CANTICLES. One of the books of the Bible. It is included in the third division of the Canon (q.v.), that is to say among the Kethubim or Hagiographa. It is also one of the five books belonging to the sub-division Megil loth or " Rolls." Other names of the book are the " Song of Solomon " and the " Song of Songs " (i.e., the choicest of all songs). The theme of the Song of Songs is love. Older scholars (following Herder) regarded the book as a collection of independent love-songs. It is now held by many (following Ewald) to be a kind of drama. Whereas the older scholars recognised only two characters—King Solomon and a Shulammite (or Shunammite) maiden—later scholars have discovered three principal characters—King Solomon, a Shulam mite (or Shunammite) maiden, and a young shepherd to whom she is betrothed—and a kind of chorus consisting of the daughters of Jerusalem." King Solomon tries to win the affections of the maiden, but she remains true to her shepherd-lover, and true love triumphs (chap. viii. 5-7). Another explanation of the poem connects it with marriage customs which still prevail among the peasants of Syria. The customs have been described by J. G. Wetzstein. The substance of his descriptions is given in the Encycl. Bibl. (s.v. " Canticles "). " During the seven days after a wedding, high festivity, with scarcely interrupted singing and dancing, prevails. The bridegroom and the bride play the part of king and queen (hence the week is called the king's week '), and receive the homage of their neighbours: the crown. how ever, is at present in Syria (as in Greece) confined to the bride (contrast Song iii. 11). The bridegroom has his
train of companions (to borrow the ancient term, Judg. xiv. 11), and the grander the wedding the more of these there are. The bride too has her friends (cp. daughters of Jerusalem,' Song i. 5, etc.), the maidens of the place, who take an important part in the reception of the bride groom (cp. Ps. xlv. 14. Mt. xxv. 1-13)." This would suggest that in Canticles the " king " (King Solomon) represents the young husband, while the Shulammite (or Shunammite) maiden is his young wife. In any case. the poem is of a secular nature, however good the moral may be. and it is rather surprising that it should have gained admittance into the Canon. The explanation is that, owing to the mention of Solomon, it was believed to be of Solomonic authorship, and that it was inter preted as a spiritual allegory (so in the Fourth Book of Esdras). But the canonical authority of the book was certainly for a time a matter of controversy among Jewish scholars (see the passage from the Mishnah quoted under ECCLESIASTES). It is clear " that in the second cen tury A.D. there was still vigorous dispute about some books of the Ketbubim, viz., Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Canticles, and Esther " (G. Wildeboer). As regards the date of Canticles, certain peculiarities in the language (Pension and Greek loan-words, etc.) seem to require a time not earlier than 300 B.C. See C. H. Cornill, Intr.; G. Currie Martin, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Song of Solomon in the " Century Bible "; G. Wildeboer.