Imaginative Literature.—These books had no immediate in fluence in Walachia and Moldavia, where fiction and the drama had developed under the influence, first, of Greek and then to an increasing extent of French, Italian and German models. It was towards the end of the 18th century that Rumanian literature began to emancipate itself, very slowly of course, and to start on a career of its own in poetry and belles lettres. Curiously enough, the first novel to be translated was the "Ethiopic History" of Bishop Heliodorus. The Odyssey and Iliad were then translated into prose, and the Arabian Nights, after undergoing an extra ordinary change in Italian and modern Greek, appear in Rumanian literature at the middle of the i8th century under the name of Halima. The young men of Walachia had come into contact with Western literature. Most of the writings of Florian, Marmontel, Le Sage, Montesquieu and others were rapidly translated into Rumanian.
Nowhere has the theatre played a more important role in the history of civilization than in Walachia and Moldavia. It formed the rallying-ground for the new generation which chafed under the tyranny of a Greek court. A certain Aristia, of Greek origin, but soon acclimatized to his surroundings as teacher at the high school in Bucharest, was the first to adapt foreign dramas for the Ruman ian stage. These were first performed in Greek and afterwards translated into Rumanian. The plays produced on the Rumanian stage included most of the dramas of Moliere, some of Corneille, Kotzebue and Metastasio, whose Achille in Schiro was the first drama translated into Rumanian (by Iordache Slatineau, printed at Sibiu in 1797). Schiller was also translated, and a few plays of Shakespeare (Hamlet, etc.) from a French version.
The lyrical and epic poetry of the time follows somewhat the same lines, but with certain notable differences. Transylvania, which awoke to a new life towards the end of the i8th century, • produced some of the most popular poets. Among them were Vasile Aaron (1770-1822) and Ion Barak (1779-1848). Aaron wrote the Passion, in I o,000 verses (18o2 ; often reprinted) ; the lyrical romances of Piram si Tisbe (1808) and Sofronim (1821) ; and the humorous Leonat si Dorofata, a satire on bad women and on drunken husbands, now a chapbook. Barak wrote Rdsipirea Ierusalimului (1821), "The Destruction of Jerusalem," almost as long as Aaron's Passion; and he versified a Magyar f olk tale, Arghir si Elena, which has also become a chapbook, and has been interpreted as a political poem with a hidden meaning. He also translated the Arabian Nights from the German. In Walachia a certain Ion Budai Deleanu, a man of great learning, author of a hitherto unpublished Rumanian dictionary of great value, wrote Tiganiafa (1812) a satirical epos in which gipsies play the chief part.
The lovelsongs of the time are primitive imitations of the Neo Greek lyric dithyrambs and rhapsodies, which through the teaching of the princes of Walachia were considered the fountain head of poetical inspiration. But a closer acquaintance with the West led to greater independence in poetical composition. In the three generations of the Vacarescu one can follow this process of rapid evolution. Ianache Vacarescu, author of the first native Rumanian grammar on independent lines, was also the first who tried his hand at poetry, following Greek examples. He then studied Italian, French and German poetry, and made translations from Voltaire and Goethe. His son Alecu (b. 1795) followed his example. Both were overshadowed by the grandson Ioan (b. 1818). The collected poems of I. Vacarescu were published in 1848; but among them were some of the poems of Ianache and Alecu, which were con fused with his own work.
In Moldavia a similar development took place, translations leading up to independent production. The most prominent figure is that of the scholar and linguist Constantin Konaki (i777– 1849).