| Marin Držić, a famous Croatian Renaissance playwright, was born five hundred years ago, in 1508. His native city of Dubrovnik and the whole of Croatia celebrate this year dedicated to his memory by a series of events and publications. Marin Držić is one of the pillars of Croatian literary tradition, preceding that of Shakespeare and Moliére by more than half a century. |
Literature written in Croatian flourished in Dubrovnik already during Renaissance time. In the first place we should mention Marin Držić (1508-1567), who is one of the most outstanding names of the European Renaissance literature, a predecessor to Moliére's comedy and Shakespeare's drama (Moliére 1622-1673, Shakespeare 1564-1616). It was observed long ago that Marin Drzic handled themes and motifs that appeared 50 years later in the works of Shakespeare. A few of Drzic's books printed in Venice in Croatian language have been discovered in Milano (MI0185 Biblioteca nazionale Braidense - Milano):
Also Shakespeare's The Tempest has its source in the old Croatian chronicle from the 12th century, known as the Chronicle of Father Dukljanin. Its Italian translation was published in 1601, a decade before The Tempest was composed (see [Mardesic], p. 151). The importance of Držić as a playwright for Croatians is analogous to that of Shakespeare for the English, Moliére for the French, and Goldoni for the Italians. Note that Shakespeare was three years old when Držić died. Držić's plays were translated into Chinese, Czech, Dutch, English, Esperanto, Finish, French, Italian, Japanese, German, Hungarian, Polish, Russian, Slovakian, Swahili, Swedish, and some other languages.His best known plays are
Source: www.croatianhistory.net |
Croatian Parliament proclaimed the year 2008 The Year of Marin Držić. A very rich program is predicted dedicated to this outstanding Renaissance playwright, mainly in his native city of Dubrovnik. |
Formated for CROWN by prof.dr. Darko Žubrinić
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