Chapter XVI: Part 16

1. Augustine, 597 to 605. 55. Thomas Bradwardin, 1349.
2. Lawrence (Laurentius), 605 56. Simon Islip, 1349 to 1366.
to 619. 57. Simon Langham, 1366 to
3. Mellitus, 619 to 624. 1368.
4. Justin. 624 to 627. 58. William Whittlesea, 1368
5. Honorius, 627 to 653. to 1374.
6. Deusdedit (Frithona), 655 59. Simon Sudbury, 1375 to
to 664. 1381.
7. Theodore, 668 to 690. 60. William Courtenay, 1381 to
8. Brethwald (Berhtuald), 693 1396.
to 731. 61. Thomas Arundel, 1396 to
9. Taetwine. 731 to 734. 1414.
10. Nothelm, 734 to 740. 62. Henry Chicheley, 1414 to
11. Cuthbert, 740 to 758. 1443.
12. Breogwine, 759 to 762. 63. John Stafford, 1443 to 1452.
13. Jaenberht, 763 to 790. 64. John Kemp, 1452 to 1454.
14. Aethelhard, 790 to 803. 65. Thomas Bourchier, 1454 to
15. Wulfred, 803 to 829. 1486.
16. Fleogild, 829 to 830. 66. John Morton, 1486 to 1500.
17. Ceolnoth, 830 to 870. 67. Henry Dean (Dene), 1501 to
18. Aethelred, 870 to 889. 1503.
19. Plegemund, 889 to 914. 68. William Warham, 1503 to
20. Aethelm, 914 to 923. 1532.
21. Wulfelm, 923 to 942. 69. Thomas Cranmer, 1533 to
22. Odo, 942 to 959. 1556.
23. Aelsine, 959. 70. Reginald Pole, 1556 to 1558.
24. Dunstan, 960 to 988. 71. Matthew Parker, 1559 to
25. Aethelgar, 988 to 989. 1575.
26. Sigeric, 990 to 994. 72. Edmund Grindal, 1575 to
27. Aelfric, 995 to 1005. 1583.
28. Alphege (Aelfeah), 1005 to 73. John Whitgift, 1583 to 1604.
1012. 74. Richard Bancroft, 1604 to
29. Lyfing, 1013 to 1020. 1610.
30. Aethelnoth, 1020 to 1038. 75. George Abbot, 1610 to 1633.
31. Eadsige, 1038 to 1050. 76. William Laud, 1633 to 1645.
32. Robert of Jumieges, 1051 to 77. William Juxon, 1660 to 1663.
1052. 78. Gilbert Sheldon, 1663 to
33. Stigand, 1052 to 1070. 1677.
34. Lanfranc, 1070 to 1089. 79. William Sancroft, 1678 to
35. Anselm, 1093 to 1109. 1691.
36. Ralph de Turbine, 1114 to 80. John Tillotson, 1691 to 1694.
1122. 81. Thomas Tenison, 1694 to
37. William de Corbeuil 1715.
(Curbellio), 1123 to 1136. 82. William Wake, 1716 to 1737.
38. Theobald, 1139 to 1161. 83. John Potter, 1737 to 1747.
39. Thomas Becket, 1162 to 1170. 84. Thomas Herring, 1747 to
40. Richard, 1174 to 1184. 1757.
41. Baldwin, 1185 to 1190. 85. Matthew Hutton, 1757 to
42. Reginald Fitz-Jocelyn, 1191. 1758.
43. Hubert Walter, 1193 to 1205. 86. Thomas Secker, 1758 to
44. Stephen Langton, 1207 to 1768.
1228. 87. Frederick Cornwallis, 1768
45. Richard Wethershed, 1229 to 1783.
to 1231. 88. John Moore, 1783 to 1805.
46. Edmund Rich (de Abbendon) 89. Charles Manners-Sutton,
1234 to 1240. 1805 to 1828.
47. Boniface of Savoy, 1241 to 90. William Howley, 1828 to
1270. 1848.
48. Robert Kilwardby, 1273 to 91. John Bird Sumner, 1848 to
1278. 1862.
49. John Peckham, 1279 to 1292. 92. Charles Thomas Longley,
50. Robert Winchelsea, 1293 to 1862 to 1868.
1313. 93. Archibald Campbell Tait,
51. Walter Reynolds, 1313 to 1868 to 1882.
1327. 94. Edward White Benson, 1882
52. Simon de Meopham, 1328 to to 1896.
1333. 95. Frederick Temple, 1896 to
53. John Stratford, 1333 to 1348. 1903
54. John de Ufford, 1348 to 1349. 96. Randall Thomas Davidson.

The archbishop has a seat at Lambeth Palace, London. There are fragments in Palace Street of the old archbishop's palace which have been incorporated with a modern palace.

_Other Ecclesiastical Foundations._--Canterbury naturally abounded in religious foundations. The most important, apart from the cathedral, was the Benedictine abbey of St Augustine. This was erected on a site granted by King Aethelberht outside his capital, in a tract called Longport. Augustine dedicated it to St Peter and St Paul, but Archbishop Dunstan added the sainted name of the founder to the dedication, and in common use it came to exclude those of the apostles. The site is now occupied by St Augustine's Missionary College, founded in 1844 when the property was acquired by A.J.B. Beresford Hope. Some ancient remnants are preserved, the principal being the entrance gateway (1300), with the cemetery gate, dated a century later, and the guest hall, now the refectory; but the scanty ruins of St Pancras' chapel are of high interest, and embody Roman material. The chapel is said to have received its dedication from St Augustine on account of the special association of St Pancras with children, and in connexion with the famous story of St Gregory, w hose attention was first attracted to Britain when he saw the fair-faced children of the Angles who had been brought to Rome, and termed them "not Angles but angels."

