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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

r. 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 ex

pressions which repeat themselves with slight varia

tions throughout (cf. ii. 7, iii. 5, viii. 4, and v. 8;

iii. 6, vi. 10, and viii. 5; ii. 17, iv. 6, and Vllll. 14;

ii. 6, and viiii. 3; i. 2 and iv. 10; ii. 5 and v. 8).

Many parts are parallels (cf. ii. 8 sqq., iii. 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 well 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 neces

sary for the understanding of the whole to mark

off the scenes, to determine the dramatis personce,

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 called the Shulamite (from the

village of Shulam, modern Sulam, formerly Shu

nem; cf. T Kings i. 3), a maiden from the country

characterized by a noble grace and unaffected hu

mility. According to the older view not only is this

one honored by the king, but his enraptured pref

erence 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. Ac

cording to Ewald and others the following story is

gained from indications in the poem.

z. NarrativeIn 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 de

lighted 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 de

sires her for his harem. With 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., iii. 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

dons to in the life of the splendor-loving king. this Theory. The moral verity harmoniously ex-

pressed 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 of the Shulaxnite (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. Il sqq., where the Shulamite, in words impossible to misunderstand, promises herself, her person (her oven 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 un-

connected anthology of marriage songs 4. Syrian has been accepted, for example by

the solution of the puzzle. The latter published in Bastion's Zeitschrift fur F,thnologie, 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-