Roumania

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Round Towers

signed. By treaties of 1919 and 1920, she ob-
tained the additions of territory listed above.
A Constitution of 1923 was adopted for all
me national provinces. Carol n became king
in 1930. In Feb., 1938, Carol assumed virtual
dictatorship and suspended the Constitution.
Roumania stood in a critical position in 1939.
The Little Entente expired with the fall of
Czechoslovakia; and the collapse of Poland
left Roumania in the path of possible further
German or Russian aggressions. In 1940,
Carol abdicated and, under German pressure,
Roumania ceded portions of her territory to
Russia and Hungary. By 1941 the Nazis were
in control of the country and Roumania was at
war with Russia.

Roumania: Language and Literature.
Roumanian is a Romance language. Its vo-
cabulary contains a large admixture of Sla-
vonic words, while Albanian, Turkish, Hun-
garian and French words have also been in-
troduced. The oldest remains of the Rou-
manian literature consist almost exclusively
of translations of the Bible and lives of the
saints. More representative of the literature
are the chronicles, composed from the begin-
ning of the iyth century onward. A national
literature in the general sense of the word,
however, dates from the beginning of the
19th century. The pioneers of the national
renaissance were George Asaki (1788-1869)
in Moldavia, and Heliade Radulescu (1802-
72) in Walachia. The Roumanian language
possesses one of the richest and most beau-
tiful collections of folk-songs and folk-lore
in the world. These treasures were first col-
lected in part by Vasile Alexandria (1821-
90), a distinguished Roumanian poet. Among
his most celebrated fellow-poets have been
Bolintineanu (1826-72), Eminescu, Cosbuc,
and Vlahuta.

Among the principal Roumanian historians
were Balccscu (1819-52), Hasdeu, who
was also the greatest philologist, Jorga,
Tocilescu, and Xenopol A great impulse
in the development of the national litera-
ture was given by Titu Maiorescu
in his critical essays, and by the foun-
dation of the society Junimea, which grouped
round its organ, Convorbiri Literare (appear-
ing since 1866), the most talented of the
young writers. The most important of these
are Creanga (1837-89), a clever story-writer;
Caragiale (b. 1852), the principal national
dramatist; Veronica Micle (1853-89); and
Jacob Negruzzi, Ganea, Slavic!, Naum, Dui-
liut Zamfirescu, and Delavrancea.

Roumanille, Joseph (1818-91), Proven-

poet, entered the publishing business and,
along with Mistral, devoted his life to the re-
suscitation of Provencal as a literary lan-
guage. His Noels breathe the pure faith of
the people; while his prose tales often dis-
play a keen wit and shrewd humor.

Round, an early form of vocal composi-
tion, analogous to a canon, in that each per-
former takes up the melody at certain periods,
but differing from it in being of a uniformly
rhythmical construction, and in having the
melody always sung at the same pitch or at
the interval of an octave.

Round, William Marshall Fitts (1845-
1906), American prison reformer and au-
thor. He engaged in journalistic work on the
Boston News, New York Independent, and
other papers,' He also served as correspond-
ing secretary of the N. Y. Prison Association
(1883-1906); organized the Burnham Indus-
trial Farm for unruly boys at Canaan, N. Y.,
and invented the 'Mills system' of awards, in
use in many institutions.

Roundheads, a nickname given at the '
time of the rupture between Charles i and his
Parliament to the supporters of the latter,
who wore their hair cut short, in contradis-
tinction to the cavaliers, or royalists, who
wore theirs long.

Round Robin, a remonstrance or petition
signed by a number of persons, generally in
a circular form, so as to avoid giving prom-
inence to any single name. The device is
said to have been first used by the officials
of the French government as a means of
making known their grievances.

Round Table. The origin of this famous
institution of King Arthur's court is a ques-
tion much debated by scholars. Layamon,
who lived on the Welsh border, in his trans-
lation of Wace, inserts a lengthy account of
the founding of the Round Table. The whole
tone and coloring of the story point to a
very early date, while the tale as a whole
finds more than one close and striking paral-
lel in early Irish romance. The later prose
romances tell us that Merlin made the Round
Table, not for Arthur, but for his father,
Uther Pendragon. The writer of the Queste
states that the table was made by Merlin
in remembrance of that of the Holy Grail,
which itself was a copy of that at which
Christ and His apostles partook of the lasl
supper.

Round Towers. This term is restricted,
in the archaeology of the British Isles, to those
ancient round towers which are peculiarly
associated with Ireland, where over one hun-