Bohemia and its People 



". . . imagine me, 

 Gentle spectators, that I now may be, 

 In fair Bohemia." 



Shakespeare, " The Winters Tale." 

 



THERE is no country that has been so much 

 maligned and misunderstood as Bohemia. 

 The historic Frenchman, who fancied that 

 all gipsies were Bohemians, has much to answer for. 

 The word " Bohemian " has become a slang expres- 

 sion, and gained a sense that it will probably never 

 lose ; and all because of that little mistake of the 

 fifteenth century. 



A certain writer, named William Shakespeare, 

 did not mend matters at least, as far as the geo- 

 graphical position of the country was concerned. 

 " A desert country near the sea" thus he describes 

 it. And, again, he makes Antigonus ask, 



"... our ship hath touch'd upon 

 The deserts of Bohemia?" 



To which " a mariner" replies, 



"Ay, my lord; and fear we have landed in ill time." 



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