March 31

The Mountain and the Dew

Solomon’s Song of Solomon 5:2 to Song of Solomon 6:3

In the dialogue which next ensues between Shelomoh and Shulamith, occurs the expression, on one of the presumed applications of which we had recent occasion to dilate, Note: Twelfth Week—Tuesday. “A garden enclosed is my sister, my spouse; a spring shut up, a fountain sealed.” These metaphors may very possibly apply to the comparative seclusion in which the wives of princes, and persons of high distinction, are kept. We have already Note: Eleventh Week—Friday. expressed our strong persuasion, that the women among the Hebrews enjoyed very considerably greater freedom of movement than is now allowed to females in Western Asia. It is, however, clear, that the wives of men of high rank, lived in what we should consider great retirement and seclusion, bearing more analogy, than the condition of women generally offered, to what has now become the rule of treatment in the East. We are apt to deplore this as an evil suffered by oriental women, and a wrong inflicted upon them. Doubtless, from our point of view, and indeed in any view that rightly estimates the relative social position of men and women, this is the case. Still, we must not labor under erroneous impressions as to the view which women, so dealt with, take of their own condition; and it is certain that the eastern ladies are very far from regarding themselves as objects of our compassion, or that the condition of our own women is in any way enviable as compared with theirs. Mr. Addison has a passage on this point, in his Damascus and Palmyra, which we quote chiefly for the sake of the distinct illustration of our text, with which it closes. He says: “I have heard many instances of the strong affection of women in this part of the world to their husbands. The most erroneous notions are prevalent among us as to the grievous bondage in which, as it is called, they are held, and as to the way in which they pass their lives. From inquiries I have made of different Levantine and Frank ladies, in the habit of visiting the harems of the East, I understand that the fair inmates of them by no means covet the liberty claimed and enjoyed by our European ladies, and think that a married woman should enjoy no other male society but that of her husband; that her whole time should be given up in studying to amuse him, and in the nursing and educating of his children, which pleasing task they never delegate to another. They seem, it is said, to look upon the very restraint in which they are kept and the watchfulness with which they are guarded, with a feeling of pride and satisfaction, thinking it a proof of the estimation in which they are held, and the value attached to them by their husbands. Thus, the most flattering epithet that can be applied to an eastern lady, is said to be that of ‘the concealed treasure,’ ‘the guarded jewel,’ ‘the well-watched angel.’”

Then follows, in the Song of Songs, a night-scene, which occupies the whole of the fifth chapter, and the beginning of the sixth. In this Shulamith addresses the daughters of Jerusalem, whom she meets in her search after Shelomoh, and tells them what had happened to her, and why she was in search after him; and then follows a dialogue between herself and the daughters of Jerusalem.

In this passage occurs the expression, “My head is wet with dew, and my locks with the drops of the night.” This gives an idea of the climate of Palestine not in accordance with the general impression, but fully substantiated by facts. It also accords with the other notes of time, for the dews cease to be heavy or injurious from the early part to the end of summer; but still, until the early part of May, the dews throughout Palestine and Syria are most copious. But towards the close of that month, people begin to sup upon the house-tops, and to sleep there at night without any fear of dews, and this continues to about the end of August, when they are driven under cover, less from the coldness of the night air, than from apprehensions of the dew, which they regard as highly injurious. Some, however, dare the dew for the sake of the coolness, and it seems they suffer for it, as Dr. Russell ascribes the disorders in the eyes to which the people are subject, to their lying exposed to the dews which begin to fall at the end of summer. We remember a passage to the point, in the letter of “Master William Biddulph,” to which we lately referred. He was at Jerusalem in the early part of April, and says: “We found it exceeding hot, and hotter than it is usually at Midsummer in England. It seemed strange unto mee, how it should once bee so cold, that Peter should creepe to the fire, and now (at the same season) so hot that wee could not endure the heate of the sunne. But after I had beene there a few dayes, the very place resolved that doubt, for there fell great deawes, and before the sunne have dried it up, it is cold, and ill the night season (about that time of the year) somewhat cold, as I felt by experience when I slept in the fields all night. And Peter having watched with Christ in the night, might well be cold it the morning, before the heat of the sunne had expelled cold.”

In the portion we are now considering occurs the famous description of Shelomoh by Shulamith, as in the seventh chapter we have a corresponding one of Shulamith by Shelomoh. We believe it was Harmer who first suggested that much of these descriptions which appear (in our translation especially), to refer to the person, are really descriptive of the dress. That for the most part this is true, we have not the least doubt, and it would be well that the reader of the Song should bear this in mind, as it gives quite a different and more agreeable tone to many passages. Dr. Stowe, whom we have already quoted, skillfully shows that the passage in the fifth chapter (Song of Solomon 5:10-16) which is usually taken to describe the unclothed person, than which, as he says, “nothing can be more absurd, or less in accordance; with the language itself. Those parts of the person which custom exposes to view are indeed described; but as to those parts which custom conceals, it is the dress and not the skin which is described. For example, ‘His head is as the most fine gold, and his hair is curled, and black as the raven.’ What is this but the turban, gold-colored or ornamented with gold, and the raven black ringlets appearing below it? How else could his head be yellow and his hair black?—unless, indeed, he were a bald-headed mulatto, and that surely would be a curious subject for amorous eulogy, besides being directly contrary to the context; for his complexion is just before described as white and ruddy, Song of Solomon 5:10. Again, in Song of Solomon 5:14, ‘His belly is as bright ivory girded with sapphires.’ How admirably this corresponds with the snow-white robe, and girdle set full of jewels, as we see it in Sir Robert Ker Porter’s portrait of the late king of Persia! But what is there, I pray you, in the unclothed body that looks like a girdle of sapphires?”

The same writer, in reference to the companion portrait in the seventh chapter, justly lays another portion of the indelicacy which has been ascribed to this poem, to the score of charming manners. So, in reference to the allusion to the bride’s bosom, which now and here may read somewhat painfully, he lays down the position, that there can be no impropriety in describing those parts of the person which are always exposed to view, as the face, hands, etc. Now, all the monuments and pictures of ancient Egypt show us that the ancient oriental ladies dressed so as to leave the busts fully open to view, and of course there could then be no impropriety in alluding to or describing that part of the person. It may be added, that this is the custom of modern oriental as well as of ancient oriental dress; and we have ourselves seen women who would sooner die than allow their faces to be viewed by strangers, and sooner be flayed alive than be seen with the top of the head uncovered, who would, at the same time, be perfectly indifferent as to a display of a part of their persons which is in Europe more carefully veiled. Yet even in this respect the customs of the East and West were not so different a few generations ago as they are at present—and hence there are expressions in our own poets parallel to those of Solomon, but which excited not the least uneasiness even in the most delicate minds, in the age in which they were produced. It was in such an age that our translation of the Bible was made; and it does hence contain some expressions unsuited to the higher standard of Christian refinement which we have now reached. But these might be altered not only with safety, but with advantage to the sense; for in this particular book of Solomon, it is especially allowed by all good scholars, that even to those who look only to the first or literal sense, and whose eyes are shut to the spiritual meaning, the Song of Songs is in the original a much more readable book than the authorized version represents it to be.