Observe the art of the poet, who introduces an incident whereby he favors the Lover with a gratification to which he was not, strictly speak ing, entitled, yet contrives to save the delicacy of his bride entirely harmless and irreproachable. Ile gives to the bride the choice of what time— how long—she would continue at the window, yet from the accident of her going to the window without her veil, if the introduction of his palan quin were a plot in the bridegroom, we perceive, by his subsequent discourse, that his plot had suc ceeded; and this without the smallest imputation on the delicacy of the person who was the object of his contrivance.
(8) Between thy locks. The word rendered locks seems to imply that portion of—those curls of—the hair which plays around the forehead; whereas, the word rendered tresses seems to de note those braids which fall down the back of the wearer (see the plate of the Bride's tress below.) Agreeably to this supposition, we do not recollect that the king has praised her tresses, because he had not seen them, having only seen his Lady in front; but he praises her locks two or three times, they being such parts of her hair as, in behold ing her person in front, naturally met his inspec tion.
(9, to) There is an opposition in this passage which requires elucidation. Thy hair, or braids of hair, falling on thy shoulders, arc like the long hairs of the Angora species of goat, whose staple is of great length, and very silky (some of them have been made into muffs for our ladies), which hang down, but bend and wave in hanging. Op posed to this is a flock of sheep, closely shorn, trimmed of their wool; no superfluity, but uni form and perfect neatness. The goats are de scending at Mount Gilead, where, we suppose, the way was winding and tortuous, making the flock appear the longer and more numerous to a person standing at the foot of the mount ; the sheep are cooling up on Mount Cassius; suppose such a road, as apparently or really compresses them into one company (especially if seen by a person standing on the top of the mount), or which only admits two at a time to pass along it. Mount Gilead was at the extremity of Judea, north; \lount Cassius was at the extremity of Judea. south. The contrast is that of long hair lengthened by convolutions of descent, opposed to the utmost smoothness contracted into the narrowest space.
(t t) As to the rendering of "Mount Cassius."
instead of "the washing:" (t) It rises from reading the original as two words instead of one, which, in fact, does not deserve the name of an alteration; (2) as Mount Gilead is a place the parallelism requires a place for this verse. which (3) the oppositions we have above re marked fully justify. This correction restores the poetry of the passage, and is perfectly agree able to the usages of Ilebrew poetry in general, and of this song in particular.
(i 2. 13) Blushing white. These verses. we ap prehend. maintain an opposition of a nature simi lar to that illustrated in the foregoing remarks— blushing like a pomegranate; :chite as a marble tower. We presume that the inference of blush ing is not to the flower of the pomegranate, hut to the inner part its rind when the fruit is cut open, which certainly is sufficiently blushing. The comparison of the female complexion to the rind, or skin, of ruddy fruits is common in all nations. Comparisons derived from the blushes of the peach are used not only in good company but by gond writers.
(14) The tower of David, built on o command ing eminence. Probably this tower was part of the palace of David, or it might be a guard-house, which stood alone on some hillock of his royal residence. The allusion, we presume, is to the lady's neck rising from her shoulders and bosom, majestically slender, graceful and delicate as the clearest marble, of which material, probably, this tower of David was constructed. On the neck of this lady was hung, by way of ornament, a row or collet of gems, some of which were pol ished, prominent and oval in shape; these the speaker assimilates to the shields which were hung round the tower of David, as military embellish ments. We would ask, however, whether these shields, thus hung on the outside of this tower, were not trophies taken from the vanquished; if so, antiquity explains this custom at once, and the royal lover may be understood as saying, "My father David hung many shields of those warriors who may have subdued many shields of the mighty, as trophies of his prowess, around the tower which he built as an armory; trophies no less splendid, and of conquests no less numerous over princes vanquished by your beauty, adorn your neck" (see t Mace. iv :57). This is not all, as the word for shields seems to imply a shield borne before a warrior, as before Goliath, when subdued by David (I Sam. xvii :7).