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diff --git a/75227-0.txt b/75227-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..0ec26d0 --- /dev/null +++ b/75227-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6053 @@ + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 75227 *** + + + + + + +HUNGARIAN LITERATURE + + + + + HUNGARIAN LITERATURE + + _AN HISTORICAL & CRITICAL SURVEY_ + + BY + EMIL REICH + DOCTOR JURIS + AUTHOR OF “HISTORY OF CIVILIZATION,” “HISTORICAL ATLAS + OF MODERN HISTORY,” “GRÆCO-ROMAN + INSTITUTIONS,” ETC. + + _WITH AN AUTHENTIC MAP OF HUNGARY_ + + Boston + L. C. PAGE AND COMPANY + [INCORPORATED] + PUBLISHERS + + + + +PREFACE. + + +The present book is the first attempt in the English language at a +connected story of Hungarian literature. The remarkable success achieved +by a few Magyar novelists in English-speaking countries, together with +the growing recognition of the international importance of Hungary as a +state and a nation, seem to justify the assumption, that the Anglo-Saxon +peoples too, are not unwilling to learn more about the intellectual life +of the Magyars than can be found in the ordinary books of reference. + +The main object of the author, himself a Hungarian, has been to impress +the reader with a vivid picture of the chief currents and the leading +personalities of Hungarian literature. Magyar literature is too vast a +topic to be fully treated within the very limited space of a small essay +like the present. By introducing the comparative method of historical +investigation and analysis, by means of which Hungarian works are +measured, contrasted to, or compared with works of English, French, +German, Italian or the ancient classical writers, the reader may obtain, +it is hoped, a more life-like idea of a literature hitherto unknown to +him. + +No nation outside Hungary has facilities of studying Magyar literature +as great as those offered to the English public in the incomparable +library of the British Museum. Nearly every Magyar work of any importance +may be found there, and the catalogues of those works are, in the strict +sense of the word, correct. This latter circumstance is chiefly owing to +the labours of an English scholar, whose name no Hungarian can pronounce +without a feeling of reverential gratitude. Mr. E. D. Butler, of the +British Museum, the author of the only authentic and comprehensive, if +small, English work on Hungary (his article “_Hungary_” in the last +edition of the _Encyclopædia Britannica_) is, to our knowledge, the only +English student of Magyar language and literature who has thoroughly +grasped the philology and spirit of that language and the distinctive +qualities of Magyar writers. He will, we trust, pardon our patriotism for +shocking his excessive modesty by this public acknowledgment of his merit. + +May this book contribute somewhat to increase the interest of the great +British nation in a nation much less numerous but in many ways akin. + +The map of Hungary accompanying this book is, we venture to say, the +first map published outside Hungary based on the most careful comparison +of the original sources. The greatest pains have been taken to ensure +absolute accuracy of names of places and of county boundaries, according +to the most recent data. + + EMIL REICH. + + 17, TAVISTOCK ROAD, W. + _June 15th, 1898_. + + + + +[Illustration: HUNGARY PROPER] + + + + +HUNGARIAN LITERATURE. + + + + +CHAPTER I. + + +Of the nations in the south-east of Europe, the Hungarians, or Magyars, +are probably the most renowned, and at the same time, the least known. +Although their extensive country has now been in their possession and +under their rule for over one thousand years, and albeit the historic +_rôle_ of the Hungarians, rather than that of Hungary, has been and is +one of no common magnitude, in that, without their secular and successful +fight against Osman ascendancy, Europe could scarcely have maintained +its civilization in the countries east of Munich: yet in spite of all +such claims to attention on the part of western nations, Hungary and the +Hungarians are still largely unknown in England, France and America. + +In English-speaking countries no serious attempts have as yet been made +either to tell the stirring story of Hungary’s past, or to analyse the +rich possibilities of her future. Except single and singular features of +Magyar life or natural products, such as the famous “Hungarian” bands +of the Tsiganes or gypsies and their “weird” music; Hungarian flour +and Hungarian wine; and most of all the figure of Hungary’s greatest +political orator, Louis Kossúth; except these and a few more curiosities +relating to Hungary, the proud nations of the west of Europe do not, as +a rule, take notice of all the rest of the life of a nation of eighteen +million persons. + +The festivities of the Hungarian millennium celebrated the year before +last, came to the western world as a surprise. Few Englishmen were +prepared to realize the fact that, at a time when their ancestors were +still under small princes of mixed blood, and, moreover, constantly +exposed to, and finally nearly absorbed by foreign conquerors, the +Hungarians had already reared a solid fabric of government on the site +on which for now over a thousand years they have withstood the armies, +the diplomacy and the alien immigration of the Turks, the Germans and the +Slavs. Unconquered by force or disaster, and not denationalized by either +the Germans or Slavs around them, the Hungarians have maintained almost +intact the language and music they brought with them from the Steppes of +Asia; and when in the ripeness of time a Magyar literature was beginning +to develop, it proceeded on lines neither German nor Slav, but thoroughly +Hungarian. + +This literature is both in extent and quality, one of the most remarkable +of the lesser literatures of Europe. The number of writers of Magyar +works is no less than 5,000; and their works cover all the provinces of +poetry and of philosophic, historic or scientific inquiry into nature or +man. While accepting the standard of criticism adopted by the recognized +arbiters of literary greatness, we have no hesitation in saying that +Hungarian Literature has a number, if a limited one, of stars of the +first magnitude, and no inconsiderable number of lesser lights. This +fact acquires still greater importance from the consideration that the +bulk of Hungarian Literature properly speaking dates back little over a +hundred years; and that many, far too many Hungarians have, up to recent +times, left their native country and, writing their works in German +or French, added to the literature of nations other than their own. +Comparatively few, exceedingly few, Englishmen have enlisted among the +writers of nations outside the United Kingdom; very many, exceedingly +many Hungarians have, under stress of various circumstances, written in +Latin, German, French or English, and thereby reduced the bulk and often +the quality of Hungarian Literature proper. The number of works in Magyar +published from 1531 to 1711 is 1,793. During the same period 2,443 +non-Magyar works were published in Hungary. The preceding two totals +were given in 1879 and 1885 respectively. Up to April, 1897, 404 more +works had been discovered, belonging mostly to the class of non-Magyar +books printed in Hungary down to 1711. When, however, we inquire into +the number of works written by Hungarians and published outside Hungary, +down to 1711, we learn that no less than about 5,000 works were written +and published by Hungarian authors, in 130 non-Hungarian towns, during +the period ending 1711.[1] At a time when all the western peoples had +long ceased to use Latin for all literary purposes, the idiom of Cicero +was still the chief vehicle of thought in Hungary. Nearly all through +the eighteenth, and during the first quarter of the present century, the +number of works written by Hungarians in Latin far outnumbered the works +written by them in Magyar. It was even so with German; and many a famous +German author was really a Hungarian; such as Ladislaus Pyrker, Nicolaus +Lenau, Klein (J. L.), the great historian of the drama, Charles Beck, the +poet, Fessler, the historian, etc. + +In comparing Hungarian Literature with the literature of the Germans, +French or English, we cannot but recognize, for the reasons just +mentioned, that the splendour and comprehensiveness of the Literature of +those nations cannot be found in that of the Magyars. At the same time we +make bold to point out an advantage which Hungarian Literature has over +the literature of many another nation, if not in the past, certainly in +the future. This advantage is in the Hungarian language. The Magyars have +a language of their own. It is not a borrowed language; not one taken +from another nation, in whose use it had been for centuries. + +The Americans, both in North and South America, although they are in +nearly everything else the counterparts of their European parent-nations, +have yet preserved the idioms of the latter. In politics, social +constitution, individual temper, and attitude of mind, the North and +South Americans are—a long stay in that continent has convinced us of +that—utterly different from either the English or the Spanish. The +Americans proper have indeed built up, or developed into a nation +of their own. For good or for bad, they have a distinct and novel +national personality. One thing excepted; that one thing, however, is +a vital element in the intellectual activity of a nation. We mean, of +course, Language. The Americans have moulded and coloured all the +old elements of their nationality into organs with a tone and hue of +their own. Language alone they have, with slight differences, taken +over and preserved in the very form and woof in which the English and +Spanish had left it in the old colonies. Hence there is between the +Americans, as a new nation, and their language, as an old and foreign +idiom, a discordance and discrepancy that no genius can entirely remove. +The words of a language are mostly gentry of olden descent. Between +them there are associations and tacit understandings ill-fitted for +an environment essentially different from their original cast. This +discrepancy has, there can be little doubt, exercised a baneful influence +on the literature of the American nations. It has baulked them of the +higher achievements, and neither in the literature of North America +nor in that of South America can we meet with literary masterworks of +the first rank. Between the poets and writers of those nations and the +languages they are using there is much of that antagonism which has +always been found to exist between the cleverest of Neo-Latin poets and +the language of Rome. Latin is a dead language; and all the intellectual +atmosphere and soil that nurtured and developed it have long since ceased +to stimulate. Accordingly, the Politiani and Sadoleti, the Sannazari +and Buchanani, and all others who in modern times have tried to revive +Latin literature have entirely failed. As with individuals so it is with +nations. The Belgians, or the Swiss in Europe are, like the Americans, +in the false position of having each a distinct nationality of their own +with languages not their own. This fundamental shortcoming has rendered +and will probably, in all times, render them incapable of reaching the +lofty summits of literature. Language is intimately allied to literature; +language is the mother, and thought the father of literary works. Any +lack of harmony in the parents must needs show in the offspring. + +Now the Hungarians have not only a language of their own, but also +one the possibilities of which are far from being exhausted. For the +Hungarians therefore there is no danger of a false position, of an +initial vice in the growth of their literature; and moreover there +are immense vistas of literary exploits still in store for future +generations. The quarries and mines of the Latin and Teutonic languages +have, it may be apprehended, been worked so intensely as to leave scant +margins for new shafts. French has changed little in the last three +generations, and English and German little in the last two; while Italian +and Spanish have long reached the beautiful but stereotyped plasticity of +ripeness. Hungarian, on the other hand, is a young language. The number +of people using and moulding it has been considerably increased in the +last generation, and most of its gold-fields and diamond-layers have +not yet been touched by the prospector’s axe. There is thus an immense +future still open for Hungarian Literature, and this prospective, but +certain fact ought never to be lost sight of in a fair appreciation of +the literary efforts of the Hungarians. + +Literature being a nation in words, as history is a nation in deeds, it +would be impossible to grasp the drift, or value the achievements of +Hungarian Literature without some knowledge of the Magyar nation in the +past and in the present. It may be therefore advisable to premise a few +remarks on Hungary and her history before entering on a narrative of +Hungarian Literature. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + + +Hungary, in extent larger than the United Kingdom, is, geographically +speaking, one large basin, watered by one large river and its affluents, +and bounded by one imposing range of mountains. The river is called +the Danube, the mountains are the Carpathian offshoots of the Alps. +This geographical unity makes Hungary almost predestined to be the seat +of one nation. The natural unity calls for, it may be presumed, the +national. Yet the very richness of the soil, diversified as it is by +the vegetable and mineral wealth of huge mountains, and the cereal and +animal exuberance of vast plains has, in all times, attracted numerous +tribes from eastern Europe and western and central Asia to the country +of the “blue” Danube, and the “blonde” Theiss. Some of these invaders +succeeded for a time in establishing a kind of dominion over parts of +Hungary. Thus the Huns in the fifth, the Gepidae in the fifth and sixth, +the Avars in the seventh and eighth, numerous Slav tribes in the eighth +and ninth centuries were successively lords of the plains and some +mountainous parts of Hungary. Not one of these peoples, however, could +either maintain themselves as rulers, or quite disappear as dwellers. +Already in the ninth century we find Hungary inhabited by more than +fifteen different nations or portions of nations, offering then the +same gorgeous medley of Humanity that is still so characteristic of the +country. Where the above nations failed, the Magyars signally succeeded. +They and they alone of all the numerous, if not perhaps innumerable +nations that had tried to rear a lasting polity on the columns of the +Carpathians, and behind the moats of the Danube; the Hungarians alone, +we say, succeeded in establishing themselves as the permanent rulers +of the Slav and Turanian peoples of Hungary, and as the members of a +state endowed with abiding forces of order within and power without. +From 996 to 1301 A.D., they took their dukes and kings from the family +of the Árpáds, under whom they had entered (some 100,000 men, women, +and children) the country. Saint Stephen (the first canonized king) +consolidated their constitution. Without attempting to overrate the value +of constitutions either grown or made, and, while laying due stress on +that _geometria situs_, or providential strategy in the location of +nations which has perhaps wrought the major part of History, it is +tolerably certain, that the constitution of Hungary, as developed under +the Árpád dynasty, and as still surviving in some of its essential +elements, has had a most beneficial influence on the public life of the +Magyars. Like that of England, it combines the excellency of the Latin +system of centralization, with the advantages of the Germanic custom of +local autonomy. + +Already in the early middle ages, Hungary was divided into counties +endowed with selfgovernment. At the same time there was a centre of +government and legislation in the national assembly or diet, where king +and subjects met to discuss the affairs affecting the peace or wars of +the entire state. In 1222, or seven years after Magna Charta was signed +at Runnymede, the Hungarians forced their King John, whose name was +Andrew II., to sign the Golden Bull, which, like the English Charter, +was to be the text of the country’s constitution, all subsequent laws +being in the nature of commentaries on that text. The elements of the +Hungarian and English constitution being nearly alike, the domestic +histories of the two nations bear, up to the sixteenth century, striking +resemblance to one another. We learn of wars of the “barons” against the +king, such as those under Henry III. and Henry IV. in England; we read +of the constant struggles of the “commons” (in Hungary consisting of the +lower nobility, that is, of knights as distinguished from burgesses), +for broader recognition of their parliamentary rights; of rebellions, +like that of Wat the Tyler, of the peasants against their oppressors, the +landed gentry; and of fierce dynastic struggles, like the Wars of the +Roses. But while these historic parallels may be found in many another +country of mediæval Europe with its remarkable homogeneity of structure, +the distinctive parallelism between England and Hungary is in the +tenacity with which the ruling people of both countries have carried over +their autonomous institutions from the times before the Reformation to +the sixteenth and the following centuries, or to the period of Absolutism +sweeping over Europe ever since Luther had raised his voice for religious +liberty. + +All nations of Europe had constitutions more or less similar to that +of England during the Middle Ages; for there was after all a very +considerable amount of Liberty extant in mediæval institutions. But at +the threshold of the sixteenth century, when new worlds were discovered +by the genius and daring of the Portuguese and the Italians, the better +part of the old world, that is, its Liberty, was completely lost, and +sovereigns became absolute and peoples slaves. Three nations alone +amongst the larger states remained unaffected by the plague of absolutism +then spreading over Europe; they alone preserving intact the great +principles of local autonomy, central parliaments, and limited power of +the Crown. These were the English, the Poles and the Hungarians. In these +three countries alone there was practically no dead past as against a +presumptuous present. The nation’s past was still living in the shape of +actual realities, and the growth of the constitution was, in spite of +all sudden ruptures and breaks, continuous and organic. What the Stuarts +were to England, the Habsburgs were to Hungary during the seventeenth +century. Hence in both countries we notice continual rebellions and wars, +both parliamentary and other. The Stuarts, however, were little aided by +foreign powers in their attempts at crushing the autonomous rights of the +English nation. On the contrary, one of the greatest statesmen of modern +times, William of Orange, came, and with him several great powers of +Europe, to the rescue of the people of England; and thus the end of the +seventeenth century was also the termination of Absolutism in England. +In Hungary it was the grave of Liberty. The Hungarian Stuarts, or the +then Habsburgs, far from being deserted by the other Great Powers of +Europe, were most efficiently abetted by them. This happened of course +in a way apparently quite alien to any desire to destroy the liberties +of Hungary. Vienna, the capital of the Habsburgs, was, in 1683, besieged +by the hitherto fairly invincible Turks, and Austria was menaced with +utter ruin. The war being, on the face of it, a crusade, the Christian +powers, and, chiefly, fat and gallant John Sobieski, King of Poland, +came to the succour of Leopold of Austria. The Turk was beaten, and not +only out of Austria, but also out of Hungary, where he had been holding +two-thirds of the counties for over one hundred and fifty years. Hungary +was almost entirely liberated from her Mahometan oppressor, and, such +is the illogicality of History, for the very same reason nearly lost +her autonomous existence. For the evil of foreign saviours now told on +the Magyars. Had they driven back the Turk by their own efforts, the +result would have been an unprecedented electrization and stimulation +of all the forces of the nation. The Greeks after Salamis; the Romans +after Zama; the English after Trafalgar had won not only a victory over +an enemy, but an immeasurably increased vitality fraught with novel +energies. The Hungarians after the capture of Buda and the Battle of +Zenta, both achieved by Austria’s foreign allies and foreign generals, +had defeated the Turks indeed; but their own ends too. Never was Hungary +in a lower state of national stagnation than shortly after the peace of +Carlovitz (1699), which put a formal end to Turkish rule in most of the +Hungarian counties. Prince Francis Rákóczy II., who started the last +of the Great Rebellions of the Magyars previous to 1848, and after the +above peace, found no Holland rich in capital, no Brandenburg ready to +hand with well-trained regiments, no Austria willing to avert side-blows +from enemies, to help him in the manner in which the asthmatic Prince +of Orange was helped against James II. and his powerful abettor. And +when Rákóczy too had expended his forces in vain, Hungary fell into +a decrepitude but too natural in a nation whose foreign foe had been +conquered by its domestic oppressor. + +The political bankruptcy of the Hungarians by the beginning of the +eighteenth century is of such importance for the study of the history of +their literature, that we cannot but attempt to search for some of the +reasons and causes of this national disaster. The principal cause was, it +would seem, the lack of that very class of citizens which had in England +so potently contributed to the ultimate victory of popular freedom—the +middle class. Hungary never recognized, nor tolerated the complicated +maze of semi-public and semi-private institutions collectively called +Feudalism. Whatever the merits or demerits of that mediæval fabric may or +may not have been, it is certain that the rise of the _bourgeois_ class +is owing directly, and still more indirectly to the action and re-action +of Feudalism. The parallelism between England Poland, and Hungary pointed +out above, must now be supplemented by the statement, that England alone +of these three commonwealths had, through the invasion and conquests of +the French Normans, received a large infusion of feudal institutions, +and that therefore England alone was to create that powerful class of +burgesses and yeomen, which was entirely lacking in both Poland and +Hungary. Without such a class of “mean” citizens no modern nation has +been able to consolidate its polity; and Hungary in the seventeenth +century, being totally devoid of such a class, was in the long run bound +to be wrecked by such a deficiency. We shall see how heavily the absence +of a middle class told on the growth of Hungarian Literature. + +During the eighteenth century and up to 1815, the great and scarcely +interrupted wars of the Habsburgs enlisted all the powers of Hungary. In +1741 the Magyars, and they alone, saved Austria from what seemed to be +inevitable dismemberment. From that date onward to the campaign of 1788 +the History of Hungary is but a chapter in that of Austria. Towards +that latter date the wave of Nationalism started in France had reached +Hungary. Like the Belgians and the Czechs (Bohemians), the Hungarians too +began to revolt from the anti-nationalist and _egalitarian_ autocracy +of Emperor Joseph II., one of the characteristic geniuses of the last +century, who was exceedingly enlightened on everything else but his own +business. The old Magyar institutions, and weightiest amongst them, the +Magyar language was, by the Hungarian diet, alas! not by the Hungarian +people, decreed to be the public language of the country. Resistance +to Joseph’s “reforms” became so serious, as to prevail upon the dying +monarch to revoke them, 1790; and under his successor, Leopold II., +1790-1792, who was of a less aggressive temper, Hungarian nationality +seemed to approach its revival. This was, however, not to be. + +The French Revolution, although essentially a nationalist movement, +forwarded in Europe outside France, for nearly two generations after +its rise, none but the cause of the monarchs. The Hungarians, who +gave Austria many of her best generals, and fought in nearly all the +battles of the Revolutionary Wars from 1792 to 1815, were in the end +shorn of all their hopes and expectations by the successful fop who +directed Austria’s policy from 1809 to 1848. Prince Metternich had not +the faintest conception of the rights or wants of the Hungarians; and +having brought to fall, as he thought he did, the French Revolution and +its personification, Napoleon Buonaparte, he could not but think that +a small nation, as the Hungarians, would speedily and lastingly yield +to high-handed police regulations, to gagging the public conscience, +and to unmanning the press. The year 1848 witnessed the final victory +of the French Revolution all over Europe. Hungary, foremost amongst +the countries where oppressed nations were demolishing the bulwarks of +tyranny, freed herself from the yoke of Austrian ministers. The Austrian +armies were driven out of Hungary; the Habsburgs were declared to have +forfeited the crown of St. Stephen; and but for the help of Russia, the +Austrian monarchs would have been deprived of more than one half of their +empire. When a now nameless Hungarian general surrendered to the Russians +at Világos (1849), Hungary was bodily incorporated with the Austrian +Empire, and Czech and Austrian officials were sent down to germanize +and denationalize Hungary. In 1860 the reaction set in. The nation, +offering a passive resistance of a most formidable character, brought the +Vienna Cabinet to its senses; and when, at Königsgrätz (July, 1866), the +Prussians had routed the armies of Austria, Hungary’s greatest political +sage, Francis Deák, aided by the Austrian minister, Count Beust, +restored the ancient Magyar autonomy and independence. Ever since (1867) +Hungary’s relation to Austria has been that of confederation for purposes +of foreign policy, and absolute independence for the work of domestic +rule. The Emperor of Austria is at the same time the King of Hungary; +and thus the two halves of the Empire are united by a personal link. Law +and its administration; Parliament and municipal government; commerce +and trade; in short, all that goes to form the life of a separate nation +is, in Hungary, of as independent a character as it is in Austria. A +Hungarian must, like any other foreigner, be formally naturalized in +order that he may be considered an Austrian citizen, and _vice versâ_. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + + +The preceding short survey of the history of Hungary may now be followed +by a brief sketch of the character and temper of the Hungarians. The +Magyar proper, and all the numerous individuals in Hungary who have +become completely assimilated to and by the Magyar element, bear in +character much similarity to the Poles on the one hand, and to the +Spanish on the other. They are rhapsodic and enthusiastic; excellent +orators and improvisators; and most sensitive as to their personal +dignity and social respect. As their music so their character is written +in passionate rhythms, moving from broad and majestic _largo_ to quick +and highly accentuated _presto_. Yet Hungarians, unlike Poles and +Spaniards, do not let their rhapsodic impetus run away with them, and +they have shown on all great occasions of their history, much coolness +and firmness of judgment. Nor do they exaggerate their sense of dignity +into bloated _grandezza_. They are rather humorous than witty; yet in +a country replete with so many idioms and peoples, there may be found +curious borderlands of pun, wit, and humour. Passionately fond of music +and dancing, to both of which the Hungarians have given a peculiar +artistic development of their own, the Magyars have seldom manifested +remarkable talent for architecture. Painting and sculpture have found +many an able devotee in Hungary. + +But it is in music that most artists of Hungary have excelled. Hungary +is saturated with music. No student of Magyar literature can afford to +neglect the study of Magyar music. The parallelism between the growth +of Hungarian music and Hungarian Literature is not so complete, as that +between German music and German literature. Yet nothing will furnish +us an ampler commentary on Magyar lyrics or epic poetry, than that +magnificent music which has inspired heroes on the battlefield, lovers +in their closets, Bach and Beethoven in their studies alike. It is +intense music of torrential and meteoric beauties, and a bewildering +bass. Strange to say, Bach’s preludes _à la fantasia_ come nearest in +character to the original Hungarian music, as played in the wayside inns +of the immense _puszta_, or Plain of Hungary. In Hungary, all musical +performances at social gatherings are entrusted to the gypsies, who +undoubtedly added much outward ornament and characteristic _fioriture_ +to the melodies and harmonies of the Hungarian people; yet the body and +soul of that music are thoroughly Hungarian. Music in Hungary is the +vocal and instrumental folk-lore of the people; and no lyrical poet +of the Magyars could help writing without having in view the musical +adaptation of his poem. On the other hand, it cannot be denied that +the continual indulgence in music has had its serious drawbacks. In a +measure, music is the opium of Hungary. It fosters but too much that +bent for dreamy idleness, which is the chief failing in the Hungarian +character. Much has been done in recent times to inspirit the slumbering +energies of the nation not only in the high walks of public life, but +also in the lowly avenues of industrial, commercial, and other less +picturesque activity. Still more remains to be done. + +The lack of a middle class, or _bourgeois_ proper, has retarded the +growth of literature no less than that of political independence. Within +recent times there were only two classes of Hungarians in Hungary, +nobles and peasants. The floating and unassimilated portion of the +population between these two classes remained either quite alien to +Hungarian aspirations, or it attempted to imitate the nobles, of course +chiefly in their less commendable qualities. The undeniable indolence +of the small nobleman, or country-squire; his aversion to town-life; +his abhorrence of trades and crafts; all these and similar shortcomings +inherent in a caste of nobles had a baneful influence on their numerous +imitators. Literature is, as a rule, an urban growth. The urban element +in Hungary, however—was till the end of the last century of very +subordinate importance. The frequent social gatherings of the Hungarian +country gentlemen and their numerous imitators were indeed full of +spirited talk and engaging conversation. In what might be called the +_Parlature_ of a nation, or the aggregate of their private discussions, +dialogues, speeches, etc., the Hungarians are and always have been very +rich. Many a brilliant essay or novelette has been talked in Hungarian +drawing-rooms and dining-halls, which in other countries would have +made the fortune of a writer. In fact, there is little exaggeration in +advancing the statement that the literature of a nation is the complement +of its _parlature_; and where the latter is inordinately developed, the +former is necessarily of a less exuberant growth. This “law,” if so it +may be called, operated with much force in a country where it is far +easier to find listeners than readers. It also accounts for much that +is characteristic of Hungarian prose. Like French literature, Hungarian +poetry or prose applies more to the ear than to the eye, and accordingly +suffers very much from translation. That rich _parlature_ in Hungary +has, however, another and still more serious drawback. Up to 1870, in +round numbers, there was in many parts of Hungary, more especially in +the north-west and north, a custom of using, in common conversation, two +or three idioms, almost at a time. Sentences were commenced in Latin, +continued in Hungarian, and wound up in German, or Slovak. The constant +use of several idioms, as it has rendered Hungarians peculiarly apt for +the acquisition of foreign languages, so it has made them more than apt +to read and assimilate foreign literatures. This again made many a less +enterprising mind hesitate, and likewise many a feeble mind but too prone +to imitate, especially the German writers, both in style and subject. The +originality of Hungarian authors was thus at times much impaired. In the +course of the present work we shall meet with several cases. At present +we must hasten to speak of the most potent of the factors of Hungarian +Literature; of the Hungarian language. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + + +The Hungarian language is totally different in vocabulary and grammar +from the Teutonic, Latin, Slav, or Celtic languages. Between Russian +and German, or between Russian and English there is much affinity, +both groups of languages belonging to the Aryan, or Indo-German class +of idioms. Between Hungarian and German, or Hungarian and Slav, there +is no affinity whatever. The Hungarians have indeed inserted some +Slav and German mortar into crevices left open by an occasional decay +of the Hungarian material; but the structure and functions of the +Magyar language are totally alien to either Slav or German idioms. +It is an agglutinative language, the root of words being almost +invariably formed by their first syllables, unto which all affixes +and pronouns are soldered according to a fairly regular process of +word and case-formation. In Aryan languages the root is, as it were, +subterranean, and frequently hard to lay bare. In Hungarian the root is +always transparent. The vowels have a distinct musical value, and do not +resemble the musically indeterminable vowels or diphthongs of English +or German. Consonants are never unduly accumulated, as in Bohemian; +and strong accents on one syllable of a word are unknown. Generally, +the first syllable of the word has a heavier stress on it. Hungarian +is rich both in its actual vocabulary, especially for outward things +and phenomena, more especially still for acoustic phenomena; and in its +prospective word-treasury. In few languages can new words, expressing +shades and phases of meanings, be coined with greater ease. This facility +applies to abstract terms as well as to material ones. It is probably +not too much to say, that for purposes of Metaphysics or Psychology +few languages offer so ample a repository and laboratory for terms as +does the Magyar language. Although far from being as adapted for rhyme +as English or German, yet Hungarian has many and sonorous rhymes. On +the other hand, it crystallizes with readiness into all the metres of +Greek or Latin poetry. A peculiarity of Hungarian (and Finnish) are the +diminutives of endearment and affection. + +The origin of the Hungarian language has been, and still is, a matter of +great discussion between the students of philology. It is certain that +Hungarian is not an Aryan, but an Ugor (Ugrian) language, belonging to +a vast group of languages spoken in parts of China, in Siberia, Central +Asia, Russia, and Turkey. We here adjoin the genealogy of the Hungarian +language as given by Professor Simonyi, of Budapest, who is considered +one of the greatest living authorities on the history and grammar of the +Magyar language. He says that Hungarian, together with Vogul, Ostiak, +Siryenian, Votiak, Lapp, Finnish, Mordvin, and Cseremiss (spoken in +the north and north-east of Russia) form the Ugrian language-group. +This group is closely akin to four other groups, viz., the Samojed; the +Turkish or Tartar; the Mongolian; and the Tungusian, or Mandchu groups. +These five large groups are called the Altaic languages, and are all +derived from an original Altaic idiom. Their mutual relations are shown +in the following diagram taken from Professor Simonyi’s work: + + Archaic Altaic + | + +-----------------+-----------------+ + | | + Northern Branch Southern Branch + | | + +------+----------+ +-------+---------+ + | | | | + Archaic Samojedic Archaic Ugrian Turkish and Mongolian Tungusian + | + +----------+-----+-------------------+ + | | | + Southern Ugrian Lapp Northern Ugrian + | | + +------------+------------+ +-----------+---------+-------+ + | | | | | | | + Finnish Mordvinian Cseremissian Siryenian _Hungarian_ Vogul Ostiak + Esthonian Votiak + +It will be seen that Hungarian is in near relation to Finnish and also +to Lapp, as had been recognized already by the Jesuit John Sajnovics +(1770), and proved by the great traveller, Anton Reguly. It is, +however, also related to Turkish; and this explains why the leading +neo-philologists of Hungary (Budenz, Paul Hunfalvy, and Arminius Vámbéry) +are, the two former in favour of a Finnish, the latter in favour of a +Turkish origin and kinship of both the Hungarians and their language. +Amongst the numerous students of that vexed question, no one has done +more to excite the admiration of his compatriots and foreigners, and the +applause of scholars, than Alexander Csoma de Kőrős, who sacrificed his +life in the monasteries of Thibet in the noble attempt at discovering, +by the laborious acquisition of Central-Asiatic languages, the origin +of the Magyars. We confess that we entertain but scant sympathy for the +belief in races and racial persistency. Wherever the Hungarians may have +come from, and whether or no every one living Hungarian can trace his +descent to one of the clans invading Hungary at the close of the ninth +century is, in our opinion, immaterial. As a matter of fact, very few +Magyar noblemen can trace their family beyond the year of the battle of +Mohács (1526). It is quite different with the language of the Hungarians. +Its origin and character are, on the whole, pretty clear, and from the +knowledge of its relations to kindred idioms, many a valuable conclusion +may be drawn regarding the rise and nature of Hungarian Literature in the +past and in the present. The greatest patriot of Hungary, Count Stephen +Széchenyi, has tersely expressed the immense influence of language on +the nation in the words: “Language carries the nation away with it.” Our +whole view of Hungarian Literature would be different if for instance the +opinion of erudite Matthew Bél (Belius) as to the Hebrew origin of the +Hungarian language had proved to be true. It would likewise essentially +alter our conception of Magyar literary works if the opinion of +Podhorszky as to the close relation between Hungarian and Chinese would +not have been found untenable. But the physical origin of the Hungarians +themselves is, at best, only an idle inquiry into insufficient records of +the past. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + + + 896-1520. + +The history of Hungarian Literature is divided into four distinct +periods. The first comprises the time from the advent of the Magyars in +Hungary to the Reformation (896-1520); the second, from the Reformation +to the peace of Szathmár, or the termination and failure of Hungary’s +revolt from Austria (1520-1711); the third, from 1711 to 1772, or the +period of stagnation; and finally from 1772 to our own days, or the +period of the full development. + +896-1520. The first period is exceedingly poor in written remains of +literature. In fact, the first and thus the oldest literary relic of +the Hungarian language is a short “Funeral Sermon” (_Halotti Beszéd_), +dating from the first third of the thirteenth century; and for 200 years +after that date, we meet, with the exception of a Hungarian glossary of +the year 1400, recently discovered at Schlaegl, in Upper Austria, with +no example of a Hungarian literary work of even slight extent. From the +middle of the fifteenth century we possess a fragment, called after +the town where it was discovered, by Dr. Julius Zacher in 1862, the +“_Königsberg_ (in Prussia) _Fragment_.” Thus, the number of extant, or +hitherto discovered Hungarian works of even slight literary merit is, +down to 1450 A.D., an almost negligible quantity. Mr. Szilády in his +“Collection of Ancient Hungarian Poets” (_Régi Magyar Költők Tára_) has +indeed communicated six and fifty mediæval Hungarian church-poems and +other fragments; but of that number scarcely a dozen are original poems, +the rest being mere translations of the then current church-poetry. The +philologist may no doubt find much to glean from even this scant harvest +of Hungarian Literature in the first period. For literature proper, it +is of no account whatever. Yet it would be unfair to leave this period +without even a passing mention of its oral literature, or epic and +legendary stories, of which there must have been no small quantity in +those agitated times. + +The Hungarian naïve epic is lost. A glance at the habits of the Finns +will, however, suffice to satisfy the inquirer that the Hungarians, like +their cousins in Russia, must have cultivated the art of recitation and +oral handing down of the glorious deeds of their ancestors, to no small +extent. We now know that the immense epic of the Finns, the _Kalevala_, +has been transmitted from generation to generation by bards who had +treasured up in their memories the endless _runot_ recording the deeds +of Lemminkäinen, Väinämöinen, and Jlmarinen. The Hungarians, too, had +their bards, called _igrigeczek_, or _hegedősök_ (violinists); and at +the manors of the nobles or the courts of the kings, old heroic songs +were recited about Attila, King of the Huns; his brother, Bleda; the +fearful battle on the Catalaunian fields (Chalons-sur-Marne, 451 A.D.); +the building of the castle of Buda; the siege of Aquileia; and the last +fatal wedding of the terrible Hun. These Hun epics were widely known and +recited in mediæval Hungary, as witnessed by the chronicles of those +times. The people firmly believed themselves to be the successors of +Attila’s hordes, and this belief, although absolutely discountenanced by +modern historians, is still lingering in the spinning-halls of Hungarian +villages, and in lecture halls in England and America. + +The circle of those oral epics comprised also the Magyar heroes proper. +There were stories about Álmos, father of Árpád, the conqueror of +Hungary; others about the “Seven Magyars” (_Hét Magyar_); the conquest +of Transylvania by doughty Tuhutum, one of Árpád’s generals; the flight +of King Zalán, defeated by Árpád; the exploits of valiant Botond, Lehel +(the Hungarian Roland), Bölscü, and other paladins of Árpád’s times, etc. +In the fragments from Priscus, the Byzantine rhetorician and historian; +in the chronicles of Ekkehard, the monk of St. Gallen; and in the +“Anonymus,” or one of the chief, but hitherto, fatherless chronicles of +Hungary, the above and some more heroic stories and epical records may be +found. + +In addition to the heroic epic, the Hungarians, like all the rest of the +Christian nations of the west, had a considerable tradition of legends +and lives of saints. Fortunately for Hungary, it had become, by the end +of the tenth century of our era, both the hierarchical and political +interest of one of the most learned and most statesmanlike of the popes, +Sylvester II., to detach Hungary completely from the Eastern, or Greek +Church; and to adopt it, by sending a royal crown to Stephen, duke of the +Hungarians, into the world of Roman Catholicism. Had Hungary joined the +Eastern Church, it could never have withstood the ambition and supremacy +of the German Emperors, aided by the Popes of Rome. Having, however, +adopted the Roman, or progressive form of Christianity, Hungary was +endowed with occidental or richer seedlings of civilization. St. Mary +was made the patroness of Hungary; and all through the Middle Ages, she +was adored and glorified in legends and songs. Some of these Hungarian +legends about the Virgin Mary we still possess; likewise, the life of St. +Margit, the daughter of King Béla IV.; the famous story of Josaphat and +Barlaam, one of the most popular of mediæval Christian legends, taken +originally from Indian (Buddhistic) sources; the life of St. Catherine of +Alexandria, etc. The most characteristically Hungarian of these legends +is, as to its subject, the life of St. Margit. As to its literary merits, +it is, alas! a dry chronicle without any charm of form or diction at all. +Nor did the Hungarians, as far as we know, succeed in throwing one or +another of their crusading heroes into strong epic relief. The crusaders, +in spite of their marvellous deeds, lent themselves far more to good +chronicling than to epics. Their inherent poetic vice of being, or trying +to be, saints rather than heroes rendered them unfit for real epics. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + + + 1520-1711. + +1520-1711. The Reformation made rapid headway in Hungary. From the very +beginning, Protestantism in Hungary had a political element, in that its +rise was coeval with the accession of the Catholic Austrian dynasty so +unwelcome to many Hungarians. Theological and political opposition thus +gave a more than ordinary impetus to the study of all the questions and +problems agitated during the Reformation. The most prominent result of +that movement was a revival of the national feeling; and coupled with +that, a regeneration of Hungarian Literature. The vast intellectual +revolution of the fifteenth century, commonly called the Renascence, +had, of course, left its traces in Hungary too. One of the most popular +of Magyar Kings, Matthew Corvinus (1458-1490), invited a number of +Italian scholars and artists to Hungary, such as Anton Bonfini, of Ascoli +(1427-1503), Marzio Galeotto, of Narni, in Umbria (1427(?)-1497), Peter +Ranzanus, of Palermo; Thaddeus Ugoletus, of Parma; Bartholinus Fontius; +Felix of Ragusa; etc. + +These scholars and artists, ably assisted by the Hungarian John Cesinge, +or Janus Pannonius (1432-1472), and chiefly by the generous and refined +king himself, brought some new leaven into the stagnant intellectual +life of Hungary. In addition to the university founded by King Lewis the +Great, at Pécs (1367), a new university was founded at Pozsony, where +the Danube enters Hungary; the king’s famous library (the _Corvina_) +became the delight of scholars; and a printing press was established +at Buda (1473). The king’s victorious campaigns against the Hussites +(see Jósika’s novel, “_The Bohemians in Hungary_”), the Turks and the +Austrians, gave rise to numerous poems and songs composed by unknown +poets; and his age, called the Age of the Hunyadis, the king being a +Hunyadi, bade fair to be one of great intellectual brilliancy too. +However Matthew’s premature death and the ensuing political troubles put +an end to such prospects. It was left for the passions roused by the +Reformation to kindle the fire which the torch of the Renascence had been +unable to light. In all the countries where the deep influence of the +Renascence preceded that of the Reformation, the intellectual capital of +the country was not impaired, even when its political was. In Hungary, +the Renascence left too slender traces to guard the nation from falling +into lawless writing about the topics of the day, regardless of the +rules and classical measure so deeply impressed by the Renascence on the +more fortunate nations of Italy, Spain, France and England. Hence the +immense mental and emotional stir imparted by the Reformation was not +sufficient to raise up great writers in Hungary. In fact, Hungary was, +on a smaller scale, in a mental condition exactly similar to that of +Germany. There too the Renascence had scarcely begun to do its beneficial +work, when the Reformation swept everything before it. The consequence +was the same. Luther himself, although one of the geniuses of language; +Fischart, a very demon of language; and Hutten, the great champion of +thought and liberty, together with numerous minor lights, were, in spite +of efforts without number, debarred from creating a great German national +literature. It was only much later, when the Renascence had done its work +in Germany too, that the Germans, following in the wake of the Greeks, +Romans, French, English, Spanish and Italians, were able to create a +great national literature of their own. The same remark holds good for +Hungary too. + +Protestantism in Hungary assumed all the aspects it had taken in +Germany and Switzerland. There were Lutherans proper, and Calvinists; +Anabaptists and Unitarians. The Geneva of Hungary was the town of the +“_cives_,” Debreczen, east of the middle Theiss, in a large plain. +Melius, or Peter Juhász (1536-1572) was the “pope” of the Magyar +Calvinists; as Matthew Biró de Déva, 1500(?)-1545, was that of the +Lutherans. Both preached in Hungarian and published a number of doctrinal +and controversial writings in Hungarian; and both were followed by +many a writer whose enthusiasm was the better part of his ability. The +Bible, portions of which had been translated into Hungarian before the +Reformation, was now published in Magyar in its entirety. This most +excellent translation, executed chiefly by Caspar Károlyi, was printed at +Vizsoly, in the county of Abauj. + +The number of Hungarian poets writing in Hungarian during the sixteenth +century is more than one hundred; most of them being Protestants. In the +first years of the Reformation, their works were mostly of a religious +character, such as psalms and prayers. Amongst these we may mention the +religious poems of Andreas Batizi, Matthew Biró, and Gál Huszár. The +constant wars with the Turks or infidels added a peculiar intensity to +the religious passions of the time; and accordingly the first Hungarian +drama, “The Marriage of Priests” (_A papok házassága_), published +in Cracow (then belonging to Poland) in 1550, and written by Michael +Sztárai, was in reality an exposition of Protestantism in the form of a +drama. “Moralities,” and mordant satires against priests and the Catholic +Church generally, were frequent. Didactic poetry, so closely allied with +the moralizing spirit of early Protestantism, was ably represented by +Gabriel Pesti, whose translation of Æsop’s “Fables” appeared in 1536 +(in Vienna); and by Caspar Heltai, who likewise translated fables from +ancient authors, 1566. + +From the second half of the sixteenth century we possess a great number +of rhymed stories, taken from the Bible, from foreign novels or from +Hungarian history. One of the most famous of the authors of such stories +was Sebastian Tinódy, whose “_Chronicle_,” or poetical narrative of +contemporary events appeared in Kolozsvár, in Transylvania, in 1554. +As a poetical work it is scarcely of any value, with the exception of +the music accompanying it. As a faithful picture of the Hungary of that +time it will continue to be valuable to the patriot and historian. The +language is heavy; the form is unshapely. In some respects superior to +Tinódy were Stephen Temesváry and Matthew Nagy de Bánka; the latter +being the bard of the great John Hunyadi. One, Albert Gergei, of whose +personal circumstances nothing is known, composed, chiefly from Italian +sources, the story of a young prince fighting innumerable foes and +surmounting difficulties of all sorts in search of the fairy whom he, +in the end, does not fail to win. This story (“_Argirius Királyfi_”) +has ever since the sixteenth century been the most popular chap-book +amongst the lower classes in Hungary. Its _naïveté_ and good epic tone +render it agreeable even to a more cultured taste. Another poet of the +second half of the sixteenth century, Peter İlosvai, composed, probably +from the floating folk-poetry of his age, a poetical narrative of the +life of Nicolas Toldy, one of the most popular heroes of the Magyars, +who lived in the fourteenth century, under King Lewis the Great, and was +of Herculean strength. His feats are sung in İlosvai’s poem (published +at Debreczen in 1574) in an effective, if rough, manner. A number of +Magyar novels may also be found; but nearly all were translations from +German or Latin novels of the time. The sixteenth century produced even +a few Magyar works of historic and philologic character. John Erdősi, +or Sylvester, wrote the first grammar of the Magyar language (1539); +Gabriel Pesti gave, in 1538, a short dictionary of the Magyar language; +John Decsi de Baranya published in 1588 a collection of about 5,000 +Magyar proverbs; Stephen Székely de Bencéd and Caspar Heltai published +“World-Chronicles,” in 1559 and 1575 respectively. Very many memoirs and +journals of that time are still unpublished. + +We must now mention the greatest of all the Hungarian poets of the +sixteenth century, whose name we have so far left unnoticed because, by +one of the strange freaks of life, the manuscripts of his lyrical poems, +on which rests his great fame among Magyar poets, were first discovered +only twenty-four years ago (in 1874), and some of them even after that +date, and were therefore never largely known to the contemporaries of +their author. This poet is Baron Valentin Balassi (1551-1594). He came +from a magnate family, and so great were the gifts with which nature +had endowed him, that men praised him as a model of heroism, and women +worshipped him as the embodiment of chivalrous charm. In the troubles +of his time, both political and social, he took more than one part; and +he may be considered as at once the Knight Errant and the Parsifal of +Hungary in the latter half of the sixteenth century. Highly cultivated +and sensitive as he was, he could not but respond to the religious +impulses of his time, and so became the author of many a religious poem. +On his wanderings, which took him not only over the whole of his own +country, but even as far as North Germany and probably also to England, +he saw all forms and aspects of life. His lyric sentiments he embodied +in the so-called “Flower Songs” (“_Virág-énekek_”), which are full of +that _verve_ and sweetness so characteristic of the best lyric poets +of Hungary. He also introduced a new form of lyric stanza—the Balassi +Stanza—which consists of nine short lines, the end-rhymes of which are +the same in the third, sixth, and ninth lines, while the remaining three +couples, have each their own rhymes. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + + + 1520-1711. + +During the seventeenth century Hungary was oppressed by two evils of +apparently antagonistic character; either of which, however, was to have +the same fatal effect on Hungarian Literature. On the one hand, nearly +two-thirds of Hungary proper, as apart from Transylvania, was under +Turkish rule; on the other, the Habsburgs, then at their apogee, waged a +relentless war against the liberties and independence of the Hungarians +both in non-Turkish Hungary and in Transylvania. In the latter country, +the Bocskays, Bethlens, and Rákóczys had in succession contrived to +establish a Hungarian principate which, although acknowledging Turkish +ascendancy, yet retained many of the rights of sovereignty. These two +sets of circumstances were in themselves hurtful to the development +of anything relating to Hungarian nationality, and most of all to +Hungarian Literature. The counties under Turkish rule could not, by the +very nature of the oppression under which they smarted, produce any +literary movement at all. The counties under Austrian rule were held in +bondage both political and intellectual, which stifled all attempts at a +national literature. The sages have as yet not been able to prove, that +a republican government must of necessity be beneficial to the material +and political welfare of a nation. As to the intellectual progress +of a nation, on the other hand, Liberty is generally taken to be an +indispensable condition. Literature is possible only where there is at +least a republic of minds. The Austrian government took good precautions +to render the rise of such a republic in Hungary an impossibility. All +the higher and middle schools in Austrian Hungary were, during the +seventeenth century, in the hands of the Jesuits. The order of Jesus +has not, as is well known, prevented a very great number of its members +and pupils from rising to eminence in Theology and in Science. It could +not, owing to its cosmopolitan and anti-national constitution, further +movements of national literature. Quite apart from the debatable nature +of its moral and political teachings, it retarded or stopped all such +movements by employing in its schools the Latin language as the vehicle +of instruction. At Nagyszombat (in 1635); at Kassa (in 1657); at Buda (in +1687), the Jesuits founded, or taught in, universities, where lectures +on all branches of knowledge were delivered in the mongrel language of +the mediæval Scholastics, which has always had a baneful influence both +on knowledge and its students. In the Protestant schools, the number of +which exceeded seven hundred and fifty, the same radically false system +was observed. The consequence was, that the vast majority of Hungarians +had never received a living knowledge of either the history of Man or of +Nature, and could accordingly turn their dead intellectual capital to no +account. The only Hungarians whose mental acquirements had sufficient +vitality to serve as stimulants to literary production of a higher type +were such as could read Italian or French, that is, works, written in +one, and thus fertilizing another living language. Such exceptional +individuals could then be found only amongst the wealthy classes, or +in other words, amongst the magnates. Thus it happened that all great +literary work in Hungarian produced during the seventeenth century was +done by the great noblemen, and by them alone. Hungary may therefore +afford a fair test for the curious problem, whether from an aristocracy +of birth can be recruited that aristocracy of genius the work of which +forms a nation’s great literature. In Hungary, the aristocracy of birth +proved, on the whole, unequal to such a task. The Hungarian magnates of +the seventeenth century did much creditable work in _belles-lettres_, and +some also in graver departments of literature. Yet, they were unable to +originate more than a temporary and inferior reform; and, moreover, they +did, as we shall see, serious harm to the literary life of the nation at +large, in that they were not able to engage its interests in the growth +of its literature. + +Of these magnates, the eloquent Cardinal Primate of Hungary, Peter +Pázmány (1570-1637), Archbishop of Esztergom, claims our attention +first. In his thirteenth year he became a convert to Catholicism, +and later a Jesuit; and so intense was his zeal for the Church of +Rome, that most of his active life was spent in a propaganda, by +writings even more than by words, for his church, and with a constant +literary warfare with the non-Catholics of Hungary. He is said to have +converted no less than thirty of the noblest families of his country +to the Catholic persuasion. At his time, perhaps the greatest number +of Protestants were in Transylvania, whose princes were warm-hearted +protectors of the Reformation; and since they cultivated the Hungarian +language in preference to any other, Pázmány thought it wise to use +the same idiom in his controversial writings. Pázmány’s theological +armoury is taken chiefly from the controversial works of his French +colleague and contemporary, the famous Jesuit Bellarmin. In his style, +however, he shows considerable originality. He prefers the strong, racy +expressions, proverbs and similes of the common people. His is a direct +and vigorous, rather than an artistic style. The strange contrast between +his popular vocabulary and the scholastic fence of his thoughts lends a +peculiar flavour to his _Hodegus_ or “_Kalauz_” (1613), and his sermons +(“_Prédikácziók_,” 1636). Among his numerous Protestant opponents were: +Peter Alvinczi, of Kassa; and George Komáromi Csipkés, of Debreczen; +the latter translated the whole Bible into Hungarian. As a sad contrast +to the splendid career of the convert Pázmány, we may mention here the +life-long sufferings and wanderings of the loyal Protestant Albert Molnár +de Szencz (1574-1634), who was persecuted wherever he came, in Germany, +Austria, Hungary or Transylvania; and who, one of the true epigones of +the Conrad Gesners and Sylburgs, published, in the midst of poverty +and misery, Hungarian dictionaries; a valuable Hungarian translation +of the Psalms (1607, after French models), which is in use to the +present day; a Hungarian Grammar (1610); and a Hungarian translation of +Calvin’s _Institutio_. Finally, the gorgeous picture of the Cardinal +cannot be set off to more advantage, than by a slight mention of the +fanatic and obscure _Sabbatarians_ (“_Szombatosok_”), in the background, +whose religious poetry is no uninteresting evidence of the Hungarian +theological literature of that time. + +Amongst the numerous _protégés_ and pupils of the victorious archbishop +we find also Count Michael Zrinyi (1618-1664), a descendant of the famous +Zrinyi, who, in 1566, defied single-handed the invasion of Sultan Soliman +the Splendid, by offering him, with a handful of men, unconquerable +resistance in the Castle of Szigeth, some twenty miles west of Pécs. +Count Michael was one of the best educated men of his time, and equally +great as a patriot, poet and general. The sad state of Hungary could +not but affect deeply a man, whose historic _rôle_ seemed to be clearly +indicated by the glorious heroism of his ancestor. Having travelled +abroad, especially in Italy, where Tasso’s religious epic _Gerusalemme +liberata_ was read then more than ever after, he conceived the idea of +stirring up a vast crusade against the Turks, by singing the deeds of +his great-grandfather in an epic at once political and religious. This +epic is commonly called the “Zrinyiad” (“_Zrinyiász_”), and consists +of fifteen cantos, written in rugged and rough style. It reveals much +power of description and religious enthusiasm; but it is lacking in +form and moderation; nor can the portraits of its heroes be called +plastic by any means. It is, from the artistic standpoint, spoiled by +the deficiency above mentioned; the central hero is too perfect to +be lastingly interesting. Old Zrinyi is capital matter for ballads; +for an epic he is too faultless. On the other hand, the “Zrinyiad” is +one of the most effective of patriotic epics. Like the epic works of +Klopstock in Germany, or “_Ossian_” in England, it had at the time of its +appearance a great national value, apart from its literary merits. In +telling the Hungarian nation in tones of sacred anger, that the Turkish +oppression was due to the depravity of the Magyars, in exhorting them in +vigorous modes to rally and shake off the yoke of the infidels, Zrinyi +added an internal lustre to his work which even now, after more than +two centuries, has not lost much of its splendour. Like the daring and +glorious deed of his ancestor, his poem is more of a patriotic than an +historic event. It were only gross exaggeration to count the “Zrinyiad” +amongst the world’s great epics. The poet might well belie history in +letting his ancestor personally kill the great Sultan. It would be +dishonest to add to the glory of the poet by ignoring the truth of the +literary canon. + +As to the other magnates who wrote poetical works in Hungarian during +the seventeenth century, it will be sufficient to say, that their poems +were meant chiefly for the gratification of their authors; and although +some of them were printed in book form, yet the bulk was left in the +well-deserved obscurity of family archives. The most noteworthy of these +poets were: John Rimay de Rima (1564-1631), an imitator of Balassi; Peter +Beniczky de Benicze (1606(?)-1664); Count Stephen Kohári (1649-1731); +Baroness Catherine Sidonia Petrőczi; Count Peter Zichy; Count Valentin +Balassi, the second poet of that name (1626(?)-1684); and Baron Ladislas +Listhy (1630-1660(?)), whose epic, “The Disaster of Mohács” (“_Mohács +veszedelme_”), betokens a remarkable talent for versification. + +So exclusive was the influence of the magnates on the literature of that +time, that the one remarkable poet of the seventeenth century who was +no magnate himself, although a nobleman, selected as the subject of his +epic poem a romantic event from the life of one of the leading magnates. +Count Francis Wesselényi besieged, in 1644, the Castle of Murány, +defended by the beautiful widow, Mary Szécsi. In the end he won both +the heart of the heroic beauty and the castle. This famous event forms +the burden of one of the most popular of Hungarian poetical narratives, +briefly called, “The Venus of Murány” (“_Murányi Vénus_”, 1664), written +by Stephen Gyöngyössi. Its language is musical, and the narrative tone +very felicitous. The poet has evidently made a close study of Ovid, +and frequently reaches the light touch and charm of the Roman; he even +adds an element of romance, which has endeared his work to more than six +generations of Hungarian readers. The metre is Alexandrine. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + + + 1520-1711. + +Amidst the din and excitement of the endless wars in Hungary, both civil +and foreign, during the seventeenth century, the agitated mind of the +common people vented itself in numerous ditties, skits and lampoons, +which, after the name of one of the national parties, have been called +_Kurucz-poetry_. It consists almost exclusively of largely unprinted +little poems, mostly political, and depicts the agonies and torments +of the patriots. Some of them are good and true in tone, and even +powerful in the expression of hatred and satire. The one ever-memorable +folk-poem of that time, however, was not written in words. The profound +passions aroused by the last great revolution under the romantic Francis +Rákóczy II., towards the end of the seventeenth and the beginning of +the eighteenth century, were incarnated in inimitable fashion in the +“_Rákóczy march_,” the most fanaticising of all war-marches. Whoever +actually composed it (tradition ascribes it to a Hungarian gipsy-woman by +the name of Panna Czinka), that march spells a whole period of Hungarian +history, just as Milton’s _Paradise Lost_ spells a whole period of +English life. The Magyar nation was at the end of the seventeenth century +far too unpractised in literary architecture to rear its pangs and +longings into a dome of words. It was, however, then as now sufficiently +imbued with the power of musical creation, to embody its woes in the +fiery rhythms of the most heroic of martial songs. + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + + + 1520-1711. + +During the period in question very little was done for historic and +scientific studies. John Cséri de Apáca (1625-1660), an enthusiastic +student and patriot, published a small Hungarian “_Encyclopedia_” +(1655), in which the elements of knowledge, both philologic, natural and +mathematical are given in a simple and clear manner. Francis Páriz-Pápai +published a much used dictionary of the Hungarian and Latin languages +(1708). The nine books of the chronicle of John Szalárdi, who died 1666 +(“_Siralmas Krónika_”), form the first attempt at historiography in the +Hungarian language. Some of the leading men of that age left memoirs; and +grammarians were also not wanting. The great philosophic wave, sweeping +over Europe in the seventeenth century (Bacon, Descartes, Spinoza, +Leibniz, Pierre Bayle), left scarcely any traces in Hungarian Literature, +except in Cséri’s Encyclopedia, where Cartesianism is not quite absent. + + + + +CHAPTER X. + + + 1711-1772. + +1711-1772. The period bounded by the years 1711-1772 is one of decline. +During these years, which comprise the reigns of Emperor Charles VI., +and most of that of Austria’s greatest ruler, Maria Theresa (1740-1780), +there was practically very little Magyar literature; and the little +was bad. Hungarians of that period wrote, as a rule, in Latin; and the +subjects they selected were those of laborious erudition; philology; +descriptive natural science; annalistic history; historic theology. This +decline in national literature was only another phase of the decline +of the Magyar idiom. For, both in Transylvania, which was now again, +as formerly, united with Hungary, and in Hungary proper, the Hungarian +language ceased to be used in the schools, at the county-sessions, +in the law-courts, and in polite society. In all these centres of +intellectual intercourse, Latin, German or French were used instead +of the sonorous language of Árpád. In Catholic and Protestant schools +alike instruction was given in bad Latin. At the county-sessions; in +the national parliament; and in the law-courts, Latin alone was used; +while the higher classes of society were talking either in German or in +French. For the latter fact, there is a simple explanation at hand. When, +in 1711, Hungary was at last “pacified,” it had become evident to the +most patriotic of the leading families, that further armed resistance +to the Habsburgs being impossible, the only chances of promotion for +their children were at the court of Vienna. This involved the adoption +of Viennese manners, and Viennese mediums of conversation; that is, +of French and German. No sooner was that done by the aristocratic +families of Hungary, than the abnormal state of the then national +literature revealed all its latent barrenness. As has been seen in the +preceding chapters, all the great Hungarian writers from 1600 to 1711 +were recruited from the class of the magnates. When, now, after 1711, +the magnates flocked to Vienna, there to undergo a thorough process of +Germanization, or rather Austrianization, there was no class of writers +left in Hungary to take their place. Hence the sudden dearth of great +writers, and the astounding decline of Hungarian Literature. To this +must be added the fact, that German literature which was naturally +destined to have a considerable influence on Hungarian writers, both +from geographical contiguity, and on account of the general knowledge +of German in the then Hungary; that German literature, we say, was not +beginning to reach its classical period before the sixties of that +century, and could therefore stimulate Hungarian Literature but very +little. It is much more difficult to account for the exclusive use +of Latin in the schools and in parliamentary debates. Had the use of +Latin in the schools been accompanied by the study of Greek and Greek +literature it would probably have wrought very much less mischief. + +Unfortunately for Hungarian Literature, the study of Greek was almost +entirely neglected in the last century. _Graeca non leguntur._ The +immense power of æsthetic education inherent in Greek classical +works could thus not benefit the Hungarians. Nay, it may be said in +strict truth, that for Hungarians, naturally inclined as they are to +grandiloquence and redundancy, both of words and thought, the study of +Latin literature, untempered by that of Greek, was in many ways harmful. +Many Latin poets and prose-writers lack that simplicity and moderation, +which mark off Hellenic authors from all but the very best writers of +all ages. The exclusive study of Latin was therefore doubly harmful to +the Hungarians: first, in that it made them neglect their own language; +and secondly, in that it supplanted the study of Greek literature. +The exclusive use of Latin in all the schools and colleges of Hungary +during the last century was, however, part of that general obscurantism +weighing on all the educational institutions of the Habsburg empire. +Both Charles VI. and Maria Theresa left the instruction of youths in +the hands of monks and priests. Previous to the abolition of the order +of the Jesuits (1773) that order had no less than thirty “_gymnasia_,” +or higher colleges in Hungary. After its abolition, these colleges were +placed in the hands of other orders, such as the Præmonstratencians, the +Benedictines, Paulists and Franciscans. As in Austria, so in Hungary, the +regular clergy, more still than the secular, attempted to shut off their +pupils from the new light rising in France, England and Germany, and for +that purpose the habitual use of scholastic Latin was one of the most +efficient means. At the Protestant schools, of which the most famous were +at Debreczen, at Sárospatak, and at Pozsony, in Hungary proper; and at +Nagy Enyed, Kolosvár, Marosvásárhely, and at Udvarhely, in Transylvania, +instruction was likewise given in Latin. Nor can it be seriously +maintained that the Protestant teachers were more prone to let in the new +light than were the Catholic. + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + + + 1711-1772. + +In poetry proper, it is for the present period customary, but scarcely +necessary, to mention the Jesuit Francis Faludi (1704-1779), who has +put some wise saws and moral platitudes into light verse; and Baron +Ladislas Amadé (1703-1764), whose not unmelodious lyrics were sufficient +to give the successful courtier a mild reputation as an interesting +poet. In dramatic poetry there is nothing worth mentioning. The Jesuits +occasionally had their pupils play a patriotic or religious drama made +_ad hoc_, and good _pro tunc_. Of prose-writers there is one, and one +only, whose “Letters” written from Turkey, where he was in exile, have +abiding literary value. This was Clement Mikes (1690-1761), who was +brought up by Prince Rákóczy, to whom he proved constant under all +circumstances, and for this reason Mikes still belongs to the generation +of Hungarian nobles who cultivated their language with the pride of +true patriots. The “Letters” are not only full of historic interest, +especially with regard to the interior condition of the then still +mighty Turkish empire, but also as specimens of pure, idiomatic and +well-balanced Hungarian prose. + +The remarkable works in History, Theology or Science of that period were, +as noticed, written in Latin. Of learned works written in Hungarian the +two best were by men who had spent their youth in the preceding century, +and were thus less afflicted with the gangrene of the decadence of the +period from 1711 to 1772; Michael Cserei (1668-1756), and Peter Apor +(1676-1752), both of very great nobility. Cserei wrote a “_Transylvanian +History_” (“_Erdélyi Historia_”), in which the events from 1661 to 1711 +are told in a lively, naïve and pleasing style. Apor is the author of a +remarkable work on the history of the manners, customs, and institutions +of ancient Transylvania. It is entitled “_Metamorphosis Transylvaniae_,” +and its object is to show, by contrast, how low the country had sunk +from its former glory. His satire is not infrequently both scathing and +well-expressed. + +The bent for erudite laboriousness gave rise to several works on the +history of Hungarian Literature. The still-life of the small town of +Bártfa in the county of Sáros must have hung heavily on the hands of +David Czwittinger, one of the lawyers of that town, who published, in +1711, a dry list of Hungarian writers, in alphabetical order. He was +distanced by the indefatigable and patriotic Peter Bod (1712-1769), who +had, like so many Protestants, spent several years at Dutch universities, +where he amassed much polyhistoric knowledge and a good library. There, +no doubt, he also acquired the taste for literary history, and in his +“Hungarian Athenæum” (“_Magyar Athénás_”, 1766) he collected much +material bearing on the lives and works of no less than six hundred +Hungarian authors. In Law or Philosophy there appeared, during this +period, no work in Hungarian claiming our attention. + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + + + 1772-1825. + +1772-1825. After a period of decadence, lasting for over sixty years, +Hungarian Literature was again brought to a state of revival and +progress, which has gone on almost uninterruptedly to the present day. +This revival is part of an immense revolution which swept over most +countries of continental Europe in the second half of the last century. +The most conspicuous and best known event of this Modern Renascence is +the series of terrific upheavals and wars commonly called the French +Revolution. It is, however, quite evident that the French Revolution +was only the politic aspect of a vast movement, which in many countries +outside France assumed the garb of intellectual revolutions. Thus the +mental achievements that, in their totality, are called the “classical +period” of German literature (1750-1805) are in the domain of Thought +and Sentiment, a revolution no less colossal and far-reaching than were +the ever-memorable proceedings of the French _assemblées_, or the bloody +epics of the Revolutionary campaigns. Both were gigantic onslaughts +against the _Ancien Régime_ in institutions, manners, thought and +sentiment. Accordingly, the course of both revolutions was—making due +allowance for externals—essentially the same. As the French Revolution +landed in, or rather was brought to its final consummation in the titanic +and all-embracing personality of Napoleon, so German literature met its +final trysting-place and culmination in the orchestral mind of Goethe. + +The minor nations of Europe were seized by the same Revolution, if in a +manner considerably less intense. The very aggressiveness of the French +Revolution, its encroachments on the territories of Italy, Switzerland, +Germany and Austria, prevented those minor nations from enacting their +Revolution at once in its intellectual and political aspects. While +fighting the French, they were all engaged in following them on the lines +of the Revolution, first (1790-1830) for intellectual freedom; and then, +after the defeat of the French armies (1830-1848), for the very political +ideals that the French had been the first to proclaim. For, this was the +immense advantage of the French over the other nations on the continent: +they had brought their intellectual revolution through men like Turgot, +d’Alembert, Diderot, Voltaire, Rousseau, etc., to maturity, before they +started for their crusade of politic liberty; whereas the other nations +were a generation or two behind-hand, and still in the throes of their +intellectual renascence. + +This is not the place for a laborious inquiry into the causes of that +immense Revolution which has, towards the end of the last, and in the +first five decades of the present century, completely altered the face of +European civilization. It is nevertheless necessary to give some account +of such causes as were instrumental in ripening the intellectual aspect +of that Revolution in Hungary. Among the leading causes was a structural +change in the population of Hungary on the one hand, and the reaction +against the provocative and anti-national measures of the Habsburgs on +the other. + +Up to the sixties of the last century, the population of Hungary +consisted practically of (1) a rural population, comprising both +magnates, noblemen and peasants; and (2) a small urban population, +comprising largely foreign or Germanized craftsmen and tradespeople. +Under such circumstances, literature, which is pre-eminently an urban +growth, could not develop. For, not only was the urban population +too small and too much immersed in material pursuits, but the only +intellectual class, viz., the aristocracy, was living in the country, +that is, in an atmosphere unfavourable to continuous literary efforts. By +the end of the sixties, however, the structural change, above indicated, +took place. Owing to a series of measures issued by Maria Theresa and +Joseph II., the rural population of Hungary was liberated from its most +odious fetters. Bondage, and a sort of serfdom (_jobbágyság_), with all +its concomitant evils were almost abolished. Numerous rural families +left their obscure abodes, repaired to the towns, and urban life, for +the first time in Hungarian history, was raised above the low level on +which it had been vegetating for centuries. With the increase of urban +population came an increase of wealth and comfort; a greater activity +in commerce, both mercantile and social. Many a gifted Hungarian, who +would have previously spent his days in the obscurity of his county, now +willingly lived in one of the rising towns. With an accelerated speed +of work came a more rapid appreciation of talent, and a greater number +of authors. The influx of the rural population to the town facilitated +that mutual action and reaction between Nature and Man, which, in one +form or other, is the main spring of literature. In England, too, the +great period of Shakespeare was preceded by a similar structural change +in the population. The dissolution of the monasteries and the numerous +enclosures of commons, depriving as they did, hundreds of thousands of +rural people of their means of livelihood, drove them into the towns, +which rapidly ozonified that atmosphere of great intellectual stir, +without which no great writers are possible. In Germany, too, the period +of Lessing, Schiller, and Goethe was preceded by a new influx of the +rural population into the towns devastated by the thirty years’ war. Nor +can it be doubted that Italy, in possession of highly-organized and rich +towns long before any other mediæval nation, took, for this very reason, +the lead in all literary matters. + +This broad fact of Hungarian history (totally neglected by the historians +of Hungary, probably because of its very broadness), must therefore be +considered as the prime mover in the revival of Hungarian Literature. +It created that mysterious propelling power which in times of progress +everybody feels and nobody can account for. It was the latent and +constant stimulus to renewed mental labour, and to keener delight in +it. Like great rivers it was swelled by smaller affluents of causes. +Thus that great structural change in nearly all parts of Hungary was +accompanied by two structural changes in limited layers of Hungarian +society. Maria Theresa, probably with a view of carrying Austrianization +into the very hearts of the Hungarian nobles had, in 1760, established +the famous Hungarian Guard in Vienna. Each county in Hungary was to send +up a few young noblemen to Vienna, where they were clad in sumptuous +style, and treated with all the seductive arts of a refined court. Thus +a considerable number of Hungarian noblemen were given an opportunity +for that higher education and refinement, which in former times had +been the privilege of the select few. Vienna was in many ways a centre +of Franco-German civilization, and the young Magyar noblemen derived, +from a lengthy stay in the Austrian capital, a benefit similar to that +for which English gentlemen flocked to Paris in the thirteenth and +seventeenth century. This then, constituted one of the minor changes in +the intellectual development of one class of Hungarians. There was also +another change. Joseph II., in dissolving over a third of the existing +monasteries, and a great number of monastic orders too, set free a +number of educated men, who would have otherwise led a sterile life in +the lonely cells of their monasteries. They now began to devote their +unexpected leisure to pursuits of a different kind; and some amongst them +became workers in the field of literature. Thus a new source of literary +production was opened up. + +To these structural changes in the population of Hungary, that is, to the +home and internal cause of a potential revival, now came the external +agency of those anti-national measures against Hungarian institutions, +which Maria Theresa, with fine womanly tact, had used in a tentative +manner, but which were applied by Joseph II. in the most reckless and +irritating fashion. Joseph had one ideal: the homogeneous Austrian +state. Like all ideals it was unrealisable. It was worse than that: +it was suicidal. The Austrian empire has its very _raison d’être_ in +the heterogeneity of its constituent parts. To level down the Austrian +“lands” to one and the same pattern, is to deprive them of all vitality. +They live by contrast to one another. Unable to be quite independent each +by itself, they would, if unconnected by some common tie, only serve to +aggrandize either Prussia, Russia or Italy, and so upset the balance +of Europe in a fatal manner. United by the dynastic tie, they form an +imposing, if incongruous whole, the component parts still retaining very +much of a strong individuality. Any attempt at forcing them into blank +uniformity must needs be answered by a still stronger attempt on their +part to rend the dynastic tie asunder. The various provinces have, since +1648, and with respect to Hungary, since 1711, made no civil war on one +another. Not one of them had, as had Prussia in Germany since Frederick +II.’s time, or England since Cromwell’s time, the supremacy over the +rest. Their sole union and bond was in their common dynasty. To try to +reduce them to one and the same level, as Joseph II. did, was both the +worst dynastic and national policy imaginable. The Austrian provinces, +then or now, if reduced to complete uniformity, will first of all +abolish the dynasty—as superfluous. In the _egalitarian_ ordinances of +Joseph II. there was so much that was subversive of the very pillars and +coping-stones of the whole Austrian edifice, that the Hungarians, as well +as all the other nationalities under his rule (Belgians, Czechs, Poles, +etc.), forthwith rose in a body in defence of their privileges, charters, +rights; in fact, of their existence severally and collectively. The +Emperor wanted to abolish the Hungarian language, Hungarian institutions, +Hungarian society. At once the Hungarians, who had then almost entirely +neglected their language, learned to regard it as the chief palladium +of their nationality. Hungarian periodicals were started; such as the +“_Magyar Múzsa_” (since 1787); “_Magyar Múzeum_” (since 1788, in Kassa); +“_Mindenes Gyűjtemény_” (since 1789); “_Orpheus_” (since 1790, edited +by Kazinczy); “_Urania_” (since 1794, edited by Kármán), etc. Hungarian +actors were encouraged; Hungarian literary societies were started, the +oldest being that founded by John Kis, at Sopron, in 1790. These efforts +were immeasurably increased in efficiency by the publication of very +numerous Magyar works in nearly all _genres_ of literature, and in styles +and “schools” of great divergency. The members of the Guard naturally +proceeded on French lines, taking the great French writers, and chiefly +Voltaire, as their model. The foremost members of the new urban element, +which also included many an unfrocked monk, coming as they did from the +country where the Magyar language and folk-poetry had never died out, and +where the national pulse beat strongest, proceeded on national lines. +The older country-gentry, and numerous released monks, conversant above +all with Latin literature, proclaimed the classical metres and forms as +the only safeguard and aim of literature; while another section of the +new urban element followed in the wake of the Germans, whose classical +writers were just then at the height of their fame. This great divergence +of schools was in itself proof of the definite revival of Hungarian +Literature. In the spiritual republic, no less than in the political, +parties are of the very essence of vigorous life. By the end of the +last century there could have no longer been any doubt about the strong +vitality of Hungarian Literature. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. + + + 1772-1825. + +The first of these “schools” to publish serious works with the intention +of reforming the literature of Hungary, were the members of the Hungarian +Guard at Vienna, and chiefly George Bessenyei (1747-1811).[2] In 1772 he +published a tragedy, entitled “Agis” (“_Agis tragédiája_”) in which he +attempted to give, within the strict rules of the Franco-Aristotelean +tri-unity of time, place and action, a model for his contemporaries. In +point of language, _Agis_ is not without some merits; as a dramatic work +it has long been regarded as a failure. Bessenyei was more successful in +his comedies (“Philosophus,” etc.), in which he even contrived to create +a type, _Pontyi_, representing the narrow-minded, ultra-conservative +country-squire of his time. His style is held to be much better +still in his prose works containing philosophical essays after the +rationalistic fashion of his epoch. Amongst the numerous colleagues +and literary followers of Bessenyei were: Abraham Barcsai (1742-1806), +Alexander Báróczi (1735-1809), who excelled chiefly in translations +from the French; Ladislas Baranyi, Joseph Naláczi, Bessenyei’s own +brother, Alexander, who tried his hand at Milton’s “_Paradise Lost_,” +etc. To the Bessenyei circle (“_Bessenyei György társasága_”) belonged +also Paul Ányos (1756-1784), in whose mournful and sentimental poems +there are many traces of genuine poetry. Nor must Joseph Péczeli be +forgotten (1750-1792), who through his numerous translations from French +and English works (Edward Young’s “Night Thoughts”) and his “Fables” +(“_Mesék_”) deserved highly of Hungarian Literature. + +The next in time and merit was the school of the Classicists, or more +properly speaking, Latinists. The first four remarkable members of that +school were all unfrocked priests. Baróti David Szabó (1739-1819), and +Joseph Rajnis (Reinisch) were ex-Jesuits; Nicolas Révai (1750-1807) +was a Piarist, and Benedictus Virág (1752(?)-1830) an ex-Paulist. The +circumstances of their mental development above indicated led them +naturally to an imitation of the Latin poets; and Virág in Hungary, +like Ramler in Germany, or Cowley in England, was held to be one of +the numerous “Horaces,” in whom the nascent literatures of Europe +were happily so rich. In ripe mellowness of formal beauty and musical +ring Virág cannot, we are afraid, be said to have seriously challenged +the laurels of the friend of Augustus. His _Works_ (_Poétai Munkák_, +1799) are, on the other hand, inspired by a noble glow of patriotism, +which might have added some lustre to the poems even of Flaccus. Virág +translated Horace into Hungarian, as Baróti had done with the _Aeneid_. +The poetical works of the other two ex-priests were of an inferior kind. + +To the above two schools now was added the third; the national or +genuinely Magyar school. The two former laid special stress on purity and +perfection of form, both external and internal. In fact, the classicists +came near sacrificing everything else to correctness of form. In this +they were partly justified, partly supported by the peculiar adaptability +of the Hungarian language to the most complicated of classic metres. +Hexameters or alcaics are just as natural to Hungarian, as they are to +Greek and Latin; and infinitely more so than to any other Indo-German +language of Europe. The classicists, and especially the greatest of them, +Berzsenyi—see below—were able to handle the most national and intimate +subjects in the most foreign of verse-forms, and with perfect ease too. +This seemed to go far in convincing many writers, that classical forms +were the only ones to adopt, and classical models the only ones to +follow. The prosodic wealth of the Hungarian language is, however, not +exhausted by its classic metres by far. From time immemorial Hungarian +poetry was wedded to Hungarian music, and the latter, with its pointed +rhythms and sudden irruptions of cadences, was quite unfitted for the +stately calm of antique metres. In German classical music, classical +metres, such as the hexameter or the alcaic may be, and have been +employed. In Hungarian music they are out of place altogether. Here, +then, was the inner justification of the “Magyar” school. Its members +strongly and rightly felt, that in the cult of antique prosody the +classicists had overstepped the bounds; that Hungarian poetry needed +forms and moulds other than those of Virgil or Horace; and that the short +cross-rhymed stanza was to Hungarian Literature, what the violin and the +“_czimbalom_” (dulcimer) were to Hungarian music. It is impossible to +play Hungarian music on the organ. + +Of the Magyar school was Ádám Horváth (1760-1820), who in addition +to an epic called “_Hunnias_” (1787), in which he tried to sing the +exploits of John Hunyadi after the battle of Varna (1444), published a +number of simple poems in the style of the folk-poetry of the Hungarian +peasants. By refining the prosody of that _genre_ he introduced it +into the literary world. The most successful of the Magyarists was +Count Joseph Gvadányi (1725-1801), whose “A Village Notary’s Travel to +Buda” (“_Egy falusi nótárius budai utazása_,” 1790), was a felicitous +attempt to expose, in the form of a novel in verse, the utter decadence +and denationalization of the town-people and the gentry of the middle +of the last century. The “notary” has survived as a type. Gvadányi’s +other novels are on the same lines, all of them being animated by a +resolute patriotism. He was followed by Andreas Dugonics (1740-1818), +an ex-Piarist, whose “_Etelka_” a novel (1788) became very popular, +chiefly owing to its strongly accentuated patriotism and anti-Austrian +feeling, and also to the racy, popular language he used. He also compiled +a valuable collection of Hungarian proverbs and apophthegms (“_Magyar +példabeszédek és jeles mondások_”). The number of writers belonging to +the Magyar school in the two last decades of the eighteenth century +is considerable. They all excel in patriotic verve, and much of the +anonymous work done at that time for the restoration of Hungarian +Literature is due to them. We cannot here give more than a list of a +few names. John Kónyi, Stephán Gáti, Francis Nagy, the first Hungarian +translator of the Iliad, and Joachim Szekér, who did much for the +bettering of female education in Hungary. Separate mention must be made +of a number of Magyarist poet-naturalists whose centre was the city +of Debreczen, and amongst whom were John Földi (1755-1801), who wrote +some remarkable works on Hungarian prosody in its relation to music; +and Michael Fazekas, whose “_Ludas Matyi_,” a chap-book written in the +interests of the peasants, has long been one of the most popular comic +stories. Nor were the usual excrescences of the juvenile epoch of a +new language wanting. A limited class of now obscure writers (Gregory +Édes, John Varjas, etc.), abused the great flexibility of the Hungarian +language in verse-forms and metres of the most absurd kind. They were the +caricaturists of the rapidly growing Magyar idiom. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. + + + 1772-1825. + +The formation of different schools of literature was of great benefit +to the growth and advance of Hungarian poetry and prose. Many a +minor talent could and did, by clinging to and being supported by a +“school,” steady his work. After the lapse of some time, however, the +exclusiveness of “schools” would have done great harm to the higher +development of Hungarian Literature. By 1795 more than schools and +literary guilds was needed. The nation wanted powerful individualities +who were, so to speak, schools themselves. Fortunately for the cause +of the Hungarian intellect, such men did arise in time. The first of +them was Francis Verseghy (1757-1822). An ex-Piarist, and involved in +the conspiracy of Martinovics: he had gone through the experiences of +a priest, a politician and a state-prisoner. His poetical works, which +are very numerous, manifest a tender, yet strong mind, much ease of +form, and a power of satire. He translated the _Marseillaise_ into +Hungarian. He is at his best in short poems. What raises him above most +of his predecessors is his considerable independence as a poet. He +clings slavishly to no school, and succeeds in combining some of the +excellencies of all. In genius he was far excelled by tempestuous John +Bacsányi (1763-1845), who espoused the cause of the French Revolution, +did some work for Napoleon, and was in 1814 taken back to Austria, where +he died an exile. He brought Ossian’s poems to Hungary; and in his fierce +poems all the fire of the revolutionary fever may be felt. Yet with all +that he could reduce to fine proportions and to efficiency neither his +life nor his work. In the melancholy and sweet poems of the ex-priest, +Gabriel Dayka (1768-1796), the Hungarian Hölty, which have to the present +day lost nothing of their Wordsworth-like delicacy, we have the first +instalment of those mournful _largos_, in which Hungarian Literature is +as rich as is Hungarian music. + +These three writers were as the forerunners of literary individualities +of a much higher type. The first of them was Joseph Kármán (1769-1795). +He too spent some time in Vienna, where then centred the political and +social life of a large portion of Europe. Like so many more Hungarians, +he burst into enthusiasm for his country by staying and living amongst +a foreign people who, in the nobler traits of character, were decidedly +inferior to the Magyars, and who yet were considered to be their rulers. +The people of Austria, and especially the Viennese, are utterly different +from the Hungarians. Their love of the burlesque, of the grotesquely +funny, of the clownish, stood out then, as it still largely does, in +sharp contrast to the dignified gravity of the Magyars. To be considered +as subject to people so very much less adapted for the functions of +government than themselves, was at all times galling to the Hungarians; +and perhaps never more so, than in the nineties of the last century, when +a mighty wave of opposition to the Habsburgs was sweeping over Hungary. +Kármán’s was a most sensitive soul. He fully realized that to render +Hungarian Literature more perfect and independent was first of all a +great political deed. He keenly felt, that Hungary, unless emancipated +intellectually, must fall a victim to the then immense ascendancy of +Austria. Every good poem, every good novel, written by a Hungarian in +the language of his country, was then of more service to Hungary than +all the proceedings at the national assemblies. Kármán, despite his +extreme youth, at once set to work. He proclaimed that Pesth ought to be +the literary centre of Hungary. He started a quarterly (“_Urania_”), +and hastened to write his “_Memoirs of Fanny_” (“_Fanni hagyományai_”). +The latter is a novel in the form of letters and leaves from a diary. +Fanny, the heroine, loves with all the inconsiderate passion of a +young girl, a young man, whom she is not allowed to marry. She dies of +a broken heart in the arms of her lover. The plot of the novel is of +the simplest. The excessive sentimentality of the heroine, who is, as +it were, drowned in the floods of her own feelings, is to our present +taste somewhat overdone. With all these shortcomings, however, Kármán +has poured over his little story so much of the golden light of fine, +unaffected style, and has enriched it with so many touches of the most +effective descriptions of scenery, that “_Fanny_” will always rank among +the foremost of the literary products of the kind, of which Goethe’s +“_Werther_” is the most famous. + +The second great poet was Michael Vitéz Csokonai (1773-1805). Born at +Debreczen, a town whose famous fairs brought together annually an immense +concourse of the agricultural and trading people of Hungary, Csokonai was +at an early age imbued with the riches of the gallery of types for which +his country has always been so remarkable. Although at all periods of +his irregular and vagrant life Csokonai kept in close touch with books, +Bürger amongst the Germans, Pope amongst the English, and Metastasio +amongst the Italians, being his favourites; yet the real source of his +surprising fertility of invention, and surety of draughtsmanship was laid +in his constant contact with the people itself. His proud and independent +character, the ruggedness of which was not rendered less objectionable +by an independent fortune, drove him from post to post. As a roving poet +he visited most of the counties, making friends everywhere, protectors +and helpers nowhere; and when he finally returned to his old mother’s +house, his health was irretrievably shattered by poverty, privations and +occasional excesses. He is a great poet. His language is full of savour +and truly Magyar. He has abundant and merciful humour, without lacking +wit. Frequently he soars to philosophical heights of thought, where, like +the eagle, he broods alone. In his lyrical poetry there is much of the +rhapsodic frenzy, which was to make Hungary’s greatest poet, Petőfi, as +unique in poetry, as Liszt is in music. Csokonai’s most famous poem is +a comic epic, somewhat in the style of the _Rape of the Lock_, called +“_Dorottya_,” or the _Triumph of the Ladies at the Carnival_ (“_A dámák +diadalma a farsangon_”), in four parts. It narrates the warfare of the +ladies of a small town, under the leadership of an old maid (Dorottya), +with the men of the same place. The women complain of the shortness of +the carnival, of the rarity of weddings, etc., and attempt to steal the +registers of births compromising to many of them. In the end, the women +fall out amongst themselves, Venus steps in, rejuvenating Dorottya, and +making peace by marrying the contending parties to each other. The tone +of that comic epic is throughout one of genuine mirth, and the language +forms a fit drapery of the fleeting scenes of this charming carnival. +The types stand out with great plasticity, and in this respect at least, +Csokonai’s _Dorottya_ need fear no comparison with Pope’s masterpiece. +The critics of his time did not recognize Csokonai’s greatness; and his +townsmen, nearly all of them rigid Calvinists, did not think much of a +poet in whose stanzas wine flowed abundantly, and love was rampant in +forms at times unrestrained. When, therefore, some years after the poet’s +death, admirers of his wanted to have his statue erected at Debreczen, +and the words, “I too lived in Arcadia” engraved upon it, the good +burghers of Debreczen violently opposed the suggestion. For, as if trying +to give the departed poet exquisite material for another comic epic, they +alleged, that by “Arcadia,” was meant, as they had learned, a country +with good pasture, especially for donkeys; and since they solemnly +protested against being considered donkeys, etc., etc. From this incident +followed the so-called Arcadian lawsuit (“_arkádiai pör_”). + + + + +CHAPTER XV. + + + 1772-1825. + +In the literature of all civilized nations we meet with certain writers, +whose great effect on their contemporaries was owing less to the absolute +excellency of single works of theirs, than to the general tone and power +of suggestion inherent in all their individuality. Such are, in England, +Dr. Johnson and Thomas Carlyle; in France, Diderot and Renan; in Germany, +Hamann and Herder. Without being creative geniuses, they influence their +time as if they were such. One does so by the brilliancy of his talk, +like Johnson; the other by pamphlets or essays _de omni re scibili_, +like Herder; a third by boldly attempting to rear a new intellectual +world in the place of the fabric of old literature and knowledge, like +Diderot. The merit of such men is immense, yet relative. They deserve +more highly of literary men, than of literature. They spread interest in +or taste for good literature. They are critical, not constructive; and +so decidedly preparatory and temporary is their work, that in the whole +range of the world’s literature there has so far been one man, and one +alone, whose genius shone equally in this preparatory or critical work, +and in the still more precious work of positive creativeness too. That +man was Lessing. In him the critical faculty did not seriously impair the +creative; and he rendered immense services to German literature both by +what he destroyed, by what he suggested and by what he created. + +Hungarian Literature was fortunate enough to find one of those initiators +and suggestive stimulators during the period of its great revival, in +the person of Francis Kazinczy (1759-1831). His work has frequently +been compared to that of Lessing. No greater injustice could be done +to Kazinczy. To compare him to the author of “_Laokoon_,” “_Emilia +Galotti_,” and “_Anti-Goetze_,” is to render him much smaller than he +really was. Without being a Lessing by far, he had a very considerable +and beneficial influence on Hungarian writers, many of them greater +than he. He was the son of a well-to-do gentleman of the county of +Bihar, which has a population of both Magyars and Roumanians, and does +not therefore belong to the counties where the purely Magyar spirit is +permeating all the phases of life. To this circumstance, no less than +to his education, must be ascribed Kazinczy’s little sympathy with the +strongly Magyar and nationalist aspirations of the Debreczen school. +His youth he spent chiefly in North Hungary, where the study of German +literature was then rife in the better circles of society. Having +acquired a competent knowledge of German, French and English, he poured +forth, since 1791, numerous, most carefully composed translations from +Shakespeare (_Hamlet_), Goethe, Molière, Klopstock, Herder, Lessing, +etc. From 1794 to 1801 he was kept in various state prisons, for having +been, as was alleged, implicated in the conspiracy of Martinovics. +This terrible experience left no particular traces either on his mind +or on his character. Subsequently, as previously, nay during his +imprisonment, he was busy with the elaboration of essays, critical, +historical, or novelistic, all of which had two distinct aims: first—to +reform the Hungarian literary language, by the introduction of new words +and especially new idioms; secondly, to reform Hungarian Literature +by modelling it after the standard of Greek masterpieces. Both lines +of reform were in the right direction. The Hungarian language was in +Kazinczy’s youth still far from developed. Its vocabulary was limited +mostly to the designation of things material, and quite fallow for the +production of terms expressing things abstract or æsthetic. It resembled +a country in which there is abundant currency in the shape of small +coin; it lacked gold coins and bank-notes of great value. Yet like +Hungary itself, its language was replete with gold-mines. In the rich and +racy vocabulary of the common people there was both overt material and +abundant hints for material hidden under the surface. Kazinczy, instead +of taking these hints—instead of coining his new terms and idioms from +the language of the common people, as he ought to have done, preferred +to coin them according to standards taken from the western languages of +Europe. In this he was grievously mistaken. There are unfortunately very +few, if any, true dialects of the Hungarian language. This, the greatest +drawback to Magyar writers, as the reverse of this deficiency is the +greatest advantage to the writers of Germany, France, Italy or England, +was rendered very much more harmful by Kazinczy, in that he totally +neglected the few dialectic features together with the common household +language of the people. In his efforts to enrich the language he thus +could not but obtain results of an inferior type. His syntactic moves +have not been followed on the whole; and of his new words few have gained +general recognition. + +He was much more successful in the second of his life-long efforts; in +the introduction of the æsthetic ideals of the Greeks into Hungary. We +have seen above, that the neglect of the study of Greek literature in +Hungary had, in the preceding periods stunted the growth of Hungarian +Literature. Literature, like sculpture, is born of Greek parents; and +none but nations trained in the Hellenic world of ideas, can make a +literature proper. In Germany, Lessing, Wieland, Herder and Goethe +were so profoundly imbued with Hellenic modes of thought and moulds of +expression, that many of their best works have, as has been felicitously +remarked, enriched ancient Greek literature. So deep were in Germany, +through the works of these men, the furrows of Greek thought, that even +writers like Schiller, who did not know Greek, were full of the Greek +spirit of beauty and moderation, and amongst its most ardent propagators. +It was from these German Hellenes that Kazinczy learned the great and +invaluable lesson of Greek idealism, that spiritual atmosphere in which +the human intellect feels as different from its ordinary sensations, as +does the human body in a river. Kazinczy was the first of the Hungarian +writers whose soul had undergone the process of Platonization, to use +this clumsy but expressive word for a process, the chief stages of which +are an increased familiarity with mental tempers, the greatest exponent +of which was Plato. In Kazinczy’s wide correspondence with nearly all +the literary men of his age; in his greater and smaller works; in his +personal interviews with the leading men of his time; he invariably, and +with noble persistency, endeavoured to instil Hellenic ideals of form, +of beauty, of serenity. He had clearly seen how much German literature +had been benefited by the adoption of those ideals; he sincerely and +fervently wanted to confer the same boon on the literature of his own +country. This endeavour constitutes his greatness, as its success does +his historic importance. His own poems are mediocre; yet he has the +merit of being the author of the first sonnets in Hungarian; his forte +lies in his prose works, and there chiefly in his translations from the +classical writers of Rome, Germany, France and England. It was also +his indefatigable activity which gave rise to a wholesome literary +controversy about the nature and limits of a radical reform of the +Hungarian language as a vehicle of literature. This controversy merits +special mention. + +Omitting the names of some learned precursors, whose works have not much +advanced the philological study of the Hungarian language, it may be +stated, that the first to subject that idiom to a careful and systematic +study based on researches into its historical development, was Nicolas +Révai. In his _Elaboratior Grammatica Hungarica_ (1806, 2 vols.), he +summed up his previous essays, and placed Hungarian philology on a +tolerably sure basis, after the manner subsequently adopted by Jacob +Grimm for Germanic philology. Although he still hankered after the +purely imaginary affinity between Magyar and the Semitic languages, he +yet succeeded in clearing up many a vital point in Hungarian historic +grammar. With regard to the then wanted reform of the language, he taught +that that reform ought to proceed on the lines of the laws of language +as discovered by a close study of the ancient remains of Hungarian +Literature. He was vehemently opposed by Verseghy (see page 85), who +taught that the reform ought to be guided, not by the bygone forms of +Hungarian, but by those actually in force. It is now pretty clear, that +while the science of language is sure to be enriched by methods of study +such as that of Révai, the art of language is more likely to gain by the +advice of Verseghy. Kazinczy, who possessed neither Révai’s philologic +erudition, nor Verseghy’s powers of philologic analysis, but who adopted +principles of reform from both, Kazinczy became the centre of the +passionate warfare that now arose for the golden fleece of “Pure Magyar.” +The Conservative party, whose headquarters were at Debreczen, Somogy, +Szeged, and Veszprém, were called orthologues; the adherents of Kazinczy, +neologues. Satyric writings were published by both; by the orthologues: +“_Búsongó Amor_,” 1806, and the still more famous “_Mondolat_,” 1813; by +the neologues: “_Felelet_,” 1816, written by Kölcsey and Szemere; and +chiefly, the prize-essay of Count Joseph Teleki, in 1817. In the end most +of the work of the neologues has been accepted by the nation. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI. + + + 1772-1825. + +The great campaigns fought by Austria against the French Revolution and +Napoleon were in reality the prelude of the subsequent warfare of the +Conservative and reactionary classes against the rising Liberalism of +modern times. In literature, that mighty duel of night and light was +reiterated by the struggle between the romantic and the national schools +of poetry. The romantic writers, whether Byron in England, Chateaubriand +in France, or Eichendorff in Germany, were all perfect in form, and +morbid in subject. They were to poetry what Prince Metternich was to +politics, a genius of twilight. So natural was this connection between +the French Revolution on the one hand, and national, or sound literature +on the other, that they who personally fought in the wars against the +Convention and the Directory (1792-1799), as later on against Napoleon +(1799-1815), invariably inclined to the romantic or the reactionary +school. This will explain the rise of romantic works in Hungary at a +time when their classical and national school had scarcely begun to +appear. The first great romantic Hungarian poet is Alexander Kisfaludy +(1772-1844). He had fought in the Austrian army in Italy and Germany +against the revolutionary armies of France, and so naturally considered +the gentry of his country as the true representatives of his nation. In +1801 he published the first part of a series of lyrical poems called +“_Himfy Szerelmei_,” through which runs the uniting link of luckless love +for one and the same maiden. Kisfaludy lived for some time in the country +of Petrarch, and the influence of the great singer of hopeless love is +clearly visible in the Magyar poet’s work. It is written in stanzas of +twelve lines, and is full of that shapeless but sweet sentimentality +which so characterizes the romantic writers. It is like a landscape in +which the most attractive part is the fleeting clouds: mountains, rivers, +houses, and persons being all blurred and vague. It is atmospheric +poetry, full of sweet words and sounds, as if coming from distant music. +In 1807 Kisfaludy published another part of his _Himfy_, this time +singing the joys of requited love, as the first did its sorrows. The +work was received with great enthusiasm, more especially, of course, by +the unmarried population of the country; and Kisfaludy was encouraged to +write novels, dramas and ballads in great number. All these works are +meant to form an apotheosis of mediæval times in Hungary; just as the +German and French romantic writers revelled in the charms of chateaux +and knights and crusades. Some of his ballads are really good, such as +_Csobáncz_. His dramas are worthless. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII. + + + 1772-1825. + +The romanticism started by Kisfaludy did not, however, retard the other +literary movements in Hungary. The Hungarian language is in many ways +too closely akin to the classic languages, if not in body, at least +in prosody, to have easily forsaken the classic forms which had long +been used by writers of this period, for the sake of romanticism. The +Hungarian language is in that respect like Hungarian music. Although +apparently nothing can be more remote from the strict moderation and +stately respectability of classical music than Hungarian music, yet the +strictest of the forms of classical music, viz., the fugue, has a curious +internal resemblance to Magyar airs, in that the latter easily yield +magnificent fugue themes, and preludes to fugues. Likewise the Hungarian +language lends itself with surprising felicitousness to the expression of +the highest form of classic metrical poetry: the ode. + +Daniel Berzsenyi (1776-1826) was the poet who fully realized the +riches of the classical veins in the mines of the Hungarian language, +and who gave his country a number of perfect odes written in the metre +and in the spirit of the best of antique odes. His patriotic odes, most +famous of which is the one beginning “Perishing is now the once strong +Magyar” (“_Romlásnak indult hajdan erős Magyar_” in alcaic metre); his +religious odes, most perfect of which is “God-seeking” (“_Fohászkodás_” +in alcaic metre); show the chief quality of classical poetry: perfect +form wedded to hale and true subjects. He moves on the Alpine roads and +in the ravines of the antique arduous metres with natural ease; for the +real subjects of his poetry are akin and similar to Alpine sunsets and +sunrises, majestic glaciers, and despondent abysses. He is sublime and +natural; and amongst modern writers of odes in antique metres only the +German Platen, when at his best, can compare with him. His poems were +listened to with rapturous attention by the old warriors and politicians +of the National Assembly, and read with equal enthusiasm and admiration +by the youth of Hungary. From the height whereon he places himself with +his lyre, there is no difference of size or age in his listeners. Nor +has time abated one tittle of the glory of his best poems. Some of the +best critics of his epoch (amongst them Kölcsey) did not appreciate him +adequately. At present we cannot sufficiently wonder at their blindness. +We must console ourselves with the thought that poets, like the sun, +are, as a rule, not noticed for some time after their appearance on the +horizon. In the time of Berzsenyi there died at Vienna (in 1820) a young +Hungarian, probably by his own hand, in utter distress; his name was +Ladislas Tóth de Ungvárnémet. His mind, living in the regions of the +Greek ideals (he even wrote Greek poetry), could not endure the sordid +materialism of his surroundings. He left, in Hungarian, a tragedy after +the Hellenic model, “_Narcisz_.” Hungary has, by the premature death of +Tóth, probably lost her chance of having her Shelley. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII. + + + 1772-1825. + +The enlightened foreigner from France, England or Germany, reading about +the allegedly great literary works written by Hungarians, Poles, Czechs +or other nationalities who have so far not succeeded in playing first +fiddle in the European concert, will probably indulge in a polite doubt +as to the exceeding excellence of those works, not one of which has ever +been spoken of in the columns of the leading papers or periodicals of +London, Paris, Berlin, Rome or Vienna. In the preceding pages we have +ventured to mention Pope and Shelley, and a few great German poets in +the same breath with great Magyar writers. This may appear preposterous +to Englishmen or Germans. Far from reviling them for that, we would +rather hasten to add, that in a certain sense they are quite right. +Pope’s genius is in one most essential point decidedly superior to that +of Csokonai (see page 88). Pope’s best poems are not exclusively English +in taste, subject-matter or form. They belong to that class of European +literature, the best products of which may be relished with equal +delight by Spaniards and Danes alike. They are European in character; +and so much is this the case with the foremost of those writers, that +Shakespeare, for instance, is far better known, by the youth at least +of Germany, Austria and Hungary, than by that of England. In the great +German writers there is little of that specifically German tone, which +people other than Germans cannot very well enjoy. In Lessing there is no +trace of the sentimentality and liquoriciousness of his native province; +in Schiller there is not a trace of Suabian cunning or lumbersomeness; +and Goethe might just as well have been born at Syracuse under Gelon, +or at Athens under Pericles. Is there any trace of Puritanism, this the +most specifically English feature of his time, in Shakespeare? The major +part of the better writers of Hungary or Poland, on the other hand, have +suffered their intense patriotism to make such inroads on the literary +character of their works, that the latter frequently lose all their point +to readers outside Hungary and Poland. + +These reflections are suggested by a consideration of the works of +Francis Kölcsey (1790-1838), a really great orator and a good poet. Born +in the county of Bihar, where he spent the best part of his short life, +he employed his magnificent powers of oratory chiefly in inculcating +in the Hungarians of his time the lesson of patriotism. There can be +no doubt that his speeches, his lofty “_Paraenesis_,” and some of his +critical work are written in that gorgeously laborious style which has +made the fame of Bossuet in France and Gibbon in England. His poems +breathe a mild melancholy that gives them a sombre tint of peculiar +beauty. Yet, on the whole, he never oversteps the narrow limits of Magyar +life as then existent; and what appeals to men of all countries and all +nations found but a feeble rhetorical echo in his writings. No young +Hungarian can read his works without deep emotion. In maturer years, +however, he finds that Kölcsey’s works belong to those that one gladly +remembers to have read once, without desiring to read them again. + +The growth of Hungarian Literature from 1772 to 1825 was, compared to +that of England from 1570 to 1620; of Germany from 1760 to 1805; or of +France from 1630 to 1675, a slow one. Many of the Hungarian writers of +that period were endowed with gifts of no common calibre; and some of +them, such as Kazinczy, Kisfaludy, Csokonai, Berzsenyi, Kölcsey, can +certainly not be denied the distinction of genius. Yet with all their +efforts, individual or collective, they did not quicken the step of +literary progress very considerably. This was owing to the fact, that +Hungary had as yet no literary centres, such as England possessed in +London; France in Paris; and Germany in Berlin, Leipsic or Weimar. Nearly +all the poets and other writers so far mentioned lived in small towns +scattered over the country, and, from the lack of good communications, +were practically isolated from one another. Kazinczy lived in the county +of Zemplén; Kölcsey in the county of Bihar; Kisfaludy, Berzsenyi, Ádám +Horváth in the cis-Danubian counties. There were, it is true, some +literary centres in Pesth; such as the house of the able folk-poet +Vitkovics. But they were few, and Pesth was, as yet, not a great capital. +Literature needs local concentration of high-strung people. Country life +gives the aptitude for poetic work; intense urban life alone ripens that +aptitude into creative talent. Virgil at Mantua, or Cicero at Arpinum +would have remained sterile provincials. The great mental agitation set +in motion by the writers in Magyar above mentioned was given additional +fuel by a very large number of Hungarians writing in Latin and French. +The ideas of the French and German Rationalism (“_Aufklaerung_”) of that +time were eagerly seized upon, elaborated and discussed in over five +hundred works and pamphlets treating of Religion, Politics, Law and +Philosophy. Hungary was thus during that period (1772-1825), instinct +with great intellectual powers; and all that was wanting was to focus +them. As long as the political or _the_ life of Hungary was crippled by +the autocracy of Metternich, that is, down to 1825-1830, that national +focus could not be forthcoming. With the revival of the political +life in and through the national Diet assembled at Pesth in 1825, the +only remaining condition of a quicker and more energetic pulsation of +Hungary’s literary life was fulfilled. Henceforth Hungary employed the +right strategy for the able men of her literary army, and the result +was a short but brilliant period of literary productions, many of +which attain to the higher and some to the highest degrees of artistic +perfection. And inasmuch as the creation of the national focus was the +most potent cause of the unprecedented revival of Hungary’s literature, +we must first treat of that glorious man who was chiefly instrumental in +its realization: Count Stephen Széchenyi. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX. + + + 1825-1850. + +1825-1850. Count Stephen Széchenyi, “_the greatest Magyar_” as Kossúth +called him, was one of those rare patriots whose enthusiasm is tempered +by the most careful respect for facts and practical probabilities, while +their love of detail and material work is broadened and elevated by the +noble passion of disinterested patriotism. The maxim of his life was, +“Hungary has not yet been; she will be” (“_Magyarország nem volt hanem +lesz_”). A scion of a magnate family he had, like Mirabeau, derived much +light from the study of foreign countries. As most of his contemporaries, +he was convinced that Hungary, unless aroused from her political and +industrial torpor, could not in her then state claim a place amongst +the civilized nations of Europe. He was by no means of a revolutionary +disposition against the Habsburgs. On the contrary, he wanted to realize +all the vast reforms he contemplated in peace with Austria; for being a +sort of enthusiastic Walpole (—the manes of Sir Robert will pardon us +that epithet!—) his activity was directed mainly, at times at least, to +the bettering of the material condition of Hungary. + +Széchenyi did not, however, neglect the intellectual needs of his +country either. When still a young cavalry officer he offered one year’s +revenue of his estates (£10,000 in value; nominally, £5,000) for the +establishment of a national Hungarian Academy of Science, the members of +which were to consider the cultivation and development of the Hungarian +language as their prime duty. Széchenyi’s magnanimous offer was at once +responded to by similar offers on the part of three rich magnates (Count +George Andrássy, Count George Károlyi, and Baron Abraham Vay), and thus a +serious commencement was made with the founding of an intellectual centre +in Hungary. The Academy (“_Magyar Tudományos Akadémia_”) was formally +established in 1830, its first president being Count Joseph Teleki. +Among the great number of linguistic, historic, and scientific works, +both original and translations, published by the Academy, we may mention +the “_Monumenta_,” or historic sources of Hungary; several smaller +dictionaries for current use, and the great Dictionary of the Hungarian +Language, edited by Gregory Czuczor and John Fogarasi (1844-1874); the +translation of the best works of foreign authors on History, Philosophy, +Law, and Science, including, amongst others, almost all the standard +works of English literature; and a series of original researches into all +branches of Science, descriptive, mathematical, physical and chemical. +Together with numerous writers of that period, Széchenyi also attempted, +and very felicitously too, an internal reform of the Magyar language, to +the vocabulary of which he added some needed and now generally accepted +terms. + +Széchenyi’s restless propaganda succeeded in moving even the +ultra-conservative and indolent country-gentry; and in the thirties many +a nobleman had a residence of his own built in Pesth. The Country began +to move into the Town. In 1837, the national Hungarian theatre was opened +at Pesth. Numerous newspapers and periodicals were published; the number +of press-organs in Magyar, which was five in 1820, rising to ten in 1830, +and to twenty-six in 1840. In 1891 there were 645 Magyar newspapers and +periodicals in Hungary. The work meted out to the “Academy” being rather +of a technical nature, the “Kisfaludy-Society” (“_Kisfaludy-Társaság_”) +was formed in 1836, with the view of promoting the interests of +_belles-lettres_ proper in Hungary. Thanks to the patriotic and +well-directed activity of that Society, many an unknown but gifted author +was enabled to bring his work under the notice of the country. Its +prizes were, and are eagerly competed for, and it has done very much +for the great progress of good literature in Hungary. Historical and +archæological societies were formed in many parts of the country; and the +nation became conscious of the greatness of Hungarian music, which in the +wizard hands of Francis Liszt (1811-1887), the greatest of all executive, +and one of the most striking of creative musicians, was fast becoming +the admiration of Europe. Nor were the schools neglected. Since 1844 the +language of instruction in schools was mostly Hungarian. The political +reverses of the Hungarians in 1849 caused the introduction of the German +language into the schools of Hungary; in 1861, however, the national +language was again reinstated in its rights, and now the language of +instruction in all the schools and colleges of Hungary is Magyar. + +These are some of the most important intellectual reforms which, from +1825 to 1848 completely changed the face of the Hungary of olden times. +While previous to 1825, all attempts at reform were restricted to small +circles and straggling individuals, and could, therefore, bear no fruit +for the nation at large, now the efforts for the renascence of the +material and intellectual life of the country were concentrated by the +creation of a true capital of social, literary and scientific centres; +by the co-operation of great numbers of patriotic and able men; and by +the powerful, nay, in Hungary, all-powerful stimulus imparted to all the +energies of the nation through the revival of its ancient parliamentary +life. In Hungary, as well as in England, Parliament is the soul of the +body-politic. The stagnation of parliamentary life in Hungary from +1813 to 1825 was almost tantamount to the stagnation of all the other +intellectual energies of the nation. From 1825 onward, the National +Assembly met frequently; the Magyar language was again used in the +debates, and many reforms that had proved unrealizable in the hands of +private reformers, were carried out by the power of the nation assembled +in Parliament. The constant opposition offered to all reforms in Hungary, +at the hands of the Vienna government, only acted as a further stimulus +to the Hungarians; and within the five-and-twenty years of the present +period, Hungary advanced by leaps and bounds, both in its politic and +literary development. + + + + +CHAPTER XX. + + +The _rôle_ of Kazinczy as mentor and model for the younger generation +of his time was now allotted to a very gifted poet, Charles Kisfaludy, +brother of Alexander (see page 101). He was born in 1788, and like his +brother, became a soldier in the Austrian army. His proud father, on +learning that he had, in 1811, thrown up his military career, disowned +him; and Charles had to rough it in wild wanderings over Europe amidst +great privations. Yet his mind, singularly widened by the view and study +of European civilization, was thereby so strengthened and developed, that +on his return to his country (1817), he contrived to rise from abject +poverty to comparative comfort by his own literary exertions. His dramas, +some of which he wrote in the course of a few days, were at once so +intensely relished by the public, that Kisfaludy, who produced with equal +ease poetic works of lyric or epic character, quickly became the centre +of the literary life of Hungary. The “_Aurora_,” a literary periodical +founded by him in 1822, was enriched by the contributions of the +foremost writers, mostly his followers; and he himself was the rallying +personality for the new literary movement. Alas! his body, less elastic +than his mind, could never overcome the effects of his wanderings, and he +died of consumption in 1830. + +In Kisfaludy the influence of the literary ideals of the French +and Germans is easily traceable. Like his models he was steeped in +romanticism and worship of the distant past. Yet he was saved from the +sickliness and namby-pambiness of many a German or French romantic poet +by his strong sense of humour. In his dramas (“_Stibor Vaida_,” “_Irén_,” +etc.) he frequently manifests strong dramatic vitality. It is in his +comedies and gay stories, that he excels. His humour is broad, subtle, +sympathetic and well worded. In his tragedies he did not succeed in +creating a type, this, one of the safest criteria of a poet’s genius. +In his comedies (“_Csalódások_” [“Disappointments”]; “_Kérők_” [“The +Wooers”]; “_Leányőrző_” [“Girl’s Guard”], etc.) on the other hand, he +has given types of undying vitality; such as “_Mokány_,” the rough, +humorous and honest young country squire. If we consider the fact here +so frequently alluded to, that social life in Hungary was up to the +thirties of this century exclusively life among the county-families in +the country, or in small towns; if, moreover, we remember that such +life on a small scale, where each person stands out in bold relief and +unencumbered by the numerous social mediocrities of large towns, is +the proper foster-earth of rich personalities: it will be easy to see, +that social life in Hungary in Kisfaludy’s youth was bristling with +delightfully original types of men and women. They only waited for the +hand of the poet to spring into their frames, and form valuable pictures. +Country-life and small towns in Hungary, to the present day, are full +of the most delightful types, both men and women; and the reputation +of a Dickens might have been acquired by him who would have told the +“adventures” and freaks of, for instance, the quaint, many-tongued sires +of the county of Sáros. Kisfaludy, with the true poet’s eye _saw_ those +types, and put them bodily on his canvas. They talk on his pages that +very language, full of savoury adjectives and verbal somersaults, that +they used when meeting at the halls of their friends, at the “Casino” +of the place or at the table in front of the Swiss _Confiserie_, in the +sleepy streets of their county capital. In his novels, “_Tollagi János_” +[a proper name]; “_Sulyosdi Simon_” [a proper name], etc., Kisfaludy has +recorded many a precious feature of the life of these sturdy, amiable, +enthusiastic, shrewd and simple country-gentry, in the midst of whom +moved the pathetic and lofty young girl; the coquettish and charming +young wife (or “little heaven,” “_mennyecske_” as the Hungarian word +has it); the quaint old maid, and the still quainter old bachelor. Here +Kisfaludy is at his best; and in showing his fellow-writers some of the +wealth to be found in their own country, he did Hungarian Literature and +Hungarian nationality an immense service. In some of his lyrical poems, +and especially in his truly majestic ode to the memory of the disaster +of Mohács (1526), written in dystichs, Kisfaludy is frequently more than +clever; in that ode he soars to the sublime. His “_Eprészleány_” (“Girl +Gleaning Strawberries”) is a charming idyll. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI. + + +The work of Kisfaludy was great. He charmed his readers, and thus +awakened an interest in Hungarian Literature in circles that had hitherto +been callous to the intellectual revival of their country. His vocation, +however, was limited. The Hungarians, by nature grave and given to +ponderous sentiments, needed, for a full awakening of their literary +life, more than the perfume of flowers. The rhythmic thunder of the +war-clarion; the majesty of the organ was needed. And the right man came. +The man, in whose sublime poems was heard the turmoil of the old glorious +wars, the symphony of love and patriotism, in tones of unprecedented +beauty. That man was Michael Vörösmarty (1800-1855). His life was devoted +entirely to the pursuit of literature, and in his soul there was only +one grand thought: to become Hungary’s troubadour, to kindle the holy +light of patriotism on the altar, and with the aid of the muses. In this +he was successful beyond all his predecessors. His were some of the +rarest qualities, the union of which goes to make the great poet. In +beauty and truly Magyar rhythm of language he was and largely still is +unsurpassed. His diction is, like his country, full of the majesty of +vast mountains, and the loveliness of flower-clad meadows sloping down to +melodious rivers. Without being a reckless innovator of words, his works +read at the first appearance as if written in a new language. As when +the student of Hellenic antiquity, after years spent with engravings of +old Greek art, comes for the first time to see one of the still extant +remains of that art itself: so felt the contemporaries of Vörösmarty +when the glorious hexameters of his epic, “_Zalán futása_” first struck +their ears. There was at last, not only this or that instrument of the +orchestra of Hungarian language; there was heard, not only the wails of +the ’cello of Kölcsey; the musical cascades of the clarinet of Charles +Kisfaludy; the wafting chords of the harp of Berzsenyi; or the gossamer +oboe of Csokonai: there was heard the unison and harmonious struggle +of all the instruments of the great idiom. Like the composers of the +immortal symphonies, Vörösmarty wielded the resources of the Magyar +language, intensifying the effect of each instrument by the parallel or +counter-quires of the other instruments. In his love-songs you hear +not only the notes of the melody, but also, as in the songs of his +Austrian contemporary, Schubert, the undercurrents of the melody in the +accompaniment. The wealth of poetic figures in Vörösmarty is surprising; +yet a chaste moderation tempers all undue exuberance. He is powerful, +not violent; imposing, not fierce. He writes mostly Largos; but there +are very few _longeurs_ in them. The quick pulsation of the drama does +not suit him; the epic and ode are his favourite forms. For, in him is +much of the priest, of the seer of a nation. In the depth of his reticent +heart he feels the whole life of his nation, and smarts unspeakably from +its then degradation. Too proud to indulge in constant moanings, he is +yet in an agony of rage and indignation at the oppression of his people. +But this holy anger goes forth from him sculptured in songs, swelling +with abiding life of beauty and power. + +Vörösmarty’s poetic vocation was, if not aroused, yet, undoubtedly, +guided into the right direction by an epic of one Alexander Székely, a +Unitarian preacher, entitled “The Szekler in Transylvania” (“_A Székelyek +Erdélyországban_”), in which a not infelicitous attempt was made to work +into one national song the ancient Magyar legends and mythology. An +epic is the song of a nation whose critical dangers are not yet over. +It may be said, without exaggeration, that heroic Wolfe in driving the +French out of Canada (1759), drove out the last chance of the Americans +for anything like a great national epic. In gaining their independence +a few years after Wolfe’s success, the Americans also obtained perfect +security. There was no serious enemy left to jeopardize their existence. +The Indians could and did annoy them much; they could not seriously call +their very existence in question. Hence the Indian tales of Fenimore +Cooper are the only epics of the Americans. In Hungary matters stood +quite differently. There the very existence of the nation was doubtful. +A catastrophe might occur at any time. And in the terrible anguish of +that “gigantic death” (“_nagyszerü halál_”), of which Vörösmarty sings +in his “_Szózat_” (national hymn), the people of Hungary needed more +than a drama or an ode can give. It needed a national poem of large +dimensions in which the glories of the past were held up to the people +as an incitement to the conquest of the trophies of the future; in which +the powers of the Divine were shown to have a personal interest in the +destinies of the nation; and in which the sacred language of thirty +generations of patriots glows in all the victorious beauty of perfection. +When in 1748 Klopstock published his great epic, the “_Messias_,” he too +desired to do his country a patriotic service. His aim was, however, +at once larger and smaller than that of Vörösmarty. He meant chiefly +to weld for the Germans the weapon of a better language. Beyond this +he meant his epic for any nation whatever, its subject-matter being of +universal acceptance amongst Christian nations. Not so Vörösmarty. He +meant to write a Messianic epic, in which the Messiah was the Hungarian +nation itself. He wanted to raise up a particular nation, his nation, +to the consciousness of its force, of its vocation. And thus, while the +intellectual scope of his poem was much more limited than that of either +Milton or Klopstock, the intensity of its purport far exceeded both. + +The name of the epic was, “The Flight of Zalán” (“_Zalán futása_”). It +appeared in 1825, or in the year when the national Parliament reassembled +after twelve long years’ adjournment, and when the nation, at any rate, +many of the best men of the nation, were in feverish expectancy of the +rise of New Hungary. Its subject is taken from the history of Árpád the +Conqueror, and centres in the Battle of Alpár, in which Árpád defeats his +most fearful enemy, Zalán, one of the Bulgarian rulers of the territory +between the Danube and the Tisza (Theiss) rivers. There are in the poem +three parallel streams of epic deeds, which, like the three choruses of +string, reed and brass instruments in an orchestra, join in one powerful +symphony. Árpád, the great duke and father of his people, fights Zalán, +and especially his herculean general Viddin. Ete, the young and romantic +Magyar knight fights Csorna, the diabolic Bulgarian hero; and in the +heavens “_Hadúr_” (“God of the war,” a name introduced by Székely), +the national god of the Magyars, fights and conquers “_Ármány_,” the +arch-fiend. The element of love is represented by Ete, who loves Hajna, +the beautiful daughter of an old Hungarian hero. She is also courted by +a divine charmer, whose temptations, however, she rejects, and from whom +she receives an enchanted horse. A large portion of the epic is taken up +with the description of single combats between the heroes. In the end, +the Hungarians are (as in reality they were) victorious, and Zalán flees +from his country. + +There is undoubtedly much Ossianic misty glamour in Vörösmarty’s great +epic; and the figures of its leading heroes do not stand out with all +the desirable plasticity from among the multitude of minor heroes and +mythologic divinities. Yet Ete and Hajna are suffused with all the +charms of youth, love and heroism; and in Hadúr and Ármány two powerful +mythological types are placed before us. Árpád himself answers very well +the chief purpose of the poem, in that he is rather the incarnation of a +nation strong, noble, God-fearing and conquering, than the representative +of any special personality. Perhaps the least endowed figure of the poem +is Zalán, in whom the poet might have represented, in contrast to Árpád, +the various enemies endangering Hungary’s existence, and of whom he +only made a proud and despairing prince. Yet, after allowing for these +shortcomings—very natural in a work written in eleven months—“_Zalán +futása_” is a truly great epic. The splendour of its language, in regard +to which it is fully the equal of “Paradise Lost,” fell upon its first +readers with the spell of the Fata Morgana of the Hungarian _pusztas_ +or prairies, on the lonely traveller. There was one general feeling: +“such language had not yet risen from any Hungarian lyre!” (“_igy még +nem zenge magyar lant_!”). A nation whose past could inspire such epic +music, was a nation of imposing resourcefulness. Only great nations, +after conquering great dangers, can produce great epics. A great epic is +not alone a literary event; as such it would redound mostly to the glory +of the author. It is a national event, and redounds chiefly to the glory +of the nation. It is the symptom and warrant of national greatness; of +that noble enthusiasm—without which, numerous factories and railways can +be built indeed, but no fabric of a national commonwealth holding its own +amidst roaring seas of danger and adversity. Vörösmarty’s epic poured +into the Hungarians that Belief and Confidence, that Eternality of Hope, +which alone steels nations against fate. Széchenyi had connected Buda, +the capital of the past, with Pesth, the capital of modern Hungary, by +means of a gigantic suspension bridge. Vörösmarty now connected Hungary’s +past with her future by the rainbow of his immortal epic. + +In addition to “The Flight of Zalán,” Vörösmarty enriched Hungarian +Literature with several other smaller epics, such as “_Széplak_,” +“_Cserhalom_,” and the exquisite “The Two Neighbouring Castles” (“_Két +szomszéd vár_”). After 1831 he ceased writing epics. He had a real +passion for dramatic poetry, and although in “_Csongor és Tünde_” alone +he contrived to write a drama of superior finish, yet he continually +tried his hand at that form of poetry (“_Vérnász_”) (“The Sanguinary +Wedding”); “Marótbán” (Banus Marót); “_Áldozat_” (The Sacrifice), etc. +His lyrical poetry, on the other hand, contains priceless gems. Adorning, +as he did, even the smallest of his lyrical poems with the unrivalled +splendour of his diction; he reaches in some of them, and first of all +in the majestic “National Hymn” (“_Szózat_”, 1837), the highest level +of poetic _élan_. In these select poems, while still singing nothing but +the hopes and glories of his nation, he becomes so European in tone and +chaste beauty of form, that his work will lose little of its perfection +by fair translations into other European languages. In them there is felt +the breath of that civilization of Greater Hellas, or Europe, which was +originally that of Hellas proper. Nor does his lyric muse move in grave +and solemn moods alone. In his famous “Song of Fót” (“_Fóti dal_”), he +has left the wine-drinking community of the world a model song in praise +of the noble child of Bacchus. He likewise succeeded in writing poetic +apotheoses of some of the great Hungarians of his time, such as Liszt, +the great musician, and in the composition of small narrative poems, +which prove him to have been endowed with a keen sense of humour (“_Mák +Bandi_”; “_Laboda_;” “_Petike_;” “_Gábor deák_”). His great activity as a +creative poet did not prevent him from writing a considerable number of +articles for literary periodicals, such as the “_Tudományos Gyűjtemény_,” +“_Kritikai Lapok_” (edited by Bajza), and for the new “_Aurora_,” and the +“_Athenæum_.” He was also one of the translators of the “Thousand and One +Nights,” and of some of Shakespeare’s plays. + + + + +CHAPTER XXII. + + +The national and literary current of which Vörösmarty was the chief +exponent brought several other great epic works to the surface. Andreas +Horvát de Pázmánd (1778-1839) was working for many years at a national +epic in twelve long cantos, singing the history of Árpád the conqueror. +In 1831, at last, he published the huge poem which, however, was +distanced and soon silenced by the masterwork of Vörösmarty. It certainly +helped both to set off “The Flight of Zalán” still more strongly, and +also to widen the circle of old Magyar mythology. + +An epic poet of far superior merit was Gregory Czuczor (1800-1866). Had +he not been a monk, and so lost much of the vivifying contact of civil +life, he might have soared very high. It must be, however, added that his +conflict both with poverty and with the Austrian Government, did make +up largely for the lack of experiences of romantic, conjugal and family +conflicts. His was a vigorous, systematic and finely discerning mind. +To the epic he felt attracted not only by the general literary tone of +his time, but by his personal bent for popular or rather folk-poetry. The +_naïveté_ of the latter, which forms its distinctive feature, is also one +of the chief elements of the epic. Among Czuczor’s epics, “_Botond_,” +in four cantos, is the best. It tells part of the life of that famous +Hungarian hero of the time of the conquest. Botond had brought home from +his Byzantine campaigns a charming Greek girl, Polydora. One of the +Magyar heroes, Bödölény, who also loves Polydora, takes her secretly back +to Constantinople. Now Botond again invades the Greek Empire, and with +his huge war-club breaks a hole in the gate of the capital. In the end +he gets back Polydora. This simple plot is enlivened with recitals not +only of military and heroic exploits, but also of touching love-episodes. +The contrast between burly, brave Botond and the refined Greek maid, the +episodes in which Szende, the page occurs, and the beautifully rolling +hexameters lend a peculiar charm to this epic. Perhaps now, after the +realization of most of the ardent political hopes of Czuczor’s age, +his epic will be considered even as much better than at the time of +its appearance when it had to compete with the more fiery epic muse of +Vörösmarty. Of Czuczor’s linguistic works we have already made mention +(see page 112). + +A contemporary of Czuczor, John Garay (1812-1853), although not a +poet of great distinction, must be here mentioned, on account of the +popularity of his innumerable ballads and similar epic poetry, covering +almost every one of the memorable events of Hungarian history. Rather a +rhetor than a poet, he wrote his ballads, of which “_Kont_” (relating to +the martyr-death of thirty Hungarian patriots at the hands of Emperor +Sigismund), is the best known, in an easy-flowing popular style. He +trusted rather to the attractiveness of the story itself than to his own +poetic genius. When well recited, many of his ballads are still very +effective. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII. + + +Despite the very great advance made in the development of their +literature up to 1830, the Hungarians were still wanting in one of the +necessary elements of the growth of truly good works. Honest, just and +well-informed criticism was wanting. Kazinczy, it is true, had in his +extensive correspondence paid very careful attention to the critical +examination of the prosody and language of his friends and pupils. +Such external criticism, however, did not suffice. In a country, such +as Hungary, where Greek literature was then known only to exceedingly +few writers, the canons of criticism were easily neglected. Moreover, +literature being still considered more as a patriotic than a literary +function, poets did not, as a rule, tolerate even mild criticism. Yet +without such criticism, Hungarian Literature was likely to deteriorate. +Even men of genius are the better for good criticism. Yet they are the +exception; and to the vast number of writers with talent rather than +genius, criticism was, and always has been, the mentor whom they could +not afford to miss. It has been one of the great advantages of French +literature that its creative writers have nearly always been watched +by great critical writers. From Boileau and Diderot, to Sainte-Beuve, +the French have always had men of piercing and tasteful criticism, +who controlled the works of the purely spontaneous genius. Nor can +the literature of Germany congratulate itself on a more auspicious +circumstance than the fact of Lessing’s incomparable activity as a critic +at the very outset of the classical period. It is with regard to this +historic value of sound literary criticism, that we must appreciate the +work of the Hungarian writer forming the subject of the present chapter. + +Joseph Bajza (1804-1858) had many of the qualities of a great critic. He +was courageous, especially in that courage which is perhaps the rarest, +the courage defying current opinions; he was learned; he possessed a +very keen sense of linguistic niceties and poetic forms; and, last not +least, he was no mean poet himself. Already in 1830 he gave signal +proof not only of his pure patriotism, but also of his penetrating +knowledge of the true needs of the then Hungarian Literature, by fiercely +attacking a plan, broached by a Hungarian publisher, to prepare a +Hungarian Encyclopædia (or “Conversations-Lexicon,” as, in imitation +of the well-known German publication, it was called) on lines, as Bajza +proved, unpatriotic, because unsuited to the character and stage of +Magyar literature of that time. This was the “Conversations-Lexicon +Quarrel.” In the same year, Bajza started his critical paper (“_Kritikai +Lapok_”), which was later on (1837) followed by his “_Athenæum_,” and +its appendix “_Figyelmező_.” In these periodicals he discoursed with +great verve and knowledge on the theories of various poetic forms; +and carefully criticised the works of his contemporaries. His chief +contributors were Vörösmarty and Toldy (then still Schedel), the former +a great poet, the latter (see p. 254) a great scholar. The authority of +Bajza made itself felt very soon; and the numerous polemics occasioned +by his articles only served to aggrandize his position as a critic. +Already in his essays on the epigram, the novel, the drama, etc., Bajza +had proved himself a constructive as against a purely negative critic. +In that capacity probably his chief merit is his elaboration of the +“theory” of the folk-poem. In Hungary, with her numerous peasantry, +there is an inexhaustible wealth of poems composed by unknown people, +exclusively peasants, shepherds, and similar inglorious poets. These +poems, invariably meant to be adapted to songs, are wafted over the +country like the mild breezes of spring, and like them, no one knows +their origin. In previous times, the rococo taste of enlightened pedants +had contemptuously ignored these blossoms of the wild _puszta_ (prairie). +Since Csokonai they were held in greater esteem; but it was Bajza who, by +framing them in the time-honoured formulæ of classical æsthetics, raised +them to a literary status. Since Bajza, the “_népdal_” or folk-song was +not only a matter of national delight or pride, but also of serious study. + +To Bajza’s circle belonged the poets Alexander Vachott (1818-1861); +Frederick Kerényi (1822-1852), who died in America; Julius Sárosy +(1816-1861), the author of several stirring revolutionary poems; Andreas +Pap; Emeric Nagy; Sigismund Beöthy, etc. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV. + + +The rapid growth of Hungarian Literature since 1825, shows chiefly in +works of poetry proper; that is, in verse. Hungarian prose had in the +first ten years of this period received no development similar to that +of Hungarian verse. Yet many a writer had tried his hand at the creation +of Hungarian literary prose. The reason of this belated advance of +Hungarian prose was owing mainly to the late introduction of the Magyar +language into the schools. Not before a language has hewn its way through +the thickets of philosophy, the subtleties of distinctions in physics +and chemistry, or the awkward bulkiness of historical facts, will it be +supple and flexible enough to do efficient service for the innumerable +needs of prose. Without a prose ready for all the turns and twists of +serious thought, great historical or philosophical works are almost +impossible. The difficulty was overcome in Hungary by applying prose +first to novels, and then to History or Philosophy. Novels and romances, +taking as they do the place of the epics in olden times, have also a +national or more than literary importance. And we find that nations +without great epics are also, as a rule, without great novels of their +own. The astounding progress made in Hungary in epic literature proper +bade fair to inaugurate the forthcoming of a novelistic literature. +Vörösmarty and Czuczor were soon to have their followers in prose—the +novelists. The frequency of rich types in Hungarian society could not +but favour that branch of literature. In fact, the greatest difficulty +for Hungarian novelists then, and to a large extent even now, was not +to discover and work out a good subject, but to hunt up a sufficient +number of readers. In the thirties and forties of this century, most of +the cultivated individuals in Hungary were so familiar with German and +even with French, that they could and did easily gratify their novelistic +appetites with the innumerable products from the pens of German and +French novelists. People will seldom relish or crave for lyric or epic +poems of nations other than their own. They will ordinarily prefer +homemade verse. With novels it is quite different. There is scarcely any +exaggeration in stating that Lord Lytton’s novels have been read more +extensively in Germany and Austria-Hungary than in England. The same +applies respectively to George Sand, the French, and Mme. Flygare-Carlén, +the Swedish novelist. Hungarian novelists had, therefore, to contend +against formidable competition from abroad. But there was another and +equally grave difficulty to conquer. The public in all countries has a +fatal tendency to take up one author as the “standard” author in a given +department of literature, and to give all other authors in the same +field the cold shoulder. The less intense the interest which the public +takes in that department, the more it will be inclined to believe in the +“standard” man. In Hungary, that evil tendency has wrought great injury +to novelists. At once a few of them became the “standard” novelists. +Nobody wanted to hear of any other. By this means the rise of other, +perhaps greater novelists, was retarded, if not altogether foreclosed; +and the “standard” man, eagerly seizing on the great favour bestowed upon +him, poured forth scores of novels, irrespective of the higher demands +of Art. The consequence was that he deteriorated. For one good novel he +gave ten bad ones. Having a sort of literary monopoly, he did not heed +adverse criticism. The public, on the other hand, did not care to learn +of a new novelist, and, as actually happened in Hungary, almost entirely +neglected a real genius for no other reason than that mental laziness, +which in countries with less abundant literature is perhaps one of the +most baneful of obstacles to the success of a writer. + +The preceding remarks appear to be necessary for a right appreciation +of Hungarian novels. Foreign readers, and perhaps more especially the +English, are apt to admire in Hungarian novels such qualities as strike +them as new and “weird,” because German, French, or English novelists +do not excel in them. Thus foreign readers will easily be impressed, +and in many cases unduly so, by the great picturesqueness of Hungarian +novelists. This quality, commendable though it no doubt is, will induce +many a foreign critic to overrate the value of this or that Hungarian +novel. In Hungary, picturesque turns of phrases are of the very +commonest. They do not strike a Hungarian critic as being particularly +meritorious. Hence the reader of the present work must not be astonished +at some of the subsequent severe judgments passed on Hungarian novelistic +celebrities. Far from trying to deter English or French readers from +the reading of such novels as they will find criticised adversely, we +would rather advise them to enjoy those novels without further regard to +the views of the writer. We have in so criticising of necessity placed +ourselves on a basis rather Magyar than European, and we are fully aware +of the marked difference in taste to be found in the various nations +of Europe. If the novelists and poets of one nation were to be judged +by the taste of another, Thackeray could hardly be regarded as a great +novelist, and Tennyson scarcely as a great poet. Yet both are in England +recognized as two of the best writers in English literature. + +Of the great novelists of Hungary, four stand out as peculiarly +excellent. Their names are Nicolas Jósika; Joseph Eötvös; Sigismund +Kemény; and Maurus Jókai. The first three belong to the class of +Magnates, being Barons; the last is a commoner by birth. It is rather +curious, that the Magnates, who have in the present century given no poet +of the first order to Hungary, should in the field of Hungarian novel +writing have furnished three writers of the first rank, of whom one, +Baron Kemény, has done work not unworthy of the greatest novel-writer of +the century. + +The first of the four to attract general attention in Hungary was +Baron Joseph Jósika. He was born in 1794 at Torda, in Transylvania. +Having spent many years in the military service of Austria, and in +travels abroad, he retired in 1818 and withdrew to Transylvania, where +he pursued historic and literary studies, relating chiefly to his own +province. Transylvania harbours many of the most glorious traditions +of Hungarian history. For generations, especially in the seventeenth +century, it was practically the only home of Magyardom. There is no lack +of romantic, picturesque, or startling facts in the public or social +life of that country; and Jósika, whose heart had, through his first +luckless marriage, learned the depths of sorrow, as through his second +wife he learned the bliss of true love, Jósika was in a position to do +full justice to the wealth of picturesque characters and scenery in +Transylvania’s past. His first novel, “_Abafi_,” was published in 1836, +and at once received general applause on the part of the critics, and, +what was still more important, at the hands of the public. Its subject +is taken from the troubled times of Sigismund Bátori, when Turks, +Austrians and Magyars, were fighting and intriguing for the possession of +Transylvania, in the last two decades of the sixteenth century. Bátori’s +mighty and tainted personality, with all his cruelty, heroism, astuteness +and audacity, is, together with that of the Turkish conquerors, pashas, +and court people, the personal background to the hero of the novel, +Oliver Abafi, who rises from conduct dissipated and lawless, to the +heights of noble self-sacrifice. The story is told with great power of +description and impersonation. The reader cannot fail to feel as if quite +at home in that agitated corner of Europe, where some of the historic +agencies met in deadly conflict, and where men and women breathed much +of that grand air of great events, which colours them in tints unknown +to the people of less eventful times. The novel is intensely interesting +and will convey a more life-like picture of its period than many a dull +historic volume. + +Equal to, and if possible, even more fascinating, is Jósika’s novel, +“The Bohemians in Hungary” (“_A csehek Magyarországban_”). This novel +goes back to older times still. It pictures the state of Hungary in the +middle of the fifteenth century, when the Bohemian (Czech) Hussites were +invading Hungary. Of all the innumerable sects and heresies from the end +of the twelfth century to the rise of Protestantism, the Hussites were no +doubt the most powerful. From the depths of the forests ranging round the +river Main, to the mountains encircling Hungary and Transylvania, these +heroic and fanatic warriors spread the terror of their name. But for +some grave political mistakes and unforeseen reverses of Vitovt, one of +the greatest of the historic Slavs (flourished 1380 to 1430), who wanted +to found a Slav empire, reaching from the western confines of Bohemia, +to the walls of holy Moscow, the Slavs, on the basis of Hussitism, and +under leaders like Ziska, and the Procops, might have for ever reduced +the historic _rôle_ of Germany to that of a small power. Theirs would +then have been a great empire, strongly unified in language, creed and +traditions. No Austria would have been possible; and Hungary would have +probably been submerged in the Slav flood. It is the story of the lives +of some of these wild and terrible Czechs in the north and north-west +of Hungary which forms the subject of the powerful novel of Jósika. +The castles of the Czech leaders were real fortresses of Slavdom, and +the population of those parts of Hungary being largely Slav to the +present day, the danger for Hungary was very great. Fortunately for the +independence of the Magyars, their young king Matthew Corvinus, son of +John Hunyadi, was a match for the Bohemians. One by one he destroyed +their castles, liberating thousands of prisoners, and ridding the +country of the Slav invasion. His illustrious figure shines in Jósika’s +novel like the youthful emblem of that historic vitality which has kept +Hungary in a ruling position over Slav and Germanic tribes these last +thousand years. The picturesqueness of Jósika’s novel is extraordinary. +Male and female characters of intense fascination move in the castles, +battlefields, dungeons and mountain-paths described by the novelist. +Komoróczy, the knight and robber; the glorious king and his romantic +love; Elemér, the hero, called “the Eagle”; the charming widow, who +defies with a dimpled smile the most ruthless of amorous men; Jews, at +once grand in suffering and commonplace in their greed; all these and +many more scenes and portraits reconstruct that memorable time when the +Renascence was rising over the dying gloom of the Middle Ages. + +It is impossible to tell here, even very briefly, the plots and +characters of the very numerous novels written by Jósika both in Hungary +and at Dresden, whither he retired after escaping the Austrians, who +had sentenced him to death as one of the prominent members of the +Hungarian “rebels.” All these novels are historic in subject, and even +quote, sometimes, chapter and verse from the chronicles on which they +are based. The most famous are “_Esther_;” “_Francis Rákóczy II._,” the +hero of which is the most popular of all Hungarian princes who ever +revolted from the Habsburgs; “A Hungarian Family during the Revolution” +(“_Egy magyar család a forradalom alatt_”); “The Last Báthory” (“_As +utolsó Báthory_”). Jósika is easily compared to and measured by Walter +Scott. Yet there is in the very tendencies of their works a marked +difference. Scott, in writing his novels, was prompted more by his +literary tastes and proclivities than by any consideration of politic +aims. Both Scotland and England were during his life-time (1771-1832) +at the height of their triumphal career. His novels were romantic work +pure and simple. England being at the head of the powers combating the +French Revolution, her literary geniuses, too, followed lines opposed to +modern Liberalism; in other words, they became romantic. Hungary, on the +other hand, was, during the life-time of Jósika, an oppressed country, +and after a short period of glory during her war of independence, she +vegetated for over ten years in a torpor caused by a fiercely reactionary +government. Into Jósika’s novels, therefore, there necessarily entered +a political element, which coloured his work with a tint unknown to the +great Scotchman’s tales. And this, together with the circumstance of +his becoming rapidly a “standard” novelist, explains Jósika’s literary +eminence and also his literary failings. In his attempt to use the story +of Hungary’s past as a means of reviving her present, he naturally +lost sight of some of the purely literary laws of novel-writing. His +characters being already given by history, he neglected to elaborate +their psychology. Events happen rather unto or by them, than through +them. The inner machinery of motives is sometimes clumsy or too flimsy. +Being much in demand as a “standard” novelist, he wrote much; too +much. Yet with all these occasional shortcomings, Jósika is one of the +most splendid novelists of the picturesque class. Few Hungarian books +recording Hungary’s past will give the foreign reader a more pleasing +and, at the same time, instructive picture of the romantic days of that +great country. The professorial critic, reposing on the tattered laurels +of his victims, if not on his own, will find much to rebuke in Jósika. +The youth of Hungary and the unprejudiced foreigner will always read him +with delight. + + + + +CHAPTER XXV. + + +The second great novelist in that period was Eötvös. Born in 1813, he +received a careful education, and after extensive travels in western +Europe, embraced the judicial career for a time. When still a young +man, at the age of six-and-twenty, he published his first great novel, +“The Carthusian” (“_A Karthauzi_,” 1839-40). This remarkable work had +an immense effect. It was read with equal delight in the palaces of the +magnates, and in the closets of the middle-class people. It charmed the +young and moved the old. It seemed to express the very innermost cravings +and mental propensities of the then Hungarian public. More than that. +It expressed a state of feeling then almost universal on the continent +of Europe. Like Goethe’s “_Werther_,” it lent expression to what lay +dormant and unexpressed in the hearts of millions of Europeans. The +sultry atmosphere then weighing on continental Europe had engendered a +morbid melancholy in many a high-strung man and woman. Life seemed to +be full of unsolved and unsolvable problems; full of forces disruptive +and disintegrating, causing unease uncertainty and distress. All the +nobler efforts of men in building up their private or public fortunes +appeared to be blighted and marred by the demoniac perverseness of the +political and social powers of the time. A brooding meditativeness +seized people, and fresh and vigorous deeds being impossible, pale +and despondent reflections embroiled men in a dumb struggle against +destiny. Such was the mental temper of a very large class of men and +women in France, Germany, Austria, Hungary and Italy. Eötvös himself +had, from early youth, been given to that morbid meditativeness and +self-destructive sensitiveness of the age; and the sorrowful condition +of his country only increased his pathetic melancholy. Hungarian young +men and women, then and now, are naturally very much more pathetic and +grave than the youth of any other country. They have neither the virile +alacrity of the British youth so agreeably manifested in the games and +muscular amusements of young England; nor the precocious polish and +gaiety of French youths. Theirs is a heavy mood, similar to that of the +_Largos_ of Hungarian music, but followed by no _Friss_ or _Vivace_. +To souls tuned in such minor keys, the “_Karthauzi_” came as the very +revelation of their deepest secrets. Hitherto the epics and novels +written in Hungary had been retrospective work. They narrated the woes +and joys, the troubles and glories of past ages. In Eötvös’ novel there +was, practically for the first time, a work of introspective _actualité_; +a work appealing to the reader himself, and not only to his historic +imagination. The queries tormenting the young men and women of that age +were here subjected to an analysis full of psychological inquisitiveness, +enveloped in the gloaming of poetic descriptions of Nature. The plot +of the novel is of the simplest. Gustavus, a French nobleman, in whose +agitated soul are accumulated all the tempest-laden clouds of his age, +seeks in vain to find peace and consolation in Love, Pleasure and +Ambition. Julia, his first love, deserts him for an unworthy “other one;” +Betti, his second love, he rejects himself. And so, tossed from one rock +of discord to the other, he finally enters the order of the Carthusians, +and there, amidst steady work and in firm faith, finds the only solution +that can await characters like his: Death. Goethe, with the terrible +serenity of judgment so peculiar to him, once remarked, that there are, +as he called them, “problematic characters, who can do justice to no +situation in which they may be placed.” Such a character is Gustavus. But +such was also the general and typical character of his time; and hence +the immense effect of the novel. Even the chief and serious deficiency of +the novel, being as it was, the deficiency of numerous Hungarian minds +of that time, only helped to increase its popularity. Eötvös could never +quite overcome the inner contrast between his Franco-German education and +the Magyar character of his works. Of all the great Hungarian writers, +his language is the least Magyar in form and savour. The European +and the Magyar were constantly battling in him and frequently to the +detriment of the latter. His was not that power of blending European and +national culture into a new and harmonious composition. That power is +distinctively the characteristics of the classical writers of nations. +It belongs only to the highest form of genius. But the reading public of +the “_Karthauzi_” was largely recruited from amongst people in whom that +conflict between western and Magyar culture had likewise not been brought +to a harmonious issue. They thus found in the great novel that very +failing of their own class, without which, according to Grillparzer’s +profound remark, success is hardly obtainable in any profession. + +In 1845, Eötvös published another great novel: “The Village Notary” +(“_A falu jegyzője_”). It was meant to be a scathing satire on the +corruption, backwardness and general administrative misery of public +county life in Hungary. Eötvös, whose conceptions of the state and its +organs were formed largely after the models of German, Austrian and +French organizations, was deeply convinced of the utter insufficiency +of that local selfgovernment, which in Hungary had nearly always been +one of greater independence than that even of England. In Hungary all +the leading and influential officials in the counties were elective, and +from among the noble class of the county only. Being more than underpaid, +they frequently abused their power, and contrived to secure a relatively +large income by means of exactions and terrorizations of all kinds. The +typical figure of these squires was the _szolgabiró_, or under-sheriff, +as he may be termed, if with inaccuracy, who presided over nearly all the +public affairs of one of the districts into which counties are divided. +His administration was frequently carried on pasha fashion indeed; and +the poorer classes were much at his mercy. Eötvös, who thought that the +strongly centralized and systematized organization of French or German +local governments was undoubtedly much superior to the system obtaining +in Hungary, published his novel with the intention of bringing about a +change in public opinion, and so finally a change in the county-system +itself. To the immense benefits accruing to the Hungarians as a nation +through the very system of local selfgovernment which Eötvös so cruelly +exposed, he was insensible. That county-life, in spite of all its crying +abuses, was the only and indispensable preliminary schooling for the +functions of government in council or parliament; that these rough +and uncultured county-gentry in Hungary, as well as their brethren in +England, were far better fitted for some of the most important tasks of +government and politics than the most methodic and punctual official +in French or German local offices, to all that Eötvös paid no serious +attention. His warm-hearted love of Equality and Right made him boil over +at the sight of many an injustice—at the hands of men whose inferiority +in point of knowledge and western culture rendered them easy objects +of contempt to one who gauged all political greatness by the standard +of France or Germany. Eötvös, the politician, entertained of course +the same ideas about the value of the old Hungarian county-system, as +did Eötvös the novelist. He was a “centralist”; and the number of his +followers has been very great to the present day. They still maintain +that even the present remnants of the old county-system in Hungary are +very injurious to the Magyar state; and that nothing short of a total +overhauling, or—to talk plainly—abolition of that system, and the +introduction of French centralization in its lieu can save the kingdom +of St. Stephen. In more recent times the historic work of Béla Grünwald +on the social and political condition of Hungary from 1711 to 1825 (“_A +régi Magyarország_”) has elaborated the ideas of Eötvös with the armoury +of learned footnotes and systematic chapters. The novel of Eötvös is +still the text of all the loud centralists in Hungary, to whom the county +selfgovernment is an absurd anachronism. As a matter of fact, on the +continent, Hungary is the only country where local selfgovernment is +still extant. Nor can there be any doubt, that that local selfgovernment +alone enabled the Magyars to hold their supremacy over the numerically +stronger nations in their country. Taking the British constitution as the +model of all representative government, we cannot go astray in claiming +for such government three absolutely indispensable elements. First, a +parliament proper, consisting of two Chambers or Houses; secondly, a +cabinet proper; and thirdly, two or three real and energetic political +parties, the numerous members of which take an intense interest in every +one of the political issues of the day. Applying this standard to the +United States, for instance, we find, that the Americans while having a +federal, two-chambered parliament and also two or more genuine parties, +yet have no Cabinet proper; and hence many of the features of political +corruption that were rampant in England in the times from Charles II. +to George III., when the Cabinet was still forming, and not yet formed, +may be noticed in the United States at the present day. In the same way +France has a Cabinet indeed, and also a two-chambered parliament; but +genuine political parties, with members intensely interested in politics, +are wanting. Hence the instability and irregularity of the French +representative government. In Hungary, and there alone, the student of +politics will find a perfect replica of the British constitution, in +that the fine superstructure of Parliament and Cabinet is based on the +broad pedestal of genuine political parties. The members of these parties +take a real, passionate and untiring interest in political questions of +any kind, and hence there is a real public opinion, a real nation. This +basis of the political life in Hungary, where has it been quarried from +but in the local selfgovernment of the counties? Interest in the mostly +arid questions of politics can be acquired only by early and constant +contact with men who make it almost the chief interest of their lives. It +is in the county halls, and in the social reunions of the county-gentry, +that the young Magyars learn the great lesson of dispensing authority, +commanding respect and discussing public business with tact and prudence. +It is there that men were formed who could at all times find resources +to withstand the anti-national policy of the Habsburgs or the occasional +rebellions of the Slav or Roumanian peasantry. Of the country-gentlemen +in Hungary indeed may be said, what Macaulay wrote of the English esquire +of the seventeenth century: that “his ignorance and uncouthness, his low +tastes and gross phrases, would, in our time, be considered as indicating +a nature and a breeding thoroughly plebeian. Yet he was essentially a +patrician, and had, in large measure, both the virtues and vices which +flourish among men set from their birth in high place, and accustomed to +authority, to observance and to self-respect.” (_History of England_, +Ch. III.) It was amongst these rough squires that the two great parties +of England were formed. It was likewise amongst the much derided +_táblabirók_ and _szolgabirók_ (squires and justices) of Hungary, that +the men of 1825 and 1848 were formed; and in our time they have given +Hungary one of the indispensable elements of representative government: +real political parties. + +It appears necessary to dwell at some length on the great historic and +political questions underlying the famous novel of Eötvös. No doubt, +every Hungarian cannot but wish to see that novel in the hands of all who +take an interest in Hungary. For, “The Village Notary” contains capital +portraits of many a quaint, wild or pathetic type of inner Hungary. +The down-trodden notary (Tengelyi); the tyrannical _szolgabiró_ (or +squire) Paul Nyúzó (meaning: flayer); Viola, the honest peasant, who +being shamefully wronged betakes himself to the forest and _pusztas_ +(prairies) to lead the life of a robber; Mrs. Réty, the wife of the chief +magistrate of the county, who is entangled in a fearful domestic tragedy, +etc., etc. Moreover, the novel contains excellent pieces of irony and +satire; and being reared on the broad idea of social reform never sinks +to mere pamphleteering. Yet, with all that, we cannot but protest against +the misstatement of the political importance of county-life in Hungary +as advanced in that novel. Fully acknowledging, as we do, its literary +value, which is diminished only by the heavy and un-Magyar diction, we +deprecate its judgment on an institution without which Hungary would have +long been reduced to the level of a mere province of Austria. Eötvös, +like most idealists bred in the school of German idealism, could not +endure rough Reality. He forgot, that for the making of history, as for +that of bread, unclean matter is, at certain stages, an indispensable +element. + +We have two more novels by Eötvös: “Hungary in 1514” (“_Magyarország +1514 ben_,” 1847), which is a fair picture of the time of the +peasant-rebellion in Hungary, under George Dózsa; and “The Sisters” (“_A +nővérek_,” 1857), a feeble story with many ideas on Education. + +On Eötvös, as a writer on politics, and the Philosophy of History, see +page 251. It may here be mentioned that Eötvös, who was President of the +Academy, was frequently called upon to deliver commemorative discourses +on the lives and merits of deceased members of the Academy and the +Kisfaludy Society (see page 113). His speeches are, as a rule, of great +oratorical power, and illuminated with grand conceptions of Life and +Literature. He was eminently an orator, not a rhetor; and although he +seldom reached the magnificence of Kölcsey (see page 107), he is no +unworthy follower of him. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVI. + + +At the present day most people of culture outside Hungary know the name +of Jókai, the Hungarian novelist; few, if any, know the name of Sigismund +Kemény. Yet, of the two, Kemény is probably the greater writer. He is the +Balzac of Hungary, less Balzac’s fame. For, strange to say, in Hungary +itself, the novels of Kemény are very little known; and although several +Magyar critics of the highest authority have declared Kemény to be the +greatest novelist of the Hungarians, yet the reading public in Hungary +neither buys nor reads the masterpieces of the Transylvanian baron. This +lack of general appreciation seems to be somewhat inherent in the very +kind of genius possessed by men like Balzac and Kemény. The former, it +is true, has a well-known name, and his works have spread over Europe +and America. Yet, even in France, the full grandeur of his genius has +not yet been recognized. Balzac has, as yet, no statue in Paris, which +city he has described more ingeniously than any other writer. Even in +his native town of Tours his statue was erected only in quite recent +times. The _Académie_ has never admitted him within her circle; and the +French are not yet aware that in Balzac they have their Shakespeare in +prose. Indeed, nobody short of Shakespeare will stand comparison with the +gigantic genius of Balzac. Both have created a long series of grand types +of humanity endowed with an undying life and charm of their own. To both +the secrets and puzzles of the human soul were transparent; and both had +the powers of philosophic analysis and poetic synthesis in equal shares. +Shakespeare, too, had to bide his time; and twenty-eight years after his +death, John Milton does not even mention his dramas as necessary reading +for a young gentleman’s education. Considering, then, the fate of Balzac +in France, with an eager reading public immeasurably more numerous than +that of Hungary, we need not wonder that Kemény suffered with tenfold +intensity from the drawbacks peculiar to his Balzacian genius. + +We said, Kemény is the Balzac of Hungary. We did not say, he was equal to +Balzac. In Hungary a full-fledged Balzac can as yet not be expected. No +amount of native genius will enable a man to overcome obstacles such as +stand in the way of him who should undertake to do for Hungarian society +what Balzac did for French. The France of Louis-Philippe was infinitely +better adapted to the writing of its “_Comédie humaine_,” than the +Hungary of Kemény’s time. + +Hungary is far from being as homogeneous as is France. In the latter +country, despite much variety in language and social institutions, there +is one pervading common spirit in all classes and peoples of the state. +Whether Norman or Gascon, the citizen of France is chiefly a Frenchman, +with distinctly French ideas and sentiments. France is the country +of the French. Hungary is not the country of the Hungarians; it is a +trysting-place of nations rather than the country of one nation. There +are not only classes and ranks, but each class or rank differs according +to the nation it belongs to. The Magyar _bourgeois_ is not like the Slav +_bourgeois_; and both differed, especially in Kemény’s time, from the +German _bourgeois_. No one, certainly not Kemény, can claim an intimate +knowledge of all the nations in Hungary; and thus no one has, as yet, so +profoundly impregnated himself with as immense an array of social facts +as had Balzac before he wrote his great novels. Balzac knew the entire +anatomy and physiology of the peasant, the soldier, the clergyman, the +provincial, the Parisian, the maid, the _concierge_, the _bourgeoise_, +the _grande dame_, the actress, the scholar, the lawyer, the speculator, +the _viveur_, the diplomatist—in short, of every shade of character that +went to form French society. In Hungary, such a knowledge could not be +acquired. Familiarity with ten to twelve languages is required to know +the full anatomy and physiology of the peasants in Hungary alone. To +do, therefore, for Hungarian society what Balzac had done for French; +to write the Hungarian “_Comédie humaine_” has so far been practically +impossible; nor did Kemény do it. And yet, within the narrow limits of +his arena, Kemény worked with the spirit and genius of Balzac. That +his capacity was essentially akin to that of the great French writer +there can be no doubt. It was not of the same comprehensiveness. Balzac +had humour and wit; Kemény had none. Balzac had an exquisite sense +of proportion, if not always in his style, at least always in the +architecture of his plot; Kemény had not. Balzac was an encyclopædist of +the human heart, in that he knew women as well as men; Kemény knew men +far better than women. Balzac’s range of observation being greater, his +mind was subtler even than that of Kemény. Yet, with all that, Kemény’s +genius was essentially akin to that of Balzac. He, too, had that vast +knowledge of historic events and that interest in scientific researches +that suggested to Balzac innumerable shades and innuendoes of thought, +and _aperçus_ on every form and phase of life. Kemény, like Balzac, +had studied much in books and nature and man; he also had that love +of realism—that following up of mental or emotional waves into their +minutest recesses in the face or voice or gestures of persons. The +outward or material appearance of man: his dress, house, arms, art-work, +or contrivances were a matter of profound study to Kemény, as they were +to Balzac. Although intensely analytical, he is equally great at and +fond of descriptions. He paints nature, more especially that of his +beloved Transylvania, as one intimate with mountains, rivers and forests. +He knows their language and physiognomy; his landscapes are like the +choruses in Greek tragedies. They form part of the scenes; not only of +the scenery. They are like the contrapuntal bass to the melodies of his +novels. But in what Kemény resembles Balzac most is his inexorableness. +There is no other word for it. In nearly all his novels, as in most of +those of Balzac, man is crushed down pitilessly, remorselessly. Without +making any deliberate show of pessimism, Kemény is intensely pessimistic. +As in Balzac the overpowering demon of modern times is money, after +which all crave, all run and rush, jostling, panting, jading; so in +Kemény, the bane of man appears under the form of those small mistakes +and errors which dig the grave of all hopes. The great passions, vices +and crimes do not, in Kemény’s novels, act as the causes of the final +downfall of his heroes or heroines. His heroes do not die from strokes +of lightning, shooting forth from the black clouds of their terrible +passions or heinous crimes. On the contrary: such lightnings rather +illumine their road to success. They end, as it were, through a fire +caused by a carelessly dropped match. The ghastly irony of real life, +which no unbiassed observer can have failed to notice, is shown in +his novels in all its terrible working. The melancholy of Eötvös is +sweet and soothing; the gloom of Kemény is discomforting, distressing, +just because Kemény never seems to be deliberately pessimistic. While +reading his novels, the reader is so struck with the beauty of those +gems of original and profound ideas and remarks, which Kemény strews in +prodigious abundance over the objects and persons of his novels, that +the persistent gloom and despair dominating nearly all his works, do not +become so painful to the reader. It is when we have finished the book; +when we overlook the whole of the plan; when we have laid our ear on the +throbbing heart of each of the persons with whom we had been through +several volumes; it is when the novel in its entirety has entered our +mind, that we feel deserted by all hopefulness, and embittered by the +foul destiny reigning over man’s best efforts. There can be but little +doubt that the indifference, with which Kemény has been so far received +in Hungary, is largely owing to his pessimism. The Hungarians, like the +English, have little idiosyncrasy for pessimism. This mood of viewing +things is the outcome of mental struggles, from which the better minds of +both countries have been saved by their intense political life. Pessimism +is eminently the nursling of thought. In Hungary there is, as in England, +much more acting than thinking. Whatever there may be of pessimism in the +Hungarians is used up in some of their superbly-despondent folk-songs. +For Kemény’s pessimism the time has not yet come. Perhaps he would have +impressed his contemporaries far more deeply had he chosen not to write +historic novels. Nearly all of his great novels are historic novels. +As history, they are really incomparable. If we possessed a hundred +historic novels, describing a hundred important periods of general +history, in the manner, with the graphic power and true intimacy with the +past, so peculiar to Kemény, we should know history infinitely better. +Kemény has something of the erudition of a Gierke or John Selden, with +the plastic descriptiveness of a great painter. Read his Transylvanian +novels, and you have a clearer, more vivid and more correct knowledge +of Transylvanian history in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries +than you could gather from the study of the various chroniclers and +memoir-writers of that time, such as Reicherstorffer, Schesaeus, +Sigler, Heltai (see page 47), Verantius, Tinódy (see page 47), Somogyi +(Ambrosius), Stephen Szamosközy, Nicolas Oláh, Zsámboky, Michael Brutus, +Francis Forgách, Nicolas Istvánffy, Francis Mikó, Gregory Petthő, Kraus, +the Bethlens, Haner, etc. Kemény is thus one of the best historians of +Hungary. Nor can we think much less of him as a novelist. He engages our +interest in the characters of his tales; they work on our imagination, +they appeal to our hearts. More particularly to Hungarians, the actors of +Kemény’s novels appear as individuals full of charm and significance. To +use one of Ben Jonson’s happy phrases, they are “rammed with life”—life +national, patriotic, historic. And yet, with all these commanding +excellencies in his novels, Kemény has, there can be little doubt, +committed a grave blunder in literary strategy, in investing the output +of his vast intellectual mines in historic novels. Had he been less of a +historian, he might have written his historic novels at a smaller loss +of literary efficiency. His very greatness as a historian debarred him +from approaching Balzac still more closely. For his faithfulness as a +historian prevented him from elaborating fully those types of humanity, +the creation of which is Balzac’s glory. Such types cannot, as a rule, be +found in history. History, or that part of reality in which human beings +are the actors, is full of blurred types of mongreldom and bastardy. No +line in the features of man, as a real phenomenon, is drawn out purely +and to its legitimate term; good and bad, sublime and vile, sentiments +and deeds, are lumbering higgledy piggledy across each other. The poet +or artist, who is truest to reality, is untruest to poetry and art. +At all times the attempt at realism in art has landed where has the +attempt at materialism in philosophy—in impotence. Historic novels, if +very historic, as are these of Kemény, must thus necessarily benumb the +creative power of the poet. And so they have. Had Kemény, instead of +the past, embraced the present; had he followed in the wake of Balzac +in fetching from the depth of Hungarian humanity some of the arch-types +of European humanity, as was done by the author of “_Père Goriot_” with +regard to French humanity, Kemény would stand out as one of the greatest +writers of European literature. As it is, he is only one of the great +writers of Hungarian Literature. What is perhaps more astonishing still +in that choice of the historic novel by Kemény, is the fact that he was +for years engaged in a profession than which very few can attach us more +intently to actual, present life. Kemény was one of the most influential +and hardest-worked political journalists of his time. In the columns +of the “_Pesti Napló_” he poured out, in astounding profusion, leading +articles about all the great events and persons of his time. In these +articles he showed profound knowledge of the very pulse and heart of his +age; and such was his power of exposition, analysis and appreciation of +the fleeting occurrences of the day, that his political articles have +been a matter of admiration both to his contemporaries and subsequent +historians. As a rule, great politicians do not write historic novels. +They are too much imbued with the spirit of their own age, in the +direction of which they have had no small share, to be inclined, or even +able, to familiarise themselves with the spirit of ages bygone. Kemény is +an exception, and while this certainly testifies to the comprehensiveness +of his mind, it renders the strategic mistake above mentioned more marked +still. + +We must abstain from giving a detailed account of his novels. Their plots +are, by themselves, simple, if not purely on the lines of the historic +events which they relate. Their author, like Balzac, excels chiefly in +psychology and analysis; and although the dialogue is not neglected, it +is not made the centre of the tale. In “_Gyulai Pál_” (1846) is shown the +struggle between a noble and high-minded statesman and his ambition. In +the attempt at saving his prince, Sigismund Báthori, from the latter’s +rival, Balthesar Báthori, Gyulai plunges into a series of crimes, and +mortally wounds the heart of his idol, Eleonore, who finally brings about +his execution. In “The Widow and Her Daughter” (“_Az özvegy és leánya_,” +1857) is told, and with greater regard to form and architecture than in +Kemény’s other novels, the tragedy of the family of Mikes. A subject +admirably suited to the gloom of Kemény’s mental atmosphere is treated +in his “The Fanatics” (“_A rajongók_,” 1859), a story of the curious +sect of the Sabbatarians in Transylvania in the fourth decade of the +seventeenth century (_cf._ page 55). The Macchiavellian prime minister, +Kassai, on the one hand, and the rich and mystic Simon Pécsi, the head +of the Sabbatarians, with his beautiful daughter Deborah, on the other, +are amongst the leading persons of this terrible novel. No less appalling +in its way is “Rough Times” (“_Zord idő_,” 1862), in which the capture +of the Hungarian capital, Buda, by the Turks, is told with magnificent +power. In the short novels of Kemény, taking up subjects of modern time +(“Love and Vanity” [“_Szerelem és hiúság_”]; “Husband and Wife” [“_Férj +és nő_”]; “The Abysses of the Heart” [“_A sziv örvényei_”]); as well +as in his smaller tales, such as “Virtue and Convention” (“_Erény és +illem_”); “Two Happy Persons” (“_Két boldog_”); “_Alhi Kmet_” (a proper +name), etc., Kemény likewise dwells on that _fatalisme raisonné_ as it +might be called, that does not permit him, or very rarely, to tarry over +the sunny moments of life. Writers like Kemény, in quite modern times, +have found means of gently veiling their inner despondency by light +touches of melancholy, as is done by Maeterlinck; or by fine irony, as +used by Anatole France. In Kemény there is no mercy, not even that of +irony. His novels are like the gigantic inundations of the Theiss river +in Hungary: you see the floods nearing, often noiselessly, but with +distressing rapidity, and in all directions; there is no escaping them; +in their inexorable progress they roll onward like a host of innumerable +serpents, stifling life and levelling down everything to the sameness +of death. When Kemény died (1875), on his small paternal estate of +Puszta-Kamarás, in Transylvania, he had himself long been buried by the +floods of mental derangement. Reality had shown him no pity either. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVII. + + +The poets and writers of the Magyars, whom we have been studying in the +preceding chapters, were, in a lesser or higher degree, authors of works +whose excellence was, to a large extent, of a relative, or national and +not of an absolute character. + +We now approach the study of Alexander Petőfi. His was a genius which, +perhaps alone amongst Hungarian writers, so completely blended the +peculiar national excellencies of Magyar poetry with the broader features +of European literary greatness, as to entitle him to the admiration of +all who can feel poetic beauty, irrespective of nationality or even +language. Real poetry, like real music, appeals to all nations, and to +all times. In Petőfi there is real poetry. Other poets are felicitous +in expression, and the musical cadence of their diction endears them to +their compatriots. Others again create one or two poetical types the +charm of which lends grace and interest to even insignificant verses. +Many more poets again play on religious, moral, or patriotic sentiments, +and thus appeal to the hearts or imagination of readers with whom such +sentiments easily wax overwhelming. In Petőfi there is more than all +that. His language is rich and beautiful; yet it is not in his language +that he excels. He never or very seldom borrows effect from appeals to +morals or religion. He creates poetical phenomena—that is all. Where +before him nobody ever surmised any poetic phenomena at all, there he +conjures up a whole fairy-world of poetic conceptions, figures, events, +or scenes. The true poet discovers the new land by creating it. In Nature +herself there is no more poetry than in a grocer’s shop. Nor is there a +trace of any other thought in Nature. There is no philosophy in it and no +mathematics. Heaven alone knows how Nature is carrying on her business. +She is the most wasteful of managers, and yet she is never bankrupt. She +is as heedless as the most thoughtless of business men, and yet traces +of profound thought appear to be discoverable in her dealings. And so +the mathematician, or the physicist arrives at neatly limbed formulæ +expressing so-called laws of Nature. Yet nothing can be more certain +than that Nature herself is not acting on the lines of laws. To us, to +human beings, it appears convenient and useful to bracket some of the +happenings of infinite Nature between logical ideas, thereby giving us +the satisfaction of “understanding” those happenings. Nature abhors being +understood, yet by dint of an irrepressible desire of man, thinkers will +always attempt at construing her by dressing up natural phenomena in the +jackets of formulæ and in the petticoats of concepts. + +It is even so with poetry. There is no poetry whatever in Nature. All +poetry is invented and created by man, just as all music is. He who +invents the greatest number of events, scenes, or types that strike +men as being poetical, is the greatest of poets. It is impossible to +say how he invents them; nor can he or anybody else say where, that +is, with relation to what spot, creature, or phenomenon of Nature he +will invent them. One thing alone is certain, he must _invent_ them. +For centuries before Petőfi was born, Hungary had had the same mixed +population; the same mountains; the same mighty rivers and lakes; and +the same mysterious _puszta_, which to Petőfi suggested an astounding +number of exquisite poems. He alone “understood their mystic language;” +that is, he alone invented the poetry to the substratum of Nature; he +alone wrote the thrilling drama to the dumb flies and staging of Nature +in Hungary. He sees an old ram-shackle inn in the midst of the _puszta_. +To the ordinary mortal the inn is suggestive of nothing more than the +expectation of a poor dinner, of a bad bedstead, of uncanny companions. +To an ordinary poet it may suggest images of decay or regret, more or +less poetical. To Petőfi it suggests intensely poetical scenes of life +exuberant or decadent; the inn (“_csárda_”) is transfigured by him into +a living being; every one of its corners commences to breathe poetry, +music, reminiscences and forebodings. So new and individual a creation +is thus made of that wayside inn, that the painter may find in it new +subjects for his canvas, and the musician new themes for his lyre. +Wherever Petőfi is touched by nature or society, he responds by the +creation of poetic phenomena. The wind blowing over the plains of Hungary +is, in truth, inarticulate; in wafting through the body and soul of the +incomparable poet it turns, as if directed through the pipes of an organ +at the hands of a Bach, to melancholy fugues and majestic oratorios. +And so with everything. Petőfi sings love in hundreds of poems, yet he +was scarcely ever loved by woman. For nearer as woman is to Nature, she +is also more realistic and less charged with poetry than man. What then +could she do with one who had unloaded into the chests of his youthful +soul all the treasures of poetry, but none of gold? This, however, far +from deterring Petőfi or disgusting him, rather stimulated him. He loved +much; that is, he loved little. Love was for him, like the _puszta_, the +Theiss river and the Carpathian mountains, an immense suggestiveness; +an ocean, the crossing of which led to the discovery of new continents +of poetry. Nearly all the pretty or interesting women whom he met, +whether the lawless gipsy-girl, the actress, the coy _bourgeoise_, +the lady, the peasant-girl or the hostelry-maid, he loved them all or +thought he did. And this was owing not to his extreme youth—he died when +six-and-twenty—but to his passion for poetic creativeness. Everyone +of the types of women just mentioned served him as an occasion for +creating one of those scenes as replete with life poetic as are forests +or rivers with life natural. In one sense indeed he was right in saying +that he was “the wild flower of boundless Nature” (“_A korláttalan +természet-Vadvirága vagyok én_”). His mode of creation was quite on the +lines of that of Nature. A poem grew out of his mind as does a violet +out of the ground. In him there is no reflection, no machinery, no +hesitation. Every line rolls on with the assurance and self-contentedness +of a rose-leaf budding forth from the stem. He has the meditated +carelessness of Nature, and also her freshness, her immediateness and +spontaneity. More particularly, he is like Nature in Hungary. From the +heights of thought as lofty as the peaks of the Carpathian mountains, +and as chilling as those snow-clad solitudes (see his superb philosophic +flashes in the poems written at Szalk Szt Márton, in 1846), he descends +into the tiny nest of homely sentiments as does a lark into the furrow. +His indignation, patriotic or otherwise, is as terrible as are the +inundations of the Theiss; and side by side with poems flaming with +uncontrollable fire and restlessness are poems full of oriental calm +and staid repose. Yet, in the poet’s own opinion, he resembled most +the _puszta_ or immense plain of Hungary. Petőfi, who had tramped over +nearly every part of his country, gave, in a magnificent poem, the palm +of beauty to the steppes and pampas of central and southern Hungary. +The _puszta_ in Hungary is really a series of some three thousand +_pusztas_, of which the most famous is that of Hortobágy, near Debreczen, +the praises of which Petőfi has sung in various exquisite poems. These +_pusztas_ differ very much in physical character; some are covered with +rich wheat-fields, tobacco plantations, or maize-forests; others again +are swamps, or natron-ponds, or again waste lands, or heaths. This +diversity of abundance and penury, ecstasy of nature and dreary desert, +squares well with the rhapsodic temper of the Magyars in general, and +that of Petőfi in particular. After miles and miles of deadly silence, +the traveller enters one of the bustling “market-towns,” full of the +eccentric and picturesque types of the _puszta_. There is the dignified +farmer or peasant, with his smart, coquettish, and light-tongued wife, +or _mennyecske_ (“little heaven”); there are the various shepherds and +keepers of sheep (“_bojtár_”), oxen (“_gulyás_”), swine (“_kondás_”), or +horses (“_csikós_”), each in his particular costume and each a different +type of the Hungarian Bedouin. The “_bojtár_,” tending the immense herds +of sheep and lambs in the pampas, is mild-tempered, musical and full +of secret medical lore. The animals under his care are frequently ill, +and he watches their instinctive ways of picking out the herbs that +will cure them. So he acquires a knowledge of herbs and an insight into +nature which makes him appear a wizard. The “_gulyás_” tends the big +cattle, oxen and bulls, and is naturally a rough fellow, fond of fight +and of wild rollicking. He frequently wrestles with enraged bulls that +have fled into the swamps, or with the poachers and robbers roaming +over the _puszta_. The “_kondás_” is the lowest type of those herdsmen. +He is sullen, hard of access, and irascible, and easily turns into a +robber. The most brilliant type is the “_csikós_.” He tends the immense +herds of horses browsing in the prairies of Hungary. As the violin and +the _furulya_ (or sort of piccolo) are the national instruments of the +Magyars, so the horse is their national animal. “The Magyar is created +for being on horseback” (_lóra termett a magyar_), the Hungarian proverb +holds. Peasant or nobleman, all are keen horsemen, and so intense is +their love of the horse that, like Arabs, Hungarian poets treat the horse +as a poetical character. The _csikós_ is dashing, quick at repartee, +an excellent dancer and singer or rather improvisatore, and grown to +his horse. He knows every patch of his _puszta_, and every trick and +dodge of horse-dealing and—horse-stealing. The girls idolize him. In +his fluttering, highly-coloured costume, he is the very martial, bold +and provoking youth whom girls will worship. Amidst these types of the +_puszta_, none the least fascinating is the “_szegény legény_,” or “poor +lad.” He is the robber and brigand of the _puszta_, and the romantic +interest attaching to him grows out of the belief that he took to his +lawless profession after having been thwarted in life or baffled in +love. But of all the phenomena of the _puszta_, the Fata Morgana, or +_mirage_, in Hungarian “_déli báb_,” is the most striking. On a sultry +afternoon in summer, cities appear in mid-heaven, images of towers +and castles, immense lakes and forests. They shine sometimes with a +peculiar, supermundane lustre, and the traveller thinks he is walking in +fairy-land. Then suddenly they disappear. Such is the _puszta_. + +The influence of the _puszta_ on the Magyar poets is undeniable; and +Petőfi, more than any other Hungarian poet, seems to be the high-priest +and devotee of the peculiar charms of the great plain. The real relation, +however, between the poet and his country is that between the traveller +and the mirage. It is in the eyes of the former that the latter is +forming, and there alone. Petőfi creates the Fata Morgana, with which he +fills the vast horizon of his beloved _puszta_. Although professionally +a lyric poet, his lyrics are of the purely objective kind. Many of his +best poems might be told in prose, and in any other language, without +losing much of their charm. There is, in his best works, an abiding +_fond_ of poetry, quite independent of the music or picturesqueness +of his words, or the strikingness of his similes. Heine, in his best +moments, rivals without always equalling him. Petőfi’s poems are mostly +very short; they, as it were, only state the poetic scene which then +works on the imagination or heart of the reader quite alone. When Heine +speaks of the lonely pine-tree standing on the snow-covered heights of +the north, dreaming of a palm perched in the far east on a rock burning +with the heat of the sun of the desert, he strikes a chord that will +vibrate in us long after and beyond the two simple stanzas in which +he tells the story of the two trees. This is objective poetry. It is +in this that Petőfi excels. Already in some of his earliest poems he +writes perfect objective poetry. In “The Stolen Horse” (“_Lopott ló_,” +1843) we are told of one of those fleeting scenes in puszta-life, in +which the poet by seizing the pregnant point where present, past and +future meet, gives us the story of several lives in words so few as to +seem insufficient for the telling even of a short anecdote. A _csikós_ +dashes on a stolen horse over the vast plain. The rich owner of the +noble animal, happening to pass by, recognizes his property, and calls +upon the _csikós_ to stop and surrender the horse. The fellow takes no +heed, and storms onward. Suddenly he stops, and turning round to the +owner, he exclaims, “Don’t miss your horse too badly; you have so many +of them. One heart was in my breast, and alas! your daughter has wrecked +it;” and disappears in the desert. The story of the poor boy’s love for +the haughty daughter of the rich man, her cruelty, the father’s pride, +the boy’s vengeance, his entrance on the wild life of a “poor lad,” or +robber; all that is pictured and suggested in the few words. In another +poem, the first line of which is “The wife of the inn-keeper loved +the vagabond” (“_A csaplárosné a betyárt szerette_,” 1844), the whole +tragedy of true love thwarted by lawless love is told in a few lines. +The vagabond (“_betyár_,” really “robber”) loves the maid of the wife +of an inn-keeper in the _puszta_. The wife loves the robber, and being +cut by him, drives away the poor girl, who dies of cold in the _puszta_. +The robber thereupon kills the woman, and dies on the gallows, without +regret, for “his life was no longer worth to him a pipe of tobacco.” +Another poem describes the wild rollicking of the boys in the village inn +at night. A knock is heard at the window, and a harsh voice bids the boys +to stop lest the quiet of the squire be disturbed. The boys only hold +forth all the louder. Another knock at the window is heard. In mild tones +a man asks the fellows to stop yelling, for his poor mother is ill. At +once all the frolic is at an end, and the boys leave the inn. It is in +such scenes, all expressed in the simplest and yet idiomatic language, +that Petőfi’s genius shines forth. Of him indeed it may be said that no +colour, tint or instrument with which to touch and stir up the human +heart was alien to him. Considering his extreme youth and the intense +gravity of his pathos, his exquisite and genuine humour is nothing short +of marvellous. It is the humour of a mature mind, full of ripe suavity +and mellow joyousness. Of Petőfi’s humour we could not use Hood’s lines: + + “There’s not a string attuned to mirth + But has its chord in melancholy.” + +It is playful humour, laughing a broad, sound laugh. He is not as witty +as Heine or Byron, but neither is he as cutting. In his famous poem +ridiculing the Magyar _hidalgo_ (“_A magyar nemes_”) there is nothing but +broad thrusts of a well-handled sword. There is no pricking with needles, +nor any guffaws of a satyr. + +Literary critics in Hungary and elsewhere have, in their anxiety for +classification and cataloguing, placed Petőfi amongst the so-called +folk-poets, and nothing is more frequent than a comparison of Petőfi +with Burns and Béranger, the _chansonniers_ of Scotland and France +respectively. However, the comparison is untenable. While humour, pathos, +tenderness and descriptive powers will readily be accorded, and in great +measure, to the Scotch singer, he can hardly be compared to Petőfi in +that distinctively creative power, which not only touches sentiment, not +only finds charming words and images for things external or internal, +but also and chiefly discovers new poetic continents, so to speak, new +mines of poetic gold. The very range of subjects covered by the poetry of +the Hungarian poet is considerably wider than that of the Scotch bard; +and in the last two years of his life Petőfi was raised, partly by his +own genius and partly by the events of his time, to the position of a +nation’s prophet. This very position acted on his poetic gifts with a +force that Burns never experienced, and accordingly, every comparison of +the two poets is radically false. The same remark applies to Béranger. +The entire atmosphere of his famous _chansons_ is so different from that +of Petőfi’s songs, as to render a comparison of the two impossible. +Béranger sings the glories of the great Revolution and of Napoleon’s +time. He is sweet, fresh, graceful, full of _élan_ and smartness. He +creates a _genre_, a mode of poetry, but a limited one. Petőfi was +impressed by both poets; he knew Burns and Béranger well, and studied +them, together with Shelley, Byron, and Heine, pretty carefully. But +he never imitated them, and for the simple reason that he could not do +so. He was in the best sense of the word, original, that is, creative. +He could imitate no one, and no one could imitate him. Petőfi cannot be +classified; he is a class by himself. He cultivates, it is true, the +manner and tone of the folk-song (“_népdal_”), and so to superficial +critics he may appear only as the best folk-song writer of Hungary. He +is infinitely more than that; in 1846, for instance, he did not write a +single “_népdal_” (folk-song); he is Hungary’s greatest poet. In him is +embodied the entire poetical genius of a nation, in whose single members +we may frequently find the gift of improvisation and poetic invention. +The rhapsodic vein so conspicuous in the everyday life of Hungary, and +the exaggerations of which have vitiated many an effort, literary or +musical, comes out in Petőfi in its full vigour and full beauty. Like +all great poets, he is intensely truthful. There is no sham whatever in +him, no affectation and no false note. His passion is terribly real, and +his mirth, true joy. Nowhere can this absolute truthfulness be noticed +with greater clearness; nowhere does it shine forth more imposingly +than in one of Petőfi’s wildest, and apparently most exaggerated poems, +“The Madman” (“_Az őrült_”). It is a monologue of a mad Titan, whose +fine intellect has been unhinged by ingratitude of friends, treachery +of women, and undeserved reverses. We do not hesitate to say that there +is in the whole range of European literature no other single poem +representing the demoniac charm of a mind at once vigorous and diseased +with equal force and truth. Constantly moving on the edges of abysses +than which the human mind or heart does not know any more appalling, the +“madman” yet talks with a power and lucidity so overwhelming as to send +through his hearers the holy shivers of religious prostration. Distorted +in form, terribly true in substance; such is the character of this unique +poem, in which all the serpents of scorn and pain seem to wriggle +beneath the leaves of the beautiful word-foliage. + +From Petőfi emanates the very soul of poetry and of all art: enthusiasm, +inspiration. After having written comic epics, love-poems, and +genre-pictures with a success never before witnessed, Petőfi, on the +approach of the revolutionary period, wrote those inflammatory patriotic +songs, the power of which was officially recognized by the Hungarian +Government, who had enormous numbers of Petőfi’s patriotic poetry printed +at their expense and distributed among the soldiers of the revolutionary +armies. His poems were then a national event, and they may in justice be +compared to a series of different “_Marseillaises_.” + +We began our characterization of Petőfi by saying that he, perhaps alone +amongst Hungarian writers, completely blended Hungarian with European +elements. We may now state the reason of this his peculiar excellence. +Petőfi, like all classical poets, while very great as a master of +form, owes less to the beauty or ornaments of his language than to the +objective beauty of his imagery, personifications and poetic scenes. +For such as largely identify literature with great word-feats, Virgil +will be greater than Homer (as was commonly believed in the seventeenth +century); Tennyson greater than Shelley; Platen greater than Heine; and +Arany (see page 194) greater than Petőfi. This is, however, not the +judgment of such as gauge poetic greatness by the measure of objective +beauty contained in a given work. The importance of form in poetry can +hardly be exaggerated, and the necessity of paying the closest attention +to the rules of form will be felt by no one more keenly than by the +student of Hungarian Literature. Yet in attempting to find a measure +of comparison between great poets, who all more or less excel in form, +there can be no doubt, that he who is richer in objective beauty is also +the superior poet. It is this superiority that raises Petőfi head and +shoulders not only over the rest of the Hungarian poets, but also above +most other poetic writers of modern Europe. The types of the _puszta_, +which we have essayed to sketch above, the women, and events of his time; +all these and many more Magyar subjects were by Petőfi so _objectivated_, +and given an independent poetic existence of their own, that they cease +to be familiar to Hungarians only. They grow on the German, French or +English reader with equal sympathy, and Petőfi thus needs less commentary +for the foreigner than any other Hungarian poet. His works are like +the Hungarian Rhapsodies of Liszt, which appeal to Americans with the +same irresistible force as to Magyars, as the present writer has had +abundant opportunity of experiencing in the United States. Yet the same +Magyar melodies and turbulent cadences that Liszt, and Liszt alone, +succeeded in _objectivating_, utterly fail of effect in countries other +than Hungary when played by Hungarian gypsies in unadulterated Magyar +fashion. This, then, is the deepest and truest secret of Petőfi’s immense +power: while embracing mostly Magyar subjects, he so _objectivates_ them +as to render them enjoyable and sympathetic to non-Magyar readers too. +National poets inferior to Petőfi give their nation songs which other +nations too possess, and the only difference between them is that of +language. Petőfi gave Hungary and the rest of the civilized world what +no nation other than the Hungarian possesses. As the Hungarian nation +itself has an individuality so marked and so different from the other +nations of Europe, as to entail upon it an historic and social vocation +_sui generis_, so the poems of Petőfi, as the most felicitous exponent +of Hungarian nationality, add to the types of poetry produced by other +nations, a type, a species so individual and so richly personal as to +endow it with a literary vocation altogether its own. If we are to reduce +this peculiarly Magyar element to the precincts of a word, we should say +it is the rhapsodic element. By this we mean a peculiar temper of the +inspired mind pervading its joyous, humorous, meditative or despondent +moods alike. As Liszt is the greatest exponent of this rhapsodic +element in music, so Petőfi is in poetry. Most other rhapsodic poets or +musicians, Magyar or otherwise, have badly failed, some by degenerating +into rant or redundancy, others by becoming formless. Petőfi alone +succeeded in raising rhapsodies to the level of true art. + +It was said above that Petőfi’s works are not in need of much commentary, +even for the foreigner. We may now add that the only commentary needed is +a knowledge of Petőfi’s life. Petőfi’s short life as a poet was coeval +with the great awakening of the Magyar nation to the full consciousness +of its position and its rights. He was born in 1823, in Kis-Körös, +and was the son of a well-to-do butcher, by the name of Petrovics, +husband to a Slav woman, called Mary Hruz. For historians who believe +in the race-theory, there is ample room for speculation, sympathetic or +malevolent, in the fact that the beloved mother of Hungary’s greatest +Magyar poet belonged to the “race” of the Slavs, whom all staunch Magyars +are disinclined to reckon amongst human beings. “_Tót nem ember, kása nem +étel_” (“The Slav is no human being, and porridge is no meal”), holds +the Hungarian proverb. Fully convinced as we are that there is no truth +whatever in the race-theory, we can only see in the fact of Petőfi being +the child of a Slav mother and a Magyar (or Magyar-speaking) father +a providential fact creating Hungary’s greatest poet from amongst a +_milieu_ saturated with both of the main elements of Hungarian society: +Magyar and Slav. Young Petőfi spent his youth in the large plains between +the Theiss and the Danube, and the impressions of that picturesque +portion of Hungary have left their indelible traces on his imagination. +At the age of fifteen, Petőfi was deprived of the comfort he had so far +enjoyed, by the financial failure of his father. From that time onward +he led a life replete with hardships of all kinds. At school he was a +failure, and even in poetics, as he has told us in one of his humorous +poems, he was “ploughed.” Being somewhat too fond of the inspiration of +the wine-cup, or at least being credited with such fondness, he soon +fell out with his hosts, his teachers and finally with his father. From +the misery of his position he tried to save himself by volunteering as a +private in the Austrian army. The very harsh treatment he had to endure +as a soldier told on his health, and although he had still moral strength +left to scribble his poems on the planks of the sentry-box in which he +mounted guard during the bitter winter, he at last was dismissed from +the service on account of symptoms of consumption. In the following two +or three years we find him tramping over all Hungary, writing verse, +and eking out a miserable livelihood by means of acting on provincial +stages. The great poet long believed in his vocation as an actor, and +obstinately stuck to a determination that met nowhere with any serious +encouragement. Meanwhile, however, his verses had made him a well-known +poet, and soon the idol of the country. In his travels to the north of +Hungary he was received, more especially at Kassa and Eperjes, with +honours usually accorded only to royalty. The nation felt that he was the +living personification of all the political and poetical aspirations of +the Magyars then struggling for manifestation. In 1846 he made, in the +county of Szathmár, the acquaintance of that strange and ill-balanced +girl, who was to become his wife. Juliet Szendrey was her name. She was +the daughter of a steward on one of the great estates of a Hungarian +nobleman, and had from early years shown symptoms of that malady which is +now more widely known under the name of “new womanism,” or “_féminisme_.” +Accordingly, she was eccentric and aimless, and when Petőfi made love to +her she was at a loss how to respond to a feeling so simple and natural. +Having given Petőfi some cruel samples of the waywardness of her temper, +it occurred to her that she might inflict even more pain on her father by +marrying the poor poet, and consequently she did so against the wish of +her parent. The young couple lived in very primitive lodgings in Pest, +and Madame took her fame as the wife of a great man with very grand +airs. She so intensely appreciated the happiness of being wedded to a +young genius and an affectionate husband, that she married, not quite +a year after Petőfi’s disappearance on the battlefield of Segesvár, a +man in every way infinitely inferior to Petőfi. Can anything prove the +Fata Morgana character of poetry and of poets more cruelly than the ever +infamous conduct of that highly cultivated woman, who, after having been +idolized and, in verses, immortalized by one of the greatest of poets, +showed her worthlessness by marrying a mediocrity before a single year +had elapsed after the glorious death of her husband, whose infant son +still required all her care? But let us return to the poet. A few months +after his marriage Petőfi began his political career by announcing to +the people of Pest the abolition of the censorship, and by reading to +the enthusiastic crowd his famous poem, “Rise o’ Magyar” (“_Talpra +magyar!_”), on the Ides of March, 1848. Towards the end of the same +year he took service in the revolutionary army, and was attached to +the Polish general, Bem, a hero wounded in untold battles for liberty, +and then serving the cause of the Magyars in Transylvania. Few letters +are more touching than the letters written by Petőfi in fair French to +the old warrior, his “father,” as he calls him. Bem, himself a genius +of character, at once felt and recognized the genius of Petőfi, and +with great tact smoothed over difficulties arising from the poet’s wild +insubordination. Against the advice and in spite of the entreaties of +numerous friends, who wanted to save the poet for his country, Petőfi +took actual part in various battles. He was last heard of in the battle +of Segesvár, in Transylvania, on July 31st, 1849, where he died as he had +long wished, fighting for his country. “To live for love, and die for +one’s country”—he had not only sung it.... + +The works of Petőfi are both lyrical and epical; his novelistic attempts, +“The Rope of the Hangman” (“_A hóhér kötele_”) are crude, so are his few +essays in the drama. Amongst his epics, “_Childe John_” (“_János vitéz_”) +is the best. It is a comic epic, or rather a fairy-story told with +exquisite humour and exuberance of fancy. Another excellent comic epic of +his is “_Bolond İstók_.” His lyrical poems are very numerous and cover, +as has been already indicated, the whole range of human sentiment. +Perhaps it is not superfluous to remark that there is in all the works +of Petőfi not a word likely to jar on the ear of the most fastidious +moralist. Like himself, his works all breathe the purity and health of +untainted youth. + +The reader will now perhaps expect a laborious statement of the +shortcomings and failings of Petőfi as a poet. And many a Hungarian +critic has, apart from his professional duty to fall foul of this or +that feature in the literary physiognomy of poets, pointed out some +grievous drawbacks in Petőfi’s works. Thus, most critics have, while +lauding the splendid lyrical subjectivity of Petőfi, pointed out his +alleged incapacity to write anything else than himself. His chief +deficiency, it has been asserted, is his lack of objective imagination, +such as was possessed by the great epic and dramatic writers of European +literature. To this the answer is, it appears to us, very simple. +Petőfi never wrote a work intended to be an epic proper; nor were his +attempts at dramatic composition really serious. He cannot, therefore, +be legitimately reproached with having failed where he did not intend to +succeed. He never deliberately worked for such achievements of objective +imagination as show in the creation of dramatic personalities. Yet most +of his perfect poems manifest, as we have tried to show above, that +very objective imagination in the rarest form of strength. Hungarian +literary criticism is still, we regret to say, in a stage of development +considerably lower than Hungarian literary composition. Hence such +judgments on Petőfi. Can we pronounce otherwise on the literary critics +of Hungary, who have so far produced no single comprehensive study on the +works of a poet who is at once their greatest and most famous genius? +Genius has this peculiarity that its works are easy to enjoy but hard +to criticise. In reality, it takes another genius, a critical one, to +appreciate it adequately. In this respect, foreign literary criticism has +been relatively more just to Petőfi. In all the countries of Europe and +America, Petőfi’s name has been steadily spreading, and numerous attempts +at translations of his works have been made in both hemispheres. We do +not think that Petőfi is untranslatable. His very objectiveness renders +him more fit for free and yet faithful translations than, for instance, +Arany (see page 194). Another reason is that Petőfi lays less stress on +form and metre than other poets of an equal rank. He who fully seizes +the beauty of the poetic subject-matter in Petőfi’s poems can render +them more or less adequately in any language. More, however, than by +translation might be achieved by Hungarian artists who by picturing the +paintable features of Petőfi’s poems, would contribute most potently +to a general appreciation of his genius. There are hundreds of perfect +pictures to be taken from his works, provided the painter takes them from +him in the way in which Petőfi took them from nature. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVIII. + + +Outside Hungary, the name of John Arany is seldom heard; and western +readers will be astonished to hear that Arany is considered by many +of the best known Magyar critics the greatest of the Hungarian poets. +Petőfi has never quite pleased the professors of æsthetics and poetry +in the various universities and “_academies_” of Hungary; and there +being no Magyar Saint Beuves or August Schlegels, to guide, with tact +sustained by learning, and learning eased by tact, the tastes and +literary opinions of the professorial minds in Hungary, it is not rare +to hear and read of Arany as the greatest poetic genius of the Magyars. +We hasten to add, that we readily bow to the greatness and charm, and +still more to the merits of Arany. He is a great poet indeed. Nearly +every one of his numerous ballads, epics and smaller poems is replete +with the glamour of true poetry. In point of language he is, no doubt, +the most idiomatic and richest of all Hungarian writers. Yet, with all +these gifts and excellencies, he is not equal to Petőfi. Reaching, as he +did, an age nearly three times as protracted as that of Petőfi, he could +yet not, through any stretch of time or effort, attain to powers which +have been bestowed upon very few poets. Petőfi ranks with the world’s +greatest poets; Arany ranks only with the great poets of Hungary. To the +strictly Magyar Jingo, as well as to the Magyar professor, Arany may +appear greater even than Petőfi; we hope to show that his genius is of a +nature at once different from and smaller than that of the incomparable +Alexander. + +The reader will, we trust, permit us to premise a short remark which, +especially for English readers, seems indispensable for a right +appreciation of Arany. In England there has long ceased to be a peasantry +proper; at any rate, there has for now over 400 years been no such +peasantry in England, as may still be seen on the continent generally, +and in Hungary in particular. The type “peasant” is at once the +arch-type of narrow-mindedness, sordidness, _naïveté_, and spontaneous +poetry. He is conservative in the extreme and slow, yet frequently the +source of great upheavals and revolutions. His speech is concrete and +“_terre-à-terre_,” yet at the same time full of quaint metaphors and +conceits. His thoughts are all on the line of synthesis; and analysis +is as strange to him as generalization. He loves Nature; but he is too +much at one with it, part of it, to feel poetically the gulf between +Nature and Man. Honour and respect for himself and his ancient customs +are as the life-atmosphere of his existence; and thus in the social +architecture of the continental state to him is allotted the staying +force of the pillars, beams and rafters of the building.[3] This, the +general picture of the continental peasant, has to be touched up here and +there when meant to represent the Hungarian peasant proper. For, luckily +for Hungarian poets, the Magyar peasant, while fully as conservative +and old-fashioned as his Austrian or German brother, is considerably +less sordid, more frank, and altogether more “gentlemanly.” Yet he is +a peasant, a part both of Hungary’s civic and natural complexion. Now +it is this Hungarian peasant, and his social complement, the rural +nobleman, who are the centre of Arany’s poetry. We say “complement,” for +it is at present well understood by all close students of continental +nobility, that the latter is, in essence and sociological drift, if +not in appearance, one and the same phenomenon as the peasantry. Both +classes form the conservative or static forces of continental states, +and both are necessary conditions for the existence of a _bourgeois_ +proper. Without them, or without one of them, the medium or _bourgeois_ +element is altogether wanting, or, as in England, of a complexion +totally at variance with the continental middle class. Now in Hungary, +and more especially still, in the Hungary of Arany’s youth and first +manhood (1840-1870), there was no numerous _bourgeois_ proper; and Arany, +singing in tones and images flowing from and meant for the two other +classes only, is for that very reason _toto coelo_ different from most +of the German and French and also from English poets. Modern western +literature, in Austria and Germany exclusively; in France almost, and in +England largely so, is _bourgeois_ poetry; poetry written by and for the +middle and central classes of the community; or at any rate expressive +of sentiments and mental states growing in the atmosphere of _bourgeois_ +life. The poems of Arany, on the other hand, were growing in the fields +and farms of the peasant, and in the manors of the landed nobility; even +more in the former than in the latter. Theirs is a spirit charming in +its rural breeziness and compact humour; fascinating in its _naïveté_ +and coyness; but somewhat out of tune with the modern or _bourgeois_ +sentiment. The more the middle or _bourgeois_ class develops in Hungary, +the less the fame of Arany will continue unimpaired. His works will be +unable to satisfy the poetic needs of a class which he did not know, and +with which he had but scant sympathy. His very _naïveté_, his greatest +poetic charm, will be found wanting. _Naïveté_, like all other tempers +of the heart or mind, has its geography, its _locus_. It does not grow +anywhere or everywhere. It requires a peculiar borderland situated where +two social classes meet. In that borderland it grows willingly. Such +lands are of course to be found only where classes do meet socially. In +England, for instance, classes carefully avoid meeting intimately in a +social manner; although they do so frequently in a manner political, +commercial and religious. Hence, _naïveté_ is scarcely to be found, +either in English life or in English poetry. By a parity of reasoning, +American poetry, based on a life with practically no classes whatever, +can boast still fewer of the blossoms of naïve types or naïve style. +Arany’s world, it is true, is one where the two classes, the nobleman +and the peasant, do meet intimately, and thus the flowers of _naïveté_ +are plentiful. It is a _naïveté_ shy of display and timid; a _naïveté_ +in deeds more than in words; and finally, a _naïveté_ of men rather +than of women. It has, when enjoyed in Arany’s own exquisite Magyar, a +flavour so pure and hearty, so thoroughly true and poetic as to endear +everything it touches. Yet it is the _naïveté_ of the peasant, not of the +_bourgeois_. It is poor in types, and restricted in emotions. It does +not respond to the psychical atmosphere of the ever growing _bourgeois_ +class in Hungary, and accordingly the numerous readers of that class look +for their reading somewhere else. The peasant and the rural nobleman +are both captivating types for poets; they do not, however, represent +more than a minor aspect of that broad humanity which has so far found +its noblest expression in tales, dramas and poems grafted on events or +sentiments of individuals outside the clans and septs of peasants and +noblemen. The Germans, who have the excellent term of “_bürgerliches +Drama_” (_bourgeois_ drama), have felt that profound change coming over +western literature very keenly; and the greatness of their literature is +owing to that circumstance in no small degree. As in Hungary, nearly all +great writers were, first magnates, and then noblemen (even Petőfi was a +nobleman, although he set no value on that fact), so in Germany all the +great writers have been without an exception, “_Bürger_” (_bourgeois_) +proper. Now it is the peculiar greatness of Petőfi that many of his +poems appeal to the sentiments and mental attitudes of that specifically +modern public, the _bourgeois_ readers, with a force and sympathy as +strong as is the charm of many others to the “common people” or peasants +of Hungary. It is said of Pico de Mirandola that while he excited the +awe and admiration of the most learned and thoughtful men at the end of +the fifteenth century Rome and Florence, the maidens and young men of +the beautiful city on the Arno were singing with delight his exquisite +love-songs. Such is Petőfi; such is not Arany. He cannot properly be +enjoyed except in his own Magyar, and by readers intimately acquainted +with the two classes he belongs to. Not even when he selects, as he +sometimes does, foreign subjects, as in his “_The Bards of Wales_,” does +he become less “clannish.” Of the strongest of all feelings of young +humanity, of Love, he has none but epic expression; he never wrote a +love-song proper. The women in his epics are mere phantasms, angels or +fiends; and his men are peasants or heroes, or both. The point on which +he excels every other Hungarian poet, and on which will repose his +lasting fame, is his language. It has the raciness of the peasant’s +talk with the moderation of refined style. In other countries writers +introduced new elements of poetic speech by means of using words or +phrases taken or imitated from one of the dialects of their province or +county. Even in Shakespeare there are traces of the then Warwickshire +dialect, and probably still more of Warwickshire folk-lore. German +writers have legitimated innumerable provincialisms. Hungarian, on the +other hand, has no dialects, or none to speak of. The writer who wants +to find new linguistic affluents can turn only to the stock used by the +peasants in the vast plain of Hungary. Arany, replete as he was with all +the wealth of the language used by the peasants, knew how to ennoble +and purify the language of the farmers and shepherds of the _puszta_, +and to impart to it much of that Greek simplicity and beauty of which, +as a scholar, he was so competent a student. As the French language is +not rich in words but in idioms, so Hungarian is not rich in words but +in word-formations. Especially the verb admits of a variety of forms +and terminations enveloping every shade of thought or movement with the +glibness of water. It is in such linguistic feats that Arany shows his +genius; and since language in Hungary has an importance tenfold more +significant than in countries composed of less polyglot peoples, it is +quite natural that in the literary appreciation of Arany at the hands +of Magyar critics the political element has played a very considerable +part. This is, as we stated above, his great merit. Language in all +modern countries has at first been the make of the peasant classes. In +them there is that mysterious and instinctive power which has produced +the splendid series of Romance and Teutonic languages which, by literary +craft, have come to be formed into the diction of Dante, Cervantes, +Molière, Shakespeare, and Goethe. Arany, in focussing this power with the +strength of a mind at once _logopoeic_ and richly stored with knowledge, +did an inestimable service to the cause of Magyar Literature and Magyar +Nationality. In that respect he occupies in Hungarian Literature a place +undoubtedly higher than that of any other Magyar writer. In matter, he +could not fully unite the strictly Magyar with the broader European +element; in poetic language, on the other hand, he did achieve that +union; and it is in that achievement of his that we must look for his +specific genius and merit. + +Unlike as was Arany’s personality to that of Petőfi: the former modest +and retiring, the latter self-assertive and dashing; their careers too +were equally different from each other. Arany’s life (1817-Oct. 22nd, +1882), was one of quiet work first as a teacher, and later on (1860), +as president of the Kisfaludy Society, and since 1864, as Secretary of +the Academy of Science. The latter part of his life was distressed by +persistent ill-health. In character Arany belonged to the select few, +who have never stooped to any baseness whatever and never lost sight +of the ideals of their youth. He was the intimate friend of Petőfi, +who at once recognized his greatness, and the tolerant patron of the +younger generation of writers. The nation mourned his death as a national +calamity. + +Arany is, almost exclusively, a poet of epic songs, epics proper and +ballads. Of the former his most finished works are the Toldi Trilogy, +consisting of “_Toldi_” (the name of the hero, published in 1847); +“_Toldi szerelme_” (“The love of Toldi,” published in 1879); and “_Toldi +estéje_” (“The eve of Toldi,” published previously in 1854). These three +epics, written in rhymed six-feet stanzas of eight lines each, tell the +life-story of an historic Magyar peasant-hero of the fourteenth century, +in the times of King Lewis, justly called the “Great.” He is of herculean +strength, of violent temper, but good-hearted, simple, a loving son, and +a loyal friend and subject. His struggle against his wicked brother; his +love for Piroska, whom, in a passage at arms, he foolishly wins for +another wooer; his despair at seeing the idol of his heart the wife of +another; finally, his declining years when he finds himself out of accord +with the changed times, and retires home to be put into the grave he had +dug for himself. Such is, in the main, the contents of the three epics, +into which the wizard language of Arany has infused the charms of real +poetry. It would be idle to compare Arany’s art with that of Goethe’s +“_Hermann und Dorothea_.” Goethe’s hero too is rather a peasant farmer +than a _bourgeois_. Yet all the other figures of Goethe’s masterpiece are +endowed with life so intensely _bourgeois_, as to secure admiration for +the work in all times to come. Arany’s hero; his dear old mother; his +brother; his love, etc., scarcely leave the boundaries of peasant-world; +and while his epic will thus for ever charm the youth of Hungary, it may +in future cease to be an object of lasting admiration on the part of the +more mature classes of the nation. + +The same great qualities of linguistic _verve_ and intense poetic +sentiment are to be found in the other epical poems of Arany. In the +“Death of Buda” (_Buda halála_, 1864), he sings the legendary story +of Attila’s murder of his own brother Buda (Bleda). In this exquisite +epic Attila (or Etele, as Arany calls him), is pictured as a hero of +the magnificent type, and nothing could be more removed from the poet’s +“Etele,” than the conventional or historic Attila. Tragical energy and +incomparable language render this poem one of intense charm. It was +intended for one of three great epics narrating the cycle of Hun legends; +of the other two we have only fragments. The romantic story of Wesselényi +and Mary Szécsi (see page 58), was made into a charming epic by Arany, +under the title “The capture of Murány” (“_Murány ostroma_,” 1849). In +“The Gypsies of Nagy Ida” (“_A nagyidai czigányok_,” 1852), Arany gave +vent, in form of a satirical burlesque, to his profound sorrow over his +country’s decadence, after the suppression of the liberal movement in +1848-1849. His ballads are generally considered to represent the best +specimens of Magyar ballad-writing. It must certainly be conceded that +few ballad-writers, whether in or outside Hungary, have so completely +hit the true ballad-tone, or internal ring of thought and word adapted +to subjects so utterly out of keeping with our modern sentiment. It +may be doubted whether Chopin himself in his ballad in F major has so +felicitously intuned the lay of olden romance as has Arany in his mostly +sombre ballads, such as “Duel at midnight” (“_Éjféli párbaj_”), “Knight +Pázmán” (“_Pázmán lovag_”), “Marfeast” (“_Ünneprontók_”). As in the best +English or German ballads, events are, as a rule, only indicated, not +described, and hurry on to their fatal termination with terrible speed. +All is action and fierce movement. + +In addition to his activity as a creative poet, Arany also did much +for the introduction of foreign and classical literature into Hungary +by way of translations. His most successful work in that line were the +translations of several dramas of Shakespeare (_Hamlet_, _Midsummer +Night’s Dream_, _King John_), and more especially still his most +exquisite (—_pace_ all the German philologists!