It is not an accident that Mljet is assigned a special place by all the lovers of the Dub¬rovnik archipelago. Lovers of this green island have to keep coming back to it. The example of the physician Branimir Gusic, whose love for Mljet was the source of many fine pages, is therefore no exception. The true lovers of the island believe many legends related to it. One tells us that this is one of the places where Odysseus made love to his nymphs. Another story relates that the apostle Paul stopped here on one of his journeys; this story was elaborated by Ignjat Durdevic in a scholarly treatise. However, Mljet needs no legend to enhance its pure, incarnate beauty. Lujo Vojnovic once called it Sicilian -perhap's because it is like a mirage in many ways, pursued like a dream, but equally difficult to reach! Mljet is simply too far from the normal routes, offering no easy access either by land or by sea. Owing to this, it is also very sparsely populated. Mljet is rich with ruins from all ages. In the village Polace are the ruins of some Roman building erected by Agesilaus, exiled by the Roman Emperor Septimius Severus. The most notable building is the Benedictine abbey built in the 12111 century on a small islet in the midst of Lake Mljet connected by a channel with the sea. After Mljet came definitely under the rule of the Dubrovnik Republic in 1345, the monastery and other spots on the island became the haunt of many notable literary men. Among them were the Benedictines Mavro Vetranovic, Mavro Orbini and Ignjat Durdevic. Other Ragusans came to Mljet as officers of the Republic, some as governors or regional rectors. One of them was the poet and dramatist Savko Gucetic Bendevisevic who was governor of Mljet in 1552. Leaving the island, he wrote some verses of farewell on a surviving official document. Gucetic should also be remembered for his tragedy Dalida in which, inspired by Italian sources, he recounted a story of the tragic lovers of Verona several decades before Shakespeare. Gucetic's Romeo and Juliet follows a scenario of blood and horror in the manner of Senecan tragedies. However, it is a good example of intertextuality, involving Italian, English and Croatian literary versions. If Marin Drzic's Griiula can be seen as an anticipation of Shakespeare's Midsummer Night's Dream, the same can be said of Gucetic's Dalida which dramatizes the story of Romeo and his love. Mljet is the central theme of one notable 18111 century literary work, Marunko's Tears (Suze Marunkove) , a comic epic by Ignjat Durdevic, and a true ode to this beautiful island. Marunko is a rural youth from Babino polje pining with unrequited love for Pavica. They are introduced to us at the moment when Pavica, live some grotesque version of a nymph, runs from Marunko, »the five-hooved fiend«. While Marunko is grieving in this burlesque poem, goats »shake their muzzles« at him and sheep bleat in disharmonious counterpoint with the braying of donkeys. The symphony of sounds produced by frogs, owls, and assorted farm animals reminds us of the setting of earlier 17111 century works, such as the Dervish by Stijepo Durdevic and Radonja by Vladislav Mencetic. The final solution of Marunko's plight is quite in the spirit of the Taming of the Shrew and in accordance with the folk saying that »a woman should be hit in the place where she would sit«. It is also amusing to note that the unhappy Marunko thinks of a desperate remedy, perhaps inspired by recent events on Peljesac: he wants to denounce Pavica as a sorceress because she has »bewitched the folks in Mljet«. He vividly paints what would happen to her if her behaviour were brought to the attention of the rector and »presidento«. »I'd let them burn you and drive a thorny spike through you. For you have bewitched me, you are the devii's nightmare. Durdevic, the Benedictine monk whose bones lie near St Jacob on Visnjica, and whose happiest days were those he lived on Mljet, ends his poem with a wellknown refrain: invoking not God, but the negromanti or sorcerers of black magic -and poetry: »And now together, tutti quanti, take me away you negromanti«.

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