'Idyl': the word is almost equivalent to 'trifle,' and the term is
applied to incidents of love or domestic life in contradistinction to
graver matters of history. [Three Idyl Stories (Ruth, Esther, Tobit) are
contained in the Biblical Idyls volume of this series.]--Characteristic
of such a story is the game of riddles; the original riddle, answer, and
rejoinder are all in single couplets.--It is not a pure idyl; feats of
hero strength form another interest, as with other stories of Samson.
/v-vii./ These are Prophetic Stories. As the secularising tendency in
Israel towards visible kings prevails against the original conception of
a spiritual rule by an invisible God there arises an order of
'prophets,' who stand forth as representatives of the invisible Jehovah,
and are thus often in opposition to the external government. So in the
history of The Kings stories of these prophets, with their miraculous
powers, take the place of the stories of heroes and their feats in
earlier parts of the history. During the captivity in Babylon, Daniel in
a similar way represents the Hebrew God against the king and hierarchy
of Babylon.
/vii. Page 63./ I have followed a tradition that the mystic writing on
the wall was interpreted by Daniel reading downward instead of across
[or rather, down, up, down: the form of writing known as boustrophedon,
that is, the way an ox turns in a furrow]. If the handwriting was in an
unknown alphabet Daniel must have said so, or why should his
interpretation be accepted at once? But if the characters were those to
which the beholders were accustomed, but arranged in an unthought-of
direction, it is easy to realise the puzzle of the audience and the
instantaneous acceptance of the solution.
ORATORY
/i. The Oration of Moses at the Rehearsal of the Blessing and the
Curse./ The Book of Deuteronomy, from which this is taken, is a
collection of the Orations and Songs of Moses, constituting his Farewell
to the People of Israel. The general subject both of the oratory and
song is the Covenant between Jehovah and his people, now for the first
time committed to writing, and entrusted by the retiring leader of
Israel to the Levites and Elders. The third of these orations is
connected with a ceremonial occasion. An ordinance has been made for the
ceremony of 'The Blessing and the Curse' to be an institution of the
promised land: representatives of the Blessing are to stand on one
mountain and representatives of the Curse on the opposite slope, the
whole ritual solemnly enforcing the sanctity of the Covenant. At present
however the people are on the wilderness side of Jordan; accordingly
Moses arranges a _Rehearsal_ of this ceremony, on ground resembling the
valley between Ebal and Gerizim. This rehearsal is allowed to proceed to
a certain point when Moses stops it, and takes the subject of the
blessings and curses into his own hands. Hence the abrupt commencement
of this oration.--As elements of oratorical beauty note (1) the
interweaving and parallelism of sentences, (2) the terrific crescendo
and climax of denunciation. The oration must be spoken to get the full
effect.
/ii. Immortality and the Covenant with Death./ This is an example of the
Written Address, Oratory that is not intended to be spoken. It is one of
a series of imaginary addresses by King Solomon to the other rulers of
the nations, constituting a work entitled 'The Wisdom of Solomon' (in
volume 3 of the present series).--The author's style is distinguished by
a peculiar order of thought, according to which some of the leading
points of his argument take the form of digressions. The thought of this
discourse is that death is no part of the natural order of the universe,
but is introduced into the world by the wickedness of men. The author
imagines a monologue of the wicked, led by despair of aught beyond the
grave to a life of luxury and oppression. Another imaginary monologue
expresses the feelings of the same wicked men as they awaken from death
to the life beyond. But as a digression between these two monologues the
author places his reflections on the 'hopes of the ungodly,' that is,
the substitutes in earlier thought for the grand conception of a life
beyond death. These substitutes are (1) the living over again in
posterity, (2) long life in this world. With regard to the first he
argues that the brood of the ungodly is unstable and accursed: better is
childlessness with virtue. As to the hopes of long life, he argues that
the old age of the wicked is without honour; whereas a life cut short
may be a life perfected.
/iii-vii./ These are Prophetic Discourses. Considered as part of the
literature of Oratory these Prophetic Discourses hold an intermediate
position between the spoken and the written address. What appears as a
discourse in the books of the prophets is probably not the exact report
of a speech, but the substance of a speech, or of several similar
speeches, worked up again into the style of a written address.
