381 



HANKA, WACLAW. 



HANNIBAL. 



292 



script, which he in turn presented to the Bohemian Museum, where it 

 now forma one of the principal treasures of which he is the guardian. 

 Such is the history of the discovery of the manuscript of Kralodvor, 

 or of ' the Queen's Court,' as it has sometimes been called in English. 

 There has been much controversy as to the date of the composition of 

 the poems, some of the Bohemian antiquaries being disposed to assign 

 them to the old heathen times to which their subjects refer, while 

 others contend that they were composed as recently as the year 1310. 

 At one time it was suspected by many that the date of their compo- 

 sition was the 19th century, and that the author and discoverer were 

 one. Whatever may be the date, or whoever may be the author, there 

 can be no doubt that they form the most original and interesting 

 volume that Bohemian literature has to show. Of the poems which 

 the manuscript contains, several are of a narrative and some of a lyric 

 character, the former relating to passages in the ancient history of 

 Bohemia. One, which is particularly spirited, contains the description 

 of a tournament connected with a love-tale ; another relates the Tartar 

 invasion of Europe under the command of Kubla Khan. In the poem 

 or ballad on this invasion, a distinguished part is assigned to an 

 English knight who fought on the Bohemian side, and who is 

 described by the name of Veston a sufficiently near approach to 

 Weston. We are not aware if it has been observed by the Bohemian 

 critics that it is a remarkable coincidence that the English n^me thus 

 mentioned should be the very same with which a connection was 

 established between England and Bohemia three hundred years later. 

 Elizabeth Weston, an English lady, who married a gentleman of 

 the emperor's court, lived in Bohemia, and wrote a volume of Latin 

 poetry, which was published in the early years of the 17th century. 

 The poems of the manuscript of Kralodvor, which were first pub- 

 lished in 1819 with a German translation by Swoboda, had, at the 

 outset, a brilliant success, which, after a temporary eclipse, they now 

 again enjoy. The fourth edition, which was published in 1843, con- 

 tains translations from it into seven different languages, including 

 English, into which some of the ballads were rendered by Dr. (now 

 Sir John) Bowring. A translation of the whole volume under the 

 title of ' The Manuscript of the Queen's Court,' aud under the 

 assumption that their authenticity was unquestionable, was published 

 at Cambridge in 1852 from the pen of Mr. Wratislaw. Dobrowsky, 

 in bis history of early Bohemian literature, spoke of them, at the 

 time of their first issue, as models of purity of language, and elegance 

 of style. A storm however was soon to burst on the head of their 

 discoverer. In 1818 the officers of the Bohemian Museum received 

 an anonymous letter containing the manuscript of another old poem, 

 ' The Judgment of Libussa,' which the writer of the letter declared 

 he had purloined from his master to save it from destruction. 

 Dobrowsky at once pronounced the document not genuine, and after- 

 wards characterised it as " the obvious imposture of a scoundrel who 

 wished to play his tricks on his credulous countrymen. " While he 

 poke thus in public, he did not hesitate in private to give it as his 

 opinion that it was a forgery by Hauka. His judgment had such an 

 etl'ect, that for some time the poems were regarded by the literary 

 circles of Bohemia in the game light as the poems of Rowley among 

 ourselves. In 1828, a new discovery by Hanka of a manuscript of a 

 translation of ' St. John's Gospel,' which Dobrowaky pronounced to 

 be genuine, and which, nevertheless, contained peculiarities of language 

 that had induced him to distrust the ' Libussa,' brought the tide to 

 turn. Dobrowsky died in doubt in 1829. A minute investigation 

 of the subject, made public in 1840 by Safarik and Palachy, two 

 Bohemian historians and antiquaries of the highest reputation, led 

 them to the belief that the ' Libussa,' and, of course, the rest, 

 were genuine. Hanka now enjoys the reputation of having dis- 

 covered in the Gospel manuscript, which is supposed to be earlier 

 than the 10th century, the oldest specimen of tho Bohemian language 

 in existence, and in the Kralodvor manuscript relics of an early 

 Bohemian literature which no one before him suspected to exist, and 

 which is as superior to what followed, as the poems of Ossiou to the 

 ordinary run of Gaelic poetry. 



The singular state of relations between master and pupil did not 

 prevent Hauka from labouring with great assiduity to introduce into 

 the Bohemian language a system of orthography, based on a plan 

 which Dobrowsky had proposed. Many of his publications are in- 

 tended to promote this alteration ; but, as others have different views, 

 the main result of the various schemes proposed appears to have been 

 to plunge the orthography of the language for the present into a state of 

 confusion. Hanka has also published grammars of gome of the other 

 Slavonic languages on a method suggested by Dobrowsky. He is 

 aid in the ' Oesterreichische National EucyclopUdie ' to be master of 

 eighteen languages. 



