Short Histories of the Literatures of the World: VII.

Edited by Edmund Gosse, LL.D.

Short Histories of the
Literatures of the World

Edited by EDMUND GOSSE, LL.D.

Large Crown 8vo, cloth, 6s. each Volume

ANCIENT GREEK LITERATURE
By Prof. Gilbert Murray, M.A.

FRENCH LITERATURE
By Prof. Edward Dowden, D.C.L., LL.D

MODERN ENGLISH LITERATURE
By the Editor

ITALIAN LITERATURE
By Richard Garnett, C.B., LL.D.

SPANISH LITERATURE
By James Fitzmaurice-Kelly

JAPANESE LITERATURE
By William George Aston, C.M.G., D.Lit.

BOHEMIAN LITERATURE
By The Count Lützow, D.Litt., D.Ph.

SANSKRIT LITERATURE
By Prof. A. A. Macdonell, M.A.

HUNGARIAN LITERATURE
By Dr. Riedl

AMERICAN LITERATURE
By Prof. W. P. Trent

RUSSIAN LITERATURE
By K. Waliszewski

CHINESE LITERATURE
By Prof. A. Giles

ARABIC LITERATURE
By C. Huart

In preparation

HEBREW LITERATURE
By Prof. Philippe Berger

GERMAN LITERATURE
By Calvin Thomas, LL.D.

LATIN LITERATURE
By Marcus Dimsdale, M.A.

Other volumes will follow

LONDON: WILLIAM HEINEMANN

A History of
BOHEMIAN LITERATURE

BY

THE COUNT LÜTZOW

D.Litt. Oxon. and D.Ph. Prag.

MEMBER OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF SCIENCES IN BOHEMIA AND OF THE BOHEMIAN ACADEMY

London
WILLIAM HEINEMANN
MCMVII

First printed, May 1899.
New Edition, April 1907.

FOREWORD TO NEW IMPRESSION

It has given me great pleasure that a new impression of my History of Bohemian Literature should have been required. I am, I think, justified in believing that the British public now takes a certain though still limited interest in the literature and language of my country. I am also perhaps not wrong in thinking that the origin of the struggles in the Austro-Hungarian empire—almost entirely attributable as it is to racial and linguistic discord—has become better understood in England. As I show in my book, the revival of Bohemian literature was largely responsible for the movement in favour of Bohemian autonomy; and the early leaders of the Bohemian movement in the nineteenth century were mostly literary men. I am justified, therefore, in claiming a certain political importance for this book. The new impression on the whole differs little from the former one, and in revising the book I noticed with pleasure how few printer's errors required correction—a somewhat astonishing fact if we consider how difficult the spelling of Slavic words is. I have added considerably to the last pages of the book, which deal mainly with writers who are now alive. This part of the subject had been previously somewhat neglected, as I originally intended to omit all mention of living authors.

LÜTZOW.

Žampach,
October 26, 1906.

[Pg vi]
[Pg vii]

PREFACE

With the approval of Mr. Gosse, I have written this short History of Bohemian Literature according to a plan that differs considerably from that of certain earlier volumes in this Series. The works of Modern English, French, Italian, and even of Ancient Greek and Spanish writers, will be known to many readers of the volumes that deal with them. Bohemian literature, on the other hand, is absolutely unknown in Western Europe, and a large amount of space has therefore been devoted to translated quotations from Bohemian writers. Many of these unknown works have great interest and value.

Bohemian literature, as we possess it, is to a certain extent disappointing and unsatisfactory. In consequence of the wholesale destruction of everything written in Bohemian that continued during more than a century, countless Bohemian books, many of which are known to have been valuable, have disappeared.

Many forms of literature are scarcely represented in Bohemian. No dramatic works worthy of notice exist before the present century. Poetry also is valuable only in the earliest period and in the present century.

Bohemian literature is so closely connected with Bohemian history, that without some knowledge of the latter it is often difficult to understand the references to historical events which must necessarily be found in a history of Bohemian literature. Though I have sometimes explained such references by notes, I could not do this to any great extent without trespassing on the domain of history. Those who wish to turn their attention to the dramatic history of Bohemia will find their best guide up to the year 1526 in Palacký, whose monumental History of Bohemia was published in German as well as in Bohemian. Though no continuous narrative on the same plan brings Bohemian history down to the year 1620, Gindely, Tieftrunk, and Rezek have written extensively, in German as well as in Bohemian, on the last years of Bohemian independence. Professor Tomek has in his short Geschichte Böhmens given an outline of the history of the country from the earliest ages up to the present day. I have in my Bohemia: an Historical Sketch, endeavoured to give a brief account of the history of Bohemia from an early period to the year 1620, written in accordance with the requirements of non-Bohemian readers.

Bohemian writers have divided the literature of their country into three periods. The first extends from the earliest time to the days of Hus; the second from Hus to the battle of the White Mountain; the third from that battle to the present day. Chaps. I. and II. of this book deal with the first; Chaps. III., IV., V., and VI. with the second;