The subject of this exquisite little idyll is taken from the Book of
Ruth, chapter iii, in which Ruth the Moabitess is described as lying
at the feet of Boaz, the kinsman of her dead husband, Mahlon the
Hebrew, in order that she might claim from him that he should marry
her and continue the family of Mahlon, as provided by the law of
Moses.
_Judith._ There was a Judith, daughter of Beer the Hittite, one of
the wives of Esau (Gen. xxxvi. 34). Hugo may or may not have had
this personage in his mind.
_asphodèle_. Hugo is not always accurate in his local colouring.
Asphodels are not found in Palestine.
_Galgala_, the form found in the Septuagint and Vulgate of the
place-name Gilgal.
_Les grelots des troupeaux._ Here, again, Hugo is inaccurate.
Sheep in Palestine do not have bells attached to them.
_Jérimadeth_. The name seems to be of Hugo's own invention. It
was a trick of the poet's to make proper names suit the
exigencies of rime, as in this instance, in which
'Jérimadeth rimes with' demandait.