LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE. 



173 





ment and residence in central India. The 

 Mahabharata of later date consists of about 

 220,000 lines and is divided into eighteen 

 books. Five brothers, the descendants of Bhar- 

 ata are the heroes of the Mahabharata ; and 

 episodes in the lives of these heroes occupy 

 three fourths of the poem. The Puranas re- 

 late largely to mythological legends. The gods 

 Siva and Vishnu are the sole objects of wor- 

 ship in the Puranas. 



Pilgrim's Progress, the chief work of 

 John Bunyan, has gone through more editions 

 and been translated into more languages, than 

 any book, except the Bible. It is an allegory 

 of a Christian's life from the time of his con- 

 version to that of his death. The book was 

 written during the author's incarceration in 

 Bedford jail, where he passed twelve years of 

 his life. He was born near Bedford, in Eng- 

 land, in 1628, in 1655 became a Baptist minis- 

 ter and preached with great success until the 

 restoration of Charles II., when an act against 

 conventicles was passed, which put an end to 

 his labors. His trial, conviction, and sentence 

 followed. He was several times offered his 

 liberty on the condition that he would give up 

 preaching ; but his answer was always, ' ' If you 

 let me out to-day, I will preach again to-mor- 

 row." He died in London, 1688. 



Latin language first appears in literature 

 as a written language as well as spoken, in the 

 plain of Latium in the third century B. C. 

 The conquering armies of Rome soon carried 

 a knowledge of the Latin tongue to the utmost 

 boundaries of the known world. Hence its 

 presence is discernible in all European lan- 

 guages. Those languages which are the im- 

 mediate offspring of the Latin, as the Italian, 

 Spanish, Portuguese, and French, both Nor- 

 man and Provengal, are called the Romance 

 languages. Wallachian, the language of Rou- 

 mania, in which Latin predominates, has not 

 until lately been classified with the Latin lan- 

 guage. Latin ceased to be a spoken language 

 about 580 A. D. 



Poet Laureate means " The Poet of the 

 Laurel Wreath." It was the custom in early 

 Greece to crown with a laurel wreath the suc- 

 cessful poet in a contest ; this custom was 

 adopted by the Romans during the Empire. 

 But the title of "Poet Laureate" originated 

 in Germany during the twelfth century, when 

 the ancient ceremony of crowning the poet par 

 excellence was revived. The early history of 

 the Laureateship in England is traditional. 

 The story goes that Edward III., following the 

 example of the coronation of Petrarch at Rome, 

 conferred a similar honor upon Geoffrey Chau- 

 cer with the yearly pension of 100 marks and 

 other perquisites. Although the Laureateship J 



was generally recognized, it did not become an 

 established office until 1619, with Ben Jonson. 



Hungarian Literature is in the main 

 confined to the Magyar language, which bears 

 a resemblance to the Turkish. It is only of 

 late years that this literature has assumed a 

 popular character. The native language was 

 excluded from public and official documents 

 for eight centuries, but, notwithstanding this 

 fact, the Hungarians possess to-day a litera- 

 ture, which, both in regard to quantity and 

 quality, will sustain comparison with that of 

 the most civilized of western nations. The 

 Latin language was introduced about 100% 

 A. D. and became the tongue of both church and 

 state until the close of the fifteenth century. 

 The Hungarian language was revived in the 

 sixteenth century and became the sole vehicle 

 for sacred poetry. Translations of the Bible 

 were multiplied, chronicles, histories, gram- 

 mars, and dictionaries were published, and the 

 period from 1702 to 1780 probably marks the 

 Golden Age of literature in Hungary. But 

 the native language suffered a severe reverse 

 when the country came under the absolute do- 

 minion of Austria. 



Renaissance, The, means simply a new 

 birth or revival ; but the word is always un- 

 derstood to mean a revival in learning. The 

 period known as the Renaissance dates from 

 the taking of Constantinople by the Turks 

 (1453), but long before that epoch the love for 

 classical literature had been reviving. This 

 event, however, gave a decided impulse to th'e 

 revival of learning in western Europe ; the 

 learned men of the Greek or eastern empire 

 sought new homes in the Occident and estab- 

 lished schools throughout Europe. The revi- 

 val of learning, the invention of printing, the 

 discovery of the new world, the decline of feu- 

 dalism, the elevation of the middle classes, all 

 contributed to bring about the Renaissance. 

 It reached its climax about the beginning of 

 the present century. 



Theatrical Performances have been 

 traced to the Grecian custom of celebrating 

 every spring, in Athens, a festival in honor of 

 Bacchus. Thespis originated the custom of 

 introducing a single speaker to amuse the 

 company with recitations. He also invented a 

 movable car on which his performances were 

 exhibited in various places. Theatrical per- 

 formers are still called thespians. The car of 

 Thespis was soon exchanged for a permanent 

 stage in the Temple of Bacchus. ^Eschylus 

 soon added a second speaker and a chorus, 

 masks, scenery, etc., and is therefore called 

 the " Father of Tragedy." At the festivals 

 of Bacchus new plays were brought out yearly 

 in competition. zKschylus won the prize every 



