Editing Karel Hynek Mácha (section)

== Biography ==
Mácha was born on 16 November 1810 in [[Prague]]. He grew up in Prague, the son of a foreman at a mill. He learned [[Latin]] and German in school. He went on to study law at [[Charles University in Prague|Prague University]]; during that time he also became involved in theatre (as an actor he first appeared in [[Jan Nepomuk Štěpánek|Jan Nepomuk Štěpánek's]] play ''Czech and German'' in July 1832 in [[Benešov]]<ref>Albert Pražák: Karel Hynek Mácha, Prague 1936, p. 21</ref>), where he met [[Eleonora Šomková]], with whom he had a son out of wedlock. He was fond of travel, enjoying trips into the mountains, and was an avid walker. Eventually he moved to [[Litoměřice]], a quiet town some 60&nbsp;km from Prague, to prepare for law school exams and to write poetry. Three days before he was to be married to Šomková, just a few weeks after he had begun working as a legal assistant, Mácha overexerted himself while helping to extinguish a fire and soon thereafter died. It is not certain what he died of. Some sources state that the cause of his death was pneumonia.<ref name="may" /> The official record lists Mácha's cause of death as ''Brechdurchfall'', a milder form of [[cholera]] characterized by retching and diarrhea.<ref>Úmrtní list. In Janský, Karel: Karel Hynek Mácha – Život uchvalitele krásy, Praha, 1953, p. 306</ref> The day after his death had been scheduled as his wedding day in Prague.

Mácha was buried in Litoměřice in a pauper's grave. Recognition came after his death: in 1939, his remains were exhumed, and they were given a formal state burial at the [[Vyšehrad Cemetery]] in Prague.<ref name="may"/>