From personal observation, Dr. G.H. Dalman collected a large number of
modern Syrian songs in his _Palästinischer Diwan_ (Leipzig, 1901). The
songs were taken down, and the melodies noted, in widely separated
districts. Judea, the Hauran, Lebanon, are all represented. Dr. Dalman
prints the Arabic text in "Latin" transliteration, and appends German
renderings. Wetzstein's earlier record of similar folk-songs appears in
Delitzsch's Commentary on Canticles--_Hohelied und Koheleth_,--1875 and
also in the _Zeitschrift für Ethnologie_, v, p. 287. Previous commentators
had sometimes held that the Song of Songs was a mere collection of detached
and independent fragments, but on the basis of Wetzstein's discoveries,
Professor Budde elaborated his theory, that the Song is a Syrian
wedding-minstrel's repertory.
This theory will be found developed in Budde's Commentary on Canticles
(1898); it is a volume in Marti's _Kurzer Hand-Commentar zum Alten
Testament_. An elaborate and destructive criticism of the repertory theory
may be read in Appendix ii of Mr. Andrew Harper's "Song of Solomon" (1902):
the book forms a volume in the series of the Cambridge Bible for Schools.
Harper's is a very fine work, and not the least of its merits is its
exposition of the difficulties which confront the attempt to deny unity of
plot and plan to the Biblical song. Harper also expresses a sound view as
to the connection between love-poetry and mysticism. "Sensuality and
mysticism are twin moods of the mind." The allegorical significance of the
Song of Songs goes back to the _Targum_, an English version of which has
been published by Professor H. Gollancz in his "Translations from Hebrew
and Aramaic" (1908).
Professor J.P. Mahaffy's view on the Idylls of Theocritus may be read in
his "History of Greek Literature," ii, p. 170, and in several pages of his
"Greek Life and Thought" (see Index, _s.v._).
The passage in which Graetz affirms the borrowing of the pastoral scheme by
the author of Canticles from Theocritus, is translated from p. 69 of
Graetz's _Schir ha-Schirim, oder das salomonische Hohelied_ (Vienna, 1871).
Though the present writer differs entirely from the opinion of Graetz on
this point, he has no hesitation in describing Graetz's Commentary as a
masterpiece of brilliant originality.
The rival theory, that Theocritus borrowed from the Biblical Song, is
supported by Professor D.S. Margoliouth, in his "Lines of Defence of the
Biblical Revelation" (1900), pp. 2-7. He also suggests (p. 7), that
Theocritus borrowed lines 86-87 of Idyll xxiv from Isaiah xi. 6.
The evidence from the scenery of the Song, in favor of the natural and
indigenous origin of the setting of the poem, is strikingly illustrated in
G.A. Smith's "Historical Geography of the Holy Land" (ed. 1901), pp.
310-311. The quotation from Laurence Oliphant is taken from his "Land of
Gilead" (London, 1880).
Egyptian parallels to Canticles occur in the hieroglyphic love-poems
published by Maspero in _Études égyptiennes_, i, pp. 217 _et seq_., and by
Spiegelberg in _Aegyptiaca_ (contained in the Ebers _Festschrift_, pp. 177
_et seq_.). Maspero, describing, in 1883, the affinities of Canticles to
the old Egyptian love songs, uses almost the same language as G.E. Lessing
employed in 1777, in summarizing the similarities between Canticles and
Theocritus. It will amuse the reader to see the passages side by side.
[Transcriber's Note: In our print copy these were set in parallel columns.]