of to-day, if called 
 upon after the lights are out, makes excuse 
 that he will soil his feet by rising, so she de- 
 clines to open the door. A modern lady who 
 had retired earlier than usual, not expecting a 
 call or company, would, less accurately doubt- 
 less, answer or send word, " not at home," or at 
 least, "retired." More frankly, but with equal 
 discouragement to the visitor, the reply is 
 made : 
 
 " I have undressed, how can I dress again ? I 
 have washed my feet, how can I soil them again } " 
 
 The idea is that not only has the bath been 
 taken, but even the feet have been washed, so
 
 2l8 STUDIES AND COMMENTS. 
 
 that to tread again on the earthen floor of the 
 cottage would be undesirable. Compare for 
 illustration the words of Christ to Peter in the 
 Revision, " He that is bathed needeth not save 
 to wash his feet." In our summer sea-bath- 
 ing, as all know, we wash our feet, even after 
 the sea-plunge, and then are clean every whit: 
 afterwards, we do not like to tread on loose 
 earth, or the sandy boards of the bath-house. 
 The floor of the average house in the East is 
 of earth ; hence the Shulamite's excuse. 
 
 But the lover, not knowing his beloved had 
 already retired to bed, had at the moment of 
 speaking put his hand on the wooden pin of 
 the latch, and holding it while talking, he now, 
 on being refused so unexpectedly, withdraws 
 his hand and departs. 
 
 Then, — oh, how true to life this is ! Every 
 good, every honorable man who is suitor for a 
 maiden's hand, but unexpert in the mysteries 
 of a woman's heart ought to know it ; and 
 would that the pure and good men knew it as 
 thoroughly for good, as wicked men who play 
 on the weakness of feminine affection know it 
 for evil! — then, after she has spoken harsh, re- 
 pelling words, and driven her lover off, there 
 comes to her a revulsion of feeling. Her heart 
 within her is moved. When a woman denies 
 you harshly, she is sure to be sorry she did it.
 
 THE WAKING HEART. 219 
 
 A woman's " no " often means " yes " — if you 
 don't try to win her too easily. So, forgetting 
 all her excuses, the Shulamite girl dresses has- 
 tily, and rushes to the door. Whether sug- 
 gested in poetic hyperbole, or as a literal fact, 
 that the lover has come dressed in his best 
 clothes, and all perfumed to make his visit to 
 his beloved, the latch is redolent with myrrh. 
 Myrrh is the inexpensive drug with which even 
 a poor shepherd could add to his personal at- 
 tractions, and which, we may remember, being 
 last and humblest of the three Magi's offer- 
 ings to the infant Christ, tradition assigns to 
 the slave, the king bringing gold, and the 
 nobleman frankincense. 
 
 Lifting the latch and opening the cottage 
 door, she hopes to catch sight of her lover's 
 departing figure, but he has vanished in the 
 night's darkness. She strains her ear to catch 
 the echo of his distant footfalls, but in vain. 
 Her heart sinks, as she realizes how hard, se- 
 vere, cruel, she has been. She calls, but no 
 answer, and the night but mocks her cries. 
 She rushes into the void to seek and call him 
 back. 
 
 " My love put his hand at the door-hole, and my 
 heart was moved within me ; I rose to open to my 
 beloved, and my hands dropped myrrh, and my fin- 
 gers with liquid myrrh, upon the handles of the
 
 220 STUDIES AND COMMENTS. 
 
 bolt. I opened to my beloved, but my beloved had 
 turned away — he was gone ! My soul went forth 
 to him when he spoke ; I sought him, but I found 
 him not. I called to him, but he did not answer 
 me." 
 
 Then, by that strange mixture of situations 
 that belongs to dreams, and which the Bible 
 felicitously exhibits, she finds herself not in 
 the neighborhood of her home in Galilee in 
 which the dream began, but a hundred miles 
 away in the streets of Jerusalem. There the 
 watchmen, about whom she dreamed once be- 
 fore, meet her. Evidently, and in reality, she 
 had a dread of these officers of the law, for 
 twice have they appeared in her dreams. Now, 
 they treat her as a thief or a disorderly char- 
 acter. They beat her, they wound her, they 
 pull off her veil, — the highest insult to an 
 Oriental woman ; to wear the veil being an 
 honor, to have it torn off, dishonor, 
 
 " Yes, the ruffians, the sentinels on the walls 
 did it," she cries with emphasis, as she wakes 
 up and thinks of her dream. 
 
 How important to social propriety in the 
 costume of an Oriental lady the veil or veii- 
 garment was, is shown by the concern of Re- 
 becca on coming in sight of Isaac, in Genesis 
 xxiv. 64, 65. The characteristic token of a 
 woman's being betrothed or married was the
 
 THE WAKING HEART. 221 
 
 veil. It was a sign, easily and purposely re- 
 cognizable in public, that she no longer be- 
 longed to herself, but was part of another. 
 To express the same purport the betrothed 
 maidens and the wives of Jap^n formerly 
 stained their teeth black and shaved off their 
 eyebrows, thus veiling their beauty. It was 
 this idea of the veil as a symbol of " power on 
 her head," or "a sign of [her husband's] au- 
 thority," to which Paul referred, in i Cor. xi. 
 10. To the Hebrew maiden the veil was at 
 once honor and protection. 
 
 To return to the dreaming Shulamite, we 
 find her waking up, startled and alarmed at 
 finding the sad reality of her position. Was 
 she overheard talking in her sleep, or weeping, 
 or crying out.? Do the ladies of the harem 
 question her t She thus makes answer to their 
 inquiries : 
 
 " I adjure you, daughters of Jerusalem ! O that 
 you would find my beloved. And what will you tell 
 him ? — that I am sick with love." 
 
 Is this her cry of despair } Must she yield 
 to the king, because of her very helplessness } 
 
 Man's sorrows are, in all literature and in the 
 Bible, told often enough. Woman must take 
 the iron into her soul, and complain not. 
 For her travail, pain, physical woes, the He-
 
 222 STUDIES AND COMMENTS. 
 
 brew prophets and the Man of Sorrows spake 
 often in tenderest compassion. With the 
 griefs of the mind, there is for woman less 
 sympathy, in expression at least. It was a 
 man who cried out, " Lover and friend hast 
 Thou put far from me, and mine acquaintance 
 into darkness." In chapter xxix. of the great 
 spiritual drama of Job, the suffering hero utters 
 his great cry de profwidis that yet rises into a 
 victor's recognition of his Kinsman-rescuer, 
 who is to stand Survivor and Vindicator over 
 his dust. Yet here is a woman with breaking 
 heart, in mortal terror, and in mental travail, 
 who, in the darkest hour that comes before the 
 dawn, might have joined the cry of the Psalmist 
 and the man of Uz, and uttered them in pathos 
 of equal suffering. Surely for her there must 
 be deliverance from One who in rescuing her 
 will exalt his name Jah.
 
 ACT IV. SCENE I. 
 THE BELOVED AND HIS CHARMS. 
 
 Chapter V. 9-VI. 3. 
 
 A VERY remarkable feature of the Song of 
 Songs is the frequent description of the human 
 body and its members. In other parts of Scrip- 
 ture, and especially in the books of wisdom, 
 the body in whole or part is indeed referred to, 
 and its interior arrangements or external ap- 
 pearance described. In the Book of Job, in 
 Psalm cxxxix. and others, and in Ecclesiastes, 
 chapter xii., where under the figure of a house 
 the human body is scanned with a poet's eye, 
 we have detailed allusions to the human fig- 
 ure. In the Canticle, however, we find no 
 fewer than five minute and separate descrip- 
 tions of the physical appearance of the persons 
 in the drama. Three of these are by Solomon 
 of the Shulamite, one is by the Shulamite of 
 her lover, and one of the Shulamite by the 
 court ladies. All in the Canticle treat of the 
 e.xternal attractions of the body and its mem- 
 bers, in terms of sensuous admiration ; whereas 
 in the other poetical books of the Hebrews
 
 224 STUDIES AND COMMENTS. 
 
 the language is that of reflection, the view 
 being directed to the wonders of the inward 
 economy. 
 
 In this scene we find that the Shulamite, 
 having been thrice told of her own attractions, 
 now proceeds to describe those of her beloved, 
 the shepherd. 
 
 The curiosity of the court ladies being 
 aroused by the constant references of the Shu- 
 lamite to her " beloved," they inquire of her, 
 and ask her to tell them who and what he is. 
 In their language do we not detect a tone of 
 pique and the sarcasm which we heard before } 
 Her persistent talk and one idea have become 
 monotonous. They ask : 
 
 " What is this beloved of yours more than any 
 other beloved, you prettiest woman in the world ? 
 What is your beloved any more than any other be- 
 loved, that you adjure us in this style ? " 
 
 Then, excited to enthusiasm, as people 
 deeply in love invariably are when any one 
 speaks against the one they elect favorite, — for 
 one easy way to discover what a maiden thinks 
 of her real or supposed lov^er is to attack and 
 abuse him, — the Shulamite bursts out for the 
 first time in impassioned praise of the charms 
 of her betrothed. 
 