The latest important work of Hanka is an edition of an ancient 

 Slavonic version of a portion of the Gospels, from a manuscript pre- 

 served at Rheims, and formerly used in the coronation of the kings 

 of France. This manuscript, which is written in the Glagolitic cha- 

 racter, was for a series of years a source of perplexity to the French 

 antiquarians, who described it as written in ancient Greek or in Syriac, 

 and to the exhibitors of the curiosities at Rheims, who occasionally 

 described it as in Chinese. It was an English gentleman, Mr. Thomas 

 Ford Hill, who, in the year 1789, upon being shown some Glagolitic 

 manuscripts in the imperial library at Vienna, first observed that the 



book exhibited at Rheims was in letters of the. same alphabet, a 

 remark which could not be veriQed for some time, as the book dis- 

 appeared with the holy ampulla in the storms of the French Revolu- 

 tion. It was however fortunately preserved and recovered, and since 

 its reappearance has been the object of close study and comment by 

 Slavonic scholars. Hanfca's edition was published in 1846. 



lu the abortive Panslavouic revolution of 1848, which terminated 

 in the bombardment of Prague by Windischgriitz, Hanka does not seem 

 to have had much share, though a very conspicuous part was taken 

 by his friends and defenders Safarik and Palachy. He has been an 

 active contributor to the leading Bohemian periodicals, in particular 

 to the ' Casopis Ceskeho Muzeuma,' or 'Magazine of the Bohemian 

 Museum,' which is issued by the institution of which he is librarian. 



HA'NNIBAL, the son of Hamilcar Barcas, was born B.O. 247. At 

 the age of nine he accompanied his father to Spain, who, previous to 

 his departure, took his son to the altar, aud placing his hand ou the 

 victim, made him swear that he would never be a friend to tho 

 Romans. It does not appear how long Hannibal remained in Spain, 

 but he was at a very early age associated with Hasdrubal, who suc- 

 ceeded his father in the command of the Carthaginian army in that 

 country. On the death of Hasdrubal, B.C. 221, he obtained the 

 undivided command of the army, and quickly conquered the Olcades, 

 Yaccseans, Carpesians, and the other Spanish tribes that had not been 

 subdued by Hasdrubal. The inhabitants of Saguntum, alarmed at 

 his success, sent messengers to Rome to inform the Romans of their 

 danger. A Roman embassy was accordingly sent to Hannibal, who 

 was passing the winter at New Carthage, to announce to him that the 

 independence of Saguntum was guaranteed by a treaty between the 

 Carthaginians and Romans (concluded B.C. 220), and that they should 

 consider any injury done to the Saguatines as a declaration of war 

 against themselves. Hannibal however paid no regard to this remon- 

 strance. 



More than twenty years had elapsed since the termination of the 

 first Punic war, during which period the Carthaginians had recovered 

 their strength, and had obtained possession of the greater part of 

 Spain ; and the favourable opportunity had arrived for renewing the 

 war with the Romans. 



In B.C. 219 Hannibal took Saguntum, after a siege of eight months, 

 and employed the winter in making preparations for the invasion of 

 Italy. He first provided for the security of Africa and Spain by 

 leaving an army of about 16,000 men in each country; the army in 

 Africa consisted principally of Spanish troops, and that in Spain of 

 Africans, under the command of his brother Hasdrubal. He had 

 already received promise of support from the Gauls who inhabited the 

 north of Italy, and who were anxious to deliver themselves from the 

 Roman dominion. Having thus made every necessary preparation he 

 get out from New Carthage late in the spring of B.C. 218, with an army 

 of 80,000 foot and 12,000 horse. In his march from the Ebro to the 

 Pyrenees he wag opposed by a great number of the native tribes, but 

 they were quickly defeated though with loss. Before crossing the 

 Pyrenees he left Hanno to secure his recent conquests with a detach- 

 ment from his own army of 11,000 men. He sent back the same 

 number of Spanish troops to their own cities, aud with an army now 

 reduced to 0,000 foot and 9000 horse, he advanced to the Rhone. 

 Meantime two Roman armies had been levied ; one, commanded by 

 the consul P. Cornelius Scipio, was intended to oppose Hannibal in 

 Spain, and a second, under the other consul T. Semprouius, was 

 designed for the invasion of Africa. The departure of Scipio was 

 delayed by a revolt of the Boian and Insubriau Gauls, against whom 

 the army was sent which had been intended for the invasion of Spain, 

 under the command of one of the preotors. Scipio was therefore 

 obliged to remain in Rome till a new army could be raised. When 

 the forces were ready he sailed with them to the Rhone and anchored 

 hi the eastern mouth of the river ; being persuaded that Hannibal 

 must still be at a considerable distance from him, as the country 

 through which he had to march was difficult, and inhabited by many 

 warlike tribes. Hannibal however quickly surmounted all these 

 obstacles, crossed the Rhone, though not without some opposition 

 from the Gauls, and continued his march up tho left bank of the 

 river. Scipio did not arrive at the place where the Carthaginians had 

 crossed the river till three days afterwards ; and despairing of over- 

 taking them, he sailed back to Italy with the intention of meeting 

 Hannibal when he should descend from the Alps. Scipio sent his 

 brother Cuajus into Spain with the greater part of the troops to oppose 

 Hasdrubal. 



Hannibal continued his march up the Rhone till he came to the 

 Iscre. Marching along that river, he crossed the Alps (probably) by 

 the Little St. Bernard, descended into the valley of the Dora Baltea, 

 and followed the course of the river till he arrived in the territories 

 of the Insubrian Gauls. The passage of Hannibal across the Alps has 

 been a matter of much dispute. Whittaker, in a work entitled ' The 

 Course of Hannibal over the Alps ascertained,' Loud., 1794, 2 vols. 

 8vo, maintains that the passage was made over the Great St. Bernard: 

 the French writers have mostly argued for the Mout Genevre, or 

 Mont Ceuis route, the latest English and German that of the Little 

 St. Bernard. Those who wish for further information on the subject 

 may consult 'A Dissertation on the Passage of Hannibal over the 

 Alpg,' by Wickham and Cramer, 2nd ed., Oxford; Ukert, ' Hannibal's 



