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