 " What is my beloved, do you ask ? —
 
 THE BELOVED AND HIS CHARMS. 225 
 
 " He is glowing white and blood red, as a stand- 
 ard-bearer among a myriad. His head is pure gold, 
 his locks are bushy, curl upon curl, and black as 
 the raven. His eyes are as doves by brooks of 
 water, bathing in milk set in brimming vessels. 
 His cheeks are as beds of balsam, as banks of 
 sweet herbs. His lips are lilies dropping odorous 
 dew. His hands are cylinders of gold tipped with 
 topaz. His body is a figure of bright ivory inlaid 
 with sapphires. His legs are columns of white mar- 
 ble set on bases of gold. His aspect is as Lebanon, 
 impressive as the majestic cedars. His speech is 
 most sweet, and his whole person is altogether 
 lovely. This (in answer to your question), ladies of 
 Jerusalem, is my lover, my friend." 
 
 With warmth of Oriental exaggeration, but 
 in chaste poetic phrase, the maid of Galilee 
 portrays the manly beauty of him who to her 
 is the one altogether lovely and the chief among 
 ten thousand. With exquisite abandon, this 
 unsophisticated girl describes her beloved in 
 terms of sensuous admiration. To her maga- 
 zine of symbols drawn from nature and the 
 landscape of her home, she adds others newly- 
 acquired from her luxurious surroundings in 
 the royal palace. Hers is not the praise of a 
 sage, an aged and reflective student, as in the 
 description of the human body as a house in 
 the last chapter of Ecclesiastes, with its subtle
 
 226 STUDIES AND COMMENTS. 
 
 allusions to anatomy and the marvelous func- 
 tions of the various organs. She sees indeed 
 the veins that appear through the transparent 
 skin of her beloved, but there is no suggestion 
 of the circulation, nor reference to the cistern, 
 or wheel or pitcher at the fountain, but only 
 the contrasting colors of ivory and sapphire. 
 So the fingers and legs are not seen with the 
 eye of an anatomist, but the pretty contrasts in 
 tint between the healthy skin and the rosy fin- 
 ger-nail, and in the column's shaft and base of 
 limb and foot, are noted with admiration. 
 Hers is the language of youthful enthusiasm. 
 Her descriptions are those of an inexperienced 
 young girl. With unerring artistic sense, the 
 poet is here true to life. 
 
 The ladies of the harem are interested at 
 least in her fluent encomiums. They are burn- 
 ing with curiosity to behold this paragon of 
 manly beauty. They offer to go with her to 
 find him. Reverting to the dream, in which 
 he turned away from the doorstep, they ask : 
 
 " Whither has thy beloved gone, thou fairest 
 among women, whither has thy beloved turned, 
 that we may seek him with thee? " 
 
 Their curiosity is becoming dangerous, and 
 she must evade their request. She answers : 
 
 " My beloved has gone down to his garden, to
 
 THE BELOVED AND HIS CHARMS. 22/ 
 
 the beds of spices, to feed in the gardens, and to 
 gather lilies." 
 
 Thus baffling her inquisitors, the scene ends 
 as usual in this poem, by the refrain of unwav- 
 ering love : 
 
 " My beloved is mine and I ana his. He feedeth 
 his flock amonsf the lilies." 
 
 'O 
 
 This is the lover whom the poet of the Can- 
 ticle pictures, and this is the nature of her sore 
 trial to be perforce away from him and endure 
 separation. No picture here, in this holy poem, 
 of gross and carnal delights inflaming fleshly 
 lust. The lover dwells upon mountains that 
 are distant, retreats to the garden of spices, 
 and feeds his flock among the lilies. An un- 
 earthly glory seems to wrap him round. In 
 mind he seems ever near. In chaste love of 
 the spirit he is at hand. Youth, beauty, wis- 
 dom, strength, are all his, and to her pure 
 mind he is present, congenial, devoted, getting 
 and giving happiness, but at the suggestion of 
 the intruder's presence, of aught gross or carnal, 
 he is far off, unattainable, like an ideal that 
 ever eludes. 
 
 Yet the maiden loves him all the more, even 
 while her eyes hunger for a sight of his form 
 and her heart yearns for his presence. The 
 poet purposely makes this the burden of her
 
 228 STUDIES AND COMMENTS. 
 
 trial, — to be kept long absent from him that 
 she may be tested. She is the one to be proved, 
 not he. And thus, with superfine art, or divine 
 inspiration, — shall we say both .'* — the Shula- 
 mite becomes to us a type of those who, not 
 having seen, love with joy unspeakable and full 
 of glory the great Lover of our souls. 
 
 We have but again to compare the addresses 
 of the shepherd-lover with those of the king, 
 to see clearly the nature of real love and of am- 
 bition or carnal desire. The intention of the 
 poet, and of the Divine Spirit who inspired the 
 poet, we doubt not, is that we all should see 
 and discriminate. 
 
 Let lover and maid alike study this book, 
 and by it cleanse their love from earthly stain. 
 Truly the young man in love, or who may some 
 day be in love, and the heart of youth may 
 ever ask, " Wherewithal shall a young man 
 cleanse his ways .? " And the answer is, " By 
 taking heed thereto, according to thy Word," 
 — the Word in which this Canticle is set as a 
 gem. Surely we need no allegory, no mysti- 
 cism, to cover up the pure and lofty meaning 
 of this holy book. Strange, indeed, if in all 
 the revelation of God to man there were no 
 message for human love ; but the message is 
 here.
 
 ACT IV. SCENE II. 
 COMPARED WITH PRINCESSES. 
 
 Chapter VI. 4.-VII. 10. 
 
 Language is petrified history. As the pol- 
 ished marble which tops the tables in our 
 drawing-rooms reveals the forms of ocean life 
 in the primeval world, so the fossil words of a 
 language uncover man's thoughts. The geol- 
 ogist constructs his map and calendar by ex- 
 amination and location of the deposits in the 
 rocks, and tells the visionary miner whether it 
 is possible or impossible to find gold or coal, 
 and whether the relics found of man or brute 
 are of yesterday or of the ages, naturally de- 
 posited or artificial, anachronous, and foreign, 
 
 A study of words is as interesting as that 
 of bones or footprints, and the Bible reads 
 like a new book, its passages glow afresh with 
 a glory all their own, when read not in the 
 ten thousand broken lights of tradition, but 
 according to the root-meanings. Eloquently 
 does the Hebrew reveal the primitive state of 
 society in the land of Jehovah. With equal 
 suggestiveness do the intruded foreign words
 
 230 STUDIES AND COMMENTS. 
 
 tell their own story, Satan can easily be 
 picked out among the sons of God. Speech 
 is a subtle betrayer, not alone of Peter, but of 
 itself. 
 
 In illustration of this is the word pilcgesh, 
 which in every book of the English form of 
 the Old Testament, except Daniel, stands for 
 concubine, or half-wife. This is a foreign 
 word and does not belong to the Hebrew 
 tongue. The speech of the Semitic tribes and 
 clans, the patriarchs and prophets of Israel, 
 used only the simple august words " woman," 
 " wife." These are names sufficient for kings, 
 priests, prophets, and the Christ who always 
 addressed his mother by the grand title of 
 "woman." 
 
 In the ancient unlu.xurious ages of sim- 
 plicity and chastity, when the laws requiring 
 personal purity were severe but wholesome, 
 no word for concubine existed, for none was 
 necessary. A man even like Abraham might 
 have other women in his household beside 
 the first and true wife, but this was for the 
 sake of heirs, and such subordinate women 
 were as servants, and subject to the wife who 
 was mistress of the house. When, however, 
 the ancient simplicity degenerated into luxu- 
 riousness, and from the heathen and their 
 sensual orgies associated with idol worship
 
 COMPARED WITH PRINCESSES. 23 I 
 
 lewdness increased among the Israelites, wo- 
 men were multiplied in the household in mere 
 wantonness of lust or ambition. Polygamy 
 crept in and sought for recognition and even 
 institution, and a new word was necessary. 
 That word is pilegesh, unknown in the an- 
 cient Semitic languages, and borrowed from 
 some Indo- Germanic people, probably the 
 Greeks, through the Phoenicians, who traded 
 in slave girls. The original Sanskrit root-word, 
 pallavaka, means a girl, and underlies the 
 Latin /r//r,r, and Gro-ok pallakis. 
 
 This history of the Hebrews, as reflected in 
 speech, is substantially the same in all those 
 nations which, emerging from primitive sim- 
 plicity, when offenses against the laws of pu- 
 rity were summarily dealt with, passed into the 
 stage of sensual luxury. With the degrada- 
 tion of morals went the disease and decay of 
 language, the words of grand simplicity being 
 degraded, and the terms for abominable per- 
 sons and things made euphemistic. Between 
 the history of Japan, especially, and of Israel, 
 this correspondence as to words and facts, 
 language and history, is very close. 
 
