Immo sunt qui maximam similitudinem inter Canticum Canticorum et
Theocriti Idyllia esse statuant ... quod iisdem fere videtur esse verbis,
loquendi formulis, similibus, transitu, figuris.
If these resemblances were so very striking, then, as argued in the text of
this essay, the Idylls of Theocritus ought to resemble the Egyptian poems.
This, however, they utterly fail to do.
For my acquaintance with the modern Greek songs I am indebted to Mr. G.F.
Abbott's "Songs of Modern Greece" (Cambridge, 1900). The Levantine
character of the melodies to Hebrew Piyyutim based on the Song of Songs is
pointed out by Mr. F.L. Cohen, in the "Jewish Encyclopedia," i, p. 294,
and iii, p. 47.
The poem of Taubah, and the comments on it, are taken from C.J.L. Lyall's
"Translations of Ancient Arabic Poetry, chiefly prae-Islamic" (1885), P.
76.
The Hebrew text of Moses ibn Ezra's poem--cited with reference to the
figure of love surviving the grave--may be found in Kaempf's _Zehn Makamen_
(1858), p. 215. A German translation is given, I believe, in the same
author's _Nichtandalusische Poesie andalusischer Dichter._
Many Hebrew love-poems, in German renderings, are quoted in Dr. A.
Sulzbach's essay, _Die poetische Litteratur_ (second section, _Die
weltliche Poesie_), contributed to the third volume of Winter and Wunsche's
Jüdische Litteratur (1876). His comments, cited in my essay, occur in that
work, p. 160. Amy Levy's renderings of some of Jehudah Halevi's love songs
are quoted by Lady Magnus in the first of her "Jewish Portraits." Dr. J.
Egers discusses Samuel ha-Nagid's "Stammering Maid" in the Graetz
_Jubelschrift_ (1877), pp. 116-126.