Czech Literature

I

Introduction

Czech Literature, writings in the Czech language or in the related Old Church Slavonic language. Czech literature, one of the oldest of the vernacular literatures of central and eastern Europe, may be divided into six chronological periods.

II

865-1410

Czech literature began with the introduction of Christianity into Moravia about 863 by Cyril and Methodius, the apostles of the Slavs. The earliest extant literary monument (11th century) is the hymn Hospodine, pomiluj ny (Lord, have mercy upon us).

Latin writing, including an important chronicle of Bohemia by the monk Cosmas, prevailed during the next two centuries. At the beginning of the 14th century a Czech translation was made of the Latin Alexandreid, a life of Alexander the Great, by the 12th-century French poet Gautier de Lille. A rhymed Czech chronicle marked by strong nationalist feeling appeared about the same time, along with several religious legends in Czech verse, culminating in a great verse Life of St Catherine. A verse dialogue, The Groom and the Student, full of colourful details of medieval daily life, and a novel with a romantic plot, Tkadleček (The Weaver), appeared about 1400.

III

1410-1620

This period is marked by the Hussite religious reformation carried out by the Bohemian preacher Jan Hus and his followers. Hus, an ardent nationalist who wrote popular theological works in Czech, demonstrated his concern for the language by writing such studies as his De Orthographia Bohemica (Czech Orthography, c. 1412). His follower Petr Chelčický wrote Sít víry (The Net of Faith, 1440), a satire of contemporary life.

Chelčický's followers formed the Church later known as the Moravian Brethren. Jan Blahoslav, bishop of the Brethren, a poet and writer on musical and poetic theory, was the author of a scholarly Czech Grammar. Along with others, he took part in the compilation of the Czech Protestant Kralice Bible (1579-1593), which served as a literary model of classical Czech.

Printing was introduced into Bohemia in 1468, and during the next 150 years humanism and Renaissance culture spread throughout the Czech lands. The outstanding humanist writer was perhaps Daniel Adam of Veleslavín, who combined the talents of a historian, philologist, orator, and publisher. His most famous work is a Historical Calendar (1575).

IV

1620-1774

In 1620 the Czechs lost political independence, and in 1627 their new king, Ferdinand II, Holy Roman emperor, made Roman Catholicism the state religion of Bohemia. The outstanding writer of these times was Jan Komensky, latin name John Amos Comenius, the last bishop of the Moravian Brethren. In exile, Komensky continued the suppressed Hussite tradition, also writing in Czech and Latin on a great variety of subjects from philology to philosophy. Most important were his works on educational theory and methods, and his textbooks, including Janua Linguarum Reserata (The Gates of Language Unlocked, 1631) and The Great Didactic (1628-1632; trans. 1896, 1931).

In Bohemia itself, under Habsburg rule, a “dark time” set in during which the use of the Czech language in writing and printing diminished greatly; Czech nationalist sentiment was almost totally repressed, and society became Germanized. In 1774 Maria Theresa, queen of Hungary and Bohemia, decreed the use of German as the language of instruction.