with Ibsen's book on the same subject, and Merežkovsky's _Death of the Gods_. Of Vrchlický's many other works his Trilogy on the Greek tale of Hippodamia deserves mention. It is quite impossible to give in a few words even a fairly sufficient appreciation of the work of Vrchlický.[166] Some of the finest writings of the poet have recently been translated into German. Svatopluk Čech, born in 1846 at Ostředek in Bohemia, ranks with Vrchlický as one of the greatest of modern Bohemian poets. I consider it useless to enter into the invidious and foolish question, to which of the two great poets the primacy should be awarded. Svatopluk Čech is truly great as a writer of epic poems, and here he may be considered as unrivalled by modern writers, even in larger and better known countries than his own. His first epic poem, _Adamite_, deals with a strange, well-known episode in Bohemian history. The _Smith of Lešetin_ (Lešetinský Kovář), portrays in an admirable manner the life of the Bohemian peasantry. But the masterpiece of Čech is, I think, the epic poem entitled _Václav z Michalovic_. The hero of the poem is a young Bohemian, a son of one of the nobles who were decapitated in Prague after the disaster of the White Mountain. Some parts of this poem, such as the prologue and the speech to the people of Prague, which Michalovic delivers in the Salvator Church, are of unrivalled beauty. Criticism can obviously be founded only on individual impressions; and I do not hesitate to state that no work of modern Bohemian literature has impressed me as strongly as _Václav z Michalovic_. Of Čech's other poetical works, his sad, pessimistic, and--alas--truthful _Písně Otroka_ ("Songs of a Slave") should be mentioned. Svatopluk Čech has also published a considerable number of prose works. His _Povidky, Arabesky a Humoresky_, in four volumes, have had a great success.