DIRGE ON ROSENBERG

197

I

shed than any one Weeping has moistened my pen, more tears have who before me sang and wailed. Bend your heads downward, dear friends ; sprinkle with your tears the much-beloved rose?-

Pray faithfully for it to the Heavenly God, that it may blossom and grow for ever in His paradise^

At the end of his poem Lomnicky reflects on the shortness of human life, and alludes to the curious tradition, that appears then to have been prevalent in Bohemia, that the extinction of the house of Rosenberg would be the prelude to great troubles and changes in Bohemia,

Lomnicky " Our

virrites

—

shorter; it perishes like a flower; we must betake ourselves hence into that other world. Little time will pass till they carry us from our house like a little lifetime

here

becomes

j

leaf we fall from

the tree.

But you, O Bohemian land, be careful of your fate, for all of Christ will be fulfilled j

Many wonders happen;

the people

tilences arise everywhere. Frequently very noble lords leave

the

words

murder one another; foul pes-

us;

the able

and leading men dis-

appear. Thus this noble who lies on the bier, let him, be an example to us; for we must remember That there is a prophecy that when this family is extinct there will be

in

Bohemian kingdom; Indeed, that after the departure of this most glorious rose, things will go from bad to worse? Let no one be surprised thdt dare to write thus, for this disorderly no peace

the

world cannot exist long.

I

We also must all die, must go to the distant land, taste death. Nothing remains but to prepare for it; however much a man may cry he must pay his penalty. ' The red rose was the device of the lords of Rosenberg.

'

The Bohemian uprising against the House of died in 1611. Habsburg began in 1618, and the battle of the White Mountain — the term of Bohemian independence — was fought in 1620. Rosenberg