The Poet Who Did Not Beg on the Bridge

The poet Šimon Lomnický of Budeč, who received the title of Budeč and a grant of arms when Emperor Rudolf II raised him to the rank of squire by letters patent in 1594, was probably named Žebrák — Beggar — in fact. From this arose the mistaken legend, painted by Jaroslav Čermák among others, that he begged on the bridge. He signed himself Lomnický after his birthplace, Lomnice nad Lužnicí; others explain the name as coming from his poem Ptocheus — The Beggar.