Bohemia; a brief evaluation of Bohemia's contribution to civilization/Bohemia's Contribution to Literature

by Jaroslav Josef Zmrhal

L. Šaloun: Head of Jan Hus.

Bohemia’s Contribution to Literature

By Jaroslav J. Zmrhal, Ph. B.

ITERATURE is perhaps the most important of the indexes to a nation’s spiritual life. It contains records of the people’s struggles, aspirations and achievements; it discloses the nation’s soul; it displays potentialities of the language, by which the mental capacity of races is measured. Language in which lofty ideas are expressed is a language of a superior race. Literature rich in spiritual achievements is a literature of a nation of the future. This applies to Bohemia with particular significance since its literature had its great inspiration, its roots, so to speak, in that miracle of modern history—the Bohemian Reformation.

However, its beginnings date back to the Dark Ages. Church songs, legends, and epics were composed by unknown authors. Of the church songs, the best known are the “Gospodine pomiluj ny” (“Lord Have Mercy”) and Song of St. Václav; the best known epic is the “Alexandrine” named after its hero, Alexander the Macedonian. Besides, there were many legends about the Virgin Mary and the Saints. To this period also belongs Dalimil’s Chronicles, written as a protest against the German invasion of settlers who abused the hospitality of the natives (Czechs) and outraged their feelings by untold arrogance.

In the days of Charles IV (14th Century) the literature produced was largely didactic, represented by Smil Flaška of Pardubice, (Rada otce synovi---Counsel of the Father to His Son; Nová rada---New Counsel.) Flaška of Pardubice was also a collector of the Bohemian proverbs.

One of the most important writers of this era was Thomas of Štítné, the forerunner of Jan Hus. Thomas of Štítné was a philosopher and a patriot as well as a reformer. His works Řeči besední (The Table Talks) and Knížky šesteré (The Six Books) have for their subjects life’s wisdom and morality.

But, as said before, Bohemian Literature had its Great Beginning with the Bohemian Reformation, whose soul and moving force was Jan Hus.

He was a reformer, an author, leader of the nation, seeker after the Truth; Truth’s fearless champion, an ardent patriot—and a martyr, not for any particular doctrine but for the freedom of the soul and pure Christian life. Jan Hus was after the essentials—not the superficialities of Christianity. It is impossible to treat more fully the career of this man of whom countless treatises have been written as he indeed deserved, being, as he was, the Titan bringing about the new era in the spiritual, intellectual and moral life of the World. Of his numerous works following are the best known, being miraculously preserved even through the two centuries of systematic search for and destruction of all Bohemian, particularly Hussite books: Dcerka (The Daughter), O svatokupectví, (On Simony), Postilla (A Collection of Jan Hus’ Sermons), and his Letters.

The struggle for the purification of life and religion was heroically continued by a zeman (title of the smaller nobility) of Southern Bohemia, Petr Chelčický. His greatest work, Síť Víry (The Net of Faith) is concerned with the problems of the relation of Church and State. It enunciates the bold doctrine, that the Church must not meddle with the affairs of the State, and tries to demonstrate that the only law a Christian should recognize is the Law of Love, as Christ and his apostles examplified it by their lives. Chelčický had a profound influence on Count Leo N. Tolstoi who was of a kindred spirit with him.

The fruit of Chelčický’s labors was the church of the Bohemian and Moravian Brethren who, as is generally and enthusiastically conceded, lived the Gospel, becoming thus at once objects of the admiration and envy of their enemies.

In this period the Bohemian tongue reached its greatest power and purity. Its monumental achievement was the translation of the Bible with commentaries, in six volumes. Those who are competent to judge, agree that the Bohemian translation surpasses all others. This was due to the great flexibility of the Bohemian language, and its classical properties, as well as to the deep erudition of the translators.

Besides, there were hymnals, historical and geographical works, treatises on travel, etc. Classical education was quite common in this period, and the least peasant knew the Bible better than many a priest and scholar. It was on this account that the Bohemian Brethren were called “Písmáci” (“The Scripturists”) by all who knew them. However, this Golden Age which, besides being itself great, held such wonderful promise for the future, was doomed to sudden ruthless termination.

On November 8, 1620, the Bohemian Revolt, which aimed at complete independence from the tyranny of the Hapsburgs, who were inveterate and sworn enemies of the protestant majority of the nation, was crushed, and the fury of Ferdinand’s hatred and revenge was unloosed upon the luckless land. What was left by the brutal persecutors who stopped at nothing, was destroyed by hordes of soldiery passing and repassing over the gory battlefield Bohemia had become.

