David and Jonathan on the Prairie

David and Jonathan at the Stone Ezel
Edward Hicks (1780-1849)

1 Samuel 18:1

"And it came to pass, when he had made an end of speaking unto Saul, that the soul of Jonathan was knit with the soul of David, and Jonathan loved him as his own soul." 

2 Samuel 1:26

"I am distressed for thee, my brother Jonathan: very pleasant hast thou been unto me: thy love to me was wonderful, passing the love of women."

Who talks like that?

C.  O! my friend! Is there not then a pure soul-love, a deathless friendship, "passing the love of women," which all life's trials and the world's baseness cannot soil or sap?
August 1852, Scenes Beyond the Western Border

Interesting fact: in the book version, "passing the love of women" has been deleted, as shown here,
and the original interrogative mood has been made declarative.

Twenty years later the expurgated reference to 2 Samuel 1:26 shows up in Melville's verse epic Clarel (1876), with the question mark also restored:

Can be a bond 
(Thought he) as David sings in strain
That dirges beauteous Jonathan,
Passing the love of woman fond?
And may experience but dull
The longing for it? Can time teach?
Shall all these billows win the lull
And shallow on life's hardened beach?--
(Clarel 3.30)