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The Library of the World’s Best Literature. An Anthology in Thirty Volumes. 1917.
Ivan Gundulić (1588–1638)
Gundulić, Ivan (gön’dö-litch) [“Giovanni Gondola”]. A Dalmatian poet; born in Ragusa, Jan. 8, 1588; died there, Dec. 8, 1638. He is the first dramatic poet among the Slavs. His greatest poem is ‘Osman,’ an epic in twenty books, presenting a stirring panorama of the career of one of the Turkish Sultans, with the Polish-Turkish war of 1621 for a background. His dramas are: ‘Proserpina,’ ‘Cleopatra,’ ‘Arijadna,’ and ‘Dubravka.’ Among his elegies, ‘The Tears of a Lost Son’ is full of lofty and tender expression.