Page:A grammar of the Bohemian or Cech language.djvu/13

Rh College, Cambridge (Kronika Dalimilova podle Rukopisu Cambridgeského. Prague, 1892). To the fourteenth century also belongs the Alexandreis, which is a free adaptation from the Latin. Jireček assigns it to a period as early as the thirteenth century. At the beginning of the fifteenth century a complete version of the Bible was in existence. Before, however, we leave the fourteenth century we must mention some satirical poetry, the most curious of which is perhaps ‘The Groom and the Scholar’ (Podkoní a Žák), which gives us a quaint picture of mediaeval manners. To this period also belong the poems of Smil Flaška. But the greatest literary figure is Thomas Štítný, who has left some interesting moral treatises in the vernacular, which show how well developed Bohemian prose was at this early period. The addresses of Štítný to his children were edited by Erben in 1852 (Knížky Šestery o obecných Věcech Křesťanských). He is supposed to have died about 1400.

Here may be mentioned a Bohemian version of the History of the Trojan War, composed by Guido of Colonna, from Dictys Cretensis and Dares Phrygius, which, to judge from the number of MSS. in existence, must have been very popular. It was printed at Pilsen in 1468, and was one of the first books which issued from the Bohemian Press. We now come to the great name of Hus, a man whose life is too well known to need a detailed account. I shall confine myself to his influence upon Bohemian literature. During the latter part of the fourteenth century and the beginning of the fifteenth the University of Prague was at the height of its splendour. The doctrines of Wickliffe were introduced into the country by the mysterious