So ends the dramatical development of t'j« material used in the Sonj; of Sony's. The present vriter considers that in the scheme of interpreta- tion just proposed everything proceeds in t.">od order and exhibits a perfectly natural connexion. He thinks it well to say natural, because, as a matter of fact, the dillerent parts of the Sorg
• It may be noted that 8S * have been wrongly placed :n their present position, where they do not at all suit the context. Their insertion after vv.1.2 is readily intelligible on the ground of a certain similaritv of thought in 2-"r- : but see the next note.
) In this List section the present writer regards v.ii as an archicological and in any case very prosaic gloss, occasioned by the ' thousand ' of v.". In like manner v.>* is a later insertion bv one who misunderstood the Song of Songs in so far as he believed that the Shulamniite in the end became the wife of Solomon. In no other way can the strange invitation l*.^ tho beloved be understood. The same hand which added v.» mav also through a similar misunderstanding have inserted vv.a-«. In 8'2 which is unquestionably genuine, the Sbulammit« manifestlv contrastshcrself with the thousand wives of Solomon V IS, which we also hold to be genuine (cf. 214), doses the Song of Sony's, but serves at the same time as an introduction to the merry songs, dances, and games which followed at a marriage feast, and which lasted for seven days.
SO^"G OF SO^'GS
SONS OF GOD
597
torresponU exactlj- in tlieir progress to the various stages in a niarriajre felubration. Even the transi- tion from the lirst to tlie second half of the poem is dramatically heautiful and essentially uncon- strained, and, as deserves to he once more empha- sized, has a remarkable resemblance to the turning- point in the narrative of the loves of Hamda and llabhSs. So also in the progress from one Act to another or one Scene to another, everj'thing has an unconstrained flow, there is nothing abrupt or unnatural. We may then be permitted to exjiress our conviction that if the Song of Songs be taken in the sense above indicated, not only will it be found to be perfectlj- intelligible in every part of its contents, but it will also prove itself bej'ond question to be a dramatical unity and constructed with dramatical skill. — Whether this melodramatic marriage-play was ever actually performed, say at wedding celebrations, or whether it was simply the product of a jjoet's leisure (composed with a didactic aim), cannot of course be determined, but at all events it was capable of being so jiresented.
iii. AUTiioii.siiiP, I'LACE OF Composition, and Date of riiii Song of Songs.— The title at the head of the work means, of course, to point to Solomon himself as the author of the poem, and down to the most recent times this view lias been closely bound up with the allegorical interpretation and has been widely held. But it is out of the question, alike on the theory of Herder and on that inaugurated especially by Ewald. As a matter of course, the Solomonic authorship is excluded also if Budde's view be accepted. The juescnt writer is equally com- pelled, in view of all that has been said above, to regard the traditional opinion as erroneous. Solomon is indeed partly the subject of the poem. Out it is quite impossible that he himself sliould have composed it. And it is of course beyond our power so much a-s to hazard a conjecture as to who the actual author was.
Nor can much be said as to the place of com- position. Budde has sought to infer from the mention of the ' daughters of Jerusalem' that the poetical material contained in the Song of Songs liad its birthplace in Jerusalem or the neighbour- hood of it. But every hint that can be utilized for locating the poem appears to point to the north of Palestine. Tliere and nowhere else is the stage upon which the movement takes place in most parts of the \moni that contain geographical allu- Bions. This does not, however, imply that the actual composition of the poem must nave taken place in North Palestine. It was extremely natural that, even if the author lived in Juda;a, the locality of the dramatic poem should be fixed in the north, if its material was suiqdied by the Btory of Ahishag of Shunem in tne developed form explained above. In the first part, accord- ingly, we should find ourselves, of course, in the royal palace at Jeru.salem, and this agrees ad- mirably with 2"''- '"', where it is presuiqiosed that the place of residence of the Sliiilamniito is sepa- rated from that of her beloved by a number of mountain heights. While there is nothing in the contents of the Song of Songs to justify any cer- tain inference as to the place of composition, the iiresent writer considers it probable that it was uda;a, perhaps even Jerusalem. This conclusion is perhaps supported al.so by the decision, so far as My such is possible, regarding —
The (late. It has been supposed that the Song of Songs originated, if not in the Solomonic era, at least at a time not far removed from it. The life- like conception of the conditions of that time, on the one hand, and the occurrence of Tirzah, the ancient, capital of the Northern Kingdom, along- Bide of Jerusalem (6*), on the other hand, are sup-