 In the later Hebrew of Daniel, these brevet- 
 wives, holding but a fraction of their lord's 
 affections, are called by a name meaning " she 
 that amuses," " singing girl," or " sporting
 
 232 STUDIES AND COMMENTS. 
 
 one." It was Solomon, however, who first 
 began the assembling of these idle people in 
 large numbers, for his own selfish ambition 
 and gratification, at the public expense. The 
 poet in the Canticle represents him even boast- 
 ing of the great harem which he had collected, 
 and numbering his sinful possessions. In this 
 poetical book the smaller number, as compared 
 with the figures in the historical records, seems 
 at first rather to his credit. The "maidens 
 without number " show, on the other hand, 
 that there is hardly ground even for a discrep- 
 ancy, or copyist's mistake, in favor of the 
 royal sinner. 
 
 Solomon again appears at verse 4, chapter 
 vi., and begins his advances in the following 
 address. He has heard that the Shulamite is 
 the only daughter of her mother, and that the 
 women of the harem have, in talking about her, 
 praised her highly. They not only commend 
 her character, but they wonder who she can be 
 who is compared to sun and moon, terrible 
 even to Solomon the emperor. The king's 
 words now show far more respect and real ad- 
 miration than before, for he sees in this pure- 
 minded Hebrew girl something quite different 
 from the frivolous beauties of the harem. 
 
 " Thou art fair, my dear, as Tirzah, comely as 
 Jerusalem, terrible as bannered hosts. Turn away
 
 COMPARED WITH PRINCESSES. 233 
 
 thine eyes from me, they have taken me by storm. 
 Thy tresses are as flocks of goats descending 
 Gilead, thy teeth as a flock of ewes that come up 
 from the washing, each the mother of twins and 
 not one of them sterile. Like a sHce of pome- 
 granate, are thy cheeks from behind thy veil." 
 
 With repetition of the same flatteries which 
 he has used before, but with a notable differ- 
 ence, and with an abrupt change that is sug- 
 gestive, the king again makes approaches, but 
 with manifestly little success. He begins a 
 set speech, which puts in comparison the pic- 
 turesque city of Tirzah with the grand metrop- 
 olis of Jerusalem. Does not the poet represent 
 the royal suitor as influenced suddenly by the 
 flashing eyes of the unyielding beauty, which 
 apparently so disconcert him that he falls 
 into repeating his former compliments .'' Yet 
 is not this the effect upon a man who, it may 
 be, even against his will and expectation, has 
 found arising in himself, instead of a playful 
 mood, a sincere feeling of regard } If Solo- 
 mon, in place of a frivolous idling away of 
 spare moments in the empty flatteries and 
 erotic diversions by which he had led captive 
 hundreds of silly women, now found that he 
 himself was moved with new feelings, would 
 not his speech betray his changed emotion ? 
 Indeed, does not the genius of Hebrew poetry
 
 234 STUDIES AND COMMENTS. 
 
 require this ? Certainly it is very noticeable 
 that this address, in its abruptness and sudden 
 changes of thought, differs vastly from the 
 almost perfect poem (chapter iv. 1-5, 7), in 
 which his former praises were wrought in 
 . superb literary proportion and in unbroken 
 and progressive ideas. In this one scene, 
 devoted entirely to the king's unsuccessful 
 love-making, we gather that the Shulamite is 
 less approachable than before, and the royal 
 suitor is utterly disconcerted. He no longer 
 draws comparison with the inanimate things 
 of architecture, or with the pretty doves, snow- 
 white sheep, and glistening goats of Gilead, 
 but lifts his ideas and raises his standard even 
 so high as to set this rustic maiden above the 
 ladies of the palace, — yes, even above the 
 princesses. They are a mass, a crowd ; she 
 is one and perfect. Hear him : 
 
 " There are threescore queens, fourscore concu- 
 bines {pileges/i-ifn) and young maidens without num- 
 ber. My dove is my only one, my undefiled, the 
 delight of her mother, the choice of the one who 
 bore her. The daughters saw her and blessed her; 
 the queens and the concubines (^pilegesh-im) and 
 they praised her." 
 
 Since the Canticle contains many allusions 
 to the book of Genesis, it may be that here 
 the poet had in his mind's eye the expression
 
 COMPARED WITH PRINCESSES. 235 
 
 of Leah (xxx. 13), " Happy am I, for the 
 daughters will call me blessed ; " and of this 
 ancient womanly song of triumph, the refer- 
 ence of Solomon is an echo ; while of this 
 again, that of Proverbs xxxi. 28 is a prolonga- 
 tion of the same strain of praise to her who 
 remains content with the chief treasures of 
 woman's estate — purity in single, and mother- 
 hood in married life. Most naturally the wis- 
 dom-literature of the Hebrews, transcending 
 the narrow limits of Israel, takes hold on ab- 
 stract, that is, universal truth, with all that 
 belongs to humanity. It refers in retrospec- 
 tive glance even to time when the very name 
 of Hebrew was not even so much as "a geo- 
 graphical abstraction." Before Israel was, the 
 human heart is.
 
 ACT IV. SCENE III. 
 
 THE DANCE OF MAHANAIM. 
 
 Chapter VII. 10-13. 
 
 Three times has the sovereign of the He- 
 brew empire made love to his subject, the 
 maid of Galilee. In three separate forms of 
 address has the wooing been done, — once in 
 the chat of informal conversation, once with 
 elaborate sonnet in which the graces of speech 
 were presented in fascinating forms, again in 
 language fair but broken, — that reflect the 
 changing emotion of the speaker. Yet the 
 girl who has left her heart behind her, in keep- 
 ing of her lover who feeds his flock among 
 the lilies, gives no sign of swerving from her 
 beloved. 
 
 That the other women should either jeal- 
 ously inquire about, or admiringly praise, the 
 new-comer, the meadow wild flower, does but 
 fire Solomon's desire to possess her to adorn 
 his garden of beauty. Her charms and graces 
 and love-sickness, and, above all, her obstinate 
 refusal to be satisfied with harem life, her flat 
 rejection of the king, have made her the talk
 
 THE DANCE OF MA HAN AIM. 237 
 
 of the harem. It is the ladies of the court 
 who ask, 
 
 " Who is she, what is she, that looketh forth as 
 the dawn, fair as die moon, clear as the sun, this 
 one as terrible as an army with banners ? " 
 
 Or, in the rendering of a modern translator, 
 
 " Who is this with glances like the dawn, 
 Fair as the silver moon. 
 Bright as the noontide fire. 
 Inspiring terror like the bannered host ? " 
 
 The Shulamite answers the questions of the 
 ladies by narrating her experience when, as a 
 modest young girl, she was brought uninten- 
 tionally into the very presence of royalty. She 
 did not seek the notoriety which has been 
 thrust upon her, but encountered it unexpect- 
 edly in the ordinary line of duty and expe- 
 rience. 
 
 "To the nut gardens, I went down to look at the 
 shrubs of the valley, to see whether the vines bud- 
 ded, or the pomegranates bloomed. 
 
 "Then, before ever I was aware, this desire of 
 mine brought me into the chariots of my princely 
 people " [AminadabJ. 
 
 Here in this almond-garden, while the beau- 
 tiful maiden found something that changed 
 her environment and made her immortal in 
 poetry, the student finds a nut which no one
 
 238 STUDIES AND COMMENTS. 
 
 has sitisfactorily cracked. There is evidently 
 rich meat in the kernel when once obtained. 
 The Hebrew text reads Ammi-nadib, which is 
 most probably a proper name. The Septua- 
 gint and Vulgate versions read Aminadab, 
 which is a common noun of multitude. Does 
 the passage mean that this chance impulse 
 of the maiden was the means of placing her in 
 the chariot by which she was brought to the 
 royal harem .'' Was she kidnapped ? Let us 
 see. 
 
 In the Hebrew expression, "my soul made 
 me chariots of Ammi-Nadib," there may be a 
 possible reference to the king's charioteer, 
 perhaps the Jehu of his time. In the version 
 of 161 1, the rendering is "My soul made me 
 like the chariots of Ammi-nadib." In the ver- 
 sion of 1884, it is " My soul set me among the 
 chariots of my princely people." The theory 
 of a proper name has been adopted in the one 
 case, and that of a common noun in the other. 
 What can be said on both sides of the ques- 
 tion } 
 
 In Exodus vi. 23, Ammi-Nadab is a man's 
 name, meaning "one of the people" (of the 
 prince). In 2 Samuel vi. 3, Abinadab, whose 
 name means a "princely" or "royal father," 
 was the keeper of the ark of God, which was 
 put in the new chariot or cart driven by his
 
 THE DANCE OF MAHANAIM. 239 
 
 sons to Zion in Jerusalem. Is the allusion 
 here to Solomon, as the "princely father" of 
 Israel, and to his chariots that were to move to 
 Zion and Jerusalem with their new freight — 
 the Shulamite ? 
 
