Historia Amoris: A History of Love, Ancient and Modern

I went down into the garden of nuts, to see the green plants in the valley, to see whether the vine budded, and the pomegranates were in flower. But before I was aware of it, I was among the chariots of my princely people.

The Chorus

Turn about, turn again, O Shulamite, that we may see thee.

A Dancer

What will you see in the Shulamite whom the King has compared to an army?

Solomon

(to the Shulamite.)

How beautiful are thy feet, prince’s daughter… How fair and how pleasant art thou…

The Shulamite

(impatiently as before.)

I am my beloved’s and he is sighing for me.

(Exit Solomon. Enter the Shepherd.)

The Shulamite

(hastening to her lover.)

Come, my beloved, let us go forth to the fields, let us lodge in the villages. We will rise early and see if the vine flourishes and the grape is ripe and the pomegranates bud. There will I caress thee. The love-apples perfume the air and at our gates are all manner of rich fruit, new and old, which I have kept for thee, my beloved. Oh, that thou wert my brother, that, when I am with thee without, I might kiss thee and not be mocked at. I want to take and bring thee into my mother’s house. There thou shalt instruct me and I will give thee spiced wine and the juice of my pomegranates.

(Falling in his arms and calling to the Odalisques.)

His left hand is under my head and his right hand doth embrace me.

The Shepherd

(to the chorus.)

I charge you, O daughters of Jerusalem, that ye stir not nor awake my beloved till she will.

Act V

The Village of Shulam

(The Shulamite, who has escaped from the seraglio is carried in by her lover.)

Chorus of Villagers

Who is this that cometh up from the wilderness, leaning upon her beloved?

The Shepherd

(to the Shulamite.)

I awake thee under the apple tree.

(He points to the house.)

There thou wert born.

The Shulamite

Set me as a seal upon thy heart, as a seal upon thine arm; for love is strong as death, jealousy cruel as the grave; the flashes thereof are flashes of fire, a very flame of the Lord. But many waters cannot quench love, nor can the floods drown it. The man who seeks to purchase it acquires but contempt.

EPILOGUE

A Cottage at Shulam

First Brother of the Shulamite

(thinking of a younger sister whom he would sell when she is older.)

We have a little sister, still immature. What shall we do with her when she is spoken for?

Second Brother

If by then she is comely, we will get for her silver from a palace. If she is not comely, we will get the value of cedar boards.

The Shulamite

(ironically intervening.)

I am comely, yet I made them let me be.

First Brother

(significantly.)

Solomon had a vineyard at Baal-hamon. He leased it to farmers each of whom was to pay him a thousand pieces of silver.

The Shulamite

But my vineyard which is mine I still have.

(Laughing.)

A thousand pieces for thee, Solomon, and two hundred for the others.

(At the door the Shepherd appears. Behind him are comrades.)