Charlotte Endymion Porter

“ Ordered to disband his troupe of actors, driven out of Prague, forbidden by the authorities to perform plays in the Bohemian tongue anywhere in Bohemia, this actor-playwright wrote his playlets in garrets and fields, and performed them in villages by candlelight, with marionettes before the newly-freed Serfs. Marionettes would hardly be suitable for a production of Strindberg before a modern audience, yet to a mind with an imagination which is not overtaxed, the dolls represent all emotions of character. ”

“ He paraphrased ‘Hamlet,’ ‘Faust,’ ‘Uncle Tom’s Cabin’ and others, sowing the seed in a nation of peasants for a desire for dramatic self-expression. What Kopecky did in the villages, Vrchlicky found himself called upon to do in Prague. ”