There were lesser houses of many religious orders in Canterbury, but only two, those of the Dominicans near St Peter's church in St Peter's Street, and the Franciscans, also in St Peter's Street, have left notable remains. The Dominican refectory is used as a chapel. Among the many churches, St Martin's, Longport, is of the first interest. This was the scene of the earliest work of Augustine in Canterbury, and had seen Christian service before his arrival. Its walls contain Roman masonry, but whether it is in part a genuine remnant of a Romano-British Christian church is open to doubt. There are Norman, Early English and later portions; and the font may be in part pre-Norman, and is indeed associated by tradition with the baptism of Aethelberht himself. St Mildred's church exhibits Early English and Perpendicular work, and the use of Roman material is again visible here. St Paul's is of Early English origin; St Dunstan's, St Peter's and Holy Cross are mainly Decorated and Perpendicular. The village of Harbledown, on the hill west of Canterbury on the London road, from the neighbourhood of which a beautiful view over the city is obtained, has many associations with the ecclesiastical life of Canterbury. It is mentioned by Chaucer in his pilgrimage under the name, appropriate to its site, of "Bob up and down." The almshouses, which occupy the site of Lanfranc's hospital for lepers, include an ancient hall and a chapel in which the west door and northern nave arcade are Norman, and are doubtless part of Lanfranc's buildings. The neighbouring parish church is in great part rebuilt. Among the numerous charitable institutions in Canterbury there are several which may be called the descendants of medieval ecclesiastical foundations.

_City Buildings, &c._--The old city walls may be traced, and the public walk called the Dane John (derived probably from _donjon_) follows the summit of a high artificial mound within the lines. The cathedral is finely seen from this point. Only the massive turreted west gate, of the later part of the 14th century, remains out of the former six city gates. The site of the castle is not far from the Dane John, and enough remains of the Norman keep to show its strength and great size. Among other buildings and institutions there may be mentioned the guildhall in High Street, of the early part of the 18th century; the museum, which includes a fine collection of local, including many Roman, relics; and the school of art, under municipal management, but founded by the painter T. Sidney Cooper (d. 1902), who was a resident at Harbledown. A modern statue of a muse commemorates the poet Christopher Marlowe (1564-1593), a native of the city; and a pillar indicates the place where a number of persons were burnt at the stake in the reign of Mary.

The King's school, occupying buildings adjacent to the cathedral, developed out of the early teaching furnished by the monastery. It was refounded by Henry VIII. in 1541 (whence its name), and is managed on the lines of ordinary public schools. It has about 250 boys; and there is besides a junior or preparatory school. The school is still connected with the ecclesiastical foundation, the dean and chapter being its governors.

A noted occasion of festivity in Canterbury is the Canterbury cricket-week, when the Kent county cricket eleven engages in matches with other first-class teams, and many visitors are attracted to the city.

Canterbury has a considerable agriculture trade, breweries, tanneries, brickworks and other manufactures. The parliamentary borough returns one member. The city is governed by a mayor, 6 aldermen and 18 councillors. Area, 3955 acres.

_History of the City._--The existence of a Romano-British town on the site of Canterbury has already been indicated. It was named _Durovernum_, and was a flourishing county town on the road from the Kentish ports to London. Mosaic pavements and other remains have been found in considerable abundance. The city, known by the Saxons as _Cantwaraburh_, the town of the men of Kent, was the metropolis of Aethelberht's kingdom. At the time of the Domesday survey Canterbury formed part of the royal demesne and was governed by a portreeve as it had been before the Conquest. In the 13th and 14th centuries, two bailiffs presided over the burghmote, assisted by a larger and smaller council. Henry II., by an undated charter, confirmed former privileges and granted to the citizens that no one should implead them outside the city walls and that the pleas of the crown should be decided according to the customs of the city. In 1256 Henry III. granted them the city at an annual fee farm of L60, also the right of electing their bailiffs. Confirmations of former charters with additional liberties were granted by later sovereigns, and Henry VI. incorporated Canterbury, which he called "one of our most ancient cities," under the style of the mayor and commonalty, the mayor to be elected by the burgesses. James I. in 1609 confirmed these privileges, giving the burgesses the right to be called a body corporate and to elect twelve aldermen and a common council of twenty-four. Charles II., after calling in the charters of corporations, granted a confirmation in 1684. Canterbury was first represented in parliament in 1283, and it continued to return two members until 1885, when the number was reduced to one. A fair was granted by Henry VI. to the citizens to be held in the city or suburbs on the 4th of August and the two days following; other fairs were in the hands of the monasteries; the corn and cattle markets and a general market have been held by prescription from time immemorial. Canterbury was a great centre of the silk-weaving trade in the 17th century, large numbers of Walloons, driven by persecution to England, having settled there in the reign of Elizabeth. In 1676 Charles II. granted a charter of incorporation to the Walloon congregation under style of the master, wardens and fellowship of weavers in the city of Canterbury. The market for the sale of corn and hops was regulated by a local act in 1801.

See A.P. Stanley, _Historical Memorials of Canterbury_ (London, 1855);
J. Brent, _Canterbury in the Olden Time_ (Canterbury, 1879); J.W. Legg
and W.H. St J. Hope, _Inventories of Christchurch, Canterbury_
(London, 1902); _Victoria County History, Kent_.

