CRLAKOWSKY, FRI NTISEK LADISLAW, a Bolacmieu poet and philologist, was born at Strakonlor, • small town about 60 miles W. from Prague, on the 7th of March 1799. Wheu studying at the =vanity of Prague, his enthusiasm for the long peg:acted language of Bohemia was Mot &routed by the society of hit friends and fellow student. Kamaryt, Chmeicesky, and Vinaricky, all afterwards authors of some note. The drat affect of it was that he made a grand auto-de-re of all he had hitherto written. because it was in the German language.
He tb u consuneemed an ardent study of the Slavonia languages, and made himself water of them all, at well as of Italian, French, and Engiish, and at this time ho made a list of four hundred English words " naanifestly of Slavonia origin," says his biographer 3Ia1y, which woul I be of some inteuest, but does not appear to have beau printed. Ill. first publication was a volume of 'Poems,' which was Doors followed by • Bohemian translation of Herder's BLitter der Vor-seit,' or 'Leaves of Antiquity.' We are told by Maly that the time of its appearance, about 1822, was "the period of transition from the old classic to the modern style" in Bohemian literature, and that the translation was "the earliest clasaioal specimen of modern Bohemian prom." A more important production was a collection of Slavonia national wogs, 'Slowanek6 eirodnj pjsni, in three volumes (Prague, la22.27), a publication somewhat resembltng the 'Minstrelsy of the Soottieh Border.' In 1823 Celakou sky published a translation of the ' lady of the Lake' into a new kind of poetical prose, ecunewhat of the Orlando kind, but this attempt proved a total failure, and the only result of which the writer could be proud was that he received an autograph letter of thanks from Sir Walter Scott, to whom ha had presented • copy. Ile was more successful In his next translation, the 'Oblas phial Retakych,' a coll'ction of Russian national songs, so beautifully rendered into the kindred Bohemian that they at once took a very high place in the literature of that country, and still raaaist it. Russian was at that time the favourite lanenage of Cola koweky, fuel the iteadan nation was high in his esteem, so much so that he lost the friendship of several of his Bohemian acquaintances ou the outtosek of the Polhill insurrection of 1831, from taking the part of the Russians against the Poles. lie had then been for some time the editor of the leading Bohemian newspaper at Prague, a post to which he had been recommended by his patron, Count Chotek, and is. lima also prefeasor of the Bohemian language at the university.
When the Polish insurrection was suppressed however, he disapproved of the severity of the mmeeres adopted by the Emperor Nicholas, and to an article of his paler, compared the proceedings of the Czar to the tyrausy of the Tartar khans of the Golden Ilordo over conquered Ito-si., in the times of It. humiliation under the Iluasnlmans. The attlele happened to pass the censorship, but did not elude the vigilance of the Ituasian embassy at Vienna; • complaint was made to the Madeira government, and the unfortunate writer was at once dismissed frees his editorship and his professorship—or In other words was ruined. In a paroxysm of bitterness Celakowsky composed a volume
of epigrams against his persecutors, but as might be expected, the on to print them was return). He obtained the place of to the Prioress Riede'T, and published some poems of a milder eisarserter, of which the ' liundred.Leaved Rose' ('ltuee "toilette) is 'Token of se the finest. His fame was at this time widely extended.
Dr. hearing, now Sir John, dedicated to him in 1832 his volume of • Llesekiase Anthology,' In some atallall in which be spoke of the Madame Cedellowleky Lad shown him on his visit to Bohemia, and the tnateretai arise/aft he had afforded him in the preparation of the volume. The present King of Preemie was soon after his accession indeceal, by a deputation of Pole., to found professorthipe of Slavonia bursters at two of hi. mil vanities, Berlin and Breslau, and Celakoweky was offered the able. of either. Its selected Breslau, and removed there in 1812, to enjoy again a competenoe, but in what appeared tD hlm Gall., in a country which bail ceased to be Sictroulait lie was always eager to greet any fileivoniane who came to Breslau, and the time of taeation always found him at Prague. At length the events of 161', so disastrous to Boheasha when the general meeting of t hoopla a at the capital led to Its bombardment by Win &gelignite, brought about Celakowaky's return to his native country. I In the following year a Professorship of Shiro= Philology was instituted at Prague as a concession to the national party, and it was offered to Codakowsky, whose offeuees were probably considered as sufficiently expiated by his seven years' expatriation. lie returned, but his friends percoleed that he was not to remain long among them. Always of a somewhat moody character, he was now wild aud eccen tric ; some domestic calamities, particularly the loss of his wife, who left him burdened with a large family of children, bid shaken his mind. lie died on the 31.1a of August 1852.
Some of Celakowsky's works have been already mentioned. The most important of those which have not been is his 3Indroelovi ndrodu slovenakdho • prialovich' (' The Philosophy of the Slavonia nation in proverbs'), a valuable collection of that nature, whiuh attracted much attention ou its appearance after his return to Prague, and to increase which he left large manuscript additions, which are likely to see the light under the editorship of a friend. Ile had also been for years engaged in collections fur a supplement to the valuable Bohemian dictionary of Jungmann, but on an extended plan, embracing a com panion with the other Slavonic dialects, as In the greet Polish dictionary of Linde. This work is also destined for publication, and it is anticipated will prove a contribution to Slavonio literature of the very highest value.