These were the times in which that Great Apostle of Universal Peace, Jan Amos Komenský (Comenius) lived. His chief aim was to bring about lasting peace and happiness by bringing up a generation of enlightened Christians. That was the motive that led him to write his Great Didactic (Didactica Magna). His other works the Janua Linguarum, Orbis Pictus, and the Labyrinth of the World and Paradise of the Heart are sufficiently known to all. The last named work surpasses in imagery, force and beauty even the justly famous Pilgrim’s Progress of Bunyan.

There is one interesting particular about Comenius that I must mention even at the risk of wandering from the subject of Literature, namely, his activity in behalf of Bohemian Freedom at the courts of Europe. We know that he was disappointed and died a broken-hearted exile. His successor in the present world war is Thomas G. Massaryk who made the hopes of Comenius his own. May God grant that he shall be successful! For two hundred years the Bohemian Nation lay devastated-wounded, dying. The tortures suffered are equalled only by those of Belgium and Serbia today. The world thought it was indeed dead.

But as soon as the first faint ray of religious freedom appeared on the blackened sky, the dead arose from the grave, the books that were thought all destroyed were taken out of their caches, Bibles appeared that hadpassed through fire, water, dough, and earth, the Labyrinth, the Praxis of Comenius came to light from places which even the fox-like ingenuity of the magistrates could never discover, and thousands returned to the faith and tongue of their fathers—there was a Great Resurrection. No wonder that Goethe marveled. It was indeed a miracle only God could have performed. Vain were the efforts of Joseph II, otherwise an enlightened and tolerant monarch, to Germanize the Bohemian people. Whipping of the children for speaking the Bohemian language only strengthened the repugnance to German. Literary activity seems to be stimulated by the persecution of the native tongue. Joseph Dobrovský, the greatest philologist of his time, wrote grammars and other treatises Bohemian language. Kramerius published Bohemian newspapers and popular stories. Joseph Jungman completed his life’s work The Dictionary of the Bohemian Language, and published translations of masterpieces of Milton (Paradise Lost) and Goethe. Jan Kollar, the greatest Slovak, wrote his pan-Slavic epos Slávy Dcera (The Daughter of Glory—or the Slav; note the play of words.) Kollar’s pan-Slavism was, however, nothing but a beautiful, poetic dream.

 

No one, however, did so much to arouse the patriotic feeling of the nation, no one filled the hearts of the patriots with so much enthusiasm, so much energy as František Palacký, the greatest historian of Bohemia, justly called “The Father of His Country.” The nation’s glorious past brought back to light by him, gave confidence to all in a still more glorious future. His Dějiny Národu Českého—The History of the Bohemian Nation, is a monumental work, the only reliable source of information on the history of Bohemia. The style is so masterful that it satisfies the scholar and is accessible and pleasing to the average man.

 

At this time poetry also began to flower. F. L. Čelakovský, and Karel Jaromír Erben drew upon the treasures of Bohemian folklore and gave us several collections of great literary value.

The new departure from the beaten path—which at first naturally had led through tendentially patriotic poetry—was made by Hynek Mácha, who led directly into romanticism, a movement which at this period was not much appreciated. Mácha died young, his literary bequest is small the most important work being Máj, a romantic poem of considerable beauty and interest—but his influence was great.

His direct descendants were Vítězslav Hálek and Jan Neruda whose poetry, though inspired by patriotism occasionally, finds its chief element in the eternal and the universal. Hálek’s most popular work, The Evening Songs, is a gem of erotic poetry and its charm seems to be enhanced by time. Neruda particularly would be a pride of any literature His deep insight, his originality of expression, his virile emotion, are the chief characteristics of both his prose and poetry. Cosmic Songs, Friday Songs, Churchyard Flowers, are among his best collection of poems. He wrote many interesting prose studies in gênre and feuilltons, of which Trhani (The Rabble) would hardly find its equal in the literature of the world. The list of Hálek’s and Neruda’s epigons is long and varied, and includes the names of some illustrious women of which Karolina Světlá is the greatest. Jacub Arbes, Gustav Pfleger Moravský and Adolf Heyduk belong to the foremost men of this school.

There are, however, two names that deserve a special mention at this time, one of a man, and one of a woman. The man was the foremost journalist, statesman, and satirist, Karel Havlíček Borovský, a genius, a hero, a martyr for freedom. If the eternal craving for political freedom that is found in the heart of every Czech (Bohemian) is traceable to any one man; if the ideals of noble citizenship, self sacrifice, rugged honesty in public life were awakened by any one person, that person is Karel Havlíček Borovský. In England he would have been a Gladstone; in America a Lincoln—in the unfortunate tyrannized Bohemia, he remained a struggling journalist but yet so powerful, so indomitable, so inflexible, that the Austrian Government trembled before him in spite of its gendarmes and its regiments of soldiery. That government did not dare to take this man in broad daylight, but spirited him away at night, treacherously and illegally to its eternal shame. The woman was Božena Němcová, the author of Babička (The Grandmother) which is translated into the English language, and which has so much subtle beauty, so much freshness and charm, that it shall always remain a classic of its kind of writing. Němcová is one of the noblest characters the annals of history record. All her writings reflect her gentle, suffering soul, which finds its happiness in reminiscences of childhood and youth, depicted so wonderfully in her masterpiece, Babička.

