Page images
PDF
EPUB

LECTURES ON POETRY, BY T. CAMPBELL.

LECTURE II. PART II.

Hebrew Poetry.

THE last years of David's reign, and the whole of Solomon's with the exception of its conclusion, form the most brilliant epoch of Hebrew history. The nation then attained to a degree of wealth, importance, and security, from which it afterwards irrecoverably declined by the separation of the ten tribes. Solomon confirmed his possession of the throne by the deaths of his brother Adonijah and of the veteran Joab; and although Jeroboam is mentioned as having "lifted up his hand against him" during his lifetime, yet his efforts were neither successful, nor even formidable. David's conquests in Idumæa had extended the national territories as far as the Red Sea; and the acquisition of a harbour on the Arabian coast excited the ambition of Solomon to make his country a maritime power. The alliance of the Tyrians supplied him with seamen for equipping his navy, as well as with artisans for adorning his capital. He built magnificent cities-he enriched himself by commercial imposts-and he was said, in the bold phraseology of the East, to have "made silver in Jerusalem as stones, and cedars as the sycamore trees that are in abundance in the vallies;" so that the refinement which began with David was fostered by him into absolute luxury. It is true that his civil government was not unburdensome to the people, as we find by their address to his son and successor Rehoboam; and even before his lapse into idolatry he had swerved from the true spirit of the Mosaic system, by his encouragement of trading intercourse, and by his example of intermarriage with foreigners. Yet still, taken all in all, his reign was flattering to the public pride, and propitious to the cultivation of literature. It was peaceable and magnificent; and the popular mind seems to have bowed, during his lifetime, before his splendid prosperity and gifted endowments. For he adorned royalty with an intellectual reputation that was not obliterated from his memory, even by his religious apostacy. We look back, therefore, to Solomon's reign as to a bright and tranquil noontide in Hebrew history. The remaining day

1 Kings, xxi. v. 26.

† Hadad, or Ader, is also spoken of, both in the scriptures and in Josephus, as an adversary who made some incursions into the territory of Israel; but his hostilities, together with Jeroboam's, form but slight exceptions to the general peace of Solomon's reign.

2 Chron. ix. 27.

VOL. I. No. 5.-1821.

3 L

§ 1 Kings, xi. 4.

of the national existence, with but few and short intervals, was overcast with tempestuous calamities; and the voice of Poetry reaches us from those times only in the thunders of prophecy.

The writings ascribed to Solomon* certainly coincide with the conception which History affords us of his personal character, and of the circumstances of his reign. Such circumstances give a leisure at once favourable to the intellect, and dangerous to the indulgence of the passions. It was the fate of the wisest and most eloquent of moralists to experience this twofold and opposite influence of peace and prosperity. His poetry is accordingly an antithesis, in its different parts, of the soberest moral thought and the most luxuriant imagination. It breathes no oracular terrors-it glows with neither martial images nor heroic enthusiasm-but abounds either in intellectual reflections, or in allusions to the blandishments of pleasure. In the Proverbs we see the sagacity that was imputed to him; in the Song of Songs, the sumptuous revelry of his fancy; and in the Preacher we meet with a mind satiated with human happiness, and convinced of its vanity, exhorting us to value nothing but the fear of God, and the obedience of his commandments.

It would be departing presumptuously from the object of these lectures, to examine the mystical religious meaning supposed to be couched under the erotic poetry of Solomon. But as the Song of Songs is completely a pastoral and amatory poem in its imagery and structure, we may appreciate its value as a work of imagination, without interfering in the least degree with its typical sense. Considered merely as a relic of national poetry, it has been sometimes preferred to the most beautiful idyls of classic antiquity. In the warm colours and profusion of its imagery, it may be allowed to be superior to the pastoral productions of the Western Muse; but it is by no means their equal in taste, design, or execution. The pictures of Nature in Theocritus and Virgil charm us by their perfect distinctness and keeping. We con

The whole of the Proverbs are not ascribed to Solomon, even in the scriptural titles which they bear; and of those imputed to him, a part are expressly stated to have been copied out by the men of Hezekiah King of Judah-Proverbs, chap. XXV. The 30th chapter is entitled the Words of Agur the Son of Jakeh; and the 31st is called the Prophecy which was taught King Lemuel by his Mother. Lemuel is understood by some to be only the poetical name of Solomon, and the admonishing mother to have been Bathsheba. But this is pure conjecture.

