Page:The Queens Court Manuscript with Other Ancient Bohemian Poems, 1852, Cambridge edition.djvu/107

This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.

LIBUSSA’S JUDGMENT.^[1]

******

“Ev’ry father in his household ruleth;
“Men should till, and clothes be made by women:
“If the household’s head be gone, the children
“Rule together jointly the possessions,

↑ This is the oldest and at the same time one of the most remarkable monuments of Bohemian poësy. It celebrates an historical contest between two Lechs (see Note C), (in this poem the brothers Chrudos and Stiaglaw, sons of Klen, of the family of Tetva the Popelide,) which occasioned Libussa, owing to the insults she then received, to select Przemysl the Manly for her husband, and give up to him the government of the country. This happened at the beginning of the eighth century. The poem itself, unfortunately only a fragment, is preserved to us in a manuscript of about the end of the ninth century, which was presented to the Bohemian Museum in 1818. This poem, critically treated, with explanations of all words and the entire contents, was published in “Die altesten Denkmäler der böhmischen Sprache, von P. J. Szafarzik and F. Palacky, Prag. 1840.” The first nine verses appear to be the conclusion of a Parliament (sniem), which had treated of family law and rights.

[1] This is the oldest and at the same time one of the most remarkable monuments of Bohemian poësy. It celebrates an historical contest between two Lechs (see Note C), (in this poem the brothers Chrudos and Stiaglaw, sons of Klen, of the family of Tetva the Popelide,) which occasioned Libussa, owing to the insults she then received, to select Przemysl the Manly for her husband, and give up to him the government of the country. This happened at the beginning of the eighth century. The poem itself, unfortunately only a fragment, is preserved to us in a manuscript of about the end of the ninth century, which was presented to the Bohemian Museum in 1818. This poem, critically treated, with explanations of all words and the entire contents, was published in “Die altesten Denkmäler der böhmischen Sprache, von P. J. Szafarzik and F. Palacky, Prag. 1840.” The first nine verses appear to be the conclusion of a Parliament (sniem), which had treated of family law and rights.

[1]