CANTHARIDES, or SPANISH FLIES, the common blister-beetles (_Cantharis vesicatoria_) of European pharmacy. They are bright, iridescent, golden-green or bluish-coloured beetles (see COLEOPTERA), with the breast finely punctured and pubescent, head and thorax with a longitudinal channel, and elytra with two slightly elevated lines. The insect is from half-an-inch to an inch in length, and from one to two lines broad, the female being broader in the abdomen and altogether larger than the male. It is a native of the south of Europe, being found in Spain, France, Germany, Italy, Hungary and the south of Russia, and it is also obtained in Siberia. The Spanish fly is also occasionally found in the south of England. The insects feed upon ash, lilac, privet and jasmine leaves, and are found more rarely on elder, rose, apple and poplar trees. Their presence is made known by a powerful disagreeable odour, which penetrates to a considerable distance. They are collected for use at late evening or early morning, while in a dull bedewed condition, by shaking them off the trees or shrubs into cloths spread on the ground; and they are killed by dipping them into hot water or vinegar, or by exposing them for some time over the vapour of vinegar. They are then dried and put up for preservation in glass-stoppered bottles; and they require to be very carefully guarded against mites and various other minute insects, to the attacks of which they are peculiarly liable. It has been shown by means of spectroscopic observations that the green colour of the elytra, &c., is due to the presence of chlorophyll; and that the variations of the spectral bands are sufficient, after the lapse of many years, to indicate with some certainty the kind of leaves on which the insects were feeding shortly before they were killed.

Cantharides owe their value to the presence of a peculiar chemical principle, to which the name _cantharidin_ has been given. It is most abundant in large full-grown insects, while in very young specimens no cantharidin at all has been found. From about one-fourth to rather more than one-half per cent, of cantharidin has been obtained from different samples; and it has been ascertained that the elytra or wing-sheaths of the insect, which alone are used in pharmacy, contain more of the active principle than the soft parts taken together; but apparently cantharidin is most abundant in the eggs and generative organs.

Cantharidin constitutes from 1/2 to 1% of cantharides. It has the formula C10H14O4, and on hydrolysis is converted into cantharinic acid, C10H14O5. It crystallizes in colourless plates and is readily soluble in alcohol, ether, &c., but not in water. The British Pharmacopeia contains a large number of preparations of cantharides, but the only one needing special mention is the tincture, which is meant for internal administration; the small dose is noteworthy, five minims being probably the maximum for safety.

The external action of cantharides or cantharidin is extremely characteristic. When it is applied to the skin there are no obvious consequences for some hours. Thereafter the part becomes warm and painful, owing to marked local vascular dilatation. This is the typical _rubefacient_ action. Soon afterwards there is an accumulation under the epidermis of a serum derived from the dilated blood-vessels. The numerous small blisters or vesicles thus derived coalesce, forming a large sac full of "blister-fluid." The drug is described as a counter-irritant, though the explanation of this action is very doubtful. Apparently there is an influence on the afferent nerves of the part which causes a reflex contraction--some authors say dilatation--of the vessels in the internal organs that are under the control of the same segment of the nervous system as that supplying the area of skin from which the exciting impulse comes. When applied in this fashion a certain quantity of the cantharides is absorbed.

Taken internally in any but minute doses, the drug causes the most severe gastro-intestinal irritation, the vomited and evacuated matters containing blood, and the patient suffering agonizing pain and extreme depression. The further characteristic symptoms are displayed in the genito-urinary tract. The drug circulates in the blood in the form of an albuminate and is slowly excreted by the kidneys. The effect of large doses is to cause great pain in the renal region and urgent wish to micturate. The urine is nevertheless small in amount and contains albumen and blood owing to the local inflammation produced in the kidney by the passage of the poison through that organ. The drug often has a marked aphrodisiac action, producing priapism, or in the female sex the onset of the catamenia or abortion.

Cantharides is used externally for its counter-irritant action. There are certain definite contra-indications to its use. It must not be employed in cases of renal disease, owing to the risks attendant upon absorption. It must always be employed with caution in the case of elderly persons and children; and it must not be applied to a paralysed limb (in which the power of healing is deficient), nor to parts upon which the patient lies, as otherwise a bed-sore is likely to follow its use. The drug is administered internally in certain cases of impotence and occasionally in other conditions. Its criminal employment is usually intended to heighten sexual desire, and has frequently led to death.

The toxic symptoms have already been detailed, the patient usually dying from arrest of the renal functions. The treatment is far from satisfactory, and consists in keeping up the strength and diluting the poison in the blood and in the urine by the administration of bland fluids, such as soda-water, milk and plain water, in quantities as large as possible. External warmth should also be applied to the regions specially affected by the drug.

A very large number of other insects belonging to the same family possess blistering properties, owing to their containing cantharidin. Of these the most remarkable is the Telini "fly" of India (_Mylabris cichorii_), the range of which extends from Italy and Greece through Egypt and central Asia as far as China. It is very rich in cantharidin, yielding fully twice as much as ordinary cantharides. Several green-coloured beetles are, on account of their colour, used as adulterants to cantharides, but they are very easily detected by examination with the eye, or, if powdered, with the microscope.

CANTICLES. The Old Testament book of Canticles, or the Song of Solomon, is called in Hebrew _The Song of Songs_ (that is, _the choicest of songs_), or, according to the full title which stands as the first verse of the book, _The choicest of the songs of Solomon_. In the Western versions the book holds the third place among the so-called Solomonic writings, following Proverbs and Ecclesiastes. In Hebrew Bibles it stands among the _Megilloth_, the five books of the Hagiographa which have a prominent place in the Synagogue service. In printed Bibles and in German MSS. it is the first of these because it is read at the Passover, which is the first great feast of the sacred year of the Jews.