/iii. The Great Arraignment./ This discourse of Isaiah takes the
form of a theme (God's arraignment of his people as rebels) treated
in four paragraphs: the prophet's remonstrance--repentance by
oblations--repentance of life--corruption redeemed with judgment.
/iv. The Covenant with Death./ The phrase Covenant with Death in the
title of this discourse of Isaiah has a different meaning from the same
phrase in the title of another discourse (ii). In the latter it meant a
supposed invitation to Death to come as a friend, by those who were 'of
his portion'; in the present case it means an agreement with Death to
pass by the supposed speaker while he visits others.--This discourse
illustrates what is a characteristic feature of Hebrew literature--the
'pendulum structure,' by which the thought alternates in successive
paragraphs between one and the other of two contrasting themes, in this
case between Judgment and Salvation. The prophet is writing for the
southern kingdom of Judah. Commencing with the rival kingdom of northern
Israel he denounces drunken Ephraim, and how its crown of pride shall be
trodden down (Judgment). But (Salvation) there shall be a crown of glory
for the residue. Now he proceeds to Judgment upon Judah: the drunken
rulers who trust to a refuge of lies, which the overflowing scourge
shall sweep away. But there is Salvation for the patient. This comfort
is imparted in agricultural images: the cruel plowing does not go on for
ever, the gentle sowing comes; there are sharp threshing instruments
[for the guilty], the gentle threshing with the rod for the precious
cummin; and even the threshing is not to crush, but to make corn fit for
bread.
/v. The Utter Destruction and the Great Restoration./ A discourse made
by companion pictures linked together by two parallel passages, each a
parenthetic quintet, interrupting the pictorial description, which is
afterwards resumed, with words emphasising the prophecy as a whole:
_Seek ye out of the book of the LORD and read_ [how all these woes shall
come to pass] ... _Strengthen ye the weak hands_ [with these glorious
promises].--Note that Edom is only mentioned as typical of the foes of
Israel in general, the pictures being of universal destruction and
restoration. There is a similar use of Egypt and Edom as types of all
the foes of Israel in another discourse (page 220).
/vi. The Sword of the LORD./ This is an illustration of a very peculiar
form of discourse, which is without parallel in modern literature.
Ezekiel is the great representative of 'Emblem Prophecy,' that is,
discourses which have for texts some symbolic action or piece of dumb
show. But in extreme examples of Emblem Prophecy, like the present,
symbolism pervades the whole of the discourse: attitude, gesture,
visible emblem, sustained dumb show, song, are all mingled together and
combined with oratory.--The discourse falls into four parts. (1) At the
opening, the prophet sets his face toward Jerusalem: there is no
symbolic action beyond this. (2) But as the address progresses, he
suddenly draws forth a sword: this is the sword of the Lord which is to
go forth out of its sheath against all flesh, and it will not return any
more. Suddenly, the dramatic speaker has identified himself with the
victims of this Divine sword: _Sigh therefore, thou son of man, with the
breaking of thy loins_, etc. Now the theme of the sword is resumed, and
with it mingles what is evidently some military strain or folk-lore
song, of which the augmenting lines suggest the gathering spirit of
combat: _A sword, a sword, it is sharpened, and also furbished_, etc.
For a single moment the other side is presented--a people careless and
secure: _the Rod of my son_ [they say] _it contemneth every tree_. But
the impending destruction continues to gather force: _And it is given to
be furbished that it may be handled_, etc. There is a sudden change, and
cries and howls proclaim how the sword has fallen upon the people, and
the _Rod that contemneth_ is no more. The emblematic movement seems to
become more and more rapid [through three verses of the song: _And let
the sword be doubled the third time_, etc.].--(3) A total change here
ensues. The sword now becomes emblematic of the sword of Babylon; and
the imaginary picture is that of the conqueror arriving at the junction
of the ways and deciding by his omens to proceed against Jerusalem.--(4)
Once more there is a total change: the sword now stands for Israel's
enemies, the children of Ammon, and the verse conveys their boasting.
But suddenly the prophetic speaker plunges the sword into its sheath: so
is symbolically introduced the fate of Ammon to return to the land of
his birth and perish there.
