Page:A grammar of the Bohemian or Cech language.djvu/18

xii In the second volume the extracts are continued to the end of the sixteenth century. Persons to whom the subject is unfamiliar will be surprised, on opening these volumes, at the riches of old Bohemian literature.

(2) Anthologie z Literatury České (Anthology of Bohemian literature), by Joseph Jireček, of which several editions have appeared. This excellent book gives selections from the earliest times to the present day.

A good summary of Bohemian history will be found in the Děje Království Českého (History of the Kingdom of Bohemia), by Prof. Tomek, to which Prof. Kalousek has added three excellent maps. It is a great pity that this work has not been translated into English. As yet we have been too content to learn about the Bohemians from people who are interested only in depreciating them, but the valuable work of Count Lützow previously alluded to will no doubt do much to dissipate the prejudices of ignorance. As I have not space on the present occasion to give a complete sketch of Bohemian literature, I am obliged to pass over many other valuable works.

I have also with reluctance been compelled to omit extracts from the older Bohemian literature, for fear of confusing the student with archaisms. It will be observed that many of the passages selected for translation are from the useful work of Prof. Tomek already alluded to—Děje Království Českého, Prague, 1891. The English may occasionally appear somewhat clumsy, but it was not considered advisable to depart too much from the Bohemian idiom.

W. R. M.