No part of the Bible has called forth a greater diversity of opinions than the Song of Solomon, and this for two reasons. In the first place, the book holds so unique a position in the Old Testament, that the general analogy of Hebrew literature is a very inadequate key to the verbal difficulties, the artistic structure, and the general conception and purpose of the poem. In point of language the departures from ordinary Hebrew are almost always in the direction of Aramaic. Many forms unique in Biblical Hebrew are at once explained by the Aramaic dialects, but not a few are still obscure. The philological difficulties of the book are, however, less fundamental than those which lie in the unique character of the Song of Solomon in point of artistic form, and in the whole atmosphere of thought and feeling in which it moves. Even in these respects it is not absolutely isolated. Parallels to the peculiar imagery may be found in the book of Hosea, in Ezekiel xvi. and xxiii. and above all in the 45th Psalm; but such links of union to the general mass of the Old Testament literature are too slight to be of material assistance in the solution of the literary problem of the book. Here, again, as in the lexical difficulties already referred to, we are tempted or compelled to argue from the distant and insecure analogy of other Eastern literatures, or are thrown back upon traditions of uncertain origin and ambiguous authority.

The power of tradition has been the second great source of confusion of opinion about the Song of Solomon. To tradition we owe the title, which apparently indicates Solomon as the author and not merely as the subject of the book. The authority of titles in the Old Testament is often questionable, and in the present case it is certain on linguistic grounds that the title is not from the hand that wrote the poem; while to admit that it gives a correct account of the authorship is to cut away at one stroke all the most certain threads of connexion between the book and our historical knowledge of the Old Testament people and literature.

To tradition, again, we owe the prejudice in favour of an allegorical interpretation, that is, of the view that from verse to verse the Song sets forth the history of a spiritual and not merely of an earthly love. To apply such an exegesis to Canticles is to violate one of the first principles of reasonable interpretation. True allegories are never without internal marks of their allegorical design. The language of symbol is not so perfect that a long chain of spiritual ideas can be developed without the use of a single spiritual word or phrase; and even were this possible it would be false art in the allegorist to hide away his sacred thoughts behind a screen of sensuous and erotic imagery, so complete and beautiful in itself as to give no suggestion that it is only the vehicle of a deeper sense. Apart from tradition, no one, in the present state of exegesis, would dream of allegorizing poetry which in its natural sense is so full of purpose and meaning, so apt in sentiment, and so perfect in imagery as the lyrics of Canticles. We are not at liberty to seek for allegory except where the natural sense is incomplete. This is not the case in the Song of Solomon. On the contrary, every form of the allegorical interpretation which has been devised carries its own condemnation in the fact that it takes away from the artistic unity of the poem and breaks natural sequences of thought.[1] The allegorical interpretation of the Song of Solomon bad its rise in the very same conditions which forced a deeper sense, now universally discarded, upon so many other parts of scripture. Yet strangely enough there is no evidence that the Jews of Alexandria extended to the book their favourite methods of interpretation. The arguments which have been adduced to prove that the Septuagint translation implies an allegorical exegesis are inadequate;[2] and Philo does not mention the book. Nor is there any allusion to Canticles in the New Testament. The first trace of an allegorical view identifying Israel with the "spouse" appears to be in the Fourth Book of Ezra, near the close of the 1st Christian century (v. 24, 26; vii. 26). Up to this time the canonicity of the Canticles was not unquestioned; and the final decision as to the sanctity of the book, so energetically carried through by R. Aqiba, when he declared that "the whole world is not worth the day on which the Song of Songs was given to Israel; for all the scriptures (or Hagiographa) are holy, but the Canticles most holy," must be understood as being at the same time a victory of the allegorical interpretation over the last remains of a view which regarded the poem as simply erotic.[3]

The form in which the allegorical theory became fixed in the synagogue is contained in the Midrash _Chazita_ and in the Targum, which is a commentary rather than a translation. The spouse is Israel, her royal lover the divine king, and the poem is explained as tracing the great events of the people's history from the Exodus to the Messianic glory and final restoration.[4]

The authority of Origen, who, according to Jerome, surpassed himself in his commentary of ten volumes on this book, established the allegorical theory in the Christian church in the two main forms in which it has since prevailed. The bridegroom is Christ, the bride either the church or the believing soul. The latter conception is, of course, that which lends itself most readily to purposes of mystical edification, and which has made Canticles the manual in all ages of a wide-spread type of religious contemplation. But the other view, which identifies the bride with the church, must be regarded as the standard of orthodox exegesis. Of course the allegorical principle admitted of very various modifications, and readily adapted itself to new religious developments, such as the rise of Mariolatry. Within the limits of the orthodox traditions the allegory took various colours, according as its mystical or its prophetical aspect was insisted on. Among medieval commentators of the former class S. Bernard holds a pre-eminent place; while the second class is represented by Nicolaus de Lyra, who, himself a converted Jew, modified the Jewish interpretation so as to find in the book an account of the _processus ecclesiae_ under the Old and New Testaments. The prophetic exegesis reached its culminating point in the post-Reformation period, when Cocceius found in the Canticles a complete conspectus of church history. But the relaxation of traditional authority opened the door to still stranger vagaries of interpretation. Luther was tempted to understand the book of the political relations of Solomon and his people. Others detected the loves of Solomon and Wisdom--a view which found a supporter in Rosenmuller.

