Language and Literature. The Cheskian Anthology (1832) compiled by Sir John Bowring (1792-1872) is the earliest known effort to acquaint the English reading public with Bohemian literature which was just then beginning to revive from the débâcle of the Thirty Years’ War. Before this, Bowring had written a sympathetic review for the Foreign Quarterly Review (1828) of Joseph Jungmann’s Historie literatury české. For the Westminster Review (1830) he wrote a resumé of the Manuscript of the Queen’s Court (Rukopis Kralodvorský) since pronounced by philologists, like Macpherson’s Songs of Ossian, spurious.
Another Englishman who formed a deep attachment for the youthful Bohemian republic of letters was the Rev. Albert Henry Wratislaw (1821-1889). By his several translations and original studies Wratislaw rendered valuable service in England to the nation from which his ancestors had sprung. Wratislaw claimed descent from the ancient and honorable family of the Wratislaws of Mitrovic. Conceivably the relationship with the Wratislaws of Bohemia prompted him to translate into English The Adventures of Baron Wenceslas Wratislaw of Mitrowitz. Wratislaw’s Bohemian Poems, Ancient and Modern, from the original Slavonic (Bohemian) is a skillful piece of work.
Writing under the pen name Talvj, Mrs. Robinson, wife of the Rev. Robinson, has devoted a chapter in her Historical View of the Languages and Literatures of the Slavonic Nations to the History of the Czekhish or Bohemian Languages and Literature. Mrs. Robinson’s views on Bohemian literature are by no means her own. Palacký and Šafařík have pointed out that the chapter is nothing but an extract from Paul J. Šafařík’s Geschichte der slavischen Sprache und Literatur nach allen Mundarten. The pseudonym Talvj, by the way, she conceived by putting together the initial letters of her maiden name, T. A. L. v. J., that is, Theresa Albertina Louisa von Jacobi.
Flora P. Kopta’s Bohemian Legends and Other Poems is not a satisfying work. Far more felicitous than her poetry is her prose volume, The Forestman of Vimpek.
The credit for worthily introducing Bohemian poetry belongs to an Englishman, P. Selver. The Anthology of Modern Bohemian Poetry is an admirable achievement. Not only is Selver’s interpretation faithful, but the selection of authors is representative.
Leo Wiener, a well-known Slavic scholar connected with Harvard University, has presented to the public a fine rendition of J. S. Machar’s Magdalen.
Richard William Morfill (1835-1909), late Slavic Professor at Oxford, has written voluminously on Slavic history and philology. Among his philological studies are: a simplified grammar of the Polish language, a grammar of the Russian language, a grammar of the Bulgarian language, A Grammar of the Bohemian or Čech language. The last named is the only work of its kind in English, Charles Jonáš’ Bohemian Made Easy being really an interpreter and not a scientific grammar. The Bohemian Literary Society of Chicago, it is reported, has in preparation a new English grammar for the study of the Čech language.
In Count Lützow’s History of Bohemian Literature, the student will find an excellent manual. With his usual painstaking care, the author recounts in a lucid manner the story of Bohemian literature, its glory and its vicissitudes.
Miscellany. Attention is called to a meritorious volume under this subtitle, by de Moleville, The Costumes of the Hereditary (!) States of the House of Austria. Fifteen plates portray old Bohemian, Slovak and Moravian costumes.