PRESL

405

muj? ("Where

is my home?"). This song rapidly became very popular, and can now almost be considered as the national air of Bohemia. Wenceslas 'W

domov

wrote over fifty comedies and tragedies, and contributed, though none of his plays are above mediocrity, largely to the development of the Bohemian stage, which possessed no ancient dramatic Count Zdenko Kolovrat (1836-1892) wrote works. Of Bohemian novelists I may several clever comedies. mention Pfleger-Moravsky, also known as a writer of tragedies, Benes Tfebezky, a fruitful writer of historiThe novels of cal novels, and Mrs. Bozena Nemcova. Mrs. Nemcova, dealing principally with the simple life of Bohemian villagers, have obtained a well-deserved Mrs. Nemcova's masterpiece, the Babitka celebrity. ("Grandmother"), has been translated into English, French, Russian, German, and many other languages. Of writers on scientific subjects, one of the earliest Presl was professor of is John Presl (born in 1791). natural history at the University of Prague, and the first modern Bohemian writings on this subject are his work. The patriots, as already mentioned, wished to prove that all subjects could be treated in the national Presl is the originator of the present system language. of Bohemian phraseology, used for the subject on which he wrote, and he has thus deserved the gratitude of the Bohemian people. It is of him and Marek that the story is told that, when they were visiting Jungmann to discuss the future of the Bohemian literature, the latter

Klicpera (1792-1859)

remarked to of this room of Bohemian Great also

his visitors, " It needs only that the ceiling should fall in and there would be an end " literature ! are the merits for the Bohemian cause of