The next era, if it be allowable to apply the term, is the present one. The modern Bohemian Literature has finally gained its honorable place among the literatures of the world. Merely to enumerate the authors worth mentioning would take pages, not to mention their works. I shall have to limit myself only to the greatest: Svatopluk Čech, the most popular and beloved great poet of the Bohemians; next Jaroslav Vrchlický, the greatest master of Bohemian verse, exquisite, rich, dazzling; the most facile translator of world’s masterpieces; the most prolific poet of the Bohemian literature; Machar is the iconoclast, the fearless realist, much admired abroad, the avenging knight of progress; the pet of the masses who adore him.

Machar poured new blood into the Bohemian Literature. He brought into it a deeper social consciousness, gave it a backbone, an aim. And this aim was: bare, severe truth. His greatness as a poet does not lie so much in exquisiteness and beauty of form, in which Vrchlický surpasses him, but in the magnificence of his conceptions, strong individuality of his convictions and colossal courage combined with simple directness with which he expresses them. While in many ways different from him, he strongly reminds one of Walt Whitman. His blank verse epic Magdalen holds a unique place in the literature of the world as it is a new departure both in the substance and in the form, which is severely simple and sharp. The poem has its roots in the turbid stream of everyday life but still never completely loses the touch of the divine in the sordid struggle, which it makes the reader yearn for in spite of its mournful, pessimistic ending. Magdalen was translated into eight different languages, among them English. Some of his greatest works are: “Zde by měly kvésti růže” (Here the Roses Ought to Bloom), “The Apostles”, a cycle of poems glorifying the leading figures of the Bohemian Reformation, “Golgotha”, and others.

The climax of the sentimental, dreamy poetry is reached in the poems of Antonín Sova. His verse is extremely elastic and emotional, full of music and rythm. He fully aluates beauty Bohemian word, particularly in the cycle “The Lyrics of Love and Life”. His is the poetry of the national pride, and of the dreams of the future.

Of the other living poets, the following are worthy of special note: Victor Dyk; Petr Bezruč, the fiery, divine bard of his suffering countrymen in Silesia, poet of strong individuality; Jaroslav Kvapil, and Šlejhar.

Julius Zeyer and Otokar Březina find their inspiration in the transcendental, in mysticism. The thoughts of Otokar Březina are so deep, so lofty and clothed in such wonderfully expressive verse that he is considered the most unique, the most promising of the poets of Europe. He boldly turns away from the beaten path into the sepulchral quiet of his lonely meditation and there has his visions, his prophecies which he then gives to the world. As to J. Zeyer his imagination can hardly be surpassed. His descriptive power is that of a great master, his appeal is universal.

Among the novelists, Alois Jirásek holds the first place. His style is simple, direct, but of a peculiar flavor which gives it distinction and character. He is largely a historical novelist but one of great power. He has been compared to Walter Scott but that comparison does not do him justice as his technique is superior to Scott’s as well as his style and power to portray character. Zikmund Winter, another historical novelist, surpasses him only in atmosphere, otherwise is quite closely related to him. One very meritorious, popular writer of historical romance is Václav Beneš Třebízský.

There is however, a group of writers of great interest who are particularly concerned with the soul of the Bohemian people. They are not heavy psychologists but the most skillful portrayers of the character and life of the common, suffering gêns. Neither do they stop at the surface, but dive deep into the national soul and bring up real gems, unsuspected in the rough shell in which they are hidden. Of these Josef Holeček is the first, often called the Bohemian Tolstoi, and indeed very much like him in his deep analysis of the soul of the common people. His greatest work is “Naši” (Our Folk). K. V. Rais may be linked with him, though he is not of the same depth, is not as analytic and profound, but charms us with the same love for the native clod and the people living upon it. His best known works are “Výměnkáři”^[1] “Západ”, (The Sunset,) and others. Inexpressibly charming, full of local atmosphere, full of color and spirit of the people are the writings of Jan Herben. His “Hostišov” (name of a Bohemian village), “Do třetího až čtvrtého pokolení” (To the Third and Fourth Generation) are real gems of their kind of writing.

To this group rightly belongs Teresa Nováková (viz. below) with her studies of the mystics of Eastern Bohemia. She approaches closely Holeček’s standard of writing.