—) translation of the +comedies of Aristophanes. + +We ought now to devote a considerable space to a poet who, in his time, +was generally associated with Petőfi and Arany. We mean Michael Tompa +(1817-1868). While it is now impossible to rank Tompa with either Petőfi +or Arany, he yet occupies a very conspicuous place in Magyar literature. +His intense love of nature, his profound religious sentiment, and his +fine humour entitle him to be considered as foremost amongst the lesser +lyrical glories of Hungary. We can only regret that we cannot give here +more than this bare indication of the peculiar individuality of the +author of the “Flower-fables” (_Virágregék_). + + + + +CHAPTER XXIX. + + +The dramatic literature of the Hungarians, as may be seen from the +preceding chapters, was, at the beginning of the twenties of this +century, in a most backward condition. For reasons that it is very +difficult to ascertain, some of the most dramatic nations, such as +the Italians, have rarely or never excelled in drama-writing; while +the English, who do not claim to be either conspicuously emotional or +dramatic, have given the world the incomparable dramas of Shakespeare. +In Italy, the lack of great dramatists may perhaps be ascribed to the +fact, that female parts were, at least down to the end of the last +century, played by boys. Yet a glance at the Attic theatre deprives this +reason of much of its value. Be this as it may, the great influence of +theatres and acting on dramatists can scarcely be denied. In Hungary, +at any rate, the very indifferent condition of the theatre in the first +three decades of the century bulks large amongst the causes producing +a dearth of good Magyar dramas. This becomes evident when we consider +that the first really great drama of a Magyar writer, “Banus Bánk” +(“_Bánk bán_”), by Katona, passed unnoticed for over fourteen years +(1818-1834), until a great actor, Gabriel Egressy, made it popular. The +Hungarians are naturally good actors, and very fond of theatre-going. +It will perhaps scarcely be believed in the enlightened west, where so +late as November, 1897, one of the leading daily papers of England was +permitted to speak of English and French literature as the only two +great literatures of the modern world, that in Hungary there has been, +and for some time too, a wealth of dramas of an intrinsic value at least +as great as that of any British drama written within the last hundred +and fifty years, and played by actors and actresses fully the equals of +their colleagues at the _Comédie Française_. This remarkable growth of +dramatic literature in Hungary did not, however, begin before the fourth +decade of the present century. The epics and ballads of Vörösmarty, +Garay, Czuczor, etc., seemed to captivate the public to the exclusion +of all other forms of poetry. The patriotic tune ringing, and expected +to ring through all popular works previous to the Revolution of 1848, +threw their authors into the worship of the heroic past and thus into +Romanticism. It was, accordingly, quite natural that dramatists, in +order to catch the public ear, indulged rather in heroic ranting and +tirades, than in dramatic characterization. The heroes of the tragedies +of Charles Kisfaludy (see page 116), for instance, are rhetoric blown +into the shape of persons. Everything Magyar is perfect; the Magyars are +delicately reminded, in pages full of endless adulation, that they are, +to use an American phrase, “the greatest, the best fed, and the best +clad nation on the face of the globe.” Their heroes are the greatest; +their past the most glorious. This sort of jingoism may be tolerated in +epics and ballads, where other redeeming features may save the literary +value of the work. In dramas it is fatal. Yet it is in the drama where +Romanticism may attain to really perfect works. The writer of romantic +ballads must, in the end, fall into the snares of an exaggerated +patriotism, and thus vitiate his work, rendering it less acceptable to +a sober and unchauvinistic posterity. The dramatic writer, on the other +hand, need not necessarily run the same risk. If he has power to chisel +out of the given material of a nation’s past one or the other truly +human character in all its grandeur, and in all its shortcomings, then +the historic staging and bygone emotional atmosphere of the past will +serve only to set off the dramatic beauties of the work all the more +plastically. Arany’s Edward I. in the “Bards of Wales” (see page 200), is +a ruthless and senseless tyrant that must pall on us in the end. Richard +III., on the other hand, can never pall on us; for in him we recognize +many an unavowed demon ravaging our own souls. Arany’s Edward I. is a +ballad-figure; Shakespeare’s Richard III. is a piece of true humanity. To +the dramatic poet it is indifferent from what part of the globe he takes +his material; for humanity is spread all over the planet. So a nation’s +heroic past too may be quite welcome to him, provided he is a real +dramatist. Katona was such. He is rough and inharmonious in language, +but there is real dramatic life in his men and women. For the first time +in Hungarian Literature the true tone of tragedy was heard. The terrible +fate of the Banus comes home to hearers, Hungarian or otherwise; it is +yawning out of the abyss of conflicts to which all of us are liable. He +is a loyal subject of his king, and yet bursts out in open rebellion; nay +worse, he kills his queen. He is a great patriot; yet finally makes a +rebellious plot with a foreign adventurer. He is a perfect nobleman; yet +ultimately breaks all the laws of true nobility. He is a loving husband; +yet contemplates assassinating his beautiful wife. And as he is, so are +the other persons of the drama. In them is pictured the conflicting +nature of the human heart and character as it really is: rough, +unbending, false, yet capable of sublime self-abnegation. Or as Petőfi +says: “Rain from heaven turning mud on earth.” The plot is as follows: +Bánk, in the absence of King Andrew II. of Hungary justiciar of the +country, has reason to believe that Gertrude, the haughty and unpopular +queen, countenances the vile designs of her brother Otto on Bánk’s +beautiful wife Melinda. A rebellion of the malcontent nobles under Petur +is breaking out. Bánk, who ought to quell it by virtue of his office, is +thrown out of his moral equilibrium by the news that Melinda has been +seduced by Otto. Forgetful of his position, he obeys only the behests of +his outraged soul and kills Gertrude. The king returns, the rebellion is +put down, and Bánk perishes. In Katona’s drama there is more power than +form. It will easily be understood that his chief model was Shakespeare. +He himself did not live to see the great success of his only masterpiece; +he died broken-spirited in 1830 at Kecskemét, in the thirty-eighth year +of his luckless life. + +The first remarkable Hungarian dramatist after Katona is Edward +Szigligeti (his real name was Joseph Szatmáry), 1814-1878. From an early +date he was in constant contact with the theatre and with actors, and so +acquired great practical knowledge of stage-lore. He had deeply studied +the art of stage effect, and all his very numerous dramatic works testify +to an extraordinary stage-craft. It would, however, be unfair to compare +him to writers like Kotzebue in Germany, or Labiche in France. His +routine, no doubt, was pre-eminent in many of his pieces; yet, beside and +beyond the mere cleverness of the playwright, he had real _vis comica_ +and a profound knowledge of Hungarian society. During his life-time that +society was slowly but steadily emerging from the semi-civilized state +of the former patriarchalism to the forms and usages of modern life. In +such periods of transition there is ample material for anyone gifted +with a keen sense of humour. The aping of western manners (ridiculed in +“_Marna_,” 1857; “Female Rule” [“_Nőuralom_” 1862], etc.); the humour +of the altered family-life (“Three Matrimonial Commands” [“_Házassági +három parancs_,”] 1850; “Stephen Dalos” [_Dalos Pista_], 1855; etc.); +odd remnants of the former social state, such as tramping actors, the +still-life of small towns; all this Szigligeti knew how to dramatize +with great effect. Like Charles Kisfaludy he drew with great felicity on +the stores of drastic humour pervading a conservative society composed +of many a discrepant element and moving onwards on entirely new lines +of development. He tried his skilful hand at tragedies too, and “The +Shadows of Light” (“_A fény árnyai_,” 1865,) and “The Pretender” (“_A +trónkereső_”, 1868,) are said to be meritorious. His rare stage-craft +and witty dialogue alone, however, could not have raised his name to +the height on which it rests, and where in all probability it will +continue to rest. Szigligeti’s name is justly famous for being the real +founder of what, for lack of a better name in English, must be called +the Hungarian folk-drama. In England there is no such thing, and no such +word. Already in our remarks on Arany (see page 195), we essayed to show +that the continental peasantry is generically different from any class +of small farmers in England. That peasantry is, in reality, a world of +its own. It is as much a world of its own, as is the well-known world +of the “upper ten.” He who has never been in what the knowing call “_le +monde_,” will easily confound the sentiments and thoughts of his own +world with those of the “_monde_.” Yet the two worlds are two worlds +indeed. Their whole tone and rhythm of life is different. They are +written not only in different scales but also for different instruments. +It is even so with the world of peasantry in Hungary or in Austria. How +silly of some painfully enlightened people to ascribe, for instance, the +mass of prejudice and superstition in the Hungarian or German peasantry +to a lack of that “_Bildung_” or school-knowledge which is acquired +through books and bookmen! The current belief in witches, fairies, imps +and such-like elf-folk, good and bad, grows with the peasantry of those +countries, out of the same roots that nourish in the “higher classes” +the craving for and the delight in fairy operas and fantastic novels. +Each social “world” demands pleasures and distractions of the same kind; +each satisfying that craving in a different manner. The urban gentleman +and lady while away tedious winter evenings by visits to theatres, where +unlikely, demoniac and over-exciting pieces are an everyday occurrence. +The peasants in Hungary have no such theatres; yet long winter evenings +hang just as heavily on their hands. They therefore while away their +leisure-hours by stories fantastic and demoniac, the literal belief +in which must needs grow in direct proportion to the lack of all +theatrical stage environment. As with superstitions, so it is with all +the other great social needs. The Hungarian peasant, when outraged in +his sentiments, does not, it is true, fight a duel like the gentleman. +Yet he, too, becomes a duellist, retiring into the woods, and fighting +society at large as a “_szegény legény_” or brigand. _Plus cela change, +plus c’est la même chose._ + +It will now be perhaps somewhat clearer that the Hungarian peasantry, +_qua_ peasantry, lends itself to dramatization in the same way as +does any other of the “worlds of men.” The common humanity of men is +to be found in that peasantry too; but it is modified, coloured, and +discoloured, “timbred” and attuned in a different mood. It admits of +tragedies proper; of comedies; and of burlesques. It is Szigligeti’s +great merit to have discovered this new dramatic ore. Without in the +least trying to diminish his glory, we cannot but add, that through the +great revolution coming over Hungary as over the rest of Europe, in the +period from the third to the seventh decade of this century, a revolution +social no less than political, the peculiar and distinct character of +the world of peasants became, by contrast to the rising _bourgeoisie_ +and the changing nobility, much more easily discernible than it had been +ever before in Hungary. Yet Szigligeti was the first to seize on that +dramatic _res nullius_; and both for this discovery and the excellent +specimens of folk-dramas which he wrote, he deserves all credit. His most +remarkable folk-dramas are: “The Deserter” (“_Szökött Katona_,” 1843); +“The _Csikós_” (1846); and “The Foundling” (“_Lelencz_,” 1863). + +We can here only mention the dramas of Sigismund Czakó, who for some time +before his voluntary death in 1847, was very popular; of Charles Obernyik +(1816-1855); and of Ignatius Nagy; the two latter being very popular +before the Revolution of 1848, owing to their excessively “patriotic” +dialogues. A far higher place in Hungarian dramatic literature is due +to the noble Count Ladislas Teleky, who also died by his own hand. His +“The Favourite” (“_A Kegyencz_,” 1841), the subject of which is taken +from the time of the Roman Emperor Valentinian III., is credited with +great force of irony, dramatic truth and power of imagination. In Charles +Hugo (_recte_ Charles Hugo Bernstein), 1817-1877, the Hungarian drama +might have gained a dramatic power of rare quality, had the overweening +self-infatuation of the author, together with his poor knowledge of +Magyar, not rendered him a victim to his first success. He is one of the +numerous Titans of the Hungarian capital, who cannot do anything half-way +creditable unless they fail to gain reputation. No sooner do they become +“famous,” than they cease to be either interesting or productive. Hugo’s +“Banker and Baron” (“_Bankár és Báró_”) had not only a great, but an +extraordinary success. Not only incense was strewn before the poet, +but, to use Lessing’s phrase, the very censer was hurled at his head. +The enthusiastic crowd carried the author bodily from the theatre to +his favourite _Café_. This unhinged poor Hugo’s mental equilibrium. He +considered himself a second Victor Hugo; and so never wrote any other +great drama. The merit of “Banker and Baron” is very considerable. It +is one of the then few attempts at writing a real _bourgeois_ drama, in +which the common human heritage of virtues and vices, affections and +passions, is presented with great force and dramatic vivacity. + +Of a style and tone quite different from the preceding dramas is the +“dramatic poem,” as the author calls it, entitled “The Tragedy of Man,” +by Emericus Madách (1829-1864). In that great poem there is revealed +all the sombreness of profound melancholy, wailing over the bootless +struggle of Man since the unlucky moment of his creation. As the reader +may have noticed in the course of the present work, the Hungarians, as +a nation, are strongly inclined to pathos; just as the English are to +satire and the French to irony. In the youthful members of the Magyar +nation that bent is at times so strong as to dominate all the other modes +and faculties of the soul. Hence the astounding wealth of grave Largos in +Hungarian music, and the melancholy and despondent tone in many a great +work of Hungarian poetry. Few poems can compare in unaffected sadness +and thus twice saddening effect with Arany’s “_Epilogus_.” Madách’s +“Tragedy of Man” (“_Az ember tragédiája_”) is, as it were, the funeral +march of humanity. It would be utterly wrong to compare it to Goethe’s +“Faust.” Although there is a general similarity in the drift of the two +works, yet the poem of the luckless and suffering county official of +an obscure Hungarian province is essentially different from the drama +of the Jupiter of German literature. Madách’s poem is, reduced to its +skeleton, a philosophy of History. He takes us from the hour when Adam +and Eve were innocently walking in the Garden of Eden, to the times of +the Egyptian Pharaohs; then to the Athens of Miltiades; to sinking +Rome; to the adventurous period of the Crusaders; into the study of the +astronomer Kepler in the seventeenth century; thence into the horrors +of the French Revolution; into greed-eaten and commerce-ridden modern +London; nay, into the ultra-socialist state of the future, in which there +will be no family, no nation, and no individuality amongst the countless +individuals; and where the ideas of the preceding ages, such as Religion, +Art, Literature, will, by means of scientific formulæ, be shown up in all +their absurdity; still further, the poet shows the future of the earth, +when ice will cover the whole of its surface, and Europeans and other +human beings will be reduced to the state of a degraded brute dragging on +the misery of existence in some cave. In all these scenes, Adam, Eve and +the arch-fiend (Lucifer) are the chief and constantly recurring _personæ +dramatis_. In fact, all these scenes are meant to be prophetic dreams +of Adam, which Lucifer causes him to have in order to disgust him with +humanity in advance, and so, by driving him to suicide, to discontinue +humanity. In paradise, Adam learns and teaches the lesson of man’s +incapability of enduring bliss; in Egypt, Adam, as Pharaoh, experiences +the bottomless wretchedness of tyranny, where “millions live for the sake +of one;” in Athens he is made to shudder at the contemptible fickleness +of man when part of a crowd; in sinking Rome he stands aghast at the +corruptibility of mankind, and in the Crusades at their fanaticism; in +the study of Kepler he comprehends the sickening vanity of all attempts +at real knowledge, and in Paris he is shown the godless fury of a people +fighting for the dream called Liberty. So in the end, Adam, despairing +of his race, wants to commit suicide, when, in the critical moment, Eve +tells him that she is going to be a mother by him; whereby his intention +of discontinuing his race by suicide is baffled. Adam then prostrates +himself before God, who encourages him to hope and trust, making him +feel that man is part of an infinite and indestructible power, and will +struggle not quite in vain. Like Goethe’s Faust, the great poem of Madách +was not meant for the stage; yet, like Faust, it has proved of intense +effect on the stage too. It is, as may be seen, a philosophic poem +excelling rather in the beauty and loftiness of the thoughts conveyed +or suggested than by power of characterization or dramatic vigour. In +general literature we should like to compare it most to the “_De rerum +natura_” of Lucretius. The powerful melancholy of the Roman is of a kind +with the gloom of the Hungarian; and while the former dwells more on the +material and religious aspect of man, and the latter on social phenomena +in all their width and breadth, yet both sing the same tempestuous +_nocturne_ of Man’s sufferings and shortcomings, illuminating the night +of their despondency by stars of luminous thought. Madách died at too +early an age to finish more than this one masterpiece. His other poems +are inferior. + +Dramatic literature in Hungary in the last thirty years has been growing +very rapidly; and both the drama of the “world” _folk_, and that of +the “world” _monde_ has met with very gifted, nay, in some cases, +exceedingly gifted writers. During that period, Hungary has completely +regained its absolute autonomy, and the Hungarian State, from having +had an annual revenue of not quite sixteen millions in 1867, has now a +revenue of over forty million pounds a year. Budapest has grown to be a +town of over six hundred thousand inhabitants; and the general progress +of Hungary, material as well as intellectual, social and political, has +been such as, relatively, that of no other country in Europe in the +same period. In the midst of the dramatic movement of all organs of +the Hungarian commonwealth, the drama proper could not but make great +strides too. It is here impossible to do justice to each of the very +numerous and talented Hungarian dramatists of our day. We should only +like, in treating of a necessarily small number of modern Hungarian +writers of dramatic works, to premise a remark in the interest of a +better understanding of their literary value. The English or American +public are, as a rule, very much inclined to think little of things +of which they have “never heard.” We are not blaming them for that. +Reading as they do great newspapers every day, they naturally come to +think that, to alter the old legal phrase, “what is not to be found in +the ‘paper,’ that does not exist.” Hungarian dramas are seldom or never +translated for the English stage; they are never talked about in the +press; hence, the general public will tacitly assume that they can be +worth but little. However, it is with Hungarian dramas as with Hungarian +fruit. Although Hungary produces exquisite fruit of all kinds, and in +enormous quantities too, the English consumer of fruit has never heard of +“Hungarian apples” or “Hungarian grapes,” while he is quite familiar with +American or Tasmanian apples of an inferior quality. The reason of that +is simple: the Hungarians are still in the infancy of the great art of +export. It is even so with the Hungarian drama. It is not being cleverly +enough exported; it wants active agents and middlemen to bruit it about. +We venture to say that the western nations are the losers by ignoring +or overlooking, as they do, the modern Hungarian drama. In taking the +trouble to make the acquaintance of the dramas of Eugene Rákosi, Edward +Tóth, Gregory Csiky, Lewis Dóczi, Lewis Dobsa, Joseph Szigeti, John +Vajda, Árpád Berczik, Stephen Toldy, Anton Várady, Lewis Bartók, etc., +etc., they would find that together with the greatest European mines +for ore proper, Hungary has also many a profound mine of ore dramatic, +no less than fine specimens of coins minted out of that ore. There is +now a “tradition” of no inconsiderable duration in the art of acting; +and several actors of the very first quality, such as Rose Laborfalvy +(the late Mrs. Jókai), Louise Blaha, Lendvay, Egressy, etc., have set +examples and models, inspiring both the poet and the actor. The theatres +at Budapest are magnificently equipped, and being, as they are, part of +the great national treasure, they partake to a great extent of the nature +of a temple, and are visited, not as places of sheer distraction, but as +localities of national rallying and spiritual elevation. + +Most of the leading dramatists of the last five-and-twenty years are +still alive, and it is, therefore, twice difficult to pass a final +judgment on their works. Mr. Eugene Rákosi, both as a journalist and a +drama-writer, occupies a very conspicuous place, and if better known in +the west of Europe, would certainly be read, and his pieces seen, with +marked interest. Like Mr. Dóczi, who is a high official in the common +department of Austria-Hungary, he has that subtle and unanalyzable force +of surrounding his scenes, and also frequently his persons, with the +splendour of poetic suggestiveness. In his “Endre and Johanna,” “Wars +of Queens” (“_Királynék harcza_”), “The School of Love” (“_Szerelem +iskolája_”), he does not make it his chief point to create, entangle, +still more embroil, and then finally solve a “problem,” although he is +a master of scene and situation-making. Nor do he and Mr. Dóczi care to +be “realists.” They are satisfied with being poets. Mr. Dóczi has in his +“The Kiss” (“_Csók_”) ventured on writing in words what hitherto has only +been a success in the tones of Mendelssohn: a drama moving in mid-air, +in midsummer night, with gossamery persons and fairy-ideas, away, far +away from our time and land. In that he has been signally successful, and +Mendelssohn’s overture to the “Midsummer Night’s Dream” is not sweeter +and airier than Mr. Dóczi’s “Kiss.” Like Mr. Rákosi, Mr. Dóczi is a +master of Hungarian and he wields the German idiom too with the same +grace and energy. + +In our opinion Gregory Csiky (born 1842, died recently) was the strongest +dramatic talent amongst the modern dramatists in Hungary. He is what +people are pleased to call a “realist;” that is, his shafts are sunk into +the dramatic mines of the society in the midst of which he lives. His +strong satire and broad humour, his finely-chiselled language and the +bold and true way of his dramatization raise him to the level of the +best of contemporary dramatists in any country. In his “The Proletarians” +(“_A Proletárok_”) he has seized on a large class of _déclassés_ in +Hungary, who by the precipitated legislative reforms after 1867 were +deprived of their previous means of living, and so turned to parasitic +methods of eking out an existence. That class is brought to dramatic +life full of humorous, sad, and striking phenomena. There is not in this +drama, any more than in Csiky’s other dramas (“Bubbles” [“_Buborékok_”], +“Two Loves” [“_Két szerelem_”], “The Timid” [“_A szégyenlős_”], +“Athalia,” etc.) the slightest trace of that morbid psychologism which +has made the fortune of Ibsen. It is all sound, fresh, penetrating +and vibrating with true dramatic life. Last, not least, there is much +beauty of form and construction. Csiky, who has published very valuable +translations of Sophocles and Plautus, is thoroughly imbued with the +classic sense of form and with the real vocation of the drama as the +art-work showing the emotional and mental movements of _social_ types, +and not of some pathologic excrescence of society. In other words, he +does not muddle up, as Ibsen does, the novel with the drama. + +Amongst the writers of “folk-dramas,” Edward Tóth (1844-1876), occupies +a very high place. His “The Village Scamp” (“_A falu rossza_”) tells +the touching story of a young peasant who, disappointed in love, loses +all moral backbone and is finally saved by the fidelity of a woman. The +drama is full of scenes taken from Hungarian peasant life, which is far +more dramatic than peasant life in Germany. The Hungarians have, till +quite recently, never had a Berthold Auerbach, or a novelist taking +the subject of his novels from peasant life. They have dramatists of +peasant life instead; and a short comparison with the peasant dramas +written by Austrians, such as those of Anzengruber, will show the decided +superiority of the Hungarians. One strong element in the folk-dramas +of Tóth and of Francis Csepreghy (1842-1880, author of “The Yellow +Colt” [“_A sárga csikó_”], “The Red Purse” [“_Piros bugyelláris_”]), +is the folk-poems and folk-songs, sung and danced. By this incidental +element of tone and verse, which, as a sort of inarticulate commentary +on the dramatic scenes does duty for the philosophic reflections of the +non-peasant drama, the hearer is brought into intimate touch with the +very innermost pulsation of the life of the “folk.” + + + + +CHAPTER XXX. + + +In now approaching the modern novel in Hungary we are at once met, +touched, almost overwhelmed by the dazzling light and lustre of one +commanding genius of the Magyar novel, Maurus Jókai. His name is at +present well-known all over the world, and his novels are eagerly read +by Hungarians and non-Hungarians alike. The number of his works is very +great, and although over fifty years have elapsed since the appearance of +his first novel (in 1846), he is still enriching Hungarian and European +literature with ever new works. Nearly everything has changed in Hungary +during the last forty years; but the love and admiration for the genius +of Jókai has never suffered diminution. In his checkered life there is +not a blot, and in his long career there is not a single dark spot. +Pure, manly, upright as a patriot, faithful and loving as a husband, +loyal as a subject, kind as a patron, an indefatigable worker, and, +highest of all, a true friend both to men, fatherland, and literature, +he has given his nation not only great literary works to gladden and +enlighten them, but also a sterling example of Magyar virtue and Magyar +honour. It is, especially in Hungary, no common thing to meet with men of +Jókai’s immense power and love of work. His journalistic articles alone +would fill many a folio volume. His political activity in the Hungarian +Parliament, in the Lower House of which he was up to January, 1897, +when the king called him to the House of Magnates, was likewise very +extensive. And in addition to that, he was constantly writing novels, +turning out volume after volume, until the total exceeded two hundred +and fifty. In fact, as has been already hinted at, from an historic +point of view he has, by his unparalleled productiveness, done some harm +less to himself than to other Hungarian novelists. He himself, although +not equally at his best in every one of his novels, has in the course +of fifty-one years of creative authorship scarcely lost anything of the +distinctly individual greatness of his genius; and even the later and +sometimes hurried productions of his pen are, to say the least, most +excellent, because intensely interesting reading. On the other hand, +his very popularity rendered it almost impossible for any other Magyar +novelist to publish novels other than small sketches or essays. The +reading public in Hungary is not numerous enough to demand lengthy novels +from more than one favourite author. Jókai almost supplanted Jósika (see +page 140) and all other writers of lengthy novels. + +His novels and sketches treat of nearly every aspect of Magyar life, +in the past and in the present. The heroic deeds of the ancient or +mediæval Magyars are subjects of his novels as well as the doings and +thoughts of official and non-official Hungary of the present century. +It would, however, be quite incorrect to ascribe to him any intention +of writing the “_Comédie humaine_” of Hungary. No such vast system +underlies his countless stories. He has no system; in reality, nothing +is more removed from his mind than any such big structure of ideas and +facts. He has frequently chosen non-Magyar subjects; and when treating +of Magyar events or institutions, he has no philosophical aim to pursue, +and no patriotic theory to uphold. He writes novels out of sheer love of +telling tales. In the feeblest of his works the reader cannot but notice +that singular alertness and freshness of an author hugely enamoured +of his profession—and gaily at work. The narrating is of much the +greater interest to him; the tale itself does not always claim his full +attention. Whether or no, the plot is consistently thought out to the +end; or, whether or no, the persons always proceed on the lines of their +characters; all that does not too much ruffle Jókai’s joyous composure +of authorship. For, to put it in one word, he is an improvisatore; in +fact, the greatest of all known improvisatori. This is the key to all his +excellencies, as well as to his alleged failings. The Teutonic nations, +and amongst the Latin ones the French are, as a rule, entirely unfamiliar +with that most fascinating of talking virtuosi, the _improvisatore_. +Even in the wild excitement of the French Revolution there was only one +orator, Danton, who improvised his speeches; the rest, even Mirabeau, +read them. The vast amount of _parlature_ done in Hungary, to which we +called attention at the very outset of this work, has given rise both +to marvellous artists of the living word, and to audiences passionately +fond of listening to good talk, and on all possible occasions too. The +good talker in America is a man who _à propos_ of any occurrence, is +reminded of a story that happened “in Denver, Colorado, or Columbus, +Ohio.” No such individual would be endured in Hungary. The good talker +there is an improvisatore proper. He is never “reminded” of an old story; +he invents on the spot or extracts from the actual topic of conversation +all the sparks of wit and humour that fall upon the prose of life like +dew upon dry flowers. The gift and long habit of improvisation thus +makes some of those mostly unknown artists most charming companions +and astoundingly clever talkers. He who has not lived amongst them, +cannot possibly imagine their ease of invention, their humour, their +power of description and their imagination. They are not, as in Italy, +professional improvisatori; and perhaps nobody would be more astounded +than themselves at the application of that term to them. Yet, a +comparison with the man in France, who is “_bon causeur_,” and with the +man in London, who has “remarkable conversational powers,” will show any +unprejudiced observer the truth of the above characterization of the +Magyar talker. Just as Mark Twain’s humour is only the improved and, +by print, fixed humour noticeable in many an American, even so Jókai’s +narrative genius is the highest form of that genius for improvisation +which in Hungary may be met with frequently in lesser perfection. This +explains Jókai’s permanent hold on the Hungarian nation. He has carried +one great gift of his nation to the heights of real greatness. We repeat +it: he is the greatest of all improvisatori in prose. Nothing can +approach his miraculous facility in building up a fascinating scene; +in irradiating the heaviest and most cumbrous subject with light and +humour; and in wafting over the whole tale the Fata Morganas of an +exuberant imagination. Young and old; Hungarian, Englishman or German; +man or woman; they must all stand still and listen to the charmer. That +Jókai is the best exponent of the Hungarian genius for improvisation +in words will be readily believed and accepted, when we point out his +startling similarity, almost identity, with another famous Hungarian, +who excelled in works of the same quality but written in tones instead +of in words. We mean Liszt. Jókai is the Liszt of Hungarian Literature; +we might almost say, of European literature. The marvellous musician, +who, both as a pianist and as a composer, held the civilized world under +his spell for far over seventy years—(Liszt was born in 1811 and died in +1887)—was the king of all musical improvisatori. When he played Beethoven +or Chopin, Bach or Schumann, he impressed the most cool-headed hearers +as if he had just improvised the pieces he played; that one circumstance +being at the same time the secret of his unrivalled powers as a pianist. +When he composed—and many, very many of his compositions are works of +lasting merit—the result was almost invariably an improvisation. It +has that indefinable charm of rapturous glow kindled at the fire of +the moment, which endows improvisations with a character unique and +exceptional. It excels in major keys far more than minor moods; it has +much unity of character and _Stimmung_ rather than unity of form; it +always borders on the _Fantasia_, and never crystallizes into a sonata +proper; it cultivates side-issues, such as flourishes and _fioriture_ +with startling skill and vast effect, while the bass, or the underlying +element of thought, is not laboured nor significant; it appeals to happy +people rather than to such as bear heavy burdens; and it works for +brilliancy more than for reticent beauty. Liszt’s E flat major concerto, +for instance, is an absolutely faithful replica of some of Jókai’s best +novels. Both authors excel in brilliancy, technical routine, wealth of +imagination, sparkling rhythms and rapturous descriptiveness. There is +nothing majestic in them, nothing grave, nothing truly sad or melancholy. +Jókai disposes of an inexhaustible humour. This, as will be admitted, +cannot be readily imitated in music. In Liszt, humour becomes irony and +demoniac scorn. His Polonaise in E major, for example, with its appalling +irony at Polish excessiveness, is the musical counterpart to Jókai’s +humour. But where Liszt comes nearest to Jókai is in his Rhapsodies. As +in Jókai, so in Liszt, there is a constant change of panoramic views; +an exquisite wealth of tinkling, sparring and glistening rhythms; a +shower of glittering dewdrops and an iridescence of sheets of coloured +lights. In a measure, all Jókai’s novels are placed in fairy-land; as all +Liszt’s music is on the heights of exultation. And, likewise, the final +secret of Jókai’s irresistible charm is in the improvisatory character +of his novels. Jókai’s reader does not feel that he is being lectured +or moralized or instructed. On the contrary, he feels that he himself, +in inspiring, as it were, the author, is co-operating with him in the +work, just as the listeners to an improvisatore are doing. The reader is +accorded part of the exquisite delight of literary creation and so feels +twice happy. + +This peculiar and inimitable feature and excellence of Jókai is but +another manifestation of the rhapsodic character of the Magyars. Petőfi, +and he alone, was in his best poems, both rhapsodic and classical. +He not only expressed Magyar rhapsodism lyrically, as has Jókai +novelistically and Liszt musically, but he also imparted to it that +inner form of moderation and harmonious beauty which, if coupled with +perfect expression and metre, renders poetry classical. It will now be +easily seen why Jókai must needs have the failings of his virtues. The +very nature of rhapsodic improvisations works chiefly for effect: it +is subjective art, not objective. The production of the artist is not +severed from his personality; it is intimately allied with and dependent +on it. In Liszt, whose art admits of combining both production and +presentation of the work at one and the same time, the subjective or +personal factors became so strong as to render him without any doubt +the most fascinating artistic individuality of this century. It is, +therefore, in vain to expect in Jókai that patient and self-denying +care of the objective artist for the structural beauty of his work. +It is not the great number of his novels that has prevented him from +giving them as much objective proportion and consistency as they have +lustre and charm. Mozart died at five-and-thirty, and left more works +than Jókai has written; yet nearly every one of the better ones was +objectively faultless. It is Jókai’s very art that necessitates that +failing in Art. If he had tried to mend it, he would have stunted some +of that peerless profusion of fancy which has endeared him to untold +millions. He may displease a few hundreds; he will always transport +the millions. Yet one remark cannot be suppressed. Hungary, we are +convinced, has not yet arrived at the stage of literary development +when critics and the public look backwards for the best efforts of the +nation’s intellect. There are still immense possibilities for Hungarian +Literature; and all the constellations of literary greatness have not +yet risen above the horizon. It will thus not be surprising when we here +venture to urge the necessity of viewing even a genius such as Jókai’s +historically. His merits are as boundless as his charm. The judgment +of all Europe has confirmed that. For Hungarians, however, it will be +wise to remember, that Jókai in literature, as Liszt in music, are the +highest types indeed, but of one phase only of the many-souled national +genius of the Hungarian people. Their work is great and inimitable; we +hasten to add: nor should it be imitated. It is the work, not of the +last, but of one of the early stages in Hungarian Literature. It has, +when over-estimated, a tendency to do harm to the nation. People, who +in music are taught to expect the maddening accents of rhapsodies, will +rarely calm down to the enjoyment of less spiced, if more perfect music. +It is even so with novels. Who now reads the novels of Kemény (see page +157); and who ought not to read them? Readers intoxicated with Jókai, we +readily admit, cannot fairly rally to enjoy Kemény. Yet Hungary is badly +in need of a more modern Kemény, as she is of a Brahms. Or has it not +been noticed yet, that while Hungarians are proverbially musical, and +known to be so in all countries, they have so far—if we for the moment +disregard Liszt—not produced a single creative musician of European fame +or considerable magnitude? There can be little doubt that Liszt himself +is one of the chief causes of the sterilization of musical talent in +Hungary. Vainly endeavouring to imitate him, the composers failed to +proceed on different lines. Desiring to hear Hungarian music in no other +form than in that of Lisztian rhapsodies, the public failed to encourage +the production of new musical works. And so the vast treasure of +Hungarian music has not yet been done full justice. The Bohemians, also +a very musical nation, have had no Liszt; but they have, at least, their +Smetanas and their Dvořáks. As a reader and patriot, no less than as a +student of poetry and art, we joyfully recognize the surpassing talent +of both Jókai and Liszt. As historian of the literature of our nation, +we cannot but make the remark that it will no longer do for Hungarians +to leave the historical position of these two great authors entirely out +of consideration. It is different with countries outside Hungary. They +may and shall read Jókai unmolested by any such reflections. For them he +is delight pure and unequalled; and we beg their pardon for not having +suppressed the above remark. But as to the interests of Hungary we dare +to assume that Jókai himself, great in modesty as he is in so many other +ways, will not disavow our idea, but gladly acknowledge that, great as he +may be, there ought to be room for novelistic greatness of another kind +in Hungarian Literature, and appreciation of other modes of novelistic +art in the Hungarian public. + +Jókai was born on the nineteenth of February, 1825, at Komárom (Komorn). +At Pápa, when still a student, he made the acquaintance of Petőfi, whose +intimate friend he became. He took an active, if moderate part, in the +revolution, and came near falling into the hands of the victorious +Austrians, from which fatal predicament, however, he was saved by his +lovely wife Rose Laborfalvy, one of the greatest of Hungarian actresses. +From that time onward he has devoted his life partly to parliamentary +activity, but chiefly to literature and the political press. In the +latter field he has acted as editor of, and frequent contributor to, +several of the leading journals of Hungary; and, moreover, as founder and +editor of the “_Üstökös_,” the Hungarian “_Punch_.” In Hungary, where +political and parliamentary life has long been in existence, a paper _à +la_ “_Punch_” was a natural and much needed literary product. Nor do we +hesitate to assert that several of such papers—for instance, Jókai’s +“_Üstökös_” (“The Comet”), and the incomparable Porzó’s (Dr. Adolf Ágai) +“_Borszem Jankó_” (a name) not only equal, but, as a rule, decidedly +surpass German or French “_Punches_,” and not infrequently the London +paper too. Wit in Hungary is of a peculiar kind, and Jókai is one of its +most gifted devotees. It is wit, not only of situations, or humorous +contrasts, but also of linguistic contortionism, if we may so express +it; so that none but a master of the language can handle it with real +success. On the other hand, it is fertile in humorous types, and does not +indulge—unwillingly at least—in caricature. + +Amongst Jókai’s novels, “An Hungarian Nabob” (“_Egy magyar nábob_,” +1856, translated into English) is one of his earlier masterworks. It +tells the story of one of those immensely wealthy Hungarian noblemen who, +in pre-revolutionary times, lived like small potentates on their vast +estates, surrounded by wassailing companions, women, gamblers, fools, +gypsies, and an indefinite crowd of hangers-on. The old Kárpáthy, the +nabob, in spite of habitual excesses of all kinds, is, at bottom, an +upright and proud man. The intrigues made against him by a profligate +nephew, hitherto his only heir, and who wants to precipitate his death, +are baffled by the nabob’s marriage with a young and innocent girl, +who makes him the father of a boy, Zoltán. Within this apparently very +simple framework what a wealth of scenes, of types, of humour, and +descriptive gems! We are taken from the half-savage manor-life of the +old nabob to brilliant Paris, then again to Pozsony and to Pest. The +language is winged, winning, and gorgeously varied. The continuation of +the “Nabob” is given in “_Kárpáthy Zoltán_,” a novel which, both in its +pathos and in its humour, is one of the most engaging pieces of modern +narrative literature. Full of historic interest are Jókai’s “The Golden +Era of Transylvania” (“_Erdély arany kora_,” translated into English by +Mr. Nisbet Bain); “The Sins of the Heartless Man” (“_A kőszivü ember +fiai_”); “Political Fashions” (“_Politikai divatok_”); “The Lady with +the Sea-Eyes” (“_A tengerszemü hölgy_”); and in “The New Landlord” (“_Az +új földesúr_”) Jókai has, without so much as posing as a political +moralist, achieved one of the best effects of patriotic moralizing. “The +New Landlord” is perhaps one of the most finished and architectonically +perfect of the Hungarian master’s works, although the workmanship of +“What we are growing old for” (“_Mire megvénűlünk_”) is also remarkable. +Other novels in which Jókai’s splendour of imagination and narrative +genius may be enjoyed at their best are: “Love’s Fools” (“_Szerelem +bolondjai_”); “Black Diamonds” (“_Fekete gyémántok_,” translated into +English); “There is no Devil” (“_Nincsen ördög_”); “The Son of Rákóczy” +(“_Rákóczy fia_”); “Twice Two is Four” (“_Kétszer kettő négy_”), etc. +Besides works of fiction, exceeding two hundred and fifty volumes, Jókai +has written an interesting History of Hungary; his memoirs; the Hungarian +part of the late Crown Prince Rudolf’s great work on Austria-Hungary, +etc. He is still enriching Hungarian Literature with ever new works of +fiction. