A few ancient love-songs which have not the character of the _Svitanicka_ have also been preserved. Of these, the so-called _Cantio Zavisonis_, written in Bohemian in spite of its Latin name, deserves notice. It was formerly falsely attributed to Zavis of Falkenstein, the lover of Queen Kunegund, and one of the most celebrated Bohemian nobles of his time. The fact that Falkenstein wrote verses in prison shortly before his death (as the historians tell us) led to this supposition, which is contradicted by the manner of the poem. Nothing except the name "Zavis" is known of the author of this strange love-song, one of the best of early Bohemian literature. I have translated a few of the best lines:-- "_Now all joy has left me,_ _Now for me all comfort has ceased,_ _My heart swims in wistful blood,_ _All this because of the beloved one for whom I long._ _By the glance of her eye_ _She has sharply struck my heart._ _I live in flaming yearning,_ _My life sickens with love,_ _All for the sake of her dear beauty._ * * * * * _My longing cannot decrease;_ _Pity me, oh air! pity me, all creation!_ _Carbuncles, sapphires, and all precious stones,_ _Rays of the sun and everything on the earth,_ _Pity me, lilies! pity me, most precious roses!_ _My beloved wishes to take my little life[16] from me_ _If she will not have compassion on me._" Neither the mysterious Zavis nor the author of the Song at Daybreak which I quoted before were devoid of poetical talent. But they, as well as other writers whom I have not specially noticed, were greatly deficient in the technique of versification; nor did they adhere with sufficient care to the Western metres and forms of song which they endeavoured to adopt. These verses, therefore, lose little by translation. Bohemian writers have attributed the absence of polish and finish which we find in these early writings to the fact that, while in France, Provençe, and Germany the different courts were the centres of knights' poetry, the Bohemian court at all periods had a distinctly German character, and favoured poetry in the national language but little. The poems of a chivalrous character which I have noticed above have little distinctly national except occasional invectives against the Germans. That poetry was indeed, as noticed before, international in its very essence. With the decline of this manner of poetry (which in Bohemia took place about the middle of the fourteenth century) a different style of poetry arose, which dealt mainly with national subjects from a national point of view. It was attempted to acquaint the Bohemians with the earliest legends and traditions of their race; the satirical verses which now become numerous have a distinctly local flavour and deal principally with the faults and shortcomings of the Bohemian people.