The history of the literal interpretation begins with the great "commentator" of the Syrian Church, Theodorus of Mopsuestia (died 429), who condemned equally the attempt to find in the book a prophecy of the blessings given to the church, and the idea even at that time expressed in some quarters that the book is immoral. Theodorus regarded the Canticles as a poem written by Solomon in answer to the complaints of his people about his Egyptian marriage; and this was one of the heresies charged upon him after his death, which led to his condemnation at the second council of Constantinople (553 A.D.). A literal interpretation was not again attempted till in 1544 Chateillon (Castellio or Castalion) lost his regency at Geneva for proposing to expel the book from the canon as impure. Grotius (_Annot. in V.T._, 1644) took up a more moderate position. Without denying the possibility of a secondary reference designed by Solomon to give his poem a more permanent value, he regards the Canticles as primarily an [Greek: oaristys] (conjugal prattle) between Solomon and Pharaoh's daughter. The distinction of a primary and secondary sense gradually became current not only among the Remonstrants, but in England (Lightfoot, Lowth) and even in Catholic circles (Bossuet, 1693). In the actual understanding of the book in its literal sense no great progress was made. Solomon was still viewed as the author, and for the most part the idea that the poem is a dramatic epithalamium was borrowed from Origen and the allegorists, and applied to the marriage of Pharaoh's daughter.

From Grotius to Lowth the idea of a typical reference designed by Solomon himself appears as a mere excrescence on the natural interpretation, but as an excrescence which could not be removed without perilling the place of Canticles in the canon, which, indeed, was again assailed by Whiston in 1723. But in his notes on Lowth's lectures, J.D. Michaelis, who regarded the poem as a description of the enduring happiness of true wedded love long after marriage, proposed to drop the allegory altogether, and to rest the canonicity of the book, as of those parts of Proverbs which treat of conjugal affection, on the moral picture it presents (1758).

Then came Herder's exquisite little treatise on _Solomon's Songs of Love, the Oldest and Sweetest of the East_ (1778). Herder, possessing delicacy of taste and sympathetic poetical genius, delighted in the Canticles as the transparently natural expression of innocent and tender love. He expressed the idea that the poem is simply a sequence of independent songs without inner unity, grouped so as to display various phases and stages of love in a natural order, culminating in the placid joys of wedded life. The theory of Herder, which refuses to acknowledge any continuity in the book, was accepted by Eichhorn on the part of scholars, and with some hesitation by Goethe on the part of the poets. Commentaries based on this view are those of Dopke (1829), Magnus (1842), Noyes (1846).

The prevalent view of the 19th century, however, recognizes in the poem a more or less pronounced dramatic character, and following Jacobi (1771) distinguishes the shepherd, the true love of the Shulamite, from King Solomon, who is made to play an ignominious part. Propounded by Staudlin (1792) and Ammon (1795), this view was energetically carried out by Umbreit (1820), and above all by Ewald, whose acuteness gave the theory a new development, while his commanding influence among Hebrew scholars acquired for it general recognition. Ewald assumed a very simple dramatic structure, and did not in his first publication (1826) venture to suppose that the poem had ever been acted on a stage. His less cautious followers have been generally tempted to dispose of difficulties by introducing more complicated action and additional interlocutors (so, for example, Hitzig, 1855; Ginsburg, 1857; Renan, 1860); while Bottcher (1850) did his best to reduce the dramatic exposition to absurdity by introducing the complexities and stage effects of a modern operetta. Another view is that of Delitzsch (1851 and 1875) and his followers, who also plead for a dramatic form--though without supposing that the piece was ever acted--but adhere to the traditional notion that Solomon is the author, who celebrates his love to a peasant maiden, whom he made his wife, and in whose company the proud monarch learned to appreciate the sweetness of a true affection and a simple rustic life.

In view of the prevalence of the "dramatic" theory of Canticles during the 19th century, and its retention by some comparatively recent writers (Oettli, Driver, Adeney, Harper), it seems desirable that this theory should be presented in some detail. A convenient summary of the form it assumed in the hands of Ewald (the shepherd-hypothesis) and of Delitzsch (the king-hypothesis) is given by Driver (_Literature of the Old Testament_, ch. x. S 1). The following presentation of the theory, on the general lines of Ewald, gives that form of it which Robertson Smith was able to accept in 1876.

The centre of attraction is throughout a female figure, and the unity of this figure is the chief test of the unity of the book. In the long canto, i. 1-ii. 7, the heroine appears in a royal palace (i. 4) among the daughters of Jerusalem, who are thus presumably ladies of the court of Zion. At i. 9, an additional interlocutor is introduced, who is plainly a king, and apparently Solomon (i. 9, 12). He has just risen from table, and praises the charms of the heroine with the air of a judge of beauty, but without warmth. He addresses her simply as "my friend" (not as English version, "my love"). The heroine, on the contrary, is passionately in love, but nothing can be plainer than that the object of her affection is not the king. She is not at home in the palace, for she explains (i. 6) that she has spent her life as a peasant girl in the care of vineyards. Her beloved, whom she knows not where to find (i. 7), but who lies constantly on her heart and is cherished in her bosom like a spray of the sweet henna flowers which Oriental ladies delight to wear (i. 13, 14), is like herself a peasant--a shepherd lad (i. 7)--with whom she was wont to sit in the fresh greenwood under the mighty boughs of the cedars (i. 16, 17). Even before the king's entrance the ladies of the court are impatient at so silly an affection, and advise her, "if she is really so witless," to begone and rejoin her plebeian lover (i. 8). To them she appeals in ii. 5, 6, where her self-control, strung to the highest pitch as she meets the compliments of the king with reminiscences of her absent lover, breaks down in a fit of half-delirious sickness. The only words directed to the king are those of i. 12, which, if past tenses are substituted for the presents of the English version, contain a pointed rebuff. Finally, ii. 7 is, on the plainest translation, a charge not to arouse love till it please. The moral of the scene is the spontaneity of true affection.

