Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 22.djvu/167

 SLAVS 151 The Kashonbish dialect is spoken by about 200,000 persons according to Hilferding (others, however, make the number less) in the neighbourhood of Dantzic. This dialect presents some very interesting variations : among others the accent is free and not confined to the penultimate as in Polish, and it has more nasals. Its philology has been treated by Dr Cenova, 1 who has also collected their songs and published a small volume of dialogues and literary miscellanies. The word "Kashoub" appears to be a nickname, their proper appellation being "Slovintzi." Schafarik makes the word signify "goats." The position of Kashoubish in the Slavonic family has formed the subject of controversy. In his Beitrdge zur Slavischen Dialektologie, Herr Leon Biskupski has written an interesting pamphlet in which he essays to prove that it is only a dialect of Polish. This is in opposition to the opinions of Schleicher and Hilferding, who have connected it with the extinct Polabish. The pamphlet contains curious details on the varieties of Kashoubish : the author tells us that every district has its own local dialect. For Kashoubish and its dialects Prince Lucien Bonaparte proposes the term " Baltic " 2 ; this appellation, however, would be more appropriate to group together Lithuanian, Lettish, and Old Prussian, and in this way it has been used by Leskien. (2) Bohemian (Chekh). This language has several dialects, some too small to be specified here ; they will be found enumerated along with other Slavonic dialects in Erben's work. 3 Connected with the Moravian is the Hanacky. Both the grammar and the lexico- graphy of Chekh have been copiously treated, the latter in the excellent work of Jungmann. Schafarik wrote a grammar of the old language. The vocalization of both r and I has been previously mentioned ; h has crept in in many places instead of g, but this is not found earlier than the 13th century. The accent is always on the ante-penultimate. Bohemian literature may be divided into the three following periods, in which we follow Tieftrunk in his History*: (1) the early period, the productions of which are chiefly of poetry from the beginning of Chekh literature till the Hussite wars (1410) ; (2) the second period, which shows a great development of prose, but also a great decline in literature generally, extends from the time of Hus to the latter part of the 18th century ; (3) from the renaissance of Chekh literature till the present time. (1) The earliest period of Bohemian civilization was subjected to both Latin -German and Greek - Slavonic influences. The Latin alphabet may have been introduced even in heathen times. Rosti- slaff of Moravia invited to his kingdom Methodius, who was appointed archbishop of the country by the pope. We hear even in the llth century of a Slavonic school in the Vysehrad (Wy- scherad, Prague) where St Procopius studied, to whom tradition assigned a hand in the transcription of the Texte du Sacre, pre- viously alluded to. Professor Jagic has printed an extract from an old service book the language of which shows Chekh influences. He has assigned the book to the 10th century. Some other very early specimens of the language are contained in the so-called Glagolitic fragments, Zloniky Hlaholske. Two ancient hymns belonging to this orthodox period of the Bohemian Church have come down to us, Hospodine, pomiluj^ ny (Lord, have mercy upon us) and Svaty Va 'clave, Vevodo Ceske Zeine (Holy Wenceslaus, Lord of the Bohemian land). In 1817 a fragment called Libu'sin Soud (The Judgment of Libusa) was anonymously forwarded to the newly founded Bohemian museum. The sender was afterwards found to have been one Kovaf, the steward of Count Colloredo. Some critics assigned it to the 9th century ; according to others it is a forgery. With the limited space at our disposal it would be impossible to discuss the question here. The same year also wit- nessed the discovery by Hanka of the so-called Kbniginhof manu- script (Kralodvorsky Rukopis), consisting of epic and lyric pieces, the authenticity of which some critics have attempted to bring into doubt. The chief hand in these forgeries is alleged to have been Wenceslaus Hanka (1791-1861), who was for some time head of the museum library and the author of some mediocre verse. The next poem of any importance is the Alexandreis, a free Chekh version of the Latin work of Philip Walter ab Insulis, surnamed "De Castellione." The Bohemian version was composed by an un- known author probably between 1240 and 1253. To this time belong many versified lives of saints and legends, such as those of St Procopius and St Catherine. The manuscript of the latter poem has been brought back from Sweden, whither it had been removed during the Thirty Years' War, and is now preserved at Briinn in Moravia. The so-called Chronicle of Dalimil, a work of some importance, belongs to the 14th century. It is a tedious produc- tion, written in octosyllabics, and extends from the creation of the world till 1314. The author is supposed to have been a Bohemian knight, but there is no ground for believing that his name was Dalimil. The work is inspired by great hatred of the Germans. We have a good deal of tedious moral poetry belonging to the 13th century. More interesting matter can be found in the "Satires 1 Die KassuHsck-Slovinische Sprache. 2 Trans. Phil. Soc., 1883. 3 Sto Prostond'rodnich Pohadek, &c. (A Hundred Popular Tales), Prague, 1865. on Craftsmen " (Satyry o Remeslnidch), and a poem on the Ten Commandments. Most of these pieces are anonymous, but the name of one author is known, Smil of Pardubitz, surnamed "Flaska," a leading Bohemian of his day. But little is known of the events of his life, except that he was killed in a skirmish in 1403. His chief work is the New Council, one of the beast epics so much in vogue in the Middle Ages. Others, however, are assigned to him, of which the most original and amusing is the " Dialogue between the Groom and Scholar " (Podkoni a Zak). A valuable legal document belonging to this period is the Book of the Old Lord of Rosenberg, which is one of the earliest specimens of Bohemian prose. Rosenberg was royal chamberlain from 1318 to 1346 and died the following year. Another legal work of im- portance is the "Exposition of the Law of the Land of Bohemia" (Vyklad na Pravo Zeme Ceske}, by Andrew of Duba, chief justice of the country. Considerable portions of the Bible were translated into Bohemian during the 13th and 14th centuries. The version was completed at the beginning of the 15th century. Wickliffe says of Anne of Luxemburg, the first wife of Richard II., " JSTobilis regina Anglife, soror Ctesaris, habet evangelium in lingua triplici exaratum, scilicet in lingua Bohemica, Teutonica, et Latina. " There are two early versions of the Psalter, the Clementine at the end of the 13th or beginning of the 14th century, and the Wittenberg also at the beginning of the 1 4th. The doubts which have been thrown on the fragments of the early version of the Gospel of St John appear to be completely dissipated by the well-timed work of Dr Jan Gebauer. Dr Adolf Patera has discovered recently another religious poem of this period. 5 Another early prose chronicle deserving of mention is that of Pulkava, a priest, who died in 1380. It extends from the earliest times to the year 1330, and was originally written in Latin, but he afterwards translated it into Chekh. "The Weaver" (Tkadlctck), called after the name of its author, who lived in the first half of the 14th century, is a curious prose poem, in which the author celebrated the fair Adlicka, one of the beauties of the Bohemian court. The piece is full of the usual conceits of the age ; it has not yet been ascertained whether it is original or only an adaptation. It very much resembles Der Ackermann aus Bbhmen, of which four manuscripts have been preserved. Perhaps, as Gebauer has surmised, they are both adaptations of a piece which is now lost. Passing over a quantity of mediaeval legends and tales, such as Flore et Blanch- flore, we need only mention, as dealing w r ith native subjects, the two chronicles of Stilfrid and Bruncvik, supposed to have been originally written in verse. The most remarkable Bohemian writer of the 14th century is Thomas of Stitny, who writes on ethical and religious subjects. He was born of a noble family about 1330, and probably lived till the close of the century. He appears to have studied at the university of Prague, then newly founded. His chief works are a treatise on General Christian Matters, in six books (edited in 1852), and the Books of Christian Instruction, printed with an introduction by Vrtatko in 1873. His style js easy and flowing. Loserth has rightly said that the object of Stitny was to put in a popular form the sum total of the scholastic knowledge of his age. There is also a Chekh version of the History of the Trojan War, composed by Guido di Colonna from Dictys Cretensis and Dares Phrygius ; it was one of the first printed in Bohemian, and was issued from the press at Pilsen in 1468. (2) The second period begins with the great name of Hus, whose Second Bohemian writings were edited by Erben in 1865-68. Hus de- period ; veloped his native language as Luther did German. He corrected the translation of the Bible, and improved Bohemian orthography. We have nine letters written by him while in prison at Constance. During the period of the Hussite wars there was abundance of political and religious pamphlets. Most of these productions, how- ever, were of ephemeral interest. The travels of Marco Polo and Sir John Mandeville were translated into Bohemian. Peter Chel- cicky, one of the leaders of the United Brethren, was a popular writer. He was a cobbler by trade, hence he was nicknamed "Kopyta," or the Shoe-Last. His works, written between 1430 and 1456, have a strongly marked democratic tone ; among them may be especially mentioned his Postils and the Net of Faith (Sit Viry). In 1488 the complete Bible was printed in Bohemia, the first regular printing press at Prague having been set up the year before. In 1506 a Calixtine Bible appeared at Venice. The national literature made distinct progress under George PodSbrad, a native king. Vavrinec z Brezove (1370-1455) wrote in Latin Historia de Bella Hussitico', of which there is an early Chekh trans- lation. There is a satire in Latin by Jan Hasisteinsky z Lobkovic, entitled Lament of St Wenceslaus over the Morals of the Chekhs. He was also a considerable traveller in the East. The Chekhs were fond of making pilgrimages to the Holy Land ; Martin Kabatnik was a traveller of this kind. His Peregrinations were first printed in 1518. Works on law were written by Ctibor and Yiktorin, and many translations from the classics appeared. Gregory Hruby z Jelene (called Gelenius) and his son Sigismund 5 See Arch. f. slaw. Phil., vol. vii.
 * Second ed., Prague, 1880.