accompany her to the palace, and whose observations and answers form in this, and in several of the following idyls, a kind of chorus. But, besides these virgins, we discover in the present idyl another character, bearing part in the dialogue, whom we may term The Messenger. The reason for this conjecture is, that some one is addressed by the bride in the singular number, and masculine gender. He appears, moreover, as the conductor of the procession. From these observations it will occur to the reader, that the imagery of the following idyl very much resembles a part of that described more at length in the forty-fifth Psalm; " She shall be brought unto the King in raiment of needle-work: the virgins, her companions, that follow her, shall be brought unto thee; with gladness and rejoicing shall they be brought; they shall enter into the King's palacea.” An apparent abruptness will perhaps strike us in the language attributed to the bride, with which the dialogue begins. But we are to suppose a previous address of the messenger, or rather a previous contract and preparation. The messenger comes only to execute an expected office— that of conducting the bride, at the time appointed, to the house of her husband. BRIDE. LET him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth. a Ver. 14, 15. b This declaration is merely expressive of the anxiety of the bride, that she may meet with a gracious reception from her royal bridegroom, and may receive the solemn token and pledge of the espousals. We are informed by the Jewish writers, that kisses were used in token of the espousals, and that then the parties MESSENGER. -Yea! more grateful will be thy love than wine- VIRGINS. -A perfume poured forth is thy name, Conduct med BRIDE. were reckoned as man and wife*. The same ceremony was practised among the primitive Christianst. Indeed the solemn kiss is made by the civil law a ceremony, in some respects, of importance to the validity of the contract. a' Be assured he will, for greatly will he delight in thy beauty? We may observe, that the literal meaning of , at least according to the Septuagint and Vulgate, who render μaσto, and ubera, as well as the change of person, leads to the conclusion, that the love of the bride, as the object, and not that of the bridegroom, as is generally represented, is intended. The virgins repeat the assurance of the messenger respecting the King's acceptance of his bride: and whilst they express, in the same figurative strain of allusion to the sweet perfumes with which the bride is scented, their own affection to her person, they welcome her to their society. 'The pleasing report which they have heard of her has been most grateful to them, and has already conciliated all their affections:' is by some considered as occurring here in the fem. gen. By others, is considered as a noun. d משכני • Draw me.'~' Lead on, O Messenger.' The word is used (Judges, iv. 6, 7.) for the conducting or leading out of an army; and also for the drawing of the enemy to the desired spot. "Go, and draw towards Mount Tabor," "and I will draw unto thee, to the river Kishon, Sisera the Captain of Jabin's army, with his chariots and his multitude;"-" And he went up * See Dr. Gill, Comment. + Bingham's Antiquities, b. xxii. c. iii. s. vi. Cod. Justin. lib. 6. tit. 3. de Donation. ante Nuptias, leg. 16. VIRGINS. -After thee will we hasten. BRIDE. The King has caused me to be brought into his innerchambers f. with ten thousand men at his feet" (ver. 10). the conducting of a procession is easy. The transition to f These words are spoken by the bride on entering the royal apartments. With the virgins, her companions which follow her, she is brought into the King's palace.' signifies properly a veil;-the veil or curtain especially, which separated the farther part of the tent from the midst. Hence it is applied to the interior of a building, by whatever means separated from the rest. It signifies in this place the private apartments of the palace, secluded from public view and access. 8 7137K 0``D —They do right in loving thee.' • Recte agentes, rectissime.' Simonis Lex. Heb. Thou art every way lovely.' Percy and Good. . h The bride speaks this as if abashed at their flattering commendations, conscious of her own defect in point of beauty: her complexion, from a cause afterwards to be mentioned, having become brown and tawny. i -admodum pulchra. Simons. If we suppose a dialogue, there can, I think, need no argument to show the probability that these words are spoken by the virgins, and not, as has been usually imagined, by the bride, in commendation of her own beauty. BRIDE. O Daughters of Jerusalem,—as the tents of Kedark! 6 VIRGINS.. -As the hangings of the pavilion' of Solomon'! BRIDE. m! Look not on me, for I am very black m The sons of my mother despised me", kpit appears, from Gen. xxv. 13, was a name of one of the sons of Ishmael, from whom the Arabians are descended. Dr. Shaw and Mr. Volney inform us, that the tents of the Bedouins, the Arabians of the desert, are woven of goats' or camels' hair, and are of a black or brown appearance. It is to these that the bride compares the complexion of her sun-burnt skin.. -rendered in our public translation Curtains,' always, I believe, denotes something belonging to a tent-the different hangings of which it was composed. "I saw the tents of Cushan in affliction: and the curtains of the land of Midian did tremble *." The beauty and elegance of these hangings in the royal tent of the magnificent Solomon, we may easily conjecture, would form a complete contrast with the sackcloth tents of the wild Arabs. -q. d. Nigra nigra; i. e. tota nigra, admodum nigra. Discoloured, scorched, or tanned. proprie rigore penetrante perstrinxit vel oculus vel sol. שחרחרת m n Literally, snorted at me. • To keep or watch. Pis used generally of vineyards, gardens, and plantations. "Nobilior pars terræ quæ in horti modum colitur." Simon. q In hot countries, like Palestine, travellers inform us, that the greatest difference imaginable subsists between the complexions of the women. Those of any condition seldom go abroad, and are * Hab. iii. 7. INTERPRETATION OF THE FIRST PARABLE. In order to explain this parable, and inquire into its interior sense, it will be first necessary to ascertain who are intended by the allegorical persons engaging, or referred to, in the dialogue. Respecting the Bridegroom, designated as King ever accustomed to be shaded from the sun with the greatest attention their skin is consequently fair and beautiful. But women in the lower ranks of life, in the country especially, being, from the nature of their employment, more exposed to the scorching rays of the sun, are, in their complexions, remarkably tawny and swarthy. Under such circumstances, a high value would, of course, be set, by the eastern ladies, upon the fairness of their complexions, as a distinguishing mark of their superior quality, no less than as an enhancement of their beauty. We perceive, therefore, how natural was the bride's self-abasing reflection respecting her tawny complexion among the fair daughters of Jerusalem, who, as attendants upon a royal marriage, we may suppose to have been of the first ranks. She assigns the cause of her mean appearance,-she had been exposed to the drudgery of the field. This certainly bespeaks the bride, in this idyl, as was noticed above, to have been of low extraction, in comparison of her royal bridegroom: for we are not to suppose, in the reign of Solomon, the simple equality of the patriarchal age. She complains, besides, of the ill treatment of relations in exposing her to these servile employments; by which, I think, she is to be understood as meaning to depicture still more the misery of her former situation. You see me discoloured by the sun; it arises from my having been employed in the labours of husbandry, not that I myself have reaped any fruits from my industry. I was cruelly reduced to be the slave of others; they alone have received the profits of my toil and labour.' |