The Book of Delight and Other Papers Part 14

The quaint story of the Jewish sailors told by Synesius is taken from T.R.

Glover's "Life and Letters in the Fourth Century" (Cambridge, 1901), p.

330.

A careful statement on communal organization with regard to the status of travellers and settlers was contributed by Weinberg to vol. xii of the Breslau _Monatsschrift_. The t.i.tle of the series of papers is _Die Organisation der judischen Gemeinden_.

For evidence of the existence of Communal Codes, or Note-Books, see Dr. A.

Berliner's _Beitrage zur Geschichte der Raschi-Commentare_, Berlin, 1903, p. 3.

Benjamin of Tudela's "Itinerary" has been often edited, most recently by the late M.N. Adler (London, 1907). Benjamin's travels occupied the years 1166 to 1171, and his narrative is at once informing and entertaining. The motives for his extensive journeys through Europe, Asia, and Africa are thus summed up by Mr. Adler (pp. xii, xiii): "At the time of the Crusades, the most prosperous communities in Germany and the Jewish congregations that lay along the route to Palestine had been exterminated or dispersed, and even in Spain, where the Jews had enjoyed complete security for centuries, they were being pitilessly persecuted in the Moorish kingdom of Cordova. It is not unlikely, therefore, that Benjamin may have undertaken his journey with the object of finding out where his expatriated brethren might find an asylum. It will be noted that Benjamin seems to use every effort to trace and afford particulars of independent communities of Jews, who had chiefs of their own, and owed no allegiance to the foreigner. He may have had trade and mercantile operations in view. He certainly dwells on matters of commercial interest with considerable detail. Probably he was actuated by both motives, coupled with the pious wish of making a pilgrimage to the land of his fathers."

For Jewish pilgrims to Palestine see Steinschneider's contribution to Rohricht and Meisner's _Deutsche Pilgerreisen_, pp. 548-648. My statement as to the existence of a Jewish colony at Ramleh in the eleventh century is based on Genizah doc.u.ments at Cambridge, T.S. 13 J. 1.

For my account of the Trade Routes of the Jews in the medieval period, I am indebted to Beazley's "Dawn of Modern Geography," p. 430.

The Letter of Nachmanides is quoted from Dr. Schechter's "Studies in Judaism," First Series, pp. 131 _et seq._ The text of Obadiah of Bertinoro's letter was printed by Dr. Neubauer in the _Jahrbuch fur die Geschichte der Juden,_ 1863.

THE FOX'S HEART (pp. 159-171)

The main story discussed in this essay is translated from the so-called "Alphabet of Ben Sira," the edition used being Steinschneider's (_Alphabetum Siracidis,_ Berlin, 1858).

The original work consists of two Alphabets of Proverbs,--twenty-two in Aramaic and twenty-two in Hebrew--and is embellished with comments and fables. A full account of the book is given in a very able article by Professor L. Ginzberg, "Jewish Encyclopedia," ii, p. 678. The author is not the Ben Sira who wrote the Wisdom book in the Apocrypha, but the ascription of it to him led to the incorporation of some legends concerning him. Dr.

Ginzberg also holds this particular Fox Fable to be a composite, and to be derived more or less from Indian originals.

"MARRIAGES ARE MADE IN HEAVEN"

The chief authorities to which the reader is referred are: _Midrash Rabba_, Genesis Section 68; Leviticus Section 29; and Numbers Sections 3 and 22.

Further, _Midrash Tanchuma_, to the sections _Ki tissa, Mattoth_, and _Vayishlach; Midrash Samuel_, ch. v; Babylonian Talmud, _Moed Katon_, 18b, and _Sotah_, 2a.

In Dr. W. Bacher's _Agada der Tannaiten_, ii, pp. 168-170, will be found important notes on some of these pa.s.sages.

I have freely translated the story of Solomon's daughter from Buber's _Tanchuma_, Introduction, p. 136. It is clearly pieced together from several stories, too familiar to call for the citation of parallels. With one of the incidents may be compared the device of Sindbad in his second voyage. He binds himself to one of the feet of a rukh, _i.e._ condor, or bearded vulture. In another adventure he attaches himself to the carca.s.s of a slaughtered animal, and is borne aloft by a vulture. A similar incident may be noted in Pseudo-Ben Sira (Steinschneider, p. 5).

Compare also Gubernatis, Zool. Myth, ii, 94. The fabulous anka was banished as punishment for carrying off a bride.

For the prayers based on belief in the Divine appointment of marriages, see "Jewish Life in the Middle Ages," ch. x.

One of the many sixteenth century Tobit dramas is _Tobie, Comedie De Catherin Le Doux: En laquelle on void comme les marriages sont faicts au ciel, & qu'il n'y a rien qui eschappe la providence de Dieu_ (Ca.s.sel, 1604).

