Also 6 Sc. cantikil. [ad. L. canticulum, dim. canticum song (CANTICA).]
1. A song, properly a little song; a hymn.
c. 1250. Gen. & Ex., 4124. He [Moses] … wrot an canticle.
1552. Abp. Hamilton, Catech. (1884), 33. In the Cantikil of Moyses.
c. 1705. Pope, Jan. & May, 524. Thus his morning canticle he sung, ‘Awake, my love,’ [etc.].
1870. Lowell, Among My Books, Ser. I. (1873), 201. Religious canticles stimulant of zeal.
1881. J. C. Shairp, in Academy, 12 Feb., 112. The Queen’s Wake contains several ballads which exhibit … much more of his power than this tiny little canticle.
b. spec. One of the hymns (mostly taken from the Scriptures) used in the public services of the Church. (In the English Prayer-Book applied only to the Benedicite; but often used also of the Benedictus, Jubilate, Magnificat, Cantate, Nunc Dimittis, and Deus misereatur, and sometimes of the Te Deum.)
1625. Bacon, Death, Ess. (Arb.), 7. The sweetest Canticle is, Nunc dimittis.
1853. Robertson, Serm., Ser. III. iv. (1872), 55. The canticle which belongs to our morning service.
1874. H. R. Reynolds, John Bapt., ii. 72. The evangelic canticles contained in this chapter.
1879. T. Helmore, in Grove, Dict. Mus., I. 336/2. the word [chant] is now used for the short melodies sung to the psalms and canticles in the English Church.
c. transf.
1851. Longf., Gold. Leg., III. Nativity, 5. Where robins chant their Litanies, And canticles of joy.
1863. Kinglake, Crimea (1877), II. vii. 56. The time-honoured canticles of a doctrine already discarded.
2. pl. A name for the Song of Solomon.
1526. Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W., 1531), 284 b. Rede the canticles of Salomon.
1712. Tickell, Spect., No. 410, ¶ 5. A Translation of one of the Chapters in the Canticles into English Verse.
1845. J. H. Newman, Ess. Developm., v. (L.). The Canticles must be interpreted literally; and then it was … a necessary step, to exclude the book from the canon.
† 3. A canto of a poem. Obs.
1596. Spenser, F. Q., IV. v. 46. The end whereof … Shall for another canticle be spared.
1647. H. More, Song of Soul, III. III. l. So large matter … for a fresh Canticle more fit.
b. A small canto. (humorous.)
1819. Byron, Lett. to Murray, 6 April. You shan’t make canticles of my cantos.
