Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 17.djvu/256

* KOMAIC LITERATURE. 233 ROMAINE. classics. On his return to Zante in 181S be began to study popular Romaic poetrj- willi the practical help, it is said, of an old blind minstrel. The Klephtic laj-s were a new in- spiration to him. Perhaps the greatest produc- tion of Solomos's genius is his Hymn to Fixc- dom, the composition of which was prompted by the first triumphs of the Greek Eevolution. Kot the least striking passage in this great poem is that in which the innumerable company of the ghosts of those that had been "slain by Turkish wrath" inspire by their unfelt touch the sleeping Greek army before Tripolitza. The Hymn to Freedom has been set to fit music and is now tile national h.ymn of Greece. The poem On the Death of Byron is also a noble work, though written in a difficult and involved style. Among the shorter poems of Solomos may be mentioned The Poisoned Girl, weirdly pathetic: The Blond Girl; and the six lines — a true mul- turn in parro — on the island of Psara after its devastation by the Turks. Solomos died in 1857, in Corfu, where he had spent the latter part of his life. To what may be called the school of Solomos belong Julius Typaldos of Cephalonia (1814-83) and G. ilarkoras of Corfu ( 1S2G — ). A poet of distinct merit, who belongs to the western islands, but drew his inspiration as well as his blood from the hardy Epirotes, is Aristoteles Valaorites of Santa JIaura (Leucas) (1824-79). Another poet, able but too much influenced by the puristic style, is George Zala- kostas (1805-58). Of merit, too, as a lyric poet, is Achilles Paraskhos (1833-95). Among the numerous Greek poetical writers of lesser merit since the Eevolution may be mentioned the widely learned and over-classical Alexander Rizos Ean- gabes (Eangab^) (1810-92), who devoted him- self to various fields of literature, and Alexander Soutsos (1808-63), who contributed by his satiric verse to the unpopularity of the unfortu- nate President Capodistria. Demetrios Bikelas, of whom more must be said presently, is better known as a prose writer than as a poet, although he has written graceful verse and made poetical translations of a number of Shakespeare's plays. Another writer of verse holds a unique place in modern Greek literature. This is George Soiires, who for many years published weekly a small, four-page, satirical paper, the 'Pw/zTjis. roughly illustrated by himself and written in clever dog- gerel. His very personal, slashing satire, com- bined with poetic talent, caused Soures to be called by some the modern Aristophanes. In dramatic writing, as in fiction, the modern Greek writers have for the most part owed far too much to French models; but the comedy 'Ra^vKuvla, published in 1836 by D. K. Byzantios (a painter by profession), in which a comical entanglement is caused by the failure of the several characters rightly to understand one an- other's dialect and which contains a good deal of clever satire on the confused state of the modern tongue, should not be passed over. Worthy of mention, too, are the comedies of Angelos Vlakhos (published 1871). A very prominent place in modern Greek fiction is held by Demetrios Bikelas, who was born at Her- mopolis, in Syra.in 1835. His Ai7)7'ij|naTa ( Stories ) give us vivid glimpses of the life of the .'Egean Islands. They have been gracefully translated in- to Knglish (from the French edition) by Opdycke, inuler the title Tales from the ^Egean (Chicago, 1894). A brief but vivid picture of Western Greece is presented in Bikelas's letters to a friend, entitled 'AttA NiK07r6Xeais fi's 'OXvuirlay (From Xieopolis to Olympia), which have also appeared in a French version. Here may be mentioned as other important modern Greek historical works the elder Tricoupis's History of the Greek Revolution- and Paparrhegopoulos'.s History of the Greek People. An historical novelist, as well as a literary critic of keen taste and sound judgment, is Emmanuel D. Ehoidcs, author of Jldiruraa 'luiivna ( Pojk Joan ), a Eabelaisian historical satire published in 1807. Ordinary Greek journalism, generally of a very inferior sort, hardly falls, for the most part, within the scope of a survey of modern Greek literature i but mention should be made of the 'Eo-rfa, an excellent literary journal published at Athens. In the domain of scholarship the Greeks have accomplished much, notably in archicology and philology. The National Uni- versity, founded under Otho, the first King of the Greeks, has in its faculties men of international fame. Among these is the greatest living native scholar in later Greek, Hatzidakes. Constantino Kontos, who taught for many years at the uni- versity, was closely associated with the Dutch philologists, especially C'obet. The A6710S 'Ep/i^s, in the composition of which he was assisted by Cobet and Badham. the T'/waaiKoX Haparytpifaui (aiming at the purification of the modern written language), and numerous contributions to the learned periodical 'Affijra are monuments of Kon- tos's great scholarship. Bibliography. Krumbacher, Geschiehte der hyzuniinischcn Litteratur (2d ed., Munich, 1897; excellent, with very full bibliography); Nicolai, Gesehiehte der neugriechischen Littera- tur (Leipzig, 1876; valuable for bibliography); Eangabe, Prceis d'uiw histoire de la. litteraturc neo-hellenique (Berlin, 1877) ; Dieterich, Ge- sehiehte der hyzantinisehen iind neugrieehischen Litteratur (Leipzig, 1902). The first and most extensive collections of Eomaic popular poetry are those of Fauriel, Chants populaires de la Grece moderne (Paris, 1825; with French transla- tions, and an excellent Discours prcliminaire) , and Passow, Popularia Carmina Grcecice Recen- tioris (Leipzig, 1860). For modern Greek folk- poetry, besides these two collections, should be consulted: Stuart-Glennie, Greek Folk Poetry (Guildford, 1896: contains a large number of verse translations), and Abbott, Songs of Mod- ern Greece ( Cambridge, 1 900 ). ROMAINE, ro-man', William (1714-95). An English clergyman noted for his 'evangelical' and Calvinistic preaching. He was born at Heathpool, the son of a French Protestant ref- ugee. He was educated at the grammar school of Houghton, graduated at Christ Church, Ox- ford. 1734; was ordained in 1738, and imme- diately obtained a curacy near Epsom. In 1748 he published the first volume of a new edition of Calasio's Hebreie Concordance and Lexicon, the fruit of seven years' labor. The same year he was chosen lecturer of Saint Botolph's, in London, and in 1749 lecturer of Saint Dunstan's- in-the-West. In 1750 he was appointed assistant morning preacher at Saint George's, but was afterwards deprived of the situation by the