Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 21.djvu/717

Rh S E R V I A 691 and worked at his history, which ho finished in 1768, but it was not published till upwards of twenty years later. In 177'2 he became a monk, and ho died in 1801. The work of Raich, though interesting as a monument of learned industry, does not now possess much critical value. The style is harsh and a great deal of the ethnology (a science then in its infancy) unsound. Thus, among other strange statements, he holds the Bulgarians on the Volga to have been Slavs.- After Raich we come upon two inde- a- fatigablc Servian workers, Dositei Obradovich (1739-1811) and Vuk -ich. Strjihanovieh (1787-1864). The life of the former has been written by himself. He was a man of varied learning, and his career was marked by many curious adventures. After having visited nearly every part of Europe (including England, where he was received with great hospitality), 1 Obradovicn returned to Servia and became tutor to the children of Tsrni George. He was a man sprung from the people, and an indefatigable and successful labourer for national education. The list of his compilations and translations is considerable. Acting on the wise principle that the language as it is sunken should be cultivated ana not a jargon overloaded with archaic and supposed classical forms, he did good by destroying the influence of the Palreoslavonic among his country- men. Before his death his services to his country were recognized by his appointment, as member of the senate and superintendent of national education. The man, however, who was destined to bring k the Servian language into the greatest prominence was Vuk (Wolf) phan- Stephanovich Karajich, whose collection of songs was mentioned jh. alx>ve. Vuk was an indefatigable scholar and patriot. Till his time the Servian language had been, so far as all foreigners were concerned, simply rudis indigestaque moles. He wrote a good grammar, which has formed the basis of all published since, and to this Jacob Grimm furnished a preface. To him also we owe a Servian dictionary and a collection of tales and proverbs. His sup- posed innovations in the Servian language with regard to the rejec- tion of archaisms and the introduction of a new system of ortho- graphy raised up a host of enemies against him, so that not only was he forbidden to enter Servia but his books were excluded from the country. He died at the beginning of 1864, but permission to make use of his innovations was not given till four years afterwards, lor A complete enumeration of the Servian and Croatian authors of ters. the 19th century would far exceed the limits of this article. But Matthias Anthony Relkovic" (1732-1798) deserves mention, because he wrote in a dialect but little cultivated, viz., the Slavonian in the restricted sense, as applied to the Austrian province of that name. He published in 1761 a successful satire entitled Satir iliti Divi Csovik (Satire or the Clever Man), at Dresden. A few names, each of which marks a definite feature of the literature, must suffice. Lucian Mushitzki (1777-1851), an archimandrite, afterwards bishop of Carlowitz, was highly esteemed by his countrymen as a poet. His odes are full of patriotic feeling. Yovan Hadchich (1799-1870) wrote under the twin de plume of Milosh Svetich. Tor some time he was an authority in Servian literature, but ultimately his influence waned. Simeon Milutinovich, a noted writer, whose life was full of strange adventures, composed an epic poem entitled Scrbianka, which describes the chief incidents of the Servian war in 1812. It was published at Leipsic in 1826. We have previously alluded to his collection of Montenegrin songs. He is also the author of a tragedy on Milosh Obilich, who slew Sultan Murad. Milutinovich, who was a Bosnian, died in poverty in 1847. Yovan Popovich (1806-1856), a native of the Banat, was a writer of much industry and merit, and gained a considerable reputation by his plays, the subjects of which were taken from Servian history and were ptit upon the stage with considerable effect. Without being a great dramatic writer, he had the art of constructing pieces to which people would listen, something like Sheridan Knowles. To this circle belongs also Yuri Maletich, author of Spomenik LuJcianom Mushitzkom (A Memorial to Lucian Mushitzki), and also the Apothe- osis of Kara George. In 1847 the well-known journal Glasnik (The Messenger) was founded, which has continued to the present time and contains many valuable papers on Servian history and literature. Schafarik had previously founded at Neusatz (Novi Sad) the Matitza Srbska, an excellent society for printing Servian books, i The Croats have also been active in modern times. The remark- able poem, Death of the Agha Ismail Cengi6, by Ivan MaJuranic (born in 1S13), is said to be so popular among the Serbs, as stimulat- ing their hatred of the Turk, that it has been called "The Epos of Hate." Ismail was the descendant of an old Bosnian family who had turned Mussulmans to keep their estates when the country was first invaded. These renegades, as might be expected, are more fanatical than the Turks themselves. His exploits were chiefly directed against the Uskoks and the Montenegrins. The poem is composed in the same metre as that of the Servian ballads collected by Vuk. It is spirited, but has a savage air about it, engendered by the scenes described, the fierce border wars of long hereditary 1 To show the opinion entertained of him in Britain it is only necessary to cite the inscription in a book presented to him by Dr Fordyce, an eminent London physician of the time : " Dositheo Obradovic, Serbiano, viro linguis variis erudito, sanctissimis moribus rnorato," &c. hatred. The account of the cruelties committed by the Turks -while collecting the harach and the conclusion, where the body of the slain Agha is brought to the hermit, are dramatically conceived. The four most celebrated Servo-Croatian poets are Stanko Vraz, Servo- Preradovie, Yovanovich, and Radichevich. Stanko Vraz (1810- Croatian 1851) was by birth a Slovene; he joined, however, the Illyrian poetry, movement under Ljudevit Gaj and used the Servo-Croatian lan- guage. The attempt of Gaj to form a common literary language under the name of Illyrian by fusing the Servo-Croat and the Sloven- ish languages was not successful. - Perhaps the only result, if it had been persevered in, would have been that the Slovenes would have become completely Germanized, as a pedantic literary language would 7iot have been understood by the peasants. Besides many graceful lyrics, Vraz also published collections of national songs. Some of his shorter pieces are very elegant and have a rich Oriental colouring. Peter Preradovic (1818-1872), a native of the Military Frontier and a general in the Austrian army, is the author of many graceful lyrics, widely known throughout all Servian -speaking regions. A complete edition of his works appeared in 1873. Peter Yovanovich (born in 1801) is the author of many popular poems. But no one of the later generation of Servian authors has gained such a reputation as Branko Radichevich, who was born in the Austrian Banat in 1824, and ended his short life at Vienna in 1853. His popularity rests upon the patriotism shown in his writings and their spirited tone. Nor have the Servo-Croats lacked important workers in the fields of history and philology. Among these must be mentioned Dyuro Danichich (1825-1882), who was educated partly at Pesth and partly at Vienna, at the latter university be- coming the pupil of Miklosich. He first made himself conspicuous by espousing the cause of Vuk Stephanovich Karajich in the dispute about Servian orthography. Besides contributing valuable papers to the Glasnik, he was the author of an Old Servian dictionary of great service to students. He edited, as previously mentioned, the memorials of Old Servian literature. At the time of his death he was engaged upon a great Servo-Croatian dictionary, a work which, it is to be hoped, will be continued by some of his pupils. Ljudevit Gaj (1809-1872), who has already been mentioned, was a Croat and laboured to bring about a national unity. His services were invalu- able as an editor of the Old Dalmatian classics. Armin Pavic (still living) has written a good history of the Dalmatian drama (Historija Dubrovacke Drame, Agram, 1871). Stoyan Novakovich (born 1842), at one time minister of public instruction, besides contributing valuable articles in the Glasnik, has published an historical chres- tomathy of the Servian language and an edition of the Zakonik of Stephen Dushan. Another worker in the same field was Chedomil Miyatovich, previously mentioned. One of the most indefatigable and patriotic of modern Croatian scholars is Ivan Kukuljevic Sak- cinski, who has edited, besides many early Croatian and Servian works, an admirable Arkiv za Povestnicu Jugoslavcnsku (Collection of Documents for South Slavonic History), of which several volumes have appeared, a veritable storehouse of Slavonic history, archaeo- logy, and literature. He has found an excellent coadjutor in Dr Francis Racki (born 1829), among whose works may be mentioned Pismo Slovjcnsko (Slavonic Writing, Agram, 1861), Odlomci iz Drzavnoga prava Horvatskoga (Fragments of Croatian Law, 1861), and many excellent historical articles in the journals Pozor (The Observer) and Had (Labour). After Miklosich, the most indefatigable worker in the field of Slavonic Slavonic literature now living is the Croat Ignaz Vatroslaff Jagic* litera- (borii 1835), formerly a professor at Berlin, wno now occupies the ture chair of Slavonic philosophy at St Petersburg, in the place ofgener- Sreznevski. He has published many valuable works on Slavonic ally, philology, such as (in 1867) a History of Servo- Croatian Literature, also a reading-book with specimens of early Glagolitic and Cyrillic works (Primeri Staroliervatskoga Jczika). He has also edited two of the oldest Slavonic codices, Marianus and Zographensis. More- over, in 1875 he founded the well-known Archivfiir slavische Philo- logic, which he still edits with the co-operation of many Slavists. Sime Ljubic is another worker in the field of Slavonic history and literature. To the excellent literary journals already mentioned may be added the Starina, published at Agram. Valuable works have been written by Balthasar Bogisvic* on the house-communities of the southern Slavs and south Slavonic law generally. His labours have been made use of by Sir Henry Maine. One of the most cele- brated of living Servian poets is Matthias Ban, the author of several poems and plays, which have been very favourably received. A few words may be added here on Montenegrin history and Monte- literature, the details of which are but scanty. On the death of negro. Stephen Dushan, a certain prince Balsha became independent ruler of Zeta. Many fugitives betook themselves to the little retreat after the battle of Kosovo. Ivan Chernoyevich settled in Tzetinye (Cettinje) in 1485 and built a church and a monastery. In 1516 his son and successor retired to Venice, and Montenegro was governed by a national assembly and a vladika (prince bishop). The country was ruled by vladikas of various families till 1697. In that year the office became hereditary in the family of Petrovich of Negosh. Originally the ecclesiastical and civil functions were combined in