Elaborate dissertations have been endited, by the Hebraists of the German school, on the probable amount of the share which Solomon had in the writings received under his name. I should have been ashamed, whilst paying any attention to Hebrew literature, not to have perused the most eminent works of erudition on this subject in every language that was accessible to me. But it would be at variance with the popular object of these lectures to burden them with such disquisitions, and some of their opinions it would answer no good purpose even to discuss.

verse familiarly with their living objects; and their landscapes, situations, and characters, are all defined to the imagination. But in the Song of Solomon a mystery and vagueness hangs over our conception of the being who (in a human sense) utters the passion of the poem, and who is addressed as its object. The voices and responses of love murmur around us, but the speakers and their circumstances shift ambiguously and abruptly. At times, undoubtedly, we have delicious glimpses of scenery, and seem to breathe in the very air of a rich oriental landscape. "The winter is past, the rain is over and gone: the fig-tree putteth forth her green figs, and the vines with the tender grapes give a goodly smell. The singing of birds and the voice of the turtle is heard in the land." Yet the poet's touches, sweet and magnificent as they are, rather supply the fancy with a desultory dream of luxury, than impress the heart with an intelligent interest in human manners and feelings.

When we turn to the Proverbs, however, we find a monument of Hebrew genius, superior to every production in the same walk of composition. David fostered the poetical enthusiasm of his people, and was, in a stricter sense than Solomon, their poetical sovereign and representative. But the Hebrew mind was now become more fitted than formerly for intellectual impressions from literature: and Solomon employed his genius in giving the maxims of morality a diction pointed to the understanding, as well as electrifying to the fancy. The proverbs of a people always form their first step of advance towards philosophy; and the state of the Jews, at this period, may be compared to that of the Greeks, when they received the sayings of Solon, Pythagoras, and Theognis. But the gnomic or sententious remains of the Pagan moralists, as rudiments of philosophical literature, appear insignificant, when compared with those of the Hebrew monarch, who drew the ethical spirit of his poetry from a grand and simple religious creed. Hence he has no division of doctrines for the initiated and the profane. His precepts are clear, consistent, and elevated truths, tersely expressed, and spiritedly illustrated. In one or two expressions, perhaps, may be traced something to remind us of the old enigmatical form, in which it was usual with the Jews, as with all early nations, to couch the sayings of the wisea custom exemplified by the riddles which Sampson prided himself in proposing to the Philistines.* But Solomon, to look at the Proverbs as a whole, stripped his wisdom of all fantastical mystery, when he addressed himself to the instruction

And it would appear, from the Queen of Sheba putting hard questions to the King of Israel (1 Kings, ch. x.) that the amusement of enigmas had not fallen into disuse even in Solomon's days.

of his people. The book has nothing abstruse,* nothing jarring in doctrine, and nothing ascetic. On the contrary, it recommends, in the most pointed manner, to cherish a cheerful heart; and if the idea of levity could be separated from wit, we might almost venture to attach the latter term to the animated ingenuity of the Proverbs. Without either formal reasoning, or arrangement of parts, the book embraces a code of instruction directly applicable to all the duties of life. Does the poet inculcate temperance, how emphatic is the question, "Who hath wo, who hath sorrow, who hath contentions, who hath wounds without cause-who hath redness of eyes, but they that tarry at the wine?" Does he speak of humility, how brief and weighty is the apothegm, "Before destruction the heart of man is haughty, and before honour goeth humility." How impres

*The imagery of the Proverbs is, in general, strikingly lucid. It is not so in Ecclesiastes, the diction of which is obscure, and by no means eminently poeti cal. The description of old age, in the last chapter, is a singular instance of quaint and elaborately artificial allegory, in a book so full of simple poetry as the Bible.

Verse 1. Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth, &c. &c.

Verse 2. While the sun, or the light of the moon, or the stars, be not darkened, nor the clouds return after the rain-i. e. (I follow the explanation of Dr. Clarke) before thine eyes grow dim with age, so that thou shalt not see the sun, moon, and stars, and before the evils and miseries of life succeed one another in woful vicissitude.

