je domov muj? ("Where is my home?"). This song rapidly became very popular, and can now almost be considered as the national air of Bohemia. Wenceslas Klicpera (1792-1859) wrote over fifty comedies and tragedies, and contributed, though none of his plays are above mediocrity, largely to the development of the Bohemian stage, which possessed no ancient dramatic works. Count Zdenko Kolovrat (1836-1892) wrote several clever comedies. Of Bohemian novelists I may mention Pfleger-Moravsky, also known as a writer of tragedies, Benes Třebezky, a fruitful writer of historical novels, and Mrs. Božena Němcova. The novels of Mrs. Němcova, dealing principally with the simple life of Bohemian villagers, have obtained a well-deserved celebrity. Mrs. Němcova's masterpiece, the Babička ("Grandmother"), has been translated into English, French, Russian, German, and many other languages.
Of writers on scientific subjects, one of the earliest is John Presl (born in 1791). Presl was professor of natural history at the University of Prague, and the first modern Bohemian writings on this subject are his work. The patriots, as already mentioned, wished to prove that all subjects could be treated in the national language. Presl is the originator of the present system of Bohemian phraseology, used for the subject on which he wrote, and he has thus deserved the gratitude of the Bohemian people. It is of him and Marek that the story is told that, when they were visiting Jungmann to discuss the future of the Bohemian literature, the latter remarked to his visitors, "It needs only that the ceiling of this room should fall in and there would be an end of Bohemian literature!"
Great also are the merits for the Bohemian cause of