 Or is the contrary the idea intended, that, 
 as if in the swift chariots of Ammi-Nadib, the 
 thoughts of the young girl were in an instant 
 swiftly transported to her home, so that she 
 turned to flee ? 
 
 May it not be possible that the word orig- 
 inally written by the poet here was Ahinadab, 
 the name of Solomon's commissary officer at 
 Mahanaim (i Kings iv. 14), and that on this 
 particular journey of the king and court he 
 had charge of the transport and commissariat 
 of the whole party ? Ahinadab may have been 
 a skilled and swift charioteer. His name 
 means "noble brother," and a slight change of 
 stroke in the second Hebrew letter would 
 make either reading. It is remarkable that 
 both the Septuagint and the Vulgate spell 
 the name with one m. 
 
 In the joy of her young heart, this lovely 
 country girl in the valley of Jezreel has 
 thrown aside her veil, and is singing and dan- 
 cing in innocent glee, rejoicing in her own 
 opening life, the joy of new-found love, and 
 the freshness of springtime. Solomon, ac-
 
 240 STUDIES AND COMMENTS. 
 
 companied by his court, is making a pleasure 
 excursion in the northern part of his kingdom 
 — a land rich in vineyards and pastoral scen- 
 ery. The noble lords of the court are lost in 
 admiration of this fair creature dancing in the 
 nut-gardens with joy. The girl, hitherto uncon- 
 scious of their presence, soon comes near the 
 road, and is startled at beholding the splendid 
 array of palanquins, horses, and chariots. She 
 shrinks back shyly from the knightly riders in 
 the cavalcade and turns to run away. The 
 people in the royal train, possibly the king 
 himself, at once cry out : 
 
 " Return, return, 
 O Shulamite ! 
 Return, return, 
 That we may look upon you." 
 
 Coyly the maiden approaches and asks, 
 
 " What do you see in the Shulamite ? " 
 
 Full of admiration, the courtiers answer in 
 chorus : 
 
 *' As it were, the dance of Mahanaim " [double 
 choirs]. 
 
 . Here, again, a difficulty arises in translation 
 of the proper name Mahanaim, but the case is 
 of extreme interest. The Revision of 1884, 
 changing the text of 1611, prints the word 
 untranslated. Herein also is illustrated the
 
 THE DANCE OF MA HAN AIM. 24 1 
 
 truth that, to the reverent and critical students 
 of every generation who study the Bible afresh, 
 new beauties become visible like new stars and 
 constellations which appear in the sky. Yet 
 the stars are not new-born, they have always 
 been there, unseen or unnoticed. We may 
 see how fresh scrutiny revealed a forgotten 
 historical allusion and a poetical antithesis in 
 the name Tirzah contrasted with Jerusalem. 
 So, too, it is doubtful whether the earlier trans- 
 lators caught the delicate allusion in the reply 
 of the ladies to the Shulamite's question. Our 
 old version, following the Septuagint and Vul- 
 gate, says, What will ye see in the Shulamite } 
 As it were, the company of two armies (the 
 margin giving Mahanaim). 
 
 The Revision translates, putting the two 
 sentences below in the mouth of the young 
 girl, — 
 
 " Why will ye look upon the Shulamite, 
 As upon the dance of Mahanaim ? " 
 
 We prefer here to read not only the ques- 
 tion of the maiden, but also the answer of a 
 chorus requesting her to repeat, in the palace, 
 before their eyes, what the courtiers in the 
 cavalcade had seen in the northern valley. 
 
 Here again a proper name, the name of a 
 place famous by old and sacred associations,
 
 242 STUDIES AND COMMENTS. 
 
 was forgotten, or passed over, until Luther 
 and the Reformers saw the point. 
 
 The reference points to the second vision of 
 angels which Jacob saw east of the Jordan, 
 after leaving Mizpah. He named the place 
 Mahanaim, which means two camps, or two 
 hosts, or armies, — the one earthly, his own 
 household and following, and the other the 
 heavenly host of throbbing, singing, happy 
 angels. 
 
 So here, the courtiers of Solomon, looking 
 upon this living tableau of maidenly loveliness, 
 declare that the young girl's airy, fairy motions 
 remind them of Jacob's celestial visitants. 
 The sight of her is that of angelic beauty and 
 heavenly winsomencss, recalling the ascend- 
 ing and descending of the angels upon the 
 ladder or stairs from earth to heaven. 
 
 The full import of these words of the dance 
 or graceful motion, as of angels, was first dis- 
 cerned by Ewald, the great German scholar, 
 who has unraveled so many knotty passages 
 in the Old Testament, though Luther first 
 caught the idea that the proper name of Maha- 
 naim should be in the text and not the mar- 
 gin, and so inserted it in the page of the Ger- 
 man Bible. To this one of several reminis- 
 cences of ideas or events in the book of 
 Genesis, and not to the "hanging dance" of
 
 THE DANCE OF MAHANAIM. 243 
 
 the Syrian peasantry, made by double rows of 
 youths and maidens, described by Wetstein, we 
 believe the reference in the Canticle to be 
 made. Still, it is possible that the name of the 
 dance refers only and immediately to the fes- 
 tive celebrations which the court people and 
 the king may have witnessed only a few days 
 before at the chariot-town east of the Jordan, 
 of which Ahinadab was overseer. 
 
 Charmed with her modest description of that 
 episode in her life which brought her near 
 royalty, the court ladies insist upon her dan- 
 cing before them, in the manner of the dance 
 of Mahanairn. The verses following at the 
 beginning of chapter vii. show that she yielded 
 to their request, for these words are the de- 
 scription of an active dancer, and the praise 
 is that of a woman by women. 
 
 The copious vocabulary in Hebrew for the 
 variety of dances mentioned in the Old Testa- 
 ment, and the many references to this mode of 
 showing delight, of celebrating great national 
 events, or of worshiping God, show that the 
 chosen people of Jehovah made their religion 
 a part of common life, and mingled joyousness 
 with worship. Services commemorating great 
 deliverances of Providence, miraculous events, 
 famous visions or theophanies, were held at the 
 various sacred places. These places were
 
 244 STUDIES AND COMMENTS. 
 
 quite numerous before worship was centralized 
 at Jerusalem. Dances were a regular part of 
 these popular memorial celebrations, and the 
 vision of angels seen by Jacob at Mahanaim 
 was doubtless commemorated by the people of 
 this famous town, Mahanaim, and by the in- 
 habitants of the adjacent region, who were ac- 
 customed to visit the holy place. The idea 
 and purpose of the dance may have been to 
 represent the ascending and descending of the 
 angels upon the ladder, or rocky stairs, leading 
 up to heaven. The Hebrew word mecJiolaJi, 
 which the Shulamite here uses, is the term for 
 a religious dance, and is the same as that which 
 describes the holy and patriotic rejoicings of 
 Miriam (Ex. xv. 20), and of the maidens who 
 met Jephthah (Judg. xi. 34), and David (i Sam. 
 xxi. II), as well as those of Shiloh whom the 
 men of Benjamin (Judg. xxi. 21) caught to 
 make wives of. The dancing of the maidens 
 at the popular festival at Shiloh was i)robably 
 in idea, if not in technical method, the same as 
 the dances at Mahanaim. It may be remem- 
 bered that Elisha (i Kings xix. 16) was born 
 at a place meaning " The Meadow of Dancing." 
 To gratify the ladies of the court, and per- 
 haps to forget her own present sorrows by 
 throwing herself heart and soul into the past, 
 the young girl begins the meclwlaJi, or dance.
 
 THE DANCE OF MAHANAIM. 245 
 
 From the compliments and exclamations of 
 the admiring ladies the poet composes another 
 of those glowing descriptions of the human fig- 
 ure which form so notable a feature of the 
 Song of Songs, and indeed of the poetical 
 books of the Bible. Beginning most fitly with 
 the feet, and mounting to the luxuriant tresses, 
 the women praise her, calling her " the daugh- 
 ter of nadib" or nobleness ; or " princely 
 daughter." It is probable that the poet here 
 represents not the voice of one, but the excla- 
 mations, the enthusiastic cries, of many de- 
 lighted spectators ; and that the first part of 
 verse second turns from the person of the 
 dancer to the elegance of her art. 
 
