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A HISTORY OF BOHEMIAN

LITERATURE

of his journey and imprisonment ; ^ for the Turks of that period had little regard for international law and diplomatic privileges. Vratislav's book has a certain youthful grace and simplicity, and he was by no means devoid of the gift of observation. Vratislav, on his return to Bohemia, published in 1599 the description of his travels and adventures. He afterwards, not unnaturally, took part in several campaigns Educated by the against his old enemies, the Turks. Jesuits and a staunch Romanist, he was, of course, on the side of the Archduke Ferdinand during the Bohemian troubles of 1618 to 1620. Far more interesting as an author, and far more representative of his time than the two last-named writers, is Christopher Harant, Lord of Polzic and Bezdruzic. It is therefore perhaps not amiss to study his work and his Harant was born in 1564, life somewhat more in detail. of an ancient knightly family of Bohemia. He received the thorough education and literary training which was then customary with many of the Bohemian noble families. Harant, we are told, possessed a thorough knowledge of Greek, Latin, German, Italian, Spanish, as well It has even been as, of course, his own language. said that it was out of patriotism that he published his celebrated book of travels in Bohemian instead of in German, though that would, of course, have secured for Harant's classical the book far more numerous readers. erudition was considered extensive even at that period, when in Bohemia the almost superstitious veneration for the great writers of Rome and Greece was at its height. Harant's own list of his authorities includes ' This work has been translated into English by the late Rev. A. H. Wratislaw.