/vii. Wreck of the Goodly Ship Tyre./ This illustrates a characteristic
of Ezekiel's style by which, in place of visible symbolism, illustrated
by the last example, a single image is sustained through the whole of a
discourse. In the present case it is the image of a ship. Tyre was the
great maritime city of antiquity: its grandeur is conveyed under the
image of a ship which all the nations of the known world combine to
build and load; the judgment is the wrecking of this goodly ship.
/viii./ Amongst other things the prophetic books contain 'Sentences,'
that is, brief sayings of prophets, each like an epigram, complete in
itself. These no doubt passed from mouth to mouth like proverbs, and
were collected by the prophets. The examples in this section are from
the Book of Jeremiah.
WISDOM
'Wisdom' is the name given to the department of Biblical literature
which corresponds to Philosophy in modern literature. It is however
always philosophy in application to human life and conduct.
The starting-point of Wisdom literature is the /Unit Proverb/, which is
a unit of thought in a unit of form. The unit of form is the couplet or
triplet of verse: see above, page 242. Examples are given on pages
107-9. It will be seen that this Unit Proverb is a meeting-point of
prose and verse literature: its form is verse, its matter (philosophy)
belongs to the literature of prose. Accordingly it is natural that the
more extended forms of Wisdom literature should take two directions: one
on the side of verse, the other on the side of prose.
/Epigrams/ and /Maxims/: examples of these are found on pages 109-11.
The Epigram is a verse saying, of a few lines in length, in which two
lines (not necessarily consecutive) are capable of standing by
themselves as a unit proverb. In the examples given the two lines in
each epigram that stand out on the left may be read as a proverb
complete in itself. Such a germ proverb is the text of the epigram, the
remaining lines serve to expand this text. The corresponding prose form
is the Maxim, a unit proverb text with a brief prose comment.
/Essays./ A more extended form of Wisdom literature, on the side of
prose, is the Essay. The word has various uses: the Scriptural essays
are not of the modern type (like those of Macaulay or Emerson), but of
the antique type like the essays of Bacon. The title of an essay
suggests a theme, on which the rest is a prose comment. (Pages 112-24.)
Verse compositions consisting of comments upon themes are in this series
called /Sonnets/. In general literature the idea underlying the Sonnet
is the adaptation of the matter to the outer form, as if a poet's
thought were poured into special moulds. In English and Italian sonnets
there is only one such form or mould--a sequence of 14 lines divided
according to a particular plan; the matter of these sonnets must be
condensed or expanded to suit this plan. The nearest approach to this in
Scriptural literature is the Fixed or Number Sonnet: the opening of this
suggests a number scheme, to which the rest conforms.
There be three things which are too wonderful for me,
Yea, four which I know not:
The way of an Eagle in the air;
The way of a Serpent upon a rock;
The way of a Ship in the midst of the sea;
And the way of a Man with a Maid.
The examples quoted in the present volume are different. They may be
called 'Free Sonnets': the moulding in these is to nothing more
restricted than 'high parallelism,' that is, not the parallelism binding
successive lines into a stanza, but the bond which may correlate the
most distant parts of a poem into a single scheme. The scheme of
parallelism for each sonnet will be given in a separate note.
Essays
/ii./ This essay touches upon what was the great difficulty to early
Hebrew thinkers: the visible prosperity of the wicked, which seemed to
them contrary to their conception of 'judgment' or righteous providence.
The author in this essay endeavours to meet the difficulty by two
thoughts: (1) how a change of fate at the very end of life may make all
the difference; (2) how the punishment may come in the next
generation.--A resemblance will be noted at one point to a parable of
the New Testament.
/v./ An essay on the Choice of Company, in five paragraphs: The danger
of unknown company in a house--the good only are proper objects of
charity--friendship not trustworthy until tested by adversity--the
humble can only be defiled by contact with the proud--like will to like,
and riches cannot consort with poverty.
/vi./ This essay is founded upon the old conception of society by which
the educated formed a separate class--here called 'the scribes.'
Translated into modern ideas of life the argument would be that no life
in any social station must be without leisure, and on such leisure
self-culture depends.
/vii./ This section makes a transitional stage to the next division of
our selections, as it consists of an Essay containing a Sonnet.
The argument of the whole is that Life is a thing of joy, tempered by
the sense of responsibility. The latter idea is conveyed by the word
'judgment,' which throughout the Old Testament stands for the
irreconcilable antagonism between good and evil, and the certain
overthrow of evil: the recognition of this makes action responsible.
