Among the critics and essayists Dobrogeanu Gherea 1920) stands out with his studii critice (1890 seq.). But in the domain of prose writing Rumania, like all the other nations of southeastern Europe, lags behind.
The World War does not seem to have either altered or much inspired literary production. An attempt to depict the general spirit during the German invasion of Rumania was made in a novel, called after the national colours, Rosu, Galben .,si Albastru (1925) ("Red, Yellow and Blue") by I. Minulescu, known as a disciple of the French symbolists. From the same school pro ceeded likewise a younger poet, Ion Pillat (1891– ), who in his Satul meu (1925) ("My Village") manifests a definite return to the Rumanian tradition.
To the first belong the oldest books, such as the History of Alexander the Great, which was known in Rumania in the 17th century. It rests mostly upon a Sloveno-Greek text and is of the utmost interest for the study of this cycle of legends. The first printed copy appeared in and it has been reprinted in innu merable editions. Next comes the legend of Constantine, of his town and his exploits—a remarkable collection of purely Byzan tine legends. In addition to these there is the history of St. Sylvester and the conversion of Constantine, etc., all still in ms. The History of Barlaam and loasaf (see BARLAAM AND JOSAPHAT) may also be mentioned here. The History of Arkir and Anadatu, printed by Anton Pann from older mss., is the now famous Old Testament apocryphon of Akyrios the Wise, mentioned in Tobit and found in many languages. In Rumanian it rests on an older Greek-Slavonic text, and owes its great popularity to the wise and witty proverbs it contains. "Esop," whose wonderful biography (by Planudes) agrees in many points with Arkir, has also become one of the Rumanian popular books. The history of Bertoldo, which, though of Italian origin, reached Rumania through a Greek translation, belongs to the same cycle of rustic wisdom and cun ning. These books are of course anonymous, most of them being translations and adaptations. One man, however, stands out prom inently in this section of romantic and secular folk-literature. This was Anton Pann, who was born in 1797 at Slivden, of Bul garian parentage, and died at Bucharest in 1854. Carried away by the Russians in his early youth, he settled in Rumania, and in about 20 years he published no fewer than 5o books, all of them still popular. Besides his edition of the Rumanian Church service books with musical notation, he published a series of prov erbs and songs either from older texts or from oral information; and he made the first collection of popular songs, Spitalul amo rului, "The Hospital of Love" (1850-53), with tunes either com posed by himself or obtained from the gipsy musicians who alone performed them. Of his numerous writings two or three are of
the greatest interest to folklore. His Povestea vorbii (first ed. I vol., 1847; 2nd ed. 3 vols., 1851-53) is a large collection of proverbs ingeniously connected with one another and leading up to or starting from a popular tale exemplifying the proverb. The Fabule si istorioare (2 vols., 1839-41) is a collection of short popular stories in rhyme; Serstoarea la tars (1852-53) is a de scription of the Rumanian Spinnstube, for which the peasants gather in one of their houses on a winter's night, the girls and women spinning and working, the young men telling tales, prov erbs, riddles, singing songs, etc.
Far larger than the secular is the religious popular literature; it comprises many apocryphal tales from the Old and the New Testaments, and not a few of the heretical tales circulated by the various sects of Asia Minor and Thracia, which percolated into Rumania through the medium of Slavonic. A brief enumeration of the chief tales must suffice. Only a few of them have hitherto been published. They exist in numerous mss. which testify to their great popularity; in the popular songs one finds many traces of their influence upon the people's imagination. They include the History of Adam and Eve, the Legend of the Cross, The Apoca lypse of Abraham, the History of the Sibyl, the Legends of Solomon; numerous New Testament apocryphal tales, starting with legends of St. John the Baptist. A number of astrological calendars and prognostica are among the best known and most widely circulated popular books, and the lives of St. Alexius, Xenophon, etc., have become chapbooks.
The whole of this popular literature belongs to what may be called the cycle of the Balkan nations, in every one of which exact parallels are to be found. Not that there was any direct, deliber ate borrowing by one nation from the other, but all of them seem to have been subject for a long time to identical psycho logical influences and to have developed on similar lines. One of the first to collect these treasures of Rumanian poetry was V. Alecsandri, who, however, retained only their poetical beauty and did not reproduce them with that strict accuracy which modern study of folklore demands. A. M. Marienescu collected those of Transylvania (1859) ; S. F. Marian, those of the Bukovina (1873); T. T. Burada, those of the Dobrudja but the most complete collection is that of G. Dem. Teodorescu, Poesii populare romdne (Bucharest, 1885). The collection of fairy tales started later than that of the ballads. The first collection is the German translation of tales heard by the brothers Schott (1845). The most important collections, now deservedly considered as classical from every point of view, are the successive publications of P. Ispirescu.
It would be giving an incomplete picture of the contribution of Rumanian subjects to literature if one passed over the works of Rumanians which have appeared simultaneously in foreign coun tries and in Rumania : Charles Adolphe Cantacuzene (Sourires Glaces), the Princesse Marthe Bibesco (The Eight Paradises, Catherine-Paris, A Royal Victim), Princesse Elizabeth Bihesco (1 Have only Myself to Blame).