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 posses