_VRCHLICKÝ_
YAROSLAV VRCHLICKÝ--_whose real name is Emil Frida--is perhaps the most
important personality in modern Bohemian literature. He was born in Laun
in 1853, and was carefully educated in several different preparatory
schools before going to the University of Prague where it was his
intention to study theology. He changed his mind however and gave his
time to philosophy, languages and literature. In this same university
later, he held for many years the professorship of modern literature._
_As a writer his productivity has been almost unparalleled, and it has
expressed itself for the most part in the domain of poetry. Some thirty
volumes of lyric verse have been published by him, and a number of
volumes of poetic plays. It is as lyric poet that he ranks highest,
being gifted with imagination and a sensitive ear._
_In his position as professor of literature, he wished to introduce to
his countrymen, and make easily accessible, in cheap editions, as many
foreign writers as possible. He not only urged others to help do this,
but he set an example himself. The leading poets of Germany, France,
Italy and Spain, in their entirety, Yaroslav Vrchlický gave to his
nation, in wonderfully fluent and sympathetic renderings. His
translations are among the great monuments of modern scholarship._
_His work in prose is less considerable, both as original writer and
translator. His best prose works are “Bits of Colored Glass” and “Ironic
and Sentimental Tales.”_
_The story, “Brother Cœlestin,” which we give, is from one of these
collections and it is his most celebrated story._
_It would be difficult to underestimate the influence of Vrchlický upon
the youth of Bohemia who have for so many years come under his inspired
tutelage. Yaroslav Vrchlický died in 1912._
_None of the prose stories of Vrchlický have been published in English
except one,[1] and of his verse we have seen but one small fragment, the
exact name of which we do not remember, but it was written to the
beautiful hands of a woman._