Now, at viii. 5, a female figure advances leaning upon her beloved, with whom she claims inseparable union,--"for love is strong as death, its passion inflexible as the grave, its fire a divine flame which no waters can quench or floods drown. Yea, if a man would give all his wealth for love he would only be contemned." This is obviously the sentiment of ii. 7, and the suitor, whose wealth is despised, must almost of necessity be identified with the king of chapter i., if, as seems reasonable, we place viii. ii, 12 in the mouth of the same speaker--"King Solomon has vineyards which bring him a princely revenue, and enrich even the farmers. Let him and them keep their wealth; my vineyard is before me" (i.e. I possess it in present fruition). The last expression is plainly to be connected with i. 6. But this happiness has not been reached without a struggle. The speaker has proved herself an impregnable fortress (ver. 10), and, armed only with her own beauty and innocence, has been in his eyes as one that found peace. The sense is that, like a virgin fortress, she has compelled her assailant to leave her in peace. To these marks of identity with the heroine of ch. i. are to be added that she appears here as dwelling in gardens, there as a keeper of vineyards (i. 6, and viii. 13), and that as there it was her brethren that prescribed her duties, so here she apparently quotes words in which her brothers, while she was still a child, speculated as to her future conduct and its reward (viii. 8, 9).

If this analysis of the commencement and close of the book is correct, it is certain that the poem is in a sense dramatic, that is, that it uses dialogue and monologue to develop a story. The heroine appears in the opening scene in a difficult and painful situation, from which in the last chapter she is happily extricated. But the dramatic progress which the poem exhibits scarcely involves a plot in the usual sense of that word. The words of viii. 9, 10 clearly indicate that the deliverance of the heroine is due to no combination of favouring circumstances, but to her own inflexible fidelity and virtue.

The constant direction of the maiden's mind to her true love is partly expressed in dialogue with the ladies of the court (the daughters of Jerusalem), who have no dramatic individuality, and whose only function in the economy of the piece is to give the heroine opportunity for a more varied expression of her feelings. In i. 8 we found them contemptuous. In chapter iii. they appear to be still indifferent; for when the heroine relates a dream in which the dull pain of separation and the uneasy consciousness of confinement and danger in the unsympathetic city disappear for a moment in imagined reunion with her lover, they are either altogether silent or reply only by taking up a festal part song describing the marriage procession of King Solomon (iii. 6-11), which stands in jarring contrast to the feelings of the maiden.[5] A second dream (v. 2-8), more weird and melancholy, and constructed with that singular psychological felicity which characterizes the dreams of the Old Testament, gains more sympathy, and the heroine is encouraged to describe her beloved at large (v. 10-vi. 3). The structure of these dialogues is so simple, and their purpose is so strictly limited to the exhibition of the character and affection of the maiden, that it is only natural to find them supplemented by a free use of pure monologue, in which the heroine recalls the happiness of past days, or expresses her rising hope of reunion with her shepherd, and restoration to the simple joys of her rustic life. The vivid reminiscence of ii. 8-17 takes the form of a dialogue within the main dialogue of the poem, a picture within a picture--the picture of her beloved as he stood at her window in the early spring time, and of her own merry heart as she laughingly answered him in the song with which watchers of the vineyards frighten away the foxes. It is, of course, a fault of perspective that this reminiscence is as sharp in outline and as strong in colour as the main action. But no one can expect perspective in such early art, and recollection of the past is clearly enough separated from present reality by ii. 16, 17. The last monologue (vii. 10-viii. 3), in which the hope of immediate return with her lover is tempered by maidenly shame, and a maiden's desire for her mother's counsel, is of special value for a right appreciation of the psychology of the love which the poem celebrates, and completes a picture of this flower of the northern valleys which is not only firm in outline, but delicate in touch. The subordinate action which supports the portraiture of the maiden of Galilee is by no means easy to understand.

We come next to chapter vi., which again sings the praises of the heroine, and takes occasion in this connexion to introduce, with the same want of perspective as we observed in ch. ii., a dialogue descriptive of Solomon's first meeting with the maiden. We learn that she was an inhabitant of Shulem or Shunem in Issachar, whom the king and his train surprised in a garden on the occasion of a royal progress through the north. Her beauty drew from the ladies of the court a cry of admiration. The maiden shrinks back with the reply--"I was gone down into my garden to see its growth.... I know not how my soul hath brought me among the chariots of princes"; but she is commanded to turn and let herself be seen in spite of her bashful protest--"Why do ye gaze on the Shulamite as at a dance of Mahanaim (a spectacle)?" Now the person in whose mouth this relation is placed must be an eye-witness of the scene, and so none other than the king. But in spite of the verbal repetition of several of the figures of ch. iv.... the tone in which the king now addresses the Shulamite is quite changed. She is not only beautiful but terrible, her eyes trouble him, and he cannot endure their gaze. She is unique among women, the choice and only one of her mother. The unity of action can only be maintained by ignoring vii. 1-9, and taking the words of Solomon in chapter vi. in their obvious sense as implying that the king at length recognizes in the maiden qualities of soul unknown in the harem, a character which compels respect, as well as a beauty that inflames desire. The change of feeling which was wrought in the daughters of Jerusalem in the previous scene now extends to Solomon himself, and thus the glad utterances of vii. 10, seq., have a sufficient motive, and the _denouement_ is no longer violent and unprepared.

The _nodus_ of the action is fully given in chapter i., the final issue in chapter viii. The solution lies entirely in the character and constancy of the heroine, which prevail, in the simplest possible way, first over the ladies of the court and then over the king.

