Turning the Song of Songs into English Poetry: Gervase Markham’s Poem of Poems. Or Sions Muse

In the Early Modern period, the Song of Songs was one of the most translated, paraphrased and commented upon of the biblical books. The ambivalent nature of this text, simultaneously a scriptural text and a sensual love poem, was the basis of this phenomenon: not only did it require an allegorical interpretation but also exercised an appeal by virtue of its poetic merit. This “double stimulus” found perfect expression in the many verse versions of the Song of Songs produced in Early Modern Europe, and particularly in England. The variety of purposes behind these texts is reflected in the multiplicity of translation choices and in the different articulation of the balance between exegetical and poetical intentions and that between sacred and profane language. After a brief overview of the phenomenon of verse translations in English, this essay focuses on Gervase Markham’s The Poem of Poems, or Sions Muse (1596), which offers a striking example of these multifaceted purposes. While the prose apparatus (Dedication, Letter to the Reader, Argument of the Book) highlights the scriptural and allegorical nature of the text, the translation itself combines exegetical references with a pronounced stress on the amorous aspect of the poem, fostering an alignment with the Petrarchistic model dominant in sixteenth-century love lyric.