With this limitation, the author urges that the very shortness of life
and youth is so much incentive to make joyful what days are allowed.
The scheme of high parallelism [see above, page 256] in this sonnet is
the 'pendulum structure': the alternation of successive lines between
two thoughts is conveyed to the eye by the indenting of the lines. The
middle lines put symbolic descriptions of old age; the lines indented on
the left drop the symbolism and speak in plain terms. [The lines
indented on the right are subordinate clauses.]
The matter of the sonnet is a tour-de-force of symbolism, under which
are veiled the symptoms of senile decay followed by death. It is very
likely that some of the symbols may be lost; but it is not difficult to
see, without straining, a possible interpretation for each; and some of
them have passed into traditional use. The poetic beauty of the passage
is marvellous.
_Or ever the sun, and the light ... be darkened_: in view of the opening
words of the preceding essay, which take the 'light' and 'sun' as
symbols of the whole happiness of conscious existence, it is clear that
the darkening of this light is the gradual failing of the joy of
living.--_And the clouds return after the rain_: an exquisite symbol,
closely akin to the last. In youth we may overstrain and disturb our
health, but we soon rally; these are storms that quickly clear up. In
age the rallying power is gone: "the clouds return after the
rain."--_The keepers of the house shall tremble_: Cheyne understands of
the hands and arms, the trembling of which is a natural accompaniment of
old age.--_The strong men shall bow themselves_: the stooping frame; the
plural is merely by attraction to 'keepers.'--_The grinders cease
because they are few_: obviously of the teeth.--_Those that look out of
the windows be darkened_: the eyes becoming dim.--_The doors shall be
shut in the street_: the general connection of ideas makes it inevitable
that the 'folding-doors' should be the jaws; clenched jaws are so marked
a feature in the skull that it is not difficult to associate them with
the picture of old age.--_When the sound of the grinding is low, and one
shall rise up at the voice of a bird, and all the daughters of music
shall be brought low_: these must be taken together: appetite, speech,
and sleep are all feeble. Grinding must be interpreted as grinders in
the previous part of the sonnet: the loud or low sound of such grinding
may fitly typify the eagerness of appetite or the reverse. The early
waking or short sleeping of old age is well known. _The daughters of
music_ are the tones of the voice.--_They shall be afraid of that which
is high, and terrors shall be in the way_: the gait of old age is,
through physical feebleness, much what the gait of a person terrified is
for other reasons.--_The almond tree shall blossom, and the grasshopper
shall be a burden, and the caperberry shall burst_: the three are linked
together as being images from natural objects, not because of their
symbolising similar things. _The blossoming of the almond tree_ probably
refers to the sparse white hairs of age. The name of this tree in Hebrew
is founded on the fact that it is the first to blossom; though not
strictly white, its blossoms may be called whitish: the whitish
blossoms, solitary while all is bare around, just yield the image
required. The grasshopper is evidently a symbol for a small object,
which is nevertheless heavy to feeble age. _The caperberry shall burst_:
the last stage of its decay: the failing powers at last give way. And
then follows the dropping of the symbolism: "Man goeth to his long
home."
So far we have had symbols for failure of powers; now for actual death
and dissolution. _Or ever the silver cord be loosed, or the golden bowl
be broken_: a symbol from the house-lamp of gold, suspended by a silver
cord, suddenly slipping its cord and breaking, its light becoming
extinguished. For bowl in this sense compare Zechariah, chapter iv. 2,
3.--_Or the pitcher be broken at the fountain, or the wheel broken at
the cistern_: these are exquisite symbols for the sudden and violent
cessation of every-day functions. Compare the popular proverb: "The
pitcher goes to the well once too often."--_And the spirit return unto
God who gave it_: this by analogy with the previous line must be
interpreted to mean no more than that the man becomes just what he was
before he was born.
Sonnets
/i. The Sluggard./ The metrical scheme of this sonnet is simple: a
strophe balanced by an antistrophe. [See above, page 244.]
/ii. The Mourning for the Fool./ Metrical scheme: a brief strophe and
antistrophe and conclusion.