The attractiveness of the above theory cannot be denied; but it may be asked whether the attraction does not lie in the appeal to modern taste of a story which is largely the product of modern imagination. It supposes a freedom of intercourse between lovers inconceivable for the East. The initial situation of the maiden in the harem of Solomon is left as a problem for the reader to discover, until he comes to its supposed origin in vi. 11; the expedient might be granted in the case of one of Browning's _Men and Women_, but seems very improbable in the present case. The more elaborate dramatic theories can find no parallel in Semitic literature to the "drama" of Canticles, the book of Job being no exception to this statement; whilst even the simpler theories ask us to believe that the essential parts of the story--the rape of the Shulamite, the change in Solomon's disposition, her release from the harem--are to be supplied by the reader from obscure and disputable references. More serious still is the fact that any progress of action from first to last is so difficult to prove. In the first chapter we listen to a woman speaker desiring to be kissed by the man who has brought her into his chambers, and speaking of "our bed"; in the last we leave her "leaning upon her beloved." The difficulties of detail are equally great. To suppose that all the male love-making, by hypothesis unsuccessful, belongs to Solomon, whilst the heroine addresses her passionate words to the continuously absent shepherd, is obviously unconvincing; yet, if this shepherd speaks in iv. 8-v. 1, how are we to explain his appearance in the royal harem? This and other difficulties were acknowledged by Robertson Smith, notably the presence of vii. 1-9, which he proposed to set aside as an interpolation, because of its sensuality and of the difficulty of working it into the dramatic scheme. The fact that this passage has subsequently become the central element in the new interpretation of the book is, perhaps, a warning against violent measures with difficulties.

Attention has already been drawn to Herder's proposal, accepted by some later writers, including Diestel and Reuss, to regard the book as a collection of detached songs. This received new and striking confirmation from the anthropological data supplied by J.G. Wetstein (1873), Prussian consul at Damascus. His observations of the wedding customs of Syrian peasants led him to believe that Canticles is substantially a collection of songs originally sung at such festivities. Wetstein's contribution was republished shortly afterwards by Delitzsch, in an appendix to his _Commentary_; but it received little attention. The first amongst Old Testament scholars to perceive its importance seems to have been Stade, who accepted Wetstein's view in a footnote to his _History of the Jewish People_ (ii. p. 197), published in 1888; to Budde, however, belongs the distinction of the systematic and detailed use of Wetstein's suggestions, especially in his _Commentary_ (1898). This interpretation of the book is accepted by Kautzsch (1896), Siegfried (1898), Cheyne (1899), and other eminent scholars. The last-named states the theory tersely as follows: "The book is an anthology of songs used at marriage festivals in or near Jerusalem, revised and loosely connected by an editor without regard to temporal sequence" (_Ency. Bibl._ 691). The character of the evidence which has contributed to the acceptance of this view may be indicated in Wetstein's own statements:--

"The finest time in the life of the Syrian peasant consists of the
first seven days after his wedding, in which he and his young wife
play the part of king (_melik_) and queen (_melika_), both being so
treated and served by their village and the invited communities of the
neighbourhood. The majority of the greater village weddings fall in
the month of March, the finest of the Syrian year. The winter rains
being over, and the sun still refreshing, not oppressive as in the
following months, the weddings are celebrated in the open air on the
village threshing-floor, which at this time of the year is with few
exceptions a flowery mead. ...We pass over the wedding-day itself with
its displays, the sword-dance of the bride, and the great feast. On
the morrow, bridegroom and bride awake as king and queen. Already
before sunrise they receive the leader of the bridesmen, as their
vizier, and the bridesmen themselves; the latter thereupon fetch the
threshing-board and bring it to the threshing-floor, singing a rousing
song of battle or love, generally both. There it is erected as a
throne, and after the royal couple have taken their seats and the
necessary formalities are gone through, a great dance in honour of the
young couple begins; the accompanying song is concerned only with
themselves, its principal element being the inevitable _wasf_, i.e. a
description of the physical perfections of both and their ornaments.
The eulogy of the queen is more moderate, and praises her visible,
rather than veiled, charms; this is due to the fact that she is to-day
a married woman, and that the _wasf_ sung on the previous day during
her sword-dance has left nothing to desire. This _wasf_ is the weak
element in Syrian wedding-songs according to our taste; its
comparisons are to us frequently too clumsy and reveal the stereotyped
pattern. It is the same with the little collection of charming
wedding-songs and fragments of them which has been received into the
canon of the Old Testament under the name of Canticles; the _wasf_
(iv.--vii.) is considerably below the rest in poetical value. With
this dance begin the sports, lasting seven days, begun in the morning
on the first, shortly before midday on the other days, and continuing
far into the night by the light of the fires that are kindled; on the
last day alone all is over by sunset. During the whole week both
royalties are in marriage attire, must do no work and have no cares;
they have only to look down from the _merteba_ (throne) on the sports
carried on before them, in which they themselves take but a moderate
part; the queen, however, occasionally gives a short dance to attract
attention to her bridal attire."[6]

For the general application of these and the related customs to the interpretation of the book, reference should be made to Budde's _Commentary_, which recognizes four _wasfs_, viz. iv. 1-7 (describing the bride from head to breasts), v. 10-16 (the bridegroom), vi. 4-7 (similar to and partly repeating iv. 1-7), and vii. 1-9, belonging to the sword-dance of the bride, her physical charms being sung from feet to head (cf. vii. 1; "Why look ye on the Shulamite as (on) a dance of camps?" i.e. a war-dance). This dance receives its name from the fact that she dances it with a sword in her hand in the firelight on the evening of her wedding-day, and amid a circle of men and women, whilst such a _wasf_ as this is sung by the leader of the choir. The passage relating to the litter of Solomon (iii. 6-11)--an old difficulty with the dramatizers--relates to the erection of the throne on the threshing-floor.[7] The terms "Solomon" and "the Shulamite" are explained as figurative references to the famous king, and to Abishag the Shulamite, "fairest among women," on the lines of the use of "king" and "queen" noted above. Other songs of Canticles are referred by Budde to the seven days of festivities. It need hardly be said that difficulties still remain in the analysis of this book of wedding-songs; whilst Budde detects 23 songs, besides fragments, Siegfried divides the book into 10.[8] Such differences are to be expected in the case of a collection of songs, some admittedly in dialogue form, all concerned with the common theme of the love of man and woman, and without any external indication of the transition from one song to the next.