HEBREW LOVE SONGS

From personal observation, Dr. G.H. Dalman collected a large number of modern Syrian songs in his _Palastinischer Diwan_ (Leipzig, 1901). The songs were taken down, and the melodies noted, in widely separated districts. Judea, the Hauran, Lebanon, are all represented. Dr. Dalman prints the Arabic text in "Latin" transliteration, and appends German renderings. Wetzstein's earlier record of similar folk-songs appears in Delitzsch's Commentary on Canticles--_Hohelied und Koheleth_,--1875 and also in the _Zeitschrift fur Ethnologie_, v, p. 287. Previous commentators had sometimes held that the Song of Songs was a mere collection of detached and independent fragments, but on the basis of Wetzstein's discoveries, Professor Budde elaborated his theory, that the Song is a Syrian wedding-minstrel's repertory.

This theory will be found developed in Budde's Commentary on Canticles (1898); it is a volume in Marti's _Kurzer Hand-Commentar zum Alten Testament_. An elaborate and destructive criticism of the repertory theory may be read in Appendix ii of Mr. Andrew Harper's "Song of Solomon" (1902): the book forms a volume in the series of the Cambridge Bible for Schools.

Harper's is a very fine work, and not the least of its merits is its exposition of the difficulties which confront the attempt to deny unity of plot and plan to the Biblical song. Harper also expresses a sound view as to the connection between love-poetry and mysticism. "Sensuality and mysticism are twin moods of the mind." The allegorical significance of the Song of Songs goes back to the _Targum_, an English version of which has been published by Professor H. Gollancz in his "Translations from Hebrew and Aramaic" (1908).

Professor J.P. Mahaffy's view on the Idylls of Theocritus may be read in his "History of Greek Literature," ii, p. 170, and in several pages of his "Greek Life and Thought" (see Index, _s.v._).

The pa.s.sage in which Graetz affirms the borrowing of the pastoral scheme by the author of Canticles from Theocritus, is translated from p. 69 of Graetz's _Schir ha-Schirim, oder das salomonische Hohelied_ (Vienna, 1871).

Though the present writer differs entirely from the opinion of Graetz on this point, he has no hesitation in describing Graetz's Commentary as a masterpiece of brilliant originality.

The rival theory, that Theocritus borrowed from the Biblical Song, is supported by Professor D.S. Margoliouth, in his "Lines of Defence of the Biblical Revelation" (1900), pp. 2-7. He also suggests (p. 7), that Theocritus borrowed lines 86-87 of Idyll xxiv from Isaiah xi. 6.

The evidence from the scenery of the Song, in favor of the natural and indigenous origin of the setting of the poem, is strikingly ill.u.s.trated in G.A. Smith's "Historical Geography of the Holy Land" (ed. 1901), pp.

310-311. The quotation from Laurence Oliphant is taken from his "Land of Gilead" (London, 1880).

Egyptian parallels to Canticles occur in the hieroglyphic love-poems published by Maspero in _etudes egyptiennes_, i, pp. 217 _et seq_., and by Spiegelberg in _Aegyptiaca_ (contained in the Ebers _Festschrift_, pp. 177 _et seq_.). Maspero, describing, in 1883, the affinities of Canticles to the old Egyptian love songs, uses almost the same language as G.E. Lessing employed in 1777, in summarizing the similarities between Canticles and Theocritus. It will amuse the reader to see the pa.s.sages side by side.

[Transcriber's Note: In our print copy these were set in parallel columns.]

MASPERO

Il n'y a personne qui, en lisant la traduction de ces chants, ne soit frappe de la ressemblance qu'ils presentent avec le Cantique des Cantiques. Ce sont les memes facons ..., les memes images ..., les memes comparaisons.

LESSING

Immo sunt qui maximam similitudinem inter Cantic.u.m 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 Judische 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.

GEORGE ELIOT AND SOLOMON MAIMON

The Autobiography of Solomon Maimon (1754-1800) was published in Berlin (1792-3) in two parts, under the t.i.tle _Salomon Maimon's Lebensgeschichte._ Moses Mendelssohn befriended Maimon, in so far as it was possible to befriend so wayward a personality. Maimon made real contributions to philosophy.

The description of Daniel Deronda's purchase of the volume is contained in ch. x.x.xiii of the novel. In Holborn, Deronda came across a "second-hand book-shop, where, on a narrow table outside, the literature of the ages was represented in judicious mixture, from the immortal verse of Homer to the mortal prose of the railway novel. That the mixture was judicious was apparent from Deronda's finding in it something that he wanted--namely, that wonderful piece of autobiography, the life of the Polish Jew, Salomon Maimon."

The man in temporary charge of the shop was Mordecai. This is his first meeting with Deronda, who, after an intensely dramatic interval, "paid his half-crown and carried off his 'Salomon Maimon's Lebensgeschichte' with a mere 'Good Morning.'"

HOW MILTON p.r.o.nOUNCED HEBREW

Milton's transliterations are printed in several editions of his poems; the version used in this book is that given in D. Ma.s.son's "Poetical Works of Milton," in, pp. 5-11. The notes of the late A.B. Davidson on Milton's Hebrew knowledge are cited in the same volume by Ma.s.son (p. 483).