 " How graceful are thy steppings in thy sandals, 
 O noble daughter ! " 
 
 " The curves of thy thighs are like circlets of 
 gold, the work of a master's hand ! " 
 
 "Thy round dancings are perfect circles ! " 
 
 " Let not variations be wanting: ! " 
 
 "Thy body is like a sheaf of wheat garlanded 
 with lilies ! " 
 
 " Thy bosom is like two fawns, twins of a ga- 
 zelle ! " 
 
 " Thy neck is like an ivory tower ! " 
 
 " Thine eyes are as the pools in Heshbon, by the 
 gate of Bath-rabbim ! " 
 
 "Thy nose is as the tower of Lebanon, facing 
 Damascus ! "
 
 246 STUDIES AND COMMENTS. 
 
 " Thine head upon thee is like Carmel, and the 
 tresses of thy head like dark purple ! " 
 
 " In the ringlets thereof, even a king is held cap- 
 tive ! " 
 
 " How fair and pleasant art thou called ' love * 
 for delights ! " 
 
 " This thy figure is like that of a palm, and thy 
 bosom is like its clusters ! " 
 
 Here ends the description, for a new voice 
 and presence unexpectedly break upon the 
 scene. From the tints spread on Nature's pal- 
 ette, wheat-yellow and lily-white ; from things 
 striking and graceful in art, architecture, and 
 household adornment ; the artificial splendors 
 of parks, gardens, villas, and fortresses ; the 
 face and figure, the color and expression, the 
 lovely charms of the rustic dancer are por- 
 trayed, as she snatches many a grace beyond 
 the reach of the harem's art, and seems to the 
 gazers incarnate poetry. 
 
 The change of words from those in the ordi- 
 nary versions of the Hebrew of verse second, 
 which our readers will notice, making the ref- 
 erence to motion instead of to nature's scar 
 left on the body at birth, is, we think, fully 
 justifiable. It was first proposed by Daland. 
 The reasons for the change are, first, that the 
 word " navel " is never used in the ]3ible in 
 connection with beauty, or as an object of ad-
 
 THE DANCE OF MAHANAIM. 247 
 
 miration ; second, that it seems useless, dispro- 
 portional, and an unusual repetition in so short 
 a passage, to praise first the depression in the 
 waist, and then the waist itself, there being no 
 parallelism in this purely descriptive portion of 
 the poem ; third, it seems to break the harmony 
 and progress of the poetic inventory of attrac- 
 tions ; fourth, the Hebrew word here used is 
 the active participle of the verb shorar, mean- 
 ing to turn round, to move in a circle, and this 
 is the only one in the Bible which contains this 
 particular grammatical form ; the other places, 
 Prov. iii. 8, Job xl. 16, and Ezek. xvi. 4, having 
 different forms, though from the same root, 
 as even the English reader may see in Young's 
 Concordance ; fifth, the word translated " gob- 
 let " is derived from a root meaning circular 
 treading with the feet, and the term "perfect 
 circles," or " cup-round figures," seems here 
 most appropriate ; sixth, the word translated 
 "mingled wine," or " liquor," means mixture, 
 and, applied to the dance, would mean varia- 
 tions, even as we read in musical notation the 
 phrase "add mixtures;" seventh, the sense, 
 modesty, and form of this English rendering 
 seem to be more in accord with the general 
 idea of the poem, which is chastely pure in 
 word and delicate in idea throughout.
 
 ACT IV. SCENE IV. 
 THE IMPREGNABLE FORTRESS. 
 
 Chapter VIL 8-VlII. 4. 
 
 Does the poet represent the king present 
 as an unsuspected and unseen looker-on, who 
 from behind column, screen, or tapestry has 
 enjoyed the spectacle of the dance of Maha- 
 naim ^ 
 
 However this may be, we find him at verses 
 eighth and ninth addressing the fair one named 
 " love," who has so pleased the women of the 
 harem. Is the strong king, who is not accus- 
 tomed to be crossed in his purposes, now about 
 to crush the obstinacy of his humble subject, 
 and make her know her place, — the place of 
 passive obedience .'* Such a doctrine was 
 taught even to people of the Germanic race in 
 Great Britain two centuries ago. Does the 
 wooer here become the sovereign } Hear Sol- 
 omon's ultimatum : 
 
 "I said, 'I will climb up into the palm tree, I 
 will take hold of its branches : may thy bosom be 
 unto me as clusters of the vine, and the fragrance 
 of thy breath as apples, and thy mouth as the best 
 wine.'"
 
 THE IMPREGNABLE FORTRESS. 249 
 
 The king would say more, but is here inter- 
 rupted by the maiden, who gives him to under- 
 stand that her charms are for her beloved only, 
 and that for him are her favors reserved. In 
 this, her sharpest conflict with the royal 
 tempter, she is still unswervingly true to her 
 absent lover. No sooner does the word tob 
 (best) leave Solomon's lips, than the maiden 
 interrupts him to reply : 
 
 " Flowing properly [only] for my beloved, caus- 
 ing slumbering lips to move. I am my beloved's, 
 and to me is his desire." 
 
 In addition to the reasons before given for 
 seeing at this point an interruption, and a 
 change of speaker, we may add that the origi- 
 nal word here translated " properly " and by 
 the revisers of 1884 "smoothly," or in the mar- 
 gin " aright," is the same as in chapter i. 4, 
 "rightly," or "in uprightness." In several 
 other places, as in Isaiah xxvi. 7 and xxxiii. 15, 
 in which the word occurs, the root idea is that 
 of righteousness, propriety. The manifest im- 
 port of the words here put by the poet into 
 the Shulamite's mouth is that her kisses and 
 caresses, even though a king not only desires 
 but compares them to his best wine, belong 
 rightly only to her betrothed lover. No open 
 " door " free to suitors, even though royal, is
 
 250 STUDIES AND COMMENTS. 
 
 she, but a " wall," resisting all improper ad- 
 vances. The charms of this virgin reared in 
 a pure Israelite home are as " towers," impreg- 
 nable to the strongest assaults of the tempter. 
 She herself is an invincible fortress. 
 
 Kisses and caresses are among the good gifts 
 of God rightly to be used, and not abused unto 
 sin. The wine of love " causes even slumber- 
 ing lips to move," and after separation from 
 her beloved, even in the hours of sleep, the 
 raptures of love's communion are enjoyed again 
 in dream, and the parted lips move with audi- 
 ble question and response. In slumbering or 
 in waking hours, the lover remembers his be- 
 loved ; and his soliloquies are of her " who 
 dwelleth in the gardens." Love invades all 
 states of body and mind with welcomed des- 
 potism. 
 
 In this, the Shulamite's firm declaration, is 
 again the keynote to victory, for the religion of 
 Jehovah, which the king with all his errors has 
 not renounced, forbids him to use force against 
 a woman. Here we behold the better nature 
 of Solomon. The nobler side of his character 
 comes into view when we find that he honors 
 and admires the steadfast resistance to all his 
 flatteries and blandishments. Magnanimously 
 he, though a king, confesses himself a rejected 
 suitor and lets her go free. The lion will not
 
 THE IMPREGNABLE FORTRESS. 25 I 
 
 rend the lamb, the eagle does not tear the dove. 
 Unlike many a baffled suitor of our day, who by 
 murder or slander wreaks revenge upon the 
 woman who has declined his addresses, or un- 
 like Henry VIII., who sent his wives to the axe 
 and block, the Hebrew king does the Shulamite 
 no harm in body or in character, orders her 
 not to sword, dungeon, or disgrace, but mag- 
 nanimously gives her to freedom and home, to 
 lover and marriage. He who sent his political 
 enemies to death yet spared this girl. 
 
 Resuming the thread of our narrative and 
 the plot of the poem, we find the Shulamite 
 has not yet started for home. She is still in 
 the palace in Jerusalem, but indulging in the 
 thought that she is already free. She antici- 
 pates in day-dream that meeting with her be- 
 trothed which is so soon to be. Solomon, 
 great-hearted even in his disappointment, will 
 send her back to her northern home, even as 
 he lately took her away. This is what she will 
 say to her lover when she meets him safe at 
 home, on the dear old doorstep once again : 
 
 " Come, my beloved, let us go forth into the 
 fields, let us lodge under the cypress boughs. Let 
 us start early for the vineyards, to see whether the 
 vine has sprouted, or its blossoms opened, or the 
 pomegranates budded. There will I give thee my 
 love. The love-apples smell sweet, and over our
 
 252 STUDIES AND COMMENTS. 
 
 cotta2:e-door srow all sorts of excellent fruits, new 
 as well as old, which, my beloved, I have reserved 
 for thee." 
 
 Then follows the joyful innocent outburst of 
 a guileless child, to whom, though she be a 
 maiden grown, a lover is but a good brother. 
 An angel might envy such artless love dwelling 
 in a human heart. To the pure, that is pure 
 which another judges vilely of. One line of 
 difference ever dividing good and bad men is 
 this, — their belief or unbelief in the absolute 
 guilelessness of natural maidenhood. As pure 
 as a sister's affection for her brother, or as a 
 mother's for her babe, is this transparent rap- 
 ture of a crystal heart when she cries : 
 
 " O that thou wert as my brother that sucked the 
 breasts of my mother. Should I find thee without 
 the door, I then would kiss thee and no one would 
 condemn me. I would lead thee and bring thee into 
 my mother's house, and thou shouldst be my 
 teacher and I should cause thee to drink the spiced 
 wine of my pomegranate juice." 
 