Further, we must ask whether the task has been complicated by any editorial rearrangement or interpolation; the collector of these songs has certainly not reproduced them in the order of their use at Syrian weddings. Can we trace any principle, or even any dominant thought in this arrangement? In this connexion we touch the reason for the reluctance of some scholars to accept the above interpretation, viz. the alleged marks of literary unity which the book contains (e.g. Driver, _loc. cit._). These are (1) general similarity of treatment, seen in the use of imagery (the bride as a garden, iv. 12; vi. 2, 3), the frequent references to nature and to particular places, and the recurrence of descriptions of male and female beauty; (2) references to "Solomon" or "the king," to "the Shulamite" and to "the daughters of Jerusalem" (from which, indeed, the dramatic theory has found its chief inspiration); (3) indications that the same person is speaking in different places (cf. the two dreams of a woman, and the vineyard references, i. 6; viii. 12); (4) repetitions of words and phrases especially of the refrains, "disturb not love" (ii. 7; iii. 5; viii. 4), and "until the day break" (ii. 17; iv. 6). But of these (1) is no more than should be expected, since the songs all relate to the same subject, and spring from a common world of life and thought of the same group of people; (2) finds at least a partial parallel and explanation in the use of "king" and "queen" noted above; whilst (3) and (4) alone seem to require something more than the work of a mere collector of the songs. It is, of course, true that, in recurrent ceremonies, the same thought inevitably tends to find expression in the same words. But this hardly meets the case of the refrains, whilst the reference to the vineyard at beginning and end does suggest some literary connexion. It is to be noted that the three refrains "disturb not love" severally follow passages relating to the consummation of the sexual relation, whilst the two refrains "until the day break" appear to form an invitation and an answer in the same connexion, whilst the "Omnia vincit Amor" passage in the last chapter forms a natural climax (cf. Haupt's translation). So far, then, as this somewhat scanty evidence goes, it may point to some one hand which has given its semblance of unity to the book by underlining the joy of consummated love--to which the vineyard and garden figures throughout allude--and by so arranging the collection that the descriptions of this joy find their climax in viii. 6-7.[9]

Whatever conclusion, however, may be reached as to the present _arrangement_ of Canticles, the recognition of wedding-songs as forming its nucleus marks an important stage in the interpretation of the book; even Rothstein (1902), whilst attempting to resuscitate a dramatic theory, "recognizes ... the possibility that older wedding-songs (as, for instance, the _wasfs_) are worked up in the Song of Songs" (Hastings' _D.B._ p. 594b). The drama he endeavours to construct might, indeed, be called "The Tokens of Virginity," since he makes it culminate in the procedure of Deut. xxii. 13 f., which still forms part of the Syrian ceremonies. But his reconstruction is open to the same objection as all similar attempts, in that the vital moments of the dramatic action have to be supplied from without. Thus between v. 1 and v. 2, the baffled king is supposed to have disappeared, and to have been replaced by the happy lover; between viii. 7 and viii. 8, we are required to imagine "the bridal night and its mysteries"; whilst between viii. 9 and viii. 10, we must suppose the evidence that the bride has been found a virgin is exhibited. He also attempts, with considerable ingenuity, to trace the legend involved in the supposed drama to the fact that Abishag remained a virgin in regard to David (1 Kings i. 4) whilst nothing is said of her marriage to Solomon.[10]

On the view accepted above, Canticles describes in a number of separate poems the central passion of human life, and is wholly without didactic tendencies. Of its earliest history as a book we have no information. It is already included in the Hebrew canon (though its right to be there is disputed) when the first explicit mention of the book occurs. We have no evidence, therefore, of the theory of interpretation prevalent at the time of its incorporation with the other books of the canon. It seems, however, fair to infer that it would hardly have found acceptance but for a Solomonic theory of authorship and a "religious" theory of meaning. The problem raised by its present place in the canon occurs in relation to mistaken Jewish theories about other books also; it suggests, at least, that divine inspiration may belong to the life of a people rather than to the letter of their literature. Of that life Canticles portrays a central element--the passion of love--in striking imagery and graceful language, however far its oriental standard of taste differs from that of the modern West.

From the nature of the book, it is impossible to assign a precise date for its origin; the wedding-songs of which it chiefly consists must belong to the folklore of more than one century. The only evidence we possess as to date is drawn from the character of the Hebrew in which the book is written, which shows frequent points of contact with new Hebrew.[11] On this ground, we may suppose the present form of the work to date from the Greek period, i.e. after 332 B.C. This is the date accepted by most recent writers, e.g. Kautzsch, Cheyne, Budde, Rothstein, Jacob, Haupt. This late date finds some confirmation in the fact that Canticles belongs to the third and latest part of the Old Testament canon, and that its canonicity was still in dispute at the end of the 1st century A.D. The evidence offered for a north Israelite origin, on the ground of linguistic parallels and topographical familiarity (Driver, _loc. cit._), does not seem very convincing; Haupt, however, places the compilation of the book in the neighbourhood of Damascus.