/iii. The Two Paths./ Strophe, the way of wisdom; antistrophe, the path
of the wicked; conclusion, union of the two in a common image.
/iv. The Creator has made Wisdom the Supreme Prize./ The metrical scheme
of this sonnet is an example of 'antistrophic inversion': that is, two
strophes followed by their antistrophes, but the antistrophe to the
second strophe precedes the antistrophe to the first. [This is sometimes
expressed by the formula a b b a; or (reckoning the number of lines in
each strophe) 4, 6; 6, 4.] The printing makes this clear to the
eye.--The unity of thought in the sonnet is the conception of Wisdom as
a prize. The middle strophe and antistrophe describe the richness of
this prize; the opening strophe makes 'chastening' the cost at which it
is obtained by the individual from the Lord; and the corresponding
antistrophe (at the end) explains the reason for this costliness--wisdom
was the instrument by which the whole universe was created.
/v. Watchfulness of Lips and Heart./ A Prayer in sonnet form. The
metrical scheme is an illustration of 'duplication' applied to
antistrophic structure: a quatrain question (strophe 1) has a couplet
answer (strophe 2); then the quatrain is duplicated into an octet
(antistrophe 1), and the answer is duplicated into a quatrain
(antistrophe 2). [The lines of invocation are not counted in strophe and
antistrophe 2.]
/vi. Wisdom and the Fear of the Lord./ This is one of the most elaborate
sonnets: its metrical scheme combines antistrophic and stanza structure
(above, page 243). There is first a strophe with its antistrophe; then a
series of stanzas; but these stanzas illustrate the metrical device of
'augmenting,' for they increase, as the thought gathers strength, from 3
lines to 5 lines and 6 lines.
/vii. Wisdom and the Strange Woman./ This is at once the foremost of
wisdom poems in its thought, and the most elaborate in sonnet structure:
here, as always, the structure is an exact reflection of the thought.
The metrical scheme shows stanza structure throughout. The poem falls
into seven sections. In sections 1, 3, 4, 7, which contain the thread of
argument, we find octet and ten-line stanzas. Section 2, which breaks
off from the argument to give a picture of temptation, changes to sextet
stanzas. Sections 5 and 6, the monologue of Wisdom, are cast in
quatrains, but as the monologue crescendoes to its climax the quatrains
'augment' to 5, 6, 7 lines. There is further the artistic device of
'interruption': the regular flow of stanzas is broken at critical points
by single couplets (like musical rhythm interrupted by recitative);
again in section 2 the actual speech of the temptress is an irregular
mass of lines outside the stanza structure, and this break in the flow
of lines has a fine effect.
The thought of the poem is in the highest degree grand and bold.
Scriptural philosophy loves to celebrate under the name 'Wisdom' the
union of all things, whether of the external universe or of the
spiritual life, in one Divine harmony. In this poem this Wisdom is to be
personified, and to proclaim her attractions. But the poet prepares the
way by contrast with the spirit of temptation, also personified in
female form practising her allurements. This is displayed in a boldly
drawn picture; and then the poet, with the words _Doth not Wisdom cry?_
suddenly turns round and presents 'Wisdom' as the temptress to good.
LYRICS
/i-ii./ These two selections are from the Book of Job. This consists of
matter mainly philosophic worked up into an elaborate poem in which all
literary forms--epic, lyric, drama, rhetoric, etc.--are blended in a way
unparalleled in modern literature. Hence the form of these two pieces is
intermediate between wisdom sonnets and the lyrical poems that follow.
/i. An Elegy of a Broken Heart./ In the Book of Job this intervenes
between the Story Prologue, which is prose, and the main body of the
poem, which takes a dramatic form. Job breaks the silence to dilate,
with lyrical elaboration, upon the situation of utter ruin which is to
be the starting-point of the dramatic discussion. Hence the title of the
section in the whole poem of Job is 'Job's Curse': but it admits of
being separated from the action of the drama as an independent poem,
with some such title as I have given it.--In metrical scheme it falls
into two sections. Section 1 is an example of 'interruption' (compare
note to vii of the sonnets). It will be seen that the last two lines
continue the sentence begun by the first two lines, making with them a
quatrain: between come masses of parallel lines interrupting with a
tour-de-force of execration. Section 2 is made up of introductory
quatrain, strophe, and antistrophe.