 "Ah, yes," she would say, "if you were only 
 my brother, I could do this and none would 
 be shocked or scandalized at it. Not yet can 
 this be ; but some time by marriage we shall 
 be one, and the pleasures of constant compan- 
 ionship will be ours."
 
 THE IMPREGNABLE FORTRESS. 253 
 
 Yet, in imagination, she continues : 
 
 " His left hand should be under my head, and 
 his right hand should embrace me." 
 
 Then for the last time she adjures the palace 
 ladies, and this time her formula of importu- 
 nity is abbreviated ; but there is added a new 
 element of earnestness, and the refrain takes 
 the form of an emphatic question which means 
 exultation and victory. 
 
 " I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem, for 
 why should ye rouse or excite love till it please ?" 
 
 Why is the formula of adjuration here abbre- 
 viated, and with no mention of the " roes and 
 hinds of the field " ? Is it a sign of her haste, 
 and desire at once to leave the palace, shake 
 off the dust of Jerusalem, and be off to her 
 mountain home ? 
 
 Or is it because the whole question of artifi- 
 cially excited love is safely past, and pure spon- 
 taneous love is now in view ascain ? 
 
 Or does the poet mean that that part of 
 passion which is of the flesh, which man shares 
 with the brutes of the field, must be forgotten 
 in the holy friendship of souls united in di- 
 vinely ordained wedlock ? Certainly the omis- 
 sion of the one reference, and the reinforce- 
 ment of the other, at this point, are equally 
 remarkable, adding another to the distinctly 
 dramatic features of the poem.
 
 254 STUDIES AND COMMENTS. 
 
 Shall we say that now for the first time the 
 Shulamite begins to catch a gleam of the 
 truth which the inspired poet is teaching all 
 readers of his song ? That she is now mount- 
 ing to the clear vision that will enable her to 
 say " Love is a fire of Jah " ? 
 
 Some students of this biblical drama would 
 have us believe that the constructive art of the 
 Hebrew author is so crude that at the close of 
 each act he anticipates the conclusion. This 
 we do not believe, but rather that by her trials 
 she learns to walk with God, and that He 
 walks with her as He did with his tried ser- 
 vant Job. No more making adjuration by her 
 earthly pets, or admired creatures of freedom, 
 she now refers the burden of her thoughts and 
 feelings to the Holy One. As the intent of 
 the author of the Book of Job is to conduct 
 his hero through earthly calamities, through 
 the utmost temptations of Satan, through all 
 clouds and darkness of the flesh and the 
 spirit, through the mist and twilight of human 
 philosophy, that he may bring him to God and 
 see his hero even more than a Jacob made 
 Israel, so, through all that most tries a woman, 
 the singer of the Song of Songs would bring 
 the Shulamite where she may look up into the 
 face of her Heavenly Father. 
 
 May not this emancipated one have sung 
 words like these .'
 
 THE IMPREGNABLE FORTRESS. 2$$ 
 
 " Sing unto God, sing praises to his name : extol 
 him that rideth upon the heavens by his name 
 JAH, and rejoice before him." 
 
 " God setteth the solitary in families : he bring- 
 eth out those which are bound with chains : but the 
 rebellious dwell in a dry land."
 
 ACT V. SCENE I. 
 THE UNION OF THE LOVERS. 
 
 Chapter VIII. 5-7. 
 
 Twice from the persons of the drama does 
 the question arise, " Who is this that cometh 
 up out of the wilderness ? " In the first in- 
 stance, the exclamations of wonder are com- 
 pelled from the lips of citizens of Jerusalem 
 by the gorgeous train of King Solomon, and 
 his state palanquin surrounded by the famous 
 veterans of the wars of David, Then it was 
 the stately approach, amid clouds of incense, 
 of one who expected to win with a word. The 
 outlook was from Jerusalem, the occasion one 
 of the public pageants usual upon the appear- 
 ance in state of Solomon, — such, for instance, 
 as on the occasion of his marriage with Pha- 
 raoh's daughter, or his return from a pleasure 
 or hunting tour, or his entrance into the city 
 with the idea of adding another star of beauty 
 to. the galaxy of his harem. 
 
 Now, the question is again asked, as in 
 other scenes of the drama, but this time the
 
 THE UNION OF THE LOVERS. 2 $7 
 
 scenery is unmistakably Galilean. It is in 
 the north, in Shunem. The spectators are 
 shepherds or toilers of the vineyard on the 
 fields looking southward over the wilderness 
 or plain of Jezreel. These companions of 
 " the beloved " of the poem descry not a glit- 
 tering cavalcade, nor clouds of dust amid 
 which flash spear and scimiter, gold and silver, 
 but the prominent figures are a young man 
 and a young woman. She leans upon him for 
 strength, for the journey has been long. It 
 is the Shulamite girl freed from her captivity 
 in Jerusalem. Perhaps her mother has come 
 also to meet her daughter. 
 
 Eagerly the happy girl, returning from exile 
 in a strange city, surveys the old familiar spots, 
 dear to her from childhood. She recognizes 
 the orchards, in which every tree has its asso- 
 ciations. The first place most redolent of 
 sweet associations is the witnessing tree under 
 which his heart was first captivated by her 
 beauty, and under which they plighted their 
 troth. Most sacred of all spots on earth to 
 true lovers is that one which heard the propo- 
 sal, which became the dawn of love's long day. 
 They who, under the leafy boughs of the old 
 home's fragrant orchard, or aisle of evergreens 
 in college campus, or in the forest, or by the 
 river side, sealed love's compact, have sweeter
 
 258 STUDIES AND COMMENTS. 
 
 associations with Nature than they whose 
 words of love are spoken in parlor or drawing- 
 room. 
 
 Did the Hebrew lovers of twenty-five cen- 
 turies ago carve sign or symbol on wood or 
 bark, or simply invoke the tree to be their wit- 
 ness ? To these people, who called a spring 
 of water " the eye " of the landscape, and in 
 unconscious natural poetry gave to a river 
 "tongue," "lips," and "mouth;" to a moun- 
 tain "head," "nose," "ears," "shoulder," 
 "side," "back," "ribs," "loins," and "elbow," 
 a tree was even more of a living thing. 
 
 In their parables, fables, and allegories, in- 
 stead of the animals that talk to us and 
 instruct us in ^sop, the trees stan>d as sym- 
 bols of God's law in Eden, hold a convention 
 to decide upon having a king, and become the 
 emblem of the man who meditates on God's 
 law. In Bible language the trees " know," 
 they "rejoice," they "clap their hands," they 
 " faint," they are " the Lord's." They become 
 places of dwelling and of judgment, not only 
 landmarks, but underneath them birth and 
 death, love-pledge and legal covenant, and all 
 the events of life and love take place. 
 
 Upon the apple-tree the Shulamite casts 
 her eyes in welcome and delight, as memory 
 recalls the happy past.
 
 THE UNION OF THE LOVERS. 259 
 
 " Under this apple-tree I wakened thy love " [I 
 won thy heart]. 
 
 "There [as she passes her lover's home and 
 birthplace, says she] thy mother was in travail 
 with thee, there in travail she brought thee forth." 
 
 The final scene is introduced by verse six. 
 It is the wedding. The Shulamite, safe in the 
 arms of him to whom her heart has been 
 given, having come out of temptation un- 
 scathed, stands before the marriage altar and 
 plights her troth. Jehovah has given her a 
 crown for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, 
 and the garment of praise for the spirit of 
 heaviness. She takes the nuptial vow and 
 utters the prayer and sentiment which to- 
 gether make the keynote of the poem, — the 
 unconquerable nature and lofty inflexibility of 
 true love, — bidding him cherish her as one 
 who has been tried to the uttermost and not 
 found wanting. 
 
 That keynote and final strain of triumph 
 thus sounds : 
 
 " Set me as a seal upon thy heart, as a signet 
 upon thine arm ; for love is as strong as death, 
 jealous love is as unyielding as Slieol, its flashings 
 are flashes of fire, the flames of Jah," 
 
 No mere Hebrew superlative is this " very 
 flame of the Lord," — as the Revision trans-
 
 26o STUDIES AND COMMENTS. 
 
 lates this culminating word sJialhebetJi-Jah. 
 Set at this dramatic climax of the drama, it 
 can mean nothing less than a reference of the 
 theme of the poet, and the subject of the 
 drama, to Jah Jehovah, whose glorious name 
 we read in the margin of Isaiah xii. 2, xxvi. 4. 
 This name of God, used only in poetry, is here 
 set at the culmination of the poem of poems 
 most felicitously and appropriately. 
 
 This is the divine side of love ; it has also 
 a human side. The image and superscription 
 are of Jehovah, the worth of stamp and legend 
 must be tested in human experience. As she 
 remembers the deep waters of trial and the 
 bribes of a king she adds : 
 
 " Many waters cannot quench love, neither can 
 the floods drown it. If a man were to give all the 
 substance of his house in place of love, it would 
 utterly be contemned." 
 
 The commentary and explanation of these 
 glowing sentiments, we have had in the whole 
 poem itself. 
 
 That the maiden of Shunem or the poet of 
 the Canticle had reached the heights of the 
 truth revealed in the Scriptures of the New 
 Covenant, which the allegorists seem to assume, 
 we do not believe. The full corn in the ear 
 does not come before the tender blade. " That
 
 THE UNION OF THE LOVERS. 26 1 
 
 is not first which is spiritual, but that which 
 is natural." Not in this poem do we reach the 
 spiritual heights marked by the Christian's 
 word agape, in which glows both God's love 
 and man's, which is deeper than sex and as 
 high as heaven ; but here in the Canticle is 
 the foregleam of the glory revealed in Christ. 
 Is there not inspiration in a book which gives 
 to a woman, first in the Old Scriptures, to 
 prophesy that love is of God .-* 
 
 Man by his reasoning powers reaches, 
 woman by her feelings first discovers, truth. 
 Man's mental attitude and method can never 
 be just the same as woman's, yet the Lord 
 gives her too his word to publish. Truth is 
 not always revealed to him who gazes only in 
 one direction. In the story told by Herod- 
 otus, when all looked to the East because the 
 oracles had promised the sceptre and kingship 
 to whoever should first see the rays of the 
 morning sun, one gazer "looked at the op- 
 posite side of the heavens ; and while his com- 
 petitors had still before them nothing but a 
 sky yet buried in the shades of night, he saw 
 at the West the gleam of dawn that had al- 
 ready whitened the summit of a tower." 
 
 This one book of the Old Testament seems 
 as unique and strange as the man of Herodotus' 
 story, who to see the rising sun's rays looked
 
 262 STUDIES AND COMMENTS. 
 
 westward. The Shulamite, gazing at the tower 
 of her own experience, saw first thereon a 
 truth, to be fully revealed in the day of Christ. 
 It is noticeable also that when the Greeks of 
 Alexandria, long afterwards, and much nearer 
 the true Messiah's time, turned this marvelous 
 poem into prose, they expressed the term for 
 love which the Hebrew poet chose for use in 
 the refrain by the purely biblical and sacred 
 coinage of thought, — agape. The choice of 
 this precious word, so often on the lips and pens 
 of Paul, John, Peter, and Jude, and doubtless of 
 the Son of Man, shows how the seventy trans- 
 lators of Alexandria regarded the idea of love 
 as treated in the Canticle. Here, first, as Pro- 
 fessor Thayer shows, and occurring in no 
 classic Greek author, the word agape made its 
 appearance as a current term in this glorious 
 world-language, which, with all its verbal riches, 
 had known only those inferior terms for love 
 in which fleshly enjoyment was the basic idea. 
 De Quincey remarks that " The act of trans- 
 lating . . . out of a mysterious cipher . . . 
 into the golden light of a language the most 
 beautiful, the most honored among men, and 
 the most widely diffused through a thousand 
 years to come, had the immeasurable effect of 
 throwing into the great crucible of human 
 speculation, even then beginning to ferment,
 
 THE UNION OF THE LOVERS. 263 
 
 to boil, to overflow, — that mightiest of all ele- 
 ments for exalting the chemistry of philoso- 
 phy, — grand and, for the first time, adequate 
 conceptions of the Deity." Without the elo- 
 quence of the wizard of English style, we utter 
 our belief that this Song of Songs, in which 
 it is shown, through a woman, that the foun- 
 tain of love is in God, bore a noble part in 
 preparing the world for the ideas dominant in 
 Christianity.
 
 ACT V. SCENE 11. 
 THE VIRGIN FORTRESS AND THE VINEYARDS. 
 
 Chapter VIII. 8-14. 
 
 After her passionate appeal and apostrophe 
 to love, the happy bride turns to the shepherd- 
 bridegroom and the assembled company, and 
 entertains them with a witty speech, in which 
 she recalls a promise made to her by her older 
 brothers ; or, possibly, a conversation overheard 
 by her when she was an undeveloped girl. 
 She then gives them a little parable about Sol- 
 omon, in a genuine womanly way, and in true 
 Oriental style. 
 
 We must remember that, in describing her- 
 self to the ladies of Jerusalem, in the sixth 
 verse of the first chapter, she apologized be- 
 cause her complexion was so dark and sun- 
 burned, explaining it by the fact that she had 
 been sent to work in the vineyards by the sons 
 of her mother, that is, her brothers. Presum- 
 ably, her dear father was dead, and the chil- 
 dren of a former marriage, her step-brothers, 
 were not kind to their step-sister. We also
 
 VIRGIM FORTRESS AND VINEYARDS. 265 
 
 heard their commands when they perhaps pre- 
 vented a meeting of- the lovers, and bade her 
 go to work and catch the little foxes. To her 
 mother the Shulamite was devoted, and having 
 few or no young girl friends or brothers to 
 sympathize with her, she made her mother, as 
 we have seen, the repository of all her joys 
 and sorrov/s. Indeed, this tender affection of 
 the daughter to the mother, both in dreams 
 and in waking hours, is one of the striking 
 characteristics of the heroine, and forms a 
 marked feature of the cantata, so that the 
 most ordinary reader easily detects it. The 
 mother doubtless reciprocated the child's af- 
 fection, but the sons were severe and magis- 
 terial in their notions. 
 
 Although the Hebrews paid more regard to 
 women than many Asiatic peoples, yet the po- 
 sition of an unmarried female, and especially of 
 a step-daughter, even in an Israelite's family, 
 was not, from our view, a desirable one. As 
 matter of fact the step-brothers were severe 
 with her, and like many other owners of vine- 
 yards who harvest the revenues, but let their 
 hired men do the hard work, the brothers 
 made the step-sister keep the vineyards, hoe 
 and plant, trim and pick, and drive out the 
 foxes ; so that, as she said figuratively, " mine 
 own vineyard " — that is, her personal appear-
 
 266 STUDIES AND C0MMEN7S. 
 
 ance — "I have not kept." "Cultivating for 
 my brothers, I have not cultivated myself." 
 
 It is probable that these step-brothers were 
 in reality harsher in the treatment of their little 
 sister than they knew or intended to be. They 
 did not mean to make her miserable, but if she 
 was to be happy, it was to be in their way. 
 Perhaps they belonged to that class of persons, 
 not so very rare, to whom adheres the infirmity 
 of wanting every one to be and think and act 
 after their notions. Many a really kind, good, 
 well-meaning older brother will make his 
 young sister perfectly miserable, while at the 
 same time meaning to make her happy. He 
 will even cheerfully sacrifice himself to make 
 her wretched, while thinking to make her 
 happy in Ins way. 
 
 What a mistake we make when trying to ar- 
 range the happiness of other people on our 
 own cast-iron plans, and how unchristian to re- 
 fuse our help to others, who decline to alter 
 their whole life course in order to run on our 
 gauge ! 
 
 The "little sister" is the Shulamite, and 
 one day, when not yet in her teens, she over- 
 hears their plans when they are talking about 
 her. Her words, now addressed on her wed- 
 ding day to her friends, are a playful reminis- 
 cence of what she once heard long ago. One 
 brother talks in this strain ;
 
 VIRGIN FORTRESS AND VINEYARDS. 267 
 
 "We have a sister, she is little. She is not 
 grown, not developed. She is not a young lady 
 yet. What shall we do.? [not, what shall she do, 
 but what shall we do] in the day when she shall 
 be spoken for — when young men seek her com- 
 pany, when lovers come for her hand and heart, 
 when she is to enter society ? " 
 
 A second brother answers, with apparent 
 severity, but with real generosity and justice : 
 
 "If she be a wall," resisting all improper ad- 
 vances, keeping maidenly dignity, defying by 
 the strength of firm principle and chaste in- 
 stinct all improper familiarities, " then we shall 
 build upon her a palace of silver." 
 
 " Upon a foundation of such a character," he 
 would say, " we shall erect the superstructure 
 of our regard, and an honorable marriage, giv- 
 ing our approval to her choice, welcoming her 
 betrothed as a brother, showering our presents, 
 and dividing our hereditary substance gener- 
 ously for her dowry." 
 
 A third brother cautiously and justly, but 
 still severely, continues : 
 
 "But if she be as a door," — open to every 
 one's flirtations, and accessible to miscella- 
 neous attentions, and to every lover professing 
 so to be, — " then we shall fence her with ce- 
 dar boards ; " that is, marry her to a hard 
 crusty man, who will allow her no company.
 
 268 STUDIES AND COMMENTS. 
 
 and permit no lightness or folly; or, "we 
 shall sell her into a harem." Withdrawn from 
 all society she will be buried in a life of mo- 
 notony with her m.aster. 
 
 However we may criticise the selfish form of 
 their deliberations, we must admire their de- 
 cisions. 
 
 Triumphantly, now, the maiden, no longer a 
 little undeveloped girl, but a woman grown, 
 and who doubtless profited by overhearing her 
 brothers' wise severity, cries out : 
 
 " I have been a wall, and my bosom is as the 
 tower upon it. I have withstood the flatteries and 
 blandishments, even of a king. Armed only with 
 innocence, I have resisted every assault." 
 
 "Then," after thus refusing to yield to Sol- 
 omon, " was I in his eyes as one that found 
 peace." 
 
 Ay, as in Chinese history the defeated con- 
 queror, leaving behind the victorious Corean 
 fortress, against which he had hurled his ar- 
 mies in vain, sent rolls of costly silk to the de- 
 fenders as token of his admiration ; as the hill 
 tribes of India, issuing from their strongholds, 
 tied a red cord round the wrists of the de- 
 feated British soldiers lying dead on the field, 
 to show that they regarded them as heroes ; as 
 the caps of the Russian officers were lifted in
 
 VIRGIN FORTRESS AND VINEYARDS. 269 
 
 admiration when the Turkish leader at Shipka 
 Pass, wounded and a prisoner, entered their 
 camp ; as every Union soldier honored the 
 courage of the beaten Confederates, so in Sol- 
 omon's admiring eyes was this pure girl as one 
 who found peace, never more to be molested 
 even by a king. Thus by the valor of purity, 
 this virgin fortress, this unsoiled lily, obtained 
 that the king should leave her at peace. Tran- 
 quilly, happily, she left Jerusalem and came to 
 her humble home at Shunem, with the joy of a 
 good conscience and a heart at peace. 
 
 " Solomon," further speaks the happy bride, 
 in one of those riddles or enigmas in which the 
 Hebrews delighted, from the time of Samson to 
 that of Solomon, " had a vineyard at Baal- 
 hamon " (or is it Baal-'Hermon .?). " He let 
 out the vineyard on shares to farmers," and so 
 rich was the crop, so valuable the stock, that 
 "every one for selling the crop must pay rent 
 in a thousand pieces of silver." 
 
 " O Solomon, keep thy thousand shekels, and 
 give two hundred to the keepers of the fruit." 
 Let him and them keep their wealth, "my 
 vineyard, my own, is before me." I own my- 
 self. What I had, my beauty and my purity, 
 the king, with all his vineyards, could not 
 buy. 
 
 No longer made the keeper for others, she
 
 270 STUDIES AND COMMENTS. 
 
 dwells in the gardens of requited love and de- 
 sired affections. 
 
 Now, for the first time in the drama, the be- 
 loved comes publicly upon the scene and his 
 own voice is directly heard. Heretofore he 
 has been addressed, described, remembered, 
 dreamed about, made participant in the scenes 
 of thought and imagination, but so far has had, 
 to the reader of this grand love poem, only sub- 
 jective existence in the pure mind of the 
 maiden. Now, as lover crowned and happy 
 husband, he appears on the scene in objective 
 reality. Yet even then, all his thoughts are 
 directed towards his bride. In her shadow he 
 lives, and appearing only for a moment van- 
 ishes upon the mountains of spices. 
 
 " O thou that dwellest in the gardens, the com- 
 panions are listening to thy voice, let me also hear 
 it." 
 
 He asks here for more than the song which 
 she has been singing for the festal wedding 
 company. He craves, now that she is with him, 
 a sweet word that assures him that her whole 
 love and heart are forever his. 
 
 Will she yield too easily, even to the one 
 whom her soul loveth .' A sweet innocent co- 
 quettishness is a maidenly charm. A modest 
 winsomeness, tempered with just enough spirit
 
 VIRGIN FORTRESS AND VINEYARDS. 27 1 
 
 to moderate the woulcl-be victor's conceit, is 
 better for both lover and maid. We cannot 
 conceive even of Eve engaging too readily to 
 become Adam's wife, nor Rebecca becoming 
 Isaac's bride without giving him something to 
 wonder about. No man can utterly fathom a 
 woman's ways. It is good that he cannot. 
 Take away all mystery, eliminate every ele- 
 ment of unexpectedness from a woman, you 
 make her a machine which none but a wooden 
 man loves. The very impossibility of a man 
 finding out all about a woman is one of the in- 
 gredients in that *' charm which Eden never 
 lost." Even an old, settled-down husband 
 ought to enjoy being occasionally "carried up 
 to Paradise by the stairways of surprise," 
 through the element of woman's unexpected- 
 ness. And so, at the end of the Canticle, 
 though the bride yields to this, the first com- 
 mand, rather request, of her beloved, we note 
 in her what Milton pictures in our first mother 
 Eve : 
 
 " Implied 
 Subjection, but required with gentle sway 
 And by her yielded, by him best received, 
 Yielded with coy submission, modest pride, 
 And sweet, reluctant, amorous delay." 
 
 Truly a wanton flirt is a wicked woman ; a 
 jilt is the devil's own daughter. A creature 
 who encourages attentions capriciously, and
 
 272 STUDIES AND COMMENTS. 
 
 gives her lovers hopes only to deceive and dis- 
 appoint, belongs to the company of Delilah, 
 Jezebel, and Sapphira, and will be judged of 
 God. Naught of this spirit belongs to the 
 Shulamite. Here is a woman who has refused 
 to encourage one whom she cannot love, yet 
 mildly teases the one who has won her. 
 Steadfast and true to one only, she is yet of 
 womankind, and her words have the flavor of 
 bitter-sweet. Here in the very hour appar- 
 ently of his triumph she tells him to flee, to 
 hasten to the mount, to " break away." 
 
 " Make haste, my beloved, and be thou like a ga- 
 zelle or a young hart upon the spicy mountains." 
 
 Does she mean to say, "No longer are we di- 
 vided by the mount of separation, not now with 
 their valleys that keep us far apart, not as 
 when a prisoner in Jerusalem I looked upon 
 the range upon range of dividing hills, home, 
 heart, love-sick, but be thou upon the moun- 
 tain of spices. Enjoy thou thy life henceforth 
 in the fragrance of my love. I am your gar- 
 den " > 
 
 Does she mean this .-' Shall we leave the 
 lovers happy in the joy of their union, in the 
 fond faith and rapture of hope that reality will 
 be equal to anticipation } 
 
 Or will love, that came " with music in his
 
 VIRGIN FORTRESS AND VINEYARDS. 2/3 
 
 feet," and tuned "young pulses to his rounde- 
 lay," not "turn proser when he comes and 
 stays " ? 
 
 What does it mean, that, in the supreme 
 moment of happy love, this Shulamite — the 
 most womanly to our thinking of all the 
 women of the Bible — answers her beloved in 
 language which cannot possibly mean " come," 
 but which unmistakably says " flee " ? 
 
 Who can tell ? What commentator explain ? 
 Does not the poet intend here an enigma ? 
 Does not even inspiration picture the course 
 of true love as never running smooth, and hint- 
 ing that whether affectionate courtship be with 
 ease or with stress, its forecast, however bright, 
 may fail of its fulfillment in happy marriage ? 
 Does it not compel the searching of heart 
 which asks whether the elements of love-mak- 
 ing are the same as those of a true marriage ? 
 Must not one, even on attaining the heart's im- 
 mediate desire, mount even yet higher the 
 mountains of fragrant endeavor ? 
 
 Do not these last words of the poet, put in 
 the mouth of the Shulamite, propound the 
 possibility that winning a maiden to marriage 
 is not the end of either right ambition or holy 
 guile in holding and developing that love which 
 is a spark of the Eternal? Docs it not suggest 
 that the mountains of spices have yet greater
 
 274 STUDIES AND COMMENTS. 
 
 heights to be won, even until passionate love 
 be transformed into purest friendship, when 
 sex and its charms are lost in the heavenly- 
 glories of spiritual love ? And thus, abruptly 
 closing, does not this loftiest strain of Hebrew 
 poetry teach that earthly love, though of the 
 purest, cannot satisfy the soul, and that noth- 
 ing can do this but God ? 
 
 These questions may be answered us in eter- 
 nity, when in the presence of the Lover of 
 man we shall see our Beloved as He is, and 
 find in our Christ the eternal satisfaction of 
 the soul.
 
 "JAH JEHOVAH IS MY STRENGTH AND MY SONG; 
 AND HE IS BECOME MY SALVATION." 
 
 "TRUST YE IN JEHOVAH FOREVER, FOR IN JAH 
 JEHOVAH IS THE ROCK OF AGES."
 
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