Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 11.djvu/164

Rh honour at the end of the war of independence, and Alexander was offered great literary distinctions; but the unmitigated abuse and contempt which they both, but especially Alexander, heaped on all men in authority rendered absence from their country a necessity. Alexander died in Smyrna in a hospital in 1863, and Panagiotis died at Athens in utter obscurity in 1868. Both tried various forms of poetry, but as nearly all critics have remarked, Panagiotis was always lyrical and Alexander continually returned to satire, whatever his subject might be. Both had a rich command of musical language, were highly ideal in their conceptions, were strongly patriotic, and possessed an ardent love of liberty. Of the two the muse of Panagiotis strove more after the sublime, but was less steady, less uniformly excel lent than that of Alexander. Both were deficient in giving unity to their poems, or in forming a sustained and original plot. The plays of Panagiotis remind one of such works as Bailey s Festus, where there is a profusion of poetical conceptions but no coherent whole. Many passages in the works of both brothers bear a strong resemblance to lines which are to be found in the writings of poets whom they admired, especially Lamartine, Beranger, and Byron. The spirit of Byron pervades both. The principal works of Panagiotis are OSotTropo? (The Traveller), a drama in five n;:t3, for which Byron s Manfred stood as model ; Mecrcrt as rj ra n-a.Oi j Irja-ov Xptcrroi) (The Messiah), also a drama in five acts ; and three other plays Vlachavas, Caraiscakis, and The Unknown, in all of which there is an utter want of character and plot, and a rich store of poetry ; a novel, Leandros, and many lyrics, especially H KiOdpa, first pub lished in 1835. He tried in his later days to strike out a new style in modern Greek, but his effort was unsuccessful. Alexander s principal works are Hav6pafj.a r-rjs EAAaSos, a collection of poems for the most part bitterly satirical, recently republished by Legrand at the end of his grammar ; O IleptTrXai/w^evos (The Wanderer), a poem which was sug gested by and contains many direct imitations of Byron s Childe Harold; and several comedies, The Prodigal, The Premier, The Untamed Poet, and The Constitutional School, and numerous odes and lyrical pieces. He also wrote one comico-tragic novel, 0,010-1-0? TOV 1831, or The Banished One 0/1831.

The other great poet that regenerated Greece has pro duced is Alexander Rizos Rangabe. He was born in Con stantinople early in the century, and belonged like the Sontzos to a phanariot family. He thus describes his own career : &quot; A pupil of Vardalachos and Gennadios, he com pleted his studies at the military school and at the univer sity of Munich. In his own country he was at first an artillery officer, then a councillor in the ministry of public instruction and also in that of the interior, professor of archaeology in the university (of Athens), minister for foreign affairs, deputy, and later on representative of his country in different foreign countries.&quot; His works are of wide range. He has written a grammar of modern Greek, con tributed to a dictionary and a cyclopaedia, composed a history of ancient Greece, and edited many school-books. He has written an able work on ancient art, and an exceed ingly valuable and scholarly work on inscriptions, Antiqnites Hellcniques. He has contributed much to the Pandora, the Archaeological Journal, and the Eranistes. He has narrated the results of his travels, and discussed mathemati cal problems. He has also composed several novels. And he has written a history of the literature of modern Greece, bright, genial, sparkling, and full of true and sometimes trenchant criticism. It is on his poems, however, that his claims to remembrance will specially rest. In these he shows fine poetic feeling, a rare command of exquisite and harmonious language, and a singular beauty and purity of thought and sentiment. His poetical works consist of a large collection of hymns, odes, and songs ; long narrative poems ; ballads ; four tragedies and three comedies ; trans lations of the Antigone of Sophocles, and of three plays of Aristophanes.

Besides these ihree poets there is a great number of Other writers who have composed poetry of considerable merit, poets. but we can only mention the names of a few, Valaoritis, Zalacostas, Salomos, Vlachos, Cokkinakis, Carasoutsas, Tantalides, Zampelios, Orphanides, Cleon and E. Rangabe , Euphrosyne Samartsidis, and Antoniadis. Elias Tantalide?, who for a long time was blind and who died a few years ago, published an interesting collection of songs, including nursery rhymes and school songs, with music (Athens, 1876). The production of poetry was much stimulated by an annual poetical contest. A sum of money was set aside for prizes, poems were sent in, judges were named, and when all was ready, a speech was delivered in the university by the convener of the judges, assigning their reasons for their decision and giving criticisms of the poems. The envelope of the successful candidate was then opened, and he received the laurel wreath with a thousand drachms. From what is stated in the Athenaion of Athens for May, June, July, and August 1878, where the exposition of the contest of 1877 is given, it would seem that probably that of 1877 was to be the last. Amongst the poets of recent days special mention should be made of Chrestos A. Parmenide.s, who while in Manchester did much to make the works of his fellow-countrymen known to Englishmen, and the best works in recent English literature to Greece. Among other things he translated Roscoe s Life of Lorenzo de Medici, Byron s Sardanapalus, Villemain s Lascaris, and poems of Goldsmith, Bryant, Burns. Goethe, and Victor Hugo. He also wrote original poems of great merit, and a novel called Evyevia. Two writers have distinguished themselves by poetic compositions in ancient Greek, Leukias and Philippos-Joannes.

The drama is a form of poetry to which the Greeks feel Dram peculiarly prone. Rangabe gives a list of ninety writers of dramas in his History of Modern Greek Literature, and the list he says is incomplete. Out of these writers we may select for notice Demetrios N. Bernardakis, whosi; Mapia Aoa7raTp?7, &quot;Maria, the daughter of Doxapater,&quot; with its prolegomena, has deservedly attracted much atten tion and been analysed by Gidel.

In pross there is no department of literature which is not IIi*to well represented. In history the Greeks are particularly strong. Perrhaevos has described with great vigour the exploits of Suli. Tricoupis s History of the Revolution is a masterly work. Philemon has given the Russian side of the revolutionary movements with great earnestness; and nearly every man who took a part in the movements has handed down his recollections, or, as in the case of Colocotronis, who was illiterate, has dictated them to some one who could put them into shape. The Greeks have been particularly active in investigating the history of the Byzantine empire, of the Venetian domination, and of special localities. The history of Paparrhegopoulos is especially valuable in regard to the later periods, and its style is singularly clear and flowing. Along with him should be mentioned Sakellion, Sakellarios, Sathas, Byzantios, Monstoxydes, Dragonmis, Triantaphyllis, and Paspatis. In theology (Economos stands forth as the first of preachers, Tlcol occupying the place which Miniatis held as a popular orator in the Nth century. Contogonis is well known by his History of Patristic Literature down to the Fourth Century, and Bryennios by his edition of Clemens llomanus. Braila stands first among Greek philosophers for profoundness and originality. Along with him may be mentioned Vamvas and Renieri. Greeks have also distinguished themselves in medicine, but very frequently they write their scientific