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXI. + + +In the preceding chapters we have essayed to give some idea of the +work of the leading poets and writers of Magyar literature. The very +narrow limits of this sketch of the literary life of the Hungarians have +prevented us from giving more than mere outlines; and in now approaching +the activity of modern Hungarian poets and writers of less prominent +position, although not infrequently of very considerable value, we are +forced to restrict ourselves to still more limited appreciation. + +Amongst the _Novel-writers_ we cannot omit to mention Louis Kúthy +(1813-1864), Ignatius Nagy (1810-1856), and Gustavus Lauka. The two +latter excelled in light, humorous novels. In the humoristic sketches and +tales of Gereben Vas (_nom de plume_ for Joseph Radákovics, 1823-1867) +there is a continuous and, as to its language, admirable display of the +fireworks of folk-wit and racy fun. Amongst his best works are “Great +Times—Great Men” (“_Nagy idők nagy emberek_”); “Law-Students’ Bohemian +Life” (“_Jurátus élet_”). Albert Pálffy (born in 1823), after a long +career as an influential politician and journalist, has published, since +1892, a great number of sound, readable novels. Aloisius Degré (born +in 1820), of French extraction, has always been a popular writer with +readers of society-novels. Charles Bérczy (1823-1867) is the founder of +sport-literature in Hungary; in his novels he follows chiefly English +models. A peculiar position is occupied by Ladislas Beöthy who, in the +evil decade of Austrian reaction (1850-1860) amused and consoled his +despondent countrymen by his eccentric humour and originality. In the +historic novels of Charles Szathmáry (1830-1891) there is more patriotism +than literary power. Both as a journalist (as editor of the “_Fővárosi +Lapok_”) and as an author of elegant and thoughtful novels, Charles +Vadna (born 1832) has won a conspicuous place for himself. Alexander +Balázs (1830-1887); Arnold Vértesi (born 1836); Lewis Tolnai (born +1837); William Győry (1838-1885); Miss Stephania Wohl (1848-1889); Emil +Kazár (born in 1843); have in numerous novels, many of which would merit +particular attention, painted the sad or gay aspects of life. Louis +Abonyi (born in 1833), Alexander Baksay (born in 1832), Ödön Jakab, and +Bertalan Szalóczy count among the best Hungarian novelists whose subjects +are taken from the life of the Magyar peasantry. As we have already +suggested, the number of Hungarian writers venturing on a novelistic +_poetisation_ of life on a grand scale, is not very great at present. +Most of the modern novelists just mentioned work on a smaller scale; and +thus the Hungarian Bret Harte did not fail to make his appearance. His +name is Coloman Mikszáth (born in 1849). His short and thoroughly poetic +tales from the folk-life of Hungary are in more than one respect superior +to those of the American writer. For, to the latter’s sweet conciseness +of plan and dialogue, Mikszáth adds the charm of _naïveté_. Some of his +works have been translated into German, French and English; and the +enthusiasm for his art will no doubt spread from Hungary to all other +countries where the graces of true simplicity can still be enjoyed. + +Amongst the numerous writers of _genre_-sketches and _feuilletons_, +“Porzó” or Dr. Ágai is _facile princeps_; not only in Hungary, but also, +we venture to add, in all Europe. He is quite unique. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXII. + + +The number of _lyrical poets_ is very great in modern Hungary. It may +be stated that, as a rule, a Magyar poet has more chances of attracting +public attention by a good lyrical poem than by a good novel. Perhaps +the female portion of Hungary are not as anxious for novel-reading, as +are their sisters in more western countries; and thus the balance of +attention to poetic works is spent on the drama and on lyrics. This fact +is on a line with the predilection of the Hungarian public for songs and +airs, as against native musical works of a more extensive description. +The great Hungarian lyrical poets of modern times may properly be divided +into several groups, of which the first is the school of poets with +whom the beauty and purity of Form is the principal concern of their +art. Considering the innate Magyar tendency to rhapsodic and shapeless +exuberance, the relative value of the works of that group is very great. +The Hungarian language, just on account of its large share of musical +elements, has somewhat of that indistinctness and vague emotionality +which, like that of music, must be strictly kept within the bounds of +Form. Even in the more advanced poetry of the Teutonic nations, whether +German or English, the significance of poets cultivating pre-eminently +the chaste beauty of Form, is still very considerable. Fortunately for +Hungary, both Paul Gyulai (born in 1826) and Charles Szász (born in +1829) have, especially the latter, untiringly worked at providing their +countrymen with works of poetry, original or otherwise, in which the +law and beauty of Form predominate over emotionalism. Szász has thus +deserved very highly of Hungarian Literature. His delicate sense of +metre, rhythm and architectonics, in his original epics and lyrics, as +well as in his exceedingly numerous translations from the works of great +western poets, is on a par with the wealth of his linguistic resources; +and while English poetry may perhaps afford to be less encouraging to the +adepts of Form, Magyar literature is to be congratulated upon having at +once recognized and thereby not missed the numerous works of her Richard +Garnett. + +To this group belongs also Joseph Lévay (born in 1825), whose popular +works move in the sphere of elevated serenity. + +Another group of lyrical poets is formed by the nationalists, who vied +with one another in sounding exclusively the note of Magyar sentiments +and ideas proper. Local colour seemed to be everything, and in language +and subject nothing was used outside the purely Magyar elements. The most +gifted of that class was Coloman Tóth (1831-1881); next to him ranks +perhaps Andrew Tóth (1824-1885); nor must Coloman Lisznyay (1823-1863), +Joseph Zalár (born in 1827), and Joseph Székely (born in 1825) be omitted. + +Quite by himself stands John Vajda (born in 1827). He is to Hungarian +poetry proper, what Kemény (see pp. 153, etc.) is to Hungarian novelistic +literature. His is the gloom and power of pessimism; and in his fight +with Destiny he conjures up all the furies of scorn, despair, rage and +hatred: see especially his “_Szerelem átka_” and “_Gina emléke_.” + +The lyrical poets of the sixties and seventies of this century tried to +avoid excessive nationalism, true to the spirit of the time when Hungary +through the final regulation of her constitution as an autonomous state, +assumed a European attitude herself. The more prominent names are Béla +Szász; Victor Dalmady; Joseph Komócsy; Lewis Tolnai; Ladislas Arany, +Alexander Endrődi, Julius Reviczky, etc. In Joseph Kiss there is much of +that power of discovering poetic riches in subjects hitherto ignored by +poets, which goes to make the really great poet. The emotional conflicts +between orthodox Jews and Christian peasants living in the same village, +conflicts of love and hatred alike, have been worked into powerful +ballads by Kiss. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIII. + + +It would be impossible, to write even the shortest sketch of Hungarian +Literature without dwelling on one of the less conspicuous, yet chief +sources of suggestion and inspiration of Hungarian poets. We mean the +_folk-poetry_ of the Hungarian people. Now that we can study that poetry +in numerous and comprehensive collections, published by John Erdélyi +(1848), Paul Gyulai and Ladislas Arany, John Kriza (1863), Lewis Kálmány, +Coloman Thaly (in English, the collection of L. Kropf and W. Jones, +“Magyar Folk-tales,” 1884), etc., etc., we cannot but acknowledge the +profound effect that these countless poems, ballads, songs, fables, +epics, and ditties must have had on the minds of Hungarian poets who +spent their youth in the midst of people singing, reciting or improvising +them. In intensity of colour, in fire and varied picturesqueness, +Hungarian folk-poetry is certainly not inferior to that of the people +of Italy. In humour and exuberant audacity it is probably its equal. +But while Italian folk-poetry frequently stoops to the indecent and +obscene, it may be said without fear of contradiction, that such stains +are unknown to the folk-poetry of the Magyars. In it lives the whole life +of that nation, its sorrows and humiliations, as well as its moments of +triumph and victory. The complete ethnography, historic and present, +of the Magyars could be gleaned from that poetry. Nay, so intense is +the poetic feeling of those lowly and obscure peasant-poets, that every +object of the rich nature of Hungary has been framed and illumined +by them. The _puszta_, and the two mighty rivers of the country; the +snow-clad Carpathians, and the immense lake of the Balaton; the abundant +flora and fauna of their land—all is there, instinct with poetic life +of its own, and embracing, sympathizing or mourning the life of the +shepherd, the outlaw (_betyár_), the lover, the priest, the trader, the +Jew, the constable, the squire, the maiden, the widow, the child. There +is in that folk-poetry a tinkling, ringing and pealing of all the bells +and organs of life. Like the music that almost invariably accompanies +it, it is teeming with intense power, and hurries on over the cascades +of acute rhythms, and the rapids of gusts of passion. As if every object +of Nature had revealed to it the last, brief secret of its being, it +describes scenes and situations in two or three words. Its wit is +harmless or cruel, just as it chooses; and in its humour the laughing +tear is not wanting. Chief of all, as the great pundits of Cairo or +Bagdad, whenever they are at sea about some of the enigmas of the idiom +of the Koran and the Makamat, send for advice to the roving Bedouins of +the Arabian deserts: so the Hungarian poets have gathered their best +knowledge of the recondite lore of the Magyar idiom, in the _pusztas_ of +the _Alföld_, between the Danube and the Theiss, where the true Magyar +peasant is living. + +Hungarian folk-poetry is not a thing of the past. Almost day by day, +new and ever new “_nóták_” or songs are rising from the fields and +forests—nobody knows who composed them—and as if carried by the winds of +east and west, they quickly find their way into the heart of the whole +nation. There is thus an inexhaustible fountain of poetry and poetic +suggestiveness in the very nation of the Magyars. Great as some of the +Hungarian lyrical poets have been, it is fair to assume, that with such +an undercurrent of perennial folk-poetry to draw upon, there are, for +this reason alone, still many more great poets in store for us. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIV. + + +In conclusion, a few words on the Hungarian literary productions outside +_belles-lettres_ proper. From the pre-eminently political character of +the Magyars, it may be inferred almost _a priori_ that questions bearing +on legal and constitutional matters have at all times been a favourite +subject with the writers and statesmen of Hungary. Previous to 1830, +in round numbers, these questions were treated mostly in Latin works. +Since then, however, a very considerable number of politico-legal and +politico-historical writers in Magyar has arisen. The most important +amongst them, both for the authority they commanded in practical +politics, and for the weight and power of their arguments, are Count +Stephen Széchenyi; Baron Nicolas Wesselényi; Count Aurelius Dessewffy; +Baron Joseph Eötvös (see pp. 142, etc.); the famous Lewis Kossúth, +probably the greatest political orator of the century; and Francis +Deák. They were all practical statesmen, and not mere scholars. Yet +most of their works on the constitution of Hungary, and especially on +the constitutional relation of Hungary to Austria, are also valuable +as sources of solid and scholarly information. Thus Deák showed the +extensiveness of his legal and politico-historical erudition in his +famous controversy with the Austrian professor Lustkandl, in no lesser +degree than his tact and wisdom in the conclusion of the final treaty +between Austria and Hungary in 1867. Eötvös enriched Magyar political +literature with an elaborate and thoughtful work on “The Influence of +the Dominant Ideas of the Nineteenth Century on the State” (“_A xix. +század uralkodó eszméinek befolyása az álladalomra_,” 1851-1854). In +more recent times a very great number of politico-legal monographs has +been published in Hungary. The student will find lists of them in the +works of Stephen Kiss and E. Nagy, both entitled “Constitutional Law of +Hungary” (“_Magyarország közjoga_,” the former in 1888, the latter, third +edition, 1896). Of older works on the constitutional law of Hungary, +the most useful are those of count Cziráky (1851, in Latin), and of +Professor Virozsil (also in Hungarian and German, 1865). Amongst the +numerous Magyar writers on _Jurisprudence_, Professor Augustus Pulszky is +well-known in England through his able work, written in English, on “The +Theory of Law and Civil Society” (1888). + +In the department of _History_, and especially the history of Hungary, +the activity of the Magyars has been one of astounding intensity. In the +well-known annual bibliography of history, edited by Jastrow, in Berlin +(_Jahresberichte_, etc.), the annual report on the historical literature +published in Hungary, occupies a conspicuous space. The older historians +of Hungary, such as G. Pray (1774, 3 vols. fol.), Katona (1779-1817, +42 vols.), who wrote in Latin; and Engel (1814), Fessler (1825, 10 +vols.), count John Majláth (1853, 5 vols.), who wrote in German, can +now be used only for occasional reference. Of Magyar writers on the +history of Hungary, Bishop Michael Horváth (1809-1878), and Ladislas +Szalay (1813-1864), have had the greatest influence on the reading +public and Magyar historiography up to the end of the seventies. The +bishop treats history in the style of fine and dignified ecclesiastical +allocutions. Szalay’s is a talent for the political and legal aspects +of history rather than for the personal and military element thereof. +In both historians there is a noble patriotism, and their works, even +if discarded as wanting in systematic research, will always claim a +high rank as literary productions. Hungary is still waiting for the +true historian of the whole of her history; but what other country is +not? Writers of historic monographs there are many, and they have done +excellent work. Some of the most prominent are Count Joseph Teleki +(1790-1855); Francis Salomon (born 1825); Anton Csengery (1822-1880); +Charles Szabó (1824-1890); Alexander Szilágyi (born 1830), the historian +of Transylvania; William Fraknói (born 1843, died recently), on Pázmány +and King Matthew; Julius Pauler (born 1841), whose great work on the +history of Hungary under the Árpáds (till 1301) is characterised by a +most careful study of all the original sources; Coloman Thaly (born +1839), whose “speciality” is the age of Francis Rákóczy II.; Emericus +Krajner (very valuable works on constitutional history); Lewis Thallóczy +(on relation to Balkan nations); Ignatius Acsády (on civilization and +finance of xvi. and xvii. cent.); Henry Marczali (on the age of Emperor +Joseph II.); Lewis Kropf, whose domicile is in London, and who, in a +long series of accurate and scholarly monographs has elucidated many +an important point of Hungarian history; G. Ladányi (constitutional +history); Sigismond Ormós (institutional history of the Árpádian +period); K. Lányi (ecclesiastical history); Alex. Nagy (institutional +history); F. Kubinyi (institutional history); S. Kolosváry and K. Óváry +(charters); L. Fejérpataky (charters); Árpád Kerékgyártó (history of +Magyar civilization); F. Balássy (institutional history); Professor +Julius Lánczy (institutional and Italian history); Baron Béla Radvánszky +(Magyar civilization); Emericus Hajnik (constitutional history); +Frederick Pesty (constitutional history); Wertner (most valuable works +on Hungarian genealogy), etc. Great also is the number of periodicals +systematically embracing all the aspects of Hungarian history; and +local societies effectively aid in the marshalling of facts, and in the +publication of ancient monuments. When the history of Austria, Poland, +and the Danubian countries has been written in a manner superior to what +we now possess in that respect, the history of Hungary too, will, we have +no doubt, find its adequate master among Magyar historians. The progress +in Magyar historiography has, in late years, been little short of that +made in any other country. + +In the department of _literary history_ we notice the same lack of a +satisfactory general history of Hungarian Literature, and the same +abundance of meritorious monographs on single points. Francis Toldy +(formerly Schedel, 1805-1875), started a comprehensive history of +Hungarian Literature, which, however, he never completed. In numerous +essays and minor works he worked hard at various sections of such +a history, and his relative value as an initiator in that branch +cannot be disputed. The laborious works of K. M. Kertbény are purely +bibliographical, and as such, useful. His attempts were quite thrown +into the shade by the great works on Hungarian bibliography of Charles +Szabó, G. Petrik, and J. Szinnyei. The handiest and bibliographically +richest history of Hungarian Literature is that by Zsolt Beöthy (sixth +edition, 1892). Under Beöthy’s editorship a richly-illustrated history +of Hungarian Literature was published, in two volumes, in the year and +in honour of the Hungarian Millennium, 1896. Among the better writers of +monographs on literary history are Julius Zolnai (philology); J. Szinnyei +(biography); Sigism Simonyi (philologist); L. Négyessy (prosody); Alex. +Imre (popular humour and mediæval style); R. Radnai (history of Magyar +æsthetics); M. Csillagh (on Balassi); Sigism Bodnár (history of Hungarian +Literature); H. Lenkei (studies in Petőfi); K. Greska (on the epic of +Zrinyi); T. Szana (history of literature), etc. + +The study of æsthetics has always been one of the favourite pursuits +of Magyar writers during the present century. The most conspicuous of +Hungarian students of æsthetics are Augustus Greguss and Paul Gyulai, +whose works have advanced not only Magyar views, but the study of +æsthetics in general. + +The best known students of _Hungarian philology_ are John Fogarasi; +Joseph Lugossy; the late Sam. Brassai, who in his multifarious studies +reminds us of the great scholars of the seventeenth century; Paul +Hunfalvy, Joseph Budenz, Ferdinand Barna (Finnish philology); Gabriel +Szarvas and Sigismund Simonyi; and the well-known Arminius Vámbéry. + +In the departments of _Science proper_ there has been very considerable +progress in Hungary during the last thirty years. Reports of the +general results of scientific researches made by Hungarians are also +published, for the greater convenience of the western nations, in special +periodicals written in German. + +THE END. + + + + +FOOTNOTES + + +[1] The above statistics are taken from the _Régi Magyar Könyvtár_. + +[2] We may mention, that Bessenyei was, to a certain extent, preceded by +two amiable and cultivated writers; Baron Lawrence Orczy (1718-1789), and +Count Gedeon Ráday (1713-1792). + +[3] No continental writer has described and analysed the social status +of the continental peasant with so much charm and truth as has the late +Wilhelm Riehl, the Justus Möser of our century. + + + + +BIBLIOGRAPHY. + + +For general and accurate information about Hungary: + + “_Pallas_” Encyclopædia (in Hungarian) in sixteen volumes, just + (March, 1898) completed. + +History of Hungarian Literature: + + See the chapter at the end of the present work. In German there + is the able work of Professor J. H. Schwicker (“_Geschichte der + ungarischen Litteratur_,” Leipsic, 1889). In Italian we have + the short history of G. A. Zigány, “_Letteratura Ungherese_” + (Milan, 1892, one of Hoepli’s “Manuals.”) + +Selections from Hungarian poets: + + Paul Erdélyi, _A magyar költészet kincsesháza_ (Budapest, 1895). + +Complete Catalogues of Hungarian books since the invention of typography: + + Charles Szabó and Árpád Hellebrant “_Régi Magyar Könyvtár_” + (1879-1896, 3 vols.), comprising the books printed down to 1711. + + Géza Petrik, _Bibliographia Hungariæ 1712-1860, catalogus + librorum in Hungaria, et de rebus patriam nostram attingentibus + extra Hungariam editorum_ (Budapest, 1888-1892), with subject + and author’s indexes. + +Periodical Literature; index to Hungarian: + + Szinnyei József, “_Hazai és külföldi folyóiratok magyar + tudományos repertoriuma_,” 3 vols. (1874-1885), two of which + give the list of articles, both in Hungarian and foreign + periodicals, on Hungarian history, and the third, articles + on mathematical and natural sciences. This excellent work + comprises even most of the political daily papers. + +Periodical devoted to the study of the history of Hungarian Literature: + + “_Irodalomtörténeti közlemények_,” edited first by Aladár + Ballagi, and now by Aron Szilády (since 1891; full, well + edited, with careful indexes). + +Literary biography: + + Joseph Szinnyei, the younger, “_Magyar irók élete és munkái_.” + Most exhaustive, with complete bibliographies to each writer + and his works, comprising even articles written in daily + papers. (Budapest, since 1891, still unfinished). + +The Magyar Language: + + The most comprehensive work is by Professor Sigismund Simonyi, + “_A magyar nyelv_” (2 vols., Budapest, 1889, 8vo). + + + + +INDEX + + + Abonyi, Louis. (Folk-Novelist), 241 + + Academy of Science, founded by Széchenyi and others, 112 + its publications, 112 + + Acsády, Ignatius. (Historian), 253 + + Alvinczi, Peter. (Controversialist), 55 + + Amadé, Baron Ladislas. (Poet), 67 + + America has no epic; the reason of this, 123 + + American literature hampered by their language, 14 + has no _naïveté_, reasons, 198 + + Andrássy, Count George, a founder of the Academy, 112 + + Andrew II., King of Hungary, 19 + + Ányos, Paul. (Poet), 80 + + Anzengruber. (Austrian Dramatist), 225 + + Apor, Peter. (Historian), 68 + + Arany, John—his Hungarian reputation, 194 + compared with Petőfi, 195 + reason why his work is not bourgeois poetry, 197 + a Magyar and a class poet, 200 + his charm of language, 200, 201 + his position in Magyar literature, 202 + his life, 202 + his work, 204, 209 + + Arany, Ladislas. (Poet), 245 + his collection of folk-poetry, 247 + + Árpád Dynasty of Hungary, 18, 124, 126, 129 + in the epic, 40, 41 + + _Athenæum_, Hungarian periodical, 134 + + Auerbach, Berthold. (German Folk-Novelist), 225 + + _Aurora_, periodical, 116 + + Austrian Empire, its heterogeneity, 76 + + + Bacsányi, John. (Poet), 86 + + Bajza, Joseph. (Critic and Poet), 133 + + Baksay, Alexander. (Folk-Novelist), 241 + + Balássy, F. (Historian), 253 + + Balassi, Baron Valentin. (Poet) (I.), 49 + (II.), 58 + + Balassi stanza, the, 50 + + Balázs, Alexander. (Novelist), 241 + + Balzac. His genius not fully recognized, 157 + Kemény compared to him, 157, 161 + compared to Shakespeare, 158 + + Baranyi, Ladislas. (Poet), 80 + + Barcsai, Abraham. (Translator), 80 + + Bards, 40 + + Barna, Ferdinand. (Philologist), 256 + + Báróczi, Alexander. (Translator), 80 + + Bartók, Lewis. (Dramatist), 222 + + Batizi, Andreas. (Poet), 46 + + Beck, Charles. (Poet), 12 + + Bél, Matthew. His view of Magyar, 37 + + Bellarmin influences Pázmány, 54 + + Bem, General, and Petőfi, 190 + + Beniczky de Benicze, Peter. (Poet), 58 + + Beöthy, Ladislas. (Humorist), 241 + + Beöthy, Sigismund. (Poet), 135 + + Beöthy, Zsolt. His History of Hungarian Literature, 255 + + Béranger compared to Petőfi, 181 + + Berczik, Árpád. (Dramatist), 222 + + Bérczy, Charles. (Novelist), 241 + + Bernstein, Charles Hugo, _see_ Hugo, Charles + + Berzsenyi, Daniel. (Poet), 81, 103, 109, 121 + + Bessenyei, Alexander. (Translator), 80 + + Bessenyei, George. (Dramatist, &c.), 79 + + Bethlens, the, 51, 164 + + Bible, the, published in Magyar, 46, 55 + + Bibliography, 254, 255, 257 + + Biró de Déva, Matthew. (Lutheran “pope”), 46 + + Blaha, Louise. (Hungarian Actress), 222 + + Bod, Peter. (Literary Historian), 69 + + Bodnár, Sigismund. (Literary Historian), 255 + + Bohemian Music, 236 + + Bonfini, Anton, at work in Hungary, 43 + + Brassai, Samuel. (Philologist), 255 + + Brutus, Michael. (Historian), 164 + + Budenz, Joseph. (Philologist), 36, 255 + + Bürger’s influence on Csokonai, 89 + + Burns compared to Petőfi, 180 + + Butler, E. D., of the British Museum (the foremost amongst British + students of Magyar philology and literature), _Preface_ + + + Cesinge, John. (Hungarian Scholar), 44 + + Cowley compared to Virág, 80 + + Critical genius, its part in literature, 92 + + Crusaders, unfit heroes of epics, 42 + + Csengery, Anton. (Historian), 253 + + Csepreghy, Francis. (Dramatist), 225 + + Cséri de Apáca, John. (Author of Encyclopædia), 62 + + Cserei, Michael. (Historian), 68 + + Csiky, Gregory. (Dramatist), 221, 223 + + Csillagh, M. (Historian), 255 + + Csipkés, George Komáromi. (Translator of the Bible), 55 + + Csokonai, Michael Vitéz. (Poet), 88, 211 + + Csoma de Kőrős, Alexander. (Philologist), 36 + + Czakó, Sigismund. (Dramatist), 215 + + Cziráky, Count. (Authority on Hungarian Constitutional Law), 251 + + Czuczor, Gregory. (Poet and Philologist), 112, 129 + + Czwittinger, David, his list of Hungarian writers, 68 + + + Dalmady, Victor. (Poet), 245 + + Dayka, Gabriel. (Poet), 86 + + Deák, Francis. (Statesman and Author), 26, 27, 250, 251 + + Debreczen, the Geneva of Hungary, 46 + + Decsi de Baranya, John. His collection of proverbs, 48 + + Degré, Aloisius. (Novelist), 241 + + Dessewffy, Count Aurelius. (Political Writer), 250 + + Dialects provide new elements of poetic speech, 201 + + Dobsa, Lewis. (Dramatist), 222 + + Dóczi, Lewis. (Dramatist), 222, 223 + + Drama, the, 46, 67, 116, 117, 127 + opening of the National Theatre, 113 + in the nineteenth century, 207 + want of good actors, 207 + Hungarian dramas unknown outside Hungary, 221 + + Dugonics, Andreas. (Novelist), 83 + + + Édes, Gregory. (Versifier), 84 + + Education in Hungary, _see under_ Hungary + + Egressy, Gabriel. (Actor), 208 + + Ekkehard’s Chronicles record Magyar epics, 41 + + Endrődi, Alexander. (Poet), 245 + + Engel. (Historian), 252 + + England and Hungary, their histories parallel, 19, 21 + + Eötvös, Joseph. (Novelist), 140, 146, 250, 251 + character of his work, 149 + his power as an orator, 156 + + Epic poetry, its character, 122, 126 + + Erdősi, or Sylvester, John. (Grammarian), 48 + + + Faludi, Francis. (Poet), 67 + + _Faust_, its points of resemblance with Madách’s “Tragedy of Man”, 219 + + Fazekas, Michael. (Author of a chap-book), 84 + + Fejérpataky, L. (Historian), 253 + + Felix of Ragusa, at work in Hungary, 44 + + Fessler. (Historian), 12, 252 + + Fiction in the sixteenth century, 47 + in the eighteenth century, 88 + in the nineteenth century, 118, 137, 226, 240 + (_see also_ Novels) + + Fischart, as virtuoso of language, 45 + + Flygare-Carlén, Mme, her popularity in Hungary, 137 + + Fogarasi, John. (Philologist), 112, 255 + + Földi, John. (Writer on Prosody), 84 + + Folk-Drama in Hungary, 213, 224 + compared with the folk-drama in Austria, 225 + + Folk-Novels and Tales, 241, 242 + + Folk-Poems of Hungary, 134 + the chief inspiration of Hungarian poets, 247 + published collections, 247 + + Fontius, Bartholinus, at work in Hungary, 44 + + Forgách, Francis. (Hungarian Author), 164 + + Fraknói, William. (Historian), 253 + + France, her constitution, 153 + her national homogeneity, 159 + + France, Anatole, his veiled pessimism, 168 + + Fata Morgana of the Pusztas, 176 + + French literature compared with Hungarian, 31 + its influence on Hungarian, 117 + has enjoyed advantages of criticism, 133 + + + Galeotto, Marzio, at work in Hungary, 43 + + Garay, John. (Poet), 131 + + Garnett, Richard; the work of Szász resembles his, 244 + + Gáti, Stephán. (Eighteenth century writer), 83 + + Gergei, Albert. (Poet), 47 + + German literature at the Reformation, 45 + its influence on Hungarian, 78, 94, 117 + influenced by Greek ideas, 96 + its _bourgeois_ character, 199 + + Goethe’s _Hermann und Dorothea_, 204 + + Golden Bull, the—the Hungarian Magna Charta, 19 + + Greek not studied in the eighteenth century, 65 + Kazinczy’s labours to introduce Greek models, 95 + Literature, born of Greek parents, 96 + influence on German literature, 96 + Hungarian Literature, 128 + Greek literature comparatively unknown in Hungary, 132 + + Greguss, Augustus. (Writer on Æsthetics), 255 + + Greska, K. (Literary Critic), 255 + + Grünwald, Béla. (Political Historian), 152 + + Gvadányi, Count Joseph. (Poet and Novelist), 83 + + Gyöngyössi, Stephen. (Poet), 58 + + Győry, William. (Novelist), 241 + + Gyulai, Paul. (Poet), 244 + his collection of folk-poetry, 247 + as a writer on Æsthetics, 255 + + + Habsburg Dynasty, their work in Hungary, 21, 24, 43, 51, 52, 64, 66, + 74, 115 + + Hajnik, Emericus. (Historian), 254 + + Haner. (Hungarian Author), 164 + + Heine compared to Petőfi, 177, 180 + + Heltai, Caspar. (Chronicler and Translator), 47, 48, 164 + + Hölty, the Hungarian—Dayka, 86 + + Horvát de Pázmánd, Andreas. (Poet), 129 + + Horváth, Ádám. (Poet), 82, 109 + + Horváth, Bishop Michael. (Historian), 252 + + Hugo, Charles. (Dramatist), 216 + + Hunfalvy, Paul. (Philologist), 36, 256 + + Hungarian bards, 40 + constitution, 19, 21 + language, its origin, 10, 34 + its influence on native literature, 13 + its capabilities, 15 + made the official language, 25 + agglutinative, 33 + its characteristics, 34, 201, 245 + cultivated by Protestants, 54 + its decadence in the eighteenth century, 63 + cultivated as national palladium, 77, 87 + the labours of Kazinczy, 93 + schools of philology, 97 + foundation of the Hungarian Academy, 112 + the Academy Dictionary, 112 + Széchenyi’s work, 113 + the vehicle of instruction, 114, 136 + used in Parliament, 115 + in Vörösmarty’s hands, 126 + has no dialects, 201 + the influence of Arany, 202 + Literature of recent growth, 11 + its extent, 11, 12 + influenced by want of middle-class, 24, 30 + its parallel in Hungarian music, 29 + compared with French, 31 + its originality impaired, 32 + its four periods, 38 + its most ancient products, 38 + its epics and legends, 39 + receives an impulse at the Reformation, 43 + influenced by the Renascence, 43, 45 + impeding causes at the Reformation, 45 + controversial literature, 46 + Magyar Bible published, 46 + sixteenth century poets, 46, 49 + the first drama, 46 + early fiction, 47, 48 + chronicles, 47 + obstacles to progress in the seventeenth century, 51 + produced by the nobles only, then, 53 + controversial, 54 + seventeenth century poets, 56 + Kurucz poetry, 60 + 1711-1772, a period of decline, 63 + reason of this decline, 64 + poets, 67 + historians, 68 + revival of 1772, 70 + causes of revival, 72 + Magyar periodicals, 77, 88 + the three “schools”, 79, 85 + awakening individuality, 85 + a patriotic bulwark against Austria, 87 + Kazinczy’s work, 94 + the romantic school, 100, 117 + loses by patriotism of its exponents, 107 + of slow growth, 1772-1825, 108 + effect of want of literary centres, 109 + hampered by political fetters, 110 + brilliant revival, 1825-1850, 110 + foundation of the Academy, 112 + the “Kisfaludy Society”, 113 + epics produced, 124 + ballads, 131 + want of effective criticism, 132 + Bajza’s work, 134 + reasons of late development of prose, 136 + Petőfi’s pre-eminent work, 169 + Hungary’s contribution to typical poetry, 185 + literary criticism still crude, 192 + rise of the drama in the nineteenth century, 207, 220 + recent fiction, 226, 240 + recent poetry, 245 + folk-poems, 247 + political works, 250 + history, 252 + historical societies, 254 + history of, 254, 255 + music, 10, 28, 29, 61, 103, 114, 231, 236 + its influence on the nation, 30 + pedigrees, 36, 254 + wit, 237 + writers in other languages, 11, 12, 68, 109, 250, 251 + + Hungarians establish themselves in Hungary, 18 + their national character, 28, 147, 217 + influenced by their music, 30 + + Hungary, its natural situation, 17 + occupied by divers tribes, 17 + the Hungarians establish themselves there, 18 + her history resembles English history, 19 + her constitution, 19, 153 + preserves her liberties, 21 + the Turks expelled, 22, 23 + effect of their dominion, 22, 23 + her want of a middle-class, 23, 30 + her history in the eighteenth century, 24 + rebellion against Austria, 26 + incorporated with the Austrian Empire, 26 + national reaction of 1860, 26 + her present relations with Austria, 27 + her _Parlature_ as compared with her literature, 31, 229 + custom of speaking in several languages, 32 + detached from the Eastern Church, 41 + the Virgin, her patron saint, 41 + the Reformation there, 43, 45, 46 + the Renascence, 43-45 + Universities in, 44, 52 + schools, 52, 53, 63, 66 + literature left to the nobles, 53 + influence of the revolution, 72 + character of its population, 72 + abolition of serfdom and expansion of civic life, 73 + dissolution of monasteries, 75 + policy of Joseph II., 76 + its effect in awaking Hungarian patriotism, 77 + the national stage, 77 + lacked literary centres, 109 + the Academy supplies this want, 112 + Pesth becomes a centre, 113 + local learned societies spring up, 114 + Parliament, the soul of its body-politic, 115 + diversity of types of character, 118, 137 + her need of an epic as an incitement, 123 + character of the youth, 147 + independence of local government, 150 + the political training of her people, 153 + her national heterogeneity, 159 + the horse, the national animal, 176 + the rebellion of 1848, 189 + the Hungarian peasant, 195 + has no _bourgeoisie_ proper, 197 + transitional state of society, 1850-1860, 212 + the national tendency to pathos, 217 + its political strides since 1870, 220 + the theatres in Budapest, 222 + popularity of lyrical poems, 245 + + Huszár, Gál. (Poet), 46 + + Hutten, as an author, 45 + + + Ibsen’s morbid psychology unknown in Csiky’s plays, 224 + + İlosvai, Peter. (Poet), 48 + + Improvisation unknown to Teutons and French, 229 + in Hungarian, 229 + its dangers in literature, 233 + + Imre, Alexander. (Literary Historian), 255 + + Istvánffy, Nicolas. (Hungarian Author), 164 + + + Jakab, Ödön. (Folk-Novelist), 241 + + Jesuits in Hungary, 52 + concerned in education, 52, 66 + + “Jingoism” in Hungary; its influence on literature, 209 + + Jókai, Maurus. (Novelist), 140 + his reputation, 226 + his character, 226 + his power of work, 227 + character of his work, 228 + the Liszt of literature, 231 + his life, 236 + + Jones, W. His “Magyar Folk-Tales”, 247 + + Joseph II. of Austria, 25, 73, 75, 77 + + Jósika, Nicolas. (Novelist), 44, 140, 228 + character of his work, 144 + + Juhász, Peter. (Pope of the Magyar Calvinists), 46 + + + Kalevala, the Finnish epic, 40 + + Kálmány, Lewis. His collection of Folk-Poetry, 247 + + Kármán, Joseph. (Novelist), 86 + + Károlyi, Caspar. (Translator of the Bible), 46 + + Károlyi, Count George, a founder of the Academy, 112 + + Katona. (Dramatist), 210 + + Katona. (Historian), 252 + + Kazár, Emil. (Novelist), 241 + + Kazinczy, Francis. (Translator and Critic), 93, 109 + his influence and work, 94, 97 + + Kemény, Sigismund. (Novelist), 140, 157, 235 + his Balzacian genius, 157, 158 + his pessimism, 161 + his erudition, 163 + as an historian, 163, 164 + his work as a novelist, 164, 166, 168 + his journalistic work, 165 + + Kerékgyártó, Árpád. (Historian), 253 + + Kerényi, Frederick. (Poet), 135 + + Kertbény