The effect was almost instantaneous. What other writers had not been able to accomplish with serious tracts or flaming denunciations, in the old artificial language, Kotlyarevsky had done with a sure and firm touch, thanks to his appreciation of the language and customs of the people. Those who wished merely to laugh could find an abundance of humor. Those who were more serious could see the sufferings of the people hidden under a perfectly transparent guise. There was a message of hope in the comparison. If Aeneas and his Trojans, the founders of mighty Rome, had to pass through such hardships, then the cause of Ukraine was not lost, so long as any of her sons remained alive. It is small wonder that the poem speedily became popular and went through three editions in a few years. It touched off the long hidden spark which most had regarded extinct. Henceforth Ukraine had a written language understood by the people, and it was up to them to write in it as well as speak in it. The country and the people had the proof that their ordinary vernacular could be adapted to literature and that real books could be written in it. Once and for all in Eastern Ukraine the artificial language vanished and slowly but surely its place was taken in publications by the vernacular of Kotlyarevsky. Meanwhile the author kept on with his ordinary work. He did not try to repeat the performance. He did not engage in any propaganda for the new language but his home became the centre for the steadily increasing number of people who were awakening to a self-esteem that had been sadly lacking for many years. That was the highest praise that could be given to a work. Critics can analyze it and try to find the detailed meaning of each allusion. They can seek for the author’s point of view on many questions of the day. They can annotate every line. They can praise or condemn. Kotlyarevsky had done the impossible and opened a literature in a new language and he could rest content. Meanwhile the years moved on and there was a growing number of books written in the vernacular. Kotlyarevsky retained the friendship of the Governor General and became more and more interested in the theatre and finally was put in charge of the theatre in Poltava. The Ukrainian theatre was in a bad way. There were troupes of serf actors on many estates and in some of the main cities there were theatres but there were no Ukrainian plays for them to perform. What they did was to give uninteresting performances in a mixture of Russian, Polish and Ukrainian. They satisfied a certain need but the general level of education was so low that the new performances were little more than the degradation of the old religious and school plays.