Verse 3. In the day when the keepers of the house shall tremble, and the strong men shall bow themselves, and the grinders cease because they are few, and those that look out of the windows be darkened-i. e. before thine arms, which are the guards of the bodily mansion, shall tremble with palsies; and thy legs, which are thy strong supporters, shall bow themselves; and thy teeth grind slowly and with difficulty, because they are few; and thine eyes, which are as glasses in the windows of thy head, are dusky and darkened.

Verse 4. And the doors shall be shut in the streets, when the sound of the grinding is low, and he shall rise up at the sound of the bird, and all the daughters of music shall be brought low-i. e. when the doors shall be shut upon thee, as now retired to thine own home, without care of other's visits or business; when thy slow feeding shall make thee unfit for other men's tables; when every little noise, even that of a bird, shall waken thee out of thy sleep; and when thy spirits shall be so dull and dejected, that thou shalt take no pleasure in hearing the most melodious music.

Verse 5. And when they shall be afraid of that which is high, and fears shall be in the way, and the almond tree shall flourish, and the grasshopper shall be a burden, and desire shall fail, because man goeth to his long home, and the mourners go about the streets-i, e. when thy decrepid age shall make thee so unfit to move, that thou shalt be afraid to stumble upon or to ascend any rising ground that lies in thy way; when the blossoms of age shall cover thy head, and the lightest thing shall be burdensome.

Verse 6. Or ever the silver cord be loosed, or the golden bowl be broken, or the pitcher be broken at the fountain, or the wheel broken at te cistern-i. e. before all thy natural and vital spirits be exhausted, and all the functions and offices of life be quite discharged, as water ceases to be drawn when the cord is loosed, and the bucket and wheel broken at the cistern.

One might imagine that Fletcher in his Purple Island, and Gawin Douglas in his King Heart, had formed their tastes on this dimly allegorical effusion of Solomon.

sive is his saying on temper, that "he who is slow to anger is better than the mighty, and he that ruleth his spirit than one that taketh a city." How emphatical are the few words recommending humanity, "Whoso mocketh the poor, reproacheth his Maker:" and can there be a more striking admonition to industry than "Go to the ant, thou sluggard, consider her ways and be wise; which having no guide, overseer, or ruler, provideth her meat in the summer, and gathereth her food in the harvest."

It is true that it was not within the inspired commission of Solomon (at least the Proverbs give us no proof of it) to inculcate the soul's immortality. On the contrary, his morality is founded solely on the rewards of virtue, and the stings and poisons of vice, during our present state of existence. But there is nothing inconsistent with the doctrine of immortality in this maxim, which he bids the young man " bind upon his heart and tie round his neck:" namely, that "Wisdom is more precious than rubies, and that all the things that can be desired are not to be compared unto her; that length of days is in her right hand, and in her left hand riches and honour; that her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace."

After Solomon's death, the kingdom was immediately divided. The frightfully despotic answer of his son Rehoboam to the people, who, having assembled in the free spirit of the Mosaic constitution, demanded if he meant to rule them with moderation, cancelled the allegiance of the whole nation,* with the exception of the powerful tribe of Judah, and the weak and adjacent one of Benjamin. Jeroboam, who had given some disturbance to the kingdom even in the former reign, now returned from exile, and was set at the head of the ten revolted tribes; so that the history of the Hebrews is from this period divided into that of Judah and Israel. The sovereigns of the latter kingdom, a considerable time after the revolt, established their capital at Samaria; and hence the term Samaritan was ultimately applied both to the people and their language. Rehoboam was thus left with a remnant of the Hebrews, inferior to the population he had lost; but the possession of Jerusalem, hallowed as it was by so many religious associations, gave him an advantage which the folly of his rival Jeroboam turned to double account. When the feast of the tabernacle approached, the tribes who had shaken off the yoke of the son of Solomon, could not forget that Zion still contained the ark and the temple; and Jeroboam, fearful of his subjects visiting the sacred city, established idolatry throughout his dominions. The consequence was, that the priests and Levites of Israel, whose honour and interests were thus vitally

* 2 Chronicles, ch. x. 14, 15, 16.

« PreviousContinue »