Canticles, a word which literally signifies songs, but which is specially applied to a poetical book of the Old Testament, called in Hebrew the Song of Songs—i.e. the most beautiful song (in the Vulgate, Canticum canticorum). The superscription names Solomon as author. The theme which it celebrates is love; but what kind of love, whether earthly or spiritual, is a question that has perplexed biblical critics. The canonicity of the book was a subject of dispute down to the assembly of Jewish doctors held at Jannia about 90 A.D., when it was settled, on the authority of Rabbi Akiba, that 'no day in the history of the world is worth the day when the Song of Solomon was given to Israel,' and that 'the Song of Solomon is a holy of the holies'—though, indeed, its sanctity was still sometimes questioned in the 2d century after Christ. There is no clear proof that Canticles was allegorically interpreted before the Christian era, and the book is nowhere referred to in the New Testament. The first mention of its being considered a representation of the relation of Jehovah to his chosen people is found in the Rabbi ben Gamaliel, a contemporary of Akiba; and the earliest Jewish writing in which such an exposition is fully developed is the post-Talmudic Targum. The religious interpretation passed over from Judaism to Christianity, and assumed a new aspect in consequence. Origen found the Beloved Bridegroom in Christ, and the Bride in the Church. Only among the theologians of the Syrian school do we find an effort made to adhere to more intelligible principles of interpretation, but the 'mystical' view obtained the upper hand, and Theodore of Mopsuestia was anathematized long after his death by the Synod of Constantinople in 551, partly for his 'carnal' view of Canticles. Supported by the authority of Athanasius, Jerome, Augustine, and Ambrose, the allegorical explanation held its ground throughout the middle ages, at that time (as e.g. in the eighty-six discourses which Bernard of Clairvaux composed on Canticles as far as iii. 1) the bridegroom being understood to mean not so much the Church as the believing soul of the individual Christian. This has continued to be the predominant view of the poem amongst orthodox theologians. Castellio was forced to leave Geneva in 1544 for having demanded its exclusion from the Canon as a mere amatory poem. Modern scholarship in the main contents itself with endeavouring to fix the primary or literal meaning. Since Herder (1778), the natural exegesis has prevailed, and almost all scholars agree in the erotic interpretation of the book; though it cannot be said that as to its form there is the same unanimity. Some commentators hold, for example, that Canticles is an anthology of detached idylls. Even Origen regarded it as composed 'in the manner of a drama.' Herder distinguished thirteen separate songs—'fair pearls on one string;' and Ewald admits the same number, while maintaining its unity as a dramatic poem with Stäudlin, Delitzsch, Meier, Hitzig, and others (whose division, however, of the whole is into four, five, or six acts). According to Diestel, this apparent unity is due to elaborate interpolation, but 'the separation of the thirteen or fourteen songs is rendered difficult, because the hand of the arranger has concealed the seams.' He thinks the songs were collected before the exile, perhaps at the beginning of the 7th century B.C. Ewald's followers hold that the poem was written about the middle of the 10th century B.C. in the northern kingdom of Israel, and conceived in a spirit of hostility against the luxurious court of Zion. Solomon, the type of a sensual monarch, has carried off to his harem a northern shepherd maiden, who in the poem appears surrounded by the ladies of his court. The king fails even by the proffer of honourable espousals to overcome the maiden's fervent attachment to her shepherd lover in the north country, and, wholly abashed, ceases to press his suit. Finally, true and chaste love triumphs in the union of the peasant lovers. Stickel postulates, besides Solomon and his harem, two pairs of country lovers. See the commentaries by Delitzsch (1875), Meier (1854), Hitzig (1855), Renan (1870), Grätz (1871), Schäfer (1876), and Stickel (1888). The German name for the books is Das Hohelied, 'the high song;' the French (following the Latin Canticum Canticorum), Cantique des Cantiques. The word Canticle is also used for an unmetrical hymn in the church service arranged for chanting, such as the Te Deum.
Cantilever, or CANTALIVER (probably from old Fr. cant, 'angle,' and lever, 'raise'), a large
bracket used in architecture for supporting cornices, balconies, and even stairs. Cantilevers are often highly ornamented. The accompanying example supports a wide outside stone stair at the corner of Randolph Crescent, Edinburgh. For cantilever in bridge-building, see BRIDGE.