To complete the list of types of writers, one must not leave out Vilém Mrštík, and his wonderful “Pohádka Máje”, in which he gives a superb description of nature and youth, and his talented brother.

Of the dramatists, the foremost are Stroupežnický, Šubert; Dr. Dvořák; (Král Václav IV,—King Václav IV.) Viktor Dyk, Jan Hilbert and Jirásek whose Jan Hus and Jan Žižka z Trocnova, are truly great works, not to mention his poetic “Lucerna” and numerous other works. The dramatic art promises a magnificent future. The nation—persecuted, with its path to progress blocked by the Austrian Government, built at a great sacrifice, from individual gifts, a magnificent temple of drama and music, The Bohemian National Theatre which is not merely a place of amusement, but a fireside of culture, a source of the nation’s aspirations, a real life giver in the darkest hours of death and persecution. There it stands on the bank of silver-foamed Vltava, with its golden dome glittering in the sun, waiting to be kissed by the first rays of the New Era of Freedom that is to be born, by which the Bohemian Nation is then to be the first to be blest.

 

At this juncture, it is proper to remark that some of the most important writers, historians and philosophers were Slovaks, who wrote in the literary Bohemian language. (The difference between the Slovak and literary Bohemian is insignificant) Such was Jan Kollár (see above), Šafářík, and others. There were some, however, who preferred to write in Slovak and some of these are worthy of mention. Such were Ludevít Štúr, writer of heroic epics, a political leader, a hero and a martyr; Jan Hollý, Svetozar Hurban (Román za Slovenska—A Romance from Slovakland in which the suffering of the Slovak people is pictured very effectively,) Hviezdoslav, the true poet of Slovakland; M. M. Hodža, the exile, a poet of considerable power, Kuzmány, the writer of the famous “Kdo za pravdu hoří” (He Who for Truth is Burning), Samo Chalúpka, and many others. The Slovak poems, songs and romances are never translated into Bohemian, but are treasured and loved as they are, in the original Slovak, which makes them even dearer to he Bohemian heart.

 

The greatest woman writer is Teresa Nováková who portraysin a masterly way the soul of the people of eastern Bohemia, who are great mystics and profound thinkers. Beside her there is a long list of strong woman authors, e. g., Růžena Jesenská, Růžena Svobodová, Eliška Krásnohorská, B. Viková-Kunětická, and others.

 

One noteworthy phase of Bohemian literature is the care with which the juvenile books are edited. Nothing seems to be good enough for the child. No wonder the new generations of Bohemians are such worshippers of the beautiful. We may say without hesitation, and without exaggeration that the Bohemian juvenile books have not their equal anywhere in the world, particularly in appearance. Karafiát’s Broučci (The Fireflies) is one of the greatest juvenile books ever written. It was published in London in the English language. Generally speaking the love of books extends from the scholar to the street laborer—it is universal; to have books, to cherish and treasure them is part of the religion of the Bohemians.

Having touched on poetry and fiction, it remains for me to at least mention some of the more noted scientific writers, the list of whom is well nigh inexhaustible. Suffice it here to mention a few representing each line of endeavor.

After Palacký, the most noted historians, most of them still living, are Goll, Novotný, Rezek, Dvořák, Pekař, and Niederle. Their work is marked by tireless labor, exceptional conscientiousness and most praiseworthy thoroughness. The literary critics are represented by Hostinský, Krejčí, and Šalda. The world-famous authorities on political science are Dr. Alvín, Bráf, Dr. Kaizl, and Dr. Karel Kramář, the last made famous during the war by the designs of the Austrian terror upon his life. Kramář suffered a most cruel martyrdom in the Austrian prisons, though he was during his whole life a most loyal Austrian who foresaw the calamity into which the Austrian government plunged following the leadership of Prussia whose victim she had become.

Pedagogy and philosophy are represented by Dr. Krejčí, Dr. J. Drtina, Lindner, and others.

Of the explorers, the best known is E. St. Vráz; others of importance are Jos. Kořenský and Emil Holub, particularly well known in England.

By far the most powerful figure in both the scientific and political group of writers is Tomáš G. Masaryk, a Moravian Slovak, a philosopher, a statesman, the foremost leader of the Bohemian nation today, the martyr for the cause he believes in. He is without a doubt the greatest Bohemian living, and surely the most respected at home and abroad. Spiritually, he is the lineal descendant o Jan Hus and Comenius, and the illustrious martyrs of truth who followed. He was the conscience of the Bohemian nation before the war, he is its soul now.

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1. Untranslatable. Výměnkář is the old father of a peasant to whom he has given the farm after making some reservations for his needs.