PREFACE
With
the approval of Mr. Gosse, I have written this
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short History of Bohemian Literature according to a plan that differs considerably from that of certain earlier volumes in this Series. The works of Modern English, French, Italian, and even of Ancient Greek and Spanish writers, will be known to many readers of the volumes Bohemian literature, on the other that deal with them. hand, is absolutely unknown in Western Europe, and a large amount of space has therefore been devoted to translated quotations from Bohemian writers. Many of these unknown works have great interest and value. Bohemian literature, as we possess to certain extent disappointing and unsatisfactory. In consequence of the wholesale destruction of everything written in Bohemian that continued during more than a century, countless Bohemian books, many of which are known to have been valuable, have disappeared. Many forms of literature are scarcely represented in Bohemian. No dramatic works worthy of notice exist before the present century. Poetry also valuable only in the earliest period and in the present century. Bohemian literature so closely connected with Bohemian history, that without some knowledge of the latter often difficult to understand the references to historical events which must necessarily be found in