10 And let thy palate' be as excellent wine flowing straight to

12 Come, my beloved, let us go to the fields; Let us pass the night in the hamlets ;3

13 At early morn let us go to the vineyards;

325

Let us examine whether the vine puts forth, or its blossoms

5

And above our portals all most delicious (fruits)—

The new as well as the old

For thee, my love, have I laid in store.

SHULAMMITH.

10 that thou wert to me as a brother,

Sucking the breasts of my mother;

Should I find thee without I might kiss thee,"
Yet would they not contemn me.

330

335

"Salutations, greetings, etc.," a metonymical expression. This most difficult passage (320 and 321) is variously rendered. Gesenius, "Thy palate is like sweet wine flowing straight to my beloved; gently stealing o'er the lips of sleepers." Park., "As good wine causes the lips of those that sleep to mutter or murmur, (as in dreams.") The LXX and Vulgate read, "teeth," instead of “sleepers."

We have given substantially the rendering of Gesenius, but would suggest nevertheless the following:

"Let thy salutation be as excellent wine, flowing on account of my love to the upright,
Moving the lips of sleepers;"

that is, let the kiss with which thou shalt salute me be as cheering and exhilarating as the excellent wine, which, on account of my regard for them, I give to the upright; yea, let it be such as would move even the lips of sleepers with delight, or would move even the lips of sleepers to respond, so thrilling and hearty, yet gentle be the touch of thy lips. (See also line 246 as to "palate," and 336.)

2 That is, his affections are fixed upon me.

3 " Or, "villages."

• Or, "doors," "gates." Query. In a store-room over the gate.

• Or, meet.

Has this any bearing upon line 320, etc.?

2 I might conduct thee,

I might bring thee to the house of my mother (who) brought

me up;1

I might give thee to drink of spiced wine,

Of wine of the pomegranate.

(Avide.)

340

(She rises to retire.)

(Exeunt.)

3 (Yea,) his left arm might be under my head, And his right arm might embrace me.

ACT (day) VI.

(Part) Scene I. (Chapter viii, 4.)

TIME. Marriage day-Early morning.

PERSON AND PLACE. Solomon, without the Palace or Harem.

SOLOMON.

4 I adjure ye, O ye daughters of Jerusalem!

Why should ye awake, why should ye arouse
My beloved until she herself pleases?

(No one appearing Solomon withdraws.)

(Part) Scene II. (Chapter viii, 5-12.)

345

TIME. Later in the day, after the consummation of the marriage ceremonies. PERSONS AND PLACE. Ladies in the Palace-Solomon and Shulammith approaching -Attendants in the distance.

LADIES.

5 Who is this coming up from the open field,

Leaning2 upon her beloved?

(Solomon and Shulammith continue to approach, conversing as follows:)

SHULAMMITH.

Under the citron-tree' did I arouse thy (love ;)

There thy mother gave me thy pledge;

There she that bore thee pledged thee (to me;)

350

'Query. "My nurse" or "teacher;" but better as we have given it. Attending to the gender, and supplying the pronominal subject, removes the difficulty in this word.

2 Or, "supported by."

Query. Had Solomon first accidentally seen Shulammith seated under a citrontree, and thus his love been first aroused? Did this lead to an overture through the queen-mother, and a pledge on her part in behalf of the king? (Compare 1 Kings ii, 11-25.)

6 Place me as a seal upon thy heart, As a seal upon thine arm;

7

For fierce as death is love,

Unyielding as the grave is jealousy;

Its flames are flames of fire, the fire of Jehovah.'
Many waters cannot avail to quench true love,
And rivers of water cannot wash it away.

355

If a man would give all the wealth of his house for (true)

We will build upon her a turret of silver ;* And if she be a door,5

We will surround her with boards of cedar."

SHULAMMITH, (musing aside.)

