that it never possessed before. The critics of the future will perhaps call the last quarter of the nineteenth century the "golden age" of Bohemian literature. The foundation of the Bohemian university at Prague, of the new national theatre also at Prague, and of a third learned society which was richly endowed by the patriotic architect Hlavka, have greatly contributed to the revival of Bohemian literature.
Within the last few years Bohemian poetry has been largely cultivated. Emil Frida, who writes under the name of Jaroslav Vrchlický (born 1853), is undoubtedly the greatest living Bohemian poet. Of his many works, his Rok v Jihu ("A Year in the South") and his Ponti k Eldoradu ("Pilgrimages to Eldorado") may be mentioned. Vrchlický is also a fruitful dramatist; of his many dramas the Brothers and Drahomira, both founded on events in Bohemian history, deserve mention. A very accomplished linguist, Vrchlický has also published numerous Bohemian translations from the works of foreign, particularly Italian poets. His latest work on this field are his Moderni Basnici Angličti ("Modern English Poets"), a series of translations from English writers, which begins with Thomson's Rule Britannia and ends with Macaulay's Lays of Ancient Rome. Perhaps the best translations in this volume are those of some of Lord Byron's poems, which have always appealed greatly to the Bohemians. Many poems of Byron have also been translated by Mr. J. V. Sládek (born 1845), for many years editor of the Bohemian review entitled Lumir. Mr. Sládek has also translated the poems of Burns and Coleridge, some of Shakespeare's plays, and some of the Polish works of Mickiewicz into Bohemian. Of Bohemian poets of the present day, Svatopluk Cěch (born 1846)—whom most
