446 SEPARATED LOVERS
mother, an only daughter, and two brothers. The father is not mentioned and presumably was dead, since the brothers appear as the natural guardians of their sister. The family were possessors of vineyards and gardens. The girl was remarkable for beauty and grace, and possessed a fine voice. She had won and returned the love of a young farmer living not far away, the possessor of flocks of sheep. Their first happy meeting had taken place under an apple tree not far from the girl's home, and joyful meet- ings had followed under overarching trees, and at other pleasant places of resort. The relation had been a happy and a pure one : he calls her "sister betrothed," she thinks of him as "like a brother." The brothers, however, anxious for their sister's honour, and disliking a relation somewhat opposed to Oriental strictness in such matters, sent her away from home, to be a watcher in the vineyards. The time was the early spring, and she had been long enough in this employment to be scorched by the eun. One day she had gone down to the nut-garden to observe the new growths of the spring, when her attention was caught by a glittering train, " the chariots of a prince's retinue," namely. King Solomon, with a large number of the ladies of his court. These ladies saw and admired the country beauty ; she wished to withdraw, but was called back by the admiring ladies. What happened next is not told except in its unhappy sequel, " The king has brought me into his apartments," and it is there we find her as the poem opens, longing to run away.
It will be seen that the poet presents here a most interesting complication to be unravelled in his poem. The king is set against the young farmer. Will the majesty of the king, the glory of his surroundings, his presents, and his flattering per- suasions, and the praises of his court ladies, prevail against this country girl, or will she be able to resist these allurements and remain faithful to him whom her soul loves ? Will her country lover have the devotion and courage to follow her to Jerusalem, seek out where she is detained, and find an opportunity of strengthening her resistance and animating her courage ? Is the end to be that the Shulammite girl is to become one of the " in- numerable girls " in a royal harem, or the honourable wife of a farmer in Galilee ? The poet makes us feel that a moral issue is involved, and prepares us to follow with the liveliest sympathy
SONG OF SONGS i. 7 447
the fate of the pure girl in her struggle against overwhelming odds.^
^ I have been told, by the friend to whom the interesting statement was made by the late Laureate, that Tennyson was so impressed by the literary beauty of the Canticle, and by its evi- dent intention to represent the victory of a loyal human love over strong temptation, that he confessed his desire to write a dramatic work on the theme of the Song, which might help the English reading public to become better acquainted with the in- valuable teaching of the Old Testament poem. In his West- Ostlicher Divan, Goethe also expresses his sense of the incompar- able charm of the Canticle, which he characterizes as the most tender and inimitable poem that has come down to us of im- passioned expression and graceful love. He laments the frag- mentary nature of its poetry, but dwells with delight on the vivid glimpses it gives us of rural life and love in ancient Canaan. Its chief theme, he says, is the glowing mutual attraction of youthful hearts, which seek and find one another, separate and draw together again, in a manner absolutely unique. He con- fesses that he had often thought of doing something to bring out more clearly the meaning of this exquisite entanglement of songs,- but deemed it best to leave the little piece with its own aroma of enigma and its uniqueness.^
2. Now, if the dramatic character of the Canticle is taken for granted, it may be asked, Did its author intend it to be read only as a story of human love ? Did he not also mean it to be symbolical of spiritual things ? To that question no certain answer can be made, though some considerations give to the affirmative reply a distinct colour of probability. Yet if the author intended only to tell the story of the Shulammite's love, why should his intention hinder us from regarding that story as an apparent sign of things unapparent ? Since the poem is part of the great unity of Scrip- ture, it may well be typical, looking forward for its ultimate ex- planation to that full-orbed revelation of the Divine love which it is the purpose of Holy Scripture to reflect. A type so exquisite will help, not hinder, faith.
■[j Saintly souls like George Bowen of Bombay, have declared
that when their heart burned within them no Scripture was found
80 fit as the Canticle to express the fervour of their aspiration
and communion with God. It were weakness on the part of
1 W. W. Canon. ^ u. Falconer, The Maid of Shulam, 11.
448 SEPARATED LOVERS