10 I am a wall,

And my breasts like towers;

870

Therefore was I in his eyes as a finder of peace ;7 (Yet was I not without a dower of value, for)

11 Solomon hath a vineyard near Baal-Hamon,

He intrusted that vineyard to keepers;

375

A man brought for its fruits a thousand shekels of silver. (And not less valuable than this is my dower, for)

Lightning.

As if to turn aside the mind from the subject of jealousy Shulammith resumes the conversation, introducing as a subject what was naturally suggested by her own marriage.

That is, if she be without protection, beauty, etc. Turrets were both for ornament and protection.

That is, we will supply the lack of personal attractions by wealth.

• That is, attractive; an open way to pleasure, and (query) too easy of access. That is, we will render her still more attractive by means of ornaments and perfumes, not by means of this enlarged dower, and will surround her with protective and restraining influences.

'Or, "prosperity;" that is, as one who would bring prosperity.

12 My vineyard, that which was personally mine own, (Is worth') a thousand, O Solomon, to thee, Though two hundred belong to the keepers of its fruit. (Enter companions and retainers of Solomon equipped for the chase.)

380

SOLOMON, (catching the words “vineyard," "fruits," etc., and seeing his associates assembled and impatient for the chase.)

13 O thou that dwellest in the gardens,"

My associates are hearkening for thy voice;"
Let me also hear it.

SHULAMMITH.

14 Fly, my love, and be thou like a roe, or a young antelope, Upon the mountains of aromatics.

(Exeunt omnes.)

ART. IV.-ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING.

THE early part of the present century gave to England and the world two remarkable women, Charlotte Brontè and Elizabeth Barrett. The latter was born in London in 1809; the former in 1816 at Thornton, in Yorkshire. Elizabeth looked out first upon the fog, smoke, and din of the metropolis; Charlotte made her earliest acquaintance with the flowers and fields. Their other circumstances and their subsequent experiences were not less unlike. Elizabeth Barrett was reared, if not in affluence, at least in circumstances far removed from the pressure of want; and although some of her life was passed in the country, the greater part was spent in London, where, amid the assiduities of her friends, she struggled with failing health and accomplished her extraordinary literary labors. Charlotte was the daughter of a Yorkshire curate, and her road lay

'Or, "nets;" that is, "its net profits are," etc.

2 Or query, O thou that dwellest in thought; that is, whose thoughts are occupied with gardens, fruits, vineyards, etc.

"Command," "permission,"-"to give the word to go."

Q. d. Away, then, I give the word-fly, show thy superiority, thy agility in the chase.

through poverty and self-denial. By turns a charity scholar, a teacher, a governess, and in all circumstances a sharer in the lowly fortunes of her family, she, too, constantly wrought in the fields of literature. But the two spirits were so akin that, by however different paths, they could not fail to meet upon the planes of fame. The comparison and contrast is instructive, as showing at once the power and weakness of merely external circumstances. The last is indicated by the fact that they both attained the highest rank hitherto among women, while the first is shown by the different moulds into which their minds have run. The temper and spirit is the same the forms are diverse. Elizabeth Barrett was the profounder student and deeper thinker; Charlotte Brontè the closer observer and more accurate reflector. Consequently the poetess was more imaginative and metaphysical; the novelist more practical and descriptive. The first said what she thought and felt; the second described what she saw and experienced. Elizabeth, though by no means unobservant of nature, had comparatively few opportunities to be conversant with what she was formed to love. Charlotte was in constant contact with natural objects, which she saw in a kind of phantasmagoria of strange human experiences, and of which she preserved an accurately drawn though sometimes wierdly-shaded outline. Of the two, Elizabeth loved pure nature most, as her poetic tendency evinces; and the charming scraps of observation and feeling which her works afford show what a garland would have adorned every page if she had lived among lakes, forests, and fields. She said:

I dwell amid the city ever.

The great humanity which beats
Its life along the stony streets,
Like a strong and unsunned river
In a self-made course,

I sit and hearken while it rolls.

But she longed for another scene:

I am gone from the peopled town!
For now another sound, another vision
My soul's senses have.

O'er a hundred valleys deep,

Where the hills' green shadows sleep.