Page:Three stories by Vítězslav Hálek (1886).pdf/13

 the same time, (Kral Rudolf) the author had the honour of a short imprisonment at the hands of the Austrian Government. Sergius Catiline, Zavis z FalkenstjernaFalkenstejna [sic], Kral Vukasin (dealing with Servian history) and Amnon and Tamar are the names of his other dramas. They are all tragedies, and somewhat heavy reading. Amnon and Tamar, written in 1874, is the most powerful of them, but the subject is objectionable.

It is difficult for a foreigner with an imperfect knowledge of the language to judge correctly, but I should say that none of the other plays rise much above the level of Tennyson and Swinburne’s dramatic efforts. Most of them, however, are the work of the poet’s earlier years as a writer, and it is noteworthy that his latest works are far above those of a more youthful period, and this makes his somewhat premature death the more regrettable. These dramas fill two volumes. Another volume is devoted to lyrical pieces, ballads, and romances, written at different times between 1854 and 1870. A few samples are given in the present book of translations. These were most of them written in 1858. They are very popular in Bohemia. In fact a large number of them have been set to music and are now the ‘volks-lieder’ of the people. The student of Heine will observe that several of the ideas in these Bohemian poems have been adapted from the Jewish writer; for example, one of Halek’s lyrics beginning:

is a very close copy of Heine’s

A wild poem by Heine, beginning

in which the dead are supposed to rise from their graves and recount to one another what brought them there is also twice