to order of time. The Song of Moses and Miriam commences with the complete triumph of Jehovah over the hosts of Egypt: half the song is over before the incident. that is earliest in time appears · the enemy's boastful pursuit. Those then who assume that Solomon's Song must be a drama burden themselves with the restriction of making the sequence of details in the poem tally with sequence of time. It is not surprising that a work of literature should give up different senses to those who bring to bear upon it such different instruments of interpretation. Those who hold that Solomon's Song is a drama find the plot of that drama to consist in a struggle between King Solomon and a humble shepherd wooer for the love of the fair Shulammite woman, Solomon in the end giving way, and the heroine and her humble wooer becoming united. To me this result seems to be wrung out of the words of the poem with a good deal of straining. On the other hand, if we allow the work the wider range of lyric idyls, there needs no straining of interpretation to arrive at a story which is certainly not less interesting than the other. For by this interpretation we are able to identify the humble lover with Solomon himself. The story becomes this. King Solomon with a courtly retinue, visiting the royal vineyards upon Mount Lebanon, comes by surprise upon the fair Shulammite. She flies from them. Solomon visits her in the disguise of a shepherd, and so wins her love. He then comes in all his royal state, and calls upon her to leave Lebanon and become his queen. They are in the act of being wedded in the royal palace when the poem opens. " This, which is the story as a whole, is brought out for us in seven idyls, each independent, all founded on the one story, but making their reference to different parts of it as these occur to the minds of the speakers, without the limitation to order of succession that would be implied in dramatic presentation. The first song depicts the Wedding Day: the bride- with her bridesmaids, the ' daughters of Jerusalem'—is approaching the palace, Solomon leading her. Then there is the ceremony of lifting the bride across the threshold. The new queen, elevated to a throne from a country life, apologises gracefully for her homeliness to the company of city-bred bridesmaids. Then there follow confidences between husband and wife; later, the procession is passing from the banqueting hall to the bridal chamber. The wedding day has been presented in its successive moments; and now the minstrel's refrain bids all leave the lovers to their repose.. The second idyl may be said to go back in time, for it takes the form of the Bride's Reminiscences of the Courtship. She describes a visit to her of her lover in the fair spring time, and how in the midst of his sweet words the harsh voices of her brothers broke in upon them, with the cry that the foxes were in the vineyard. Again, after the intervention of a refrain, the bride tells a simple dream of losing her lover and finding him again. Some snatch of refrain here, as always, separates one idyl from another. From the wedding scene with which we opened we have, in the third idyl, gone back in time to the Day of Betrothal, which is here presented in great particularity. Already the heroine has been won by the lover in his disguise, but now Solomon is to visit the Shulammite in state. The epic description of which I have spoken- or, if the reader prefers, such an impersonal 'chorus' as in oratorio is used to carry on narrative-paints the journey of the king in the sumptuous chariot, with guards because of terrors in the night journey through the wilderness. The dialogue that follows commences with Solomon's ravishment at the charms of his love; he invites her to leave the rugged Lebanon, the actual proposal of marriage being veiled under a symbol of maidenhood - a garden shut up. With the use of the same symbolism the Shulammite speaks her assent; and the poet breaks in with his blessing: Eat, O friends, Drink, yea, drink abundantly of love. The next idyl presents again a dream, this time A Troubled Dream of the Bride. Her lover comes in the night season; and while she pauses a moment to adjust her dress, and dip her fingers in the myrrh, she loses him, and wanders forth to find him, being beaten and insulted by the watch. With the fanciful incongruity that is so delightful in dream movement she finds herself, without surprise, accosting the chorus of bridesmaids, and talking of her lover in the rapturous description of his charms the trouble of the dream passes off like a cloud, and the end is the happy confidence which leads up to the triumphant refrain. The fifth of these songs is wholly spoken by the royal bridegroom. It is a passionate Meditation on the charms of his Bride. Incidentally it introduces, in an important passage to which I shall recur, the occasion of his first meeting the fair Shulammite. The two concluding idyls might be called, in modern phrase, the close of the honeymoon. The first of them is spoken by the bride to her husband. Amid all the splendour of the royal palace she finds herself longing for her country home on Lebanon, and appeals to her husband that they may visit it together and renew their love there. The last of the songs carries out this purpose. A morsel of description, so phrased as to read like a brief echo of the longer description in the former song, introduces the pair arriving together from their wilderness journey. The talk that follows in the home scene is just what would be natural. They recognise the very spot where the king and his court came by surprise upon the startled maiden. They speak sweet words of love, and of its foe jealousy. The bride recalls riddling speeches of maidenhood and marriage spoken to her when she was too much of a child to understand them; all is intelligible now. Finally, in a quaint figure, she renews her devotion to her husband: king Solomon has been the 'landlord' of her home, he shall also be the landlord of her heart. But royal personages cannot be left long to such solitary delights; hence the voices of the escort are soon heard: these are a signal for one more embrace, and the poem ends. Besides this general clue as to the mode in which the different parts of the story are brought before us it is well that, before commencing the text, the reader should have his attention drawn to a few passages which are more or less peculiar in their form. I have already indicated that in places the dialogue gives way to description, or to the poet's apostrophes or refrains. These passages are in the present edition distinguished by italic type. But there are two sections of the poem which stand in need of more explanation. The first of these occurs in the fifth song. The portions of the song preceding and following this passage are wholly occupied with the king's rapturous meditation on his bride. As part of this meditation he has said: There are threescore queens, My dove, my undefiled, is but one; |