CINIANS, I., § 3.
SONG OF SOLOMON
(SONG OF SONGS, CANTICLES).
The Interpretation; Dramatic Theory (§ 1). Narrative of the Drama (§ 2). Objections to this Theory (§ 3). Syrian Marriage-week Theory (§ 4). Objections to this Theory (§ 5). Authorship and Date (§ 6).
The Song of Solomon (Song of Songs, Canticles) is the book which follows Ecclesiastes in the arrangement of the English Bible. The title in Hebrew, " Song of Songs which is Solomon's," conveys the idea that it is the noblest of songs, the author of which is Solomon. It is clearly a love song, but whether to be understood of earthly or spiritual love
Song1 of Solomon
THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG
is the question. Its date is long after Solomon's time.
Since the time of Herder its unity has been denied
by many, and it has been regarded as
i. The In- a collection of love songs. But com-
terpretation ; mentators agree on the principal
Dramatic characters as being King Solomon, his
Theory, beloved (a peasant maiden), and the daughters [i.e., female residents] of Jerusalem. Peculiarities of speech abound from beginning to end. And there are characteristic expressions which repeat themselves with slight variations throughout (cf. ii. 7, hi. 5, viii. 4, and v. 8; hi. 6, vi. 10, and viii. 5; ii. 17, iv. 6, and viiii. 14; ii. 6, and viiii. 3; i. 2 and iv. 10; ii. 5 and v. 8). Many parts are parallels (cf. ii. 8 sqq., hi. 1 sqq., and v. 2 sqq.). In view of the many unmistakable interrelationships and indications of unity which bind the poem together (cf. i. 6 with viii. 12), it may be regarded as proved that the parts of the poem are weU welded together. But since different voices are heard in the song and since the scenes change, the piece can not be taken as purely lyric; it is dramatic poetry, examples of which are found also in the Psalms (ii. and xxiv.). But it is necessary for the understanding of the whole to mark off the scenes, to determine the dramatis persona?, and to apportion the text among them although the text contains no express directions for doing this. Near to King Solomon stands a celebrated beauty who in vi. 13 is caUed the Shulamite (from the village of Shulam, modern Sulam, formerly Shunem; cf. I Kings i. 3), a maiden from the country characterized by a noble grace and unaffected humility. According to the older view not only is this one honored by the king, but his enraptured preference is prized and his affection tenderly returned; the newer and till recently dominant conception was that she affirms her love for a third person and over against the homage of the king sets the praise of a simple shepherd of her native heath until finally the king yields the field and fidelity conquers. Into the mouth of this rival of Solomon's certain parts are put, or at least the maiden speaks them as though they were the words which he would speak were he present. It is evident how differently the poem will be construed whether the viewpoint is that of a pouring-out of confession of love by two united spirits or the contest of two rivals in which the simple shepherd gains the victory over the king.
The last view is held by so weighty authorities that it is in the main points to be followed. According to Ewald and others the following story is gained from indications in the poem. 2. Narrative In one of his journeys to the north of of the his kingdom the king had come to the
Drama, neighborhood of Shulam when some in his train found in a nut-garden (vi. 11-12) an attractive maiden in a condition of delighted ecstasy. .Although somewhat hardly treated by her own people and put to guard a vineyard near, she displays so rare a grace that the king desires her for his harem. \~\ith this encounter the first scene begins (i. 1 sqq.), in which she states that she has given her heart to a shepherd of her own home to whom she will be true in spite of all the allurements of the king and of his surroundings.
The conflict intensifies in the course of the poem as the suit of the king becomes more eager and pressing. While he praises her, she answers with the eulogies of her beloved. In this elevated state of feeling she hopes to see him and to hear his voice (ii. 8 sqq., hi. 5, cf. viii. 4); in her dreams she seeks him in the streets of Jerusalem until she finds him. The contest reaches its climax when Solomon makes her the offer of his throne. As his queen in due right he carries her to his capital, but even this fails of its purpose, since her vision returns to her beloved. The king then makes a final attempt to win her by the influence of magical words (vi. 4 sqq.). But as her longing for home becomes still more irresistible he renounces her and dismisses her in peace to her own possessions. In the last act she arrives home with her friends where the bonds of love are sealed. The moral of the piece is in vii. 6; love is unconquerable, inextinguishable, unpurchasable. True love wins the victory.
It can not be denied that this hypothesis is very
attractive and avoids many difficulties, putting as
it does at the close a moral which is drawn from an
incident portrayed in dramatic colors,
3. Objec- but perhaps not altogether fictitious, tions to in the life of the splendor-loving king.
this Theory. The moral verity harmoniously expressed at the close becomes not unworthy of the higher tone of the canonical books generally, even though allegory have almost nothing to do with the poem. The firmly-true betrothed may as well have her memorial in the Scriptures as the virtuous wife. Still on a closer examination this understanding of the poem is not altogether unassailable. Decidedly against it is the following circumstance: iii. 6 to v. 1 describes precisely the royal wedding-day, ending in the royal bridegroom's gratification in the assured obtaining of all his desires. If this wedding, according to the conception of the rivalry of the shepherd, must become tragic, while not once in this passage does the required impotence of love appear, through the last words cf the Shulamite (iv. 16) the whole finely conceived theory of the unwillingness of the shepherd-betrothed to yield to the king falls apart. In this section, where the relations of love find their most concrete form, the sponsors for the shepherd theory find no support. Decisive appears vii. 11 sqq., where the Shulamite, in words impossible to misunderstand, promises herself, her person (her own vineyard), fully and wholly to Solomon, but only a moderate reward to her guardians, her brothers, in which she refers to the general custom followed by Solomon.
Other reflections against the shepherd hypothesis have only recently been appreciated. The hypothesis set forth by Herder and others of an unconnected anthology of marriage songs
4. Syrian has been accepted, for example by Marriage- Budde and others who find in Wetz-
week stein's communications about the cele- Theory. bration of marriage in modern Syria the solution of the puzzle. The latter published in Bastian's Zeitschrift fur Ethnologie, 1873, an article on the " Syrian Threshing Floor " in which the threshing-floor in the " king's week " comes in for discussion. The primitive threshing-