The Song of Solomon : and the Lamentations of Jeremiah

THE STRUCTURE OF THE BOOK
never give up the prey that had fallen into his
trap; the shepherd lover who v^^as mad enough to
pursue his lost sweetheart into her captor's palace
v^ould never come out alive. Are u^e so sure of all
these points ? Most improbable things do happen.
It is at least conceivable that even a cruel tyrant might
be seized with a fit of generosity, and why should we
regard Solomon as a cruel tyrant ? His fame implies
that there were noble traits in his character. But
these questions are beside the mark. The situation is
wholly ideal. Then the more improbable the events
described would be in real life, the more impressive
do the lessons they suggest become.
Who wrote the book ? The only answer that can
be given to this question is negative. Assuredly,
Solomon could not have been the author of this lovely
poem in praise of the love and fidelity of a country lass
and her swain, and the simplicity of their rustic life.
It would be difficult to find a man in all history who
more conspicuously illustrated the exact opposites of
these ideas. The exquisite eulogy of love— perhaps
the finest in any literature—which occurs towards the
end of the book, the passage beginning, " Set me as a
seal upon thine heart," etc.,^ is not the work of this
master of a huge seraglio, with his '* seven hundred
wives " and his " three hundred concubines." ^ It is
impossible to find the source of this poetry in the
palace of the Israelite " Grand Monarch " ; we might as
soon light on a bank of wild flowers in a Paris dancing
saloon. There is quite a library of Solomon literature,
a very small part of which can be traced to the king
whose name it bears, the greatness of this name having
viii. 6, 7.
'^
I Kings xi.