n poets. The latter
wrote a comic epic, the _Dervishiade_, which met with great success. A
poem of the same kind is _Jegyupka_, the Gipsy, by Andreas
Giubronavich, printed at Venice 1559. Dominic Zlatarich (ob. 1608)
translated Tasso and the Electra of Sophocles, and was himself a lyric
poet.

The annals of this period, towards the end of the sixteenth century,
report likewise the name of a lady, Svietana Zuzerich, as an Illyrian
poetess; called also Floria Zuzzeri, as an Italian poetess; for she
wrote with success in both languages. Several other ladies followed
the example, as Lucrezia Bogashinovich, Katharina Pozzo di Sorgo, etc.

During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, Ragusa enjoyed peace,
and a degree of wealth and prosperity most favourable to high
attainments in science and literature. The first Slavic theatre was
founded here, and the dramatic art seems to have been considered so
honourable, that even noblemen acted publicly; as is related of Junius
Palmota, who died in 1657. The noble names of Palmota or Palmotich,
Gondola or Gondolich, for they appear alternately both in the Slavic
and Italian form, are very frequent in Ragusian literature. Junius
Palmota wrote tragedies; selecting his subjects principally from
Slavic history. But his most esteemed production is a Slavic version
of a great Latin epic on Christ, by M.H. Vita, which may be considered
as a kind of precursor to Klopstock's Messiah. John Gondola, a
dramatic writer before him, translated Tasso's Jerusalem Delivered;
and left many lyrical poems.

In the year 1667, a horrible earthquake in a few moments destroyed the
prosperity of the state for whole centuries. It was as if the genius
of the Ragusian literature had been crushed under the ruins. From that
period we find all that relates to literature in a rapid decline. The
catastrophe itself, however, furnished the poets with a new subject.
In the same year, N. Bonus published a poem entitled, The city of
Ragusa to her Rulers; and Jacob Palmota (ob. 1680) wrote an elegiac
poem, The renovated Ragusa. But the most interesting production of
this period is a collection of national songs, published by the
Franciscan monk, And. Cacich Miossich.[23] This work, although
executed with little critical taste or judgment, and disfigured by
many interpolations, might have given to the literary world a
foretaste of the treasures, which fifty years afterwards were to be
discovered here.

Whilst Slavic