CANTICLES, or the Song of Songs, in biblical history, a Hebrew mode of ex pression to denote a song superlatively excellent in style and sentiment. Of this ancient poem the author is asserted, by the unanimous voice of antiquity, to have been Solomon, and this tradition is cor roborated by many internal marks of au thenticity. In the very first verse it is said to belong to Solomon ; he is the sub ject of the piece, and the principal actor in the conduct of it. Though the Song of Songs comes down to us recommended by the voice of antiquity, its divine au thority has been called in question by many writers in modern days. Whiston thinks it a dissolute loose song, composed by Solomon when advanced in years, and degenerate in practice ; and that therefore it ought to be excluded from the canon of the sacred hooks. Taken indeed in its primary and literal sense, it must be considered as describing a royal marriage, and may therefore be denomi nated an epishalamium, or hymeneal song. The celebrated Michx]is sup posed that the object of it was, to teach God's approbation of marriage. But the ideas of Harmer appear much more ra tional; who, though unwilling to give it the name of epithalamium, thinks it a marriage song, to be explained by com positions of a similar nature in eastern countries. " What can be more likely," says he, "to lead us into the literal sense of an ancient nuptial poem, than the com paring it with similar modern produc tions of the cast, along with antique Jew ish compositions of the same kind ?" Bos suet, bishop of Meaux, was of opinion that this song was to be explained by the consideration, that the Yews were wont to celebrate their nuptials for seven days together, distinguished from each other by different solemnities ; and this notion has been adopted by the author of " A new Translation of Solomon's Songs, with a Commentary and Annotations." The principal objection to this opinion is, that the conduct of the poem does not admit of such a distribution ; and the distin guishing each day by some distinct cere mony is a mere supposition, unsupported by fact. The elegant and learned bishop Lowth devotes two of his Prxlectiones to an examination of this poem, and he determines it, with Bossu et, to be a sacred drama, though deficient in some of the essential requisites of dramatic compo sition. Sir William Jones, from his know ledge of eastern poetry, was led to com pare some parts of it with similar pro ductions among the Arabians, and de livers it as his opinion, that it is to be classed with the Hebrew idyls.
Supported by the high authority of this illustrious scholar, Mr. M. Good, in an elegant metrical version with which he has favoured the public, considers the Song of Songs as forming, not one con tinued and individual poem, but a series of poems, each distinct and independent of the other ; and he denominates them sacred idyls. "The Song of Songs," he says, "cannot be one connected epitha famium, since the transitions are too ab rupt for the wildest flights of the Orien tal Muse, and evidently imply a variety of openings and transitions; while, as a re gular drama, it is deficient in every re quisite that could give it such a classifi cation." It has been also regarded as a parable in the form of a drama, in proof of which, ,we are told, First, when closely examined, it will appear to possess all the essential qualities of a drama. The mar
riage of Solomon with the daughter of Pharaoh, (as related 1 Kings i, 1,) a poli tical event, which, from the personages concerned in it, would be interesting to to the Jewish nation, was, as such, proper to furnish the fable of it. The writer is entirely left behind the curtain, and the whole of the composition is brought for ward before the reader in parts between the speakers. The dramatis personre are, Solomon, the bride, her attendants, and the virgins of Jerusalem. It should be observed,' though the fact has indeed been overlooked by the critics, that all advance is made by the lady herself. She comes to his palace, unfetched, and ap parently unsolicited. Finding him not there, she goes in search of him, intreats to be received into his embrace ; and when without denying, he eludes her en treaties, she pursues him in the ardour of her affection almost beyond the bounds of female delicacy and modesty. On the contrary, the royal spouse is cold at heart, and distant, prone to recede, and to in trigue with his favourite concubines, but anxious to conceal his indifference and in fidelity underlaboured encomiums on the beauty of his spouse. The action is com plete, possessing a beginning, a middle, and an end, and composed of scenes, the shifting of which, if observed by a modern reader, as by an ancient spectator, would have preserved the conduct of the piece uniform and consistent. The plot, it must be allowed, is very simple, the in tricacies of it arising only from those un forseen impediments which were thrown by rival beauties in the way of the royal bride, and which threatened to deprive he• of the object of her attachment. The ca tastrophe is the triumph of honourablelove over the allurements of seduction, and the security of virtuous enjoyment over the torments ofjealousy and illicit fruition. Se condly, considered as a parable; like other parables, while it conveys a literal sense in teresting and appropriate, it conveys like wise a religious lesson of great impor tance. Now the method of decyphering a fable or parable is, not by seeking, un der the veil of the allegory, certain max ims of recondite wisdom, which bear no resemblance to the literal sense, but by facts generally known and fully under stood : nor is the interpretation to be deemed true, unless, as in the case of the parable of Nathan, or that of the sower, there subsists an obvious and characteristic analogy between the sim ple and the metaphorical acceptation. On this principle, it is apprehended that, in the parable of the Canticles, the bride means the Jewish religion, and the royal spouse the Jewish nation, represented under the name and person of their ruler and chief; and the object of it is, to deli neate, under images borrowed from the connubial state, the conduct of the Is raelites at large, and that of Solomon in particular, in respect of their knowledge and worship of Jehovah. In proof of this position, it would be necessary to enter farther into the subject than our limits will allow : the reader is therefore refer red, for a justification of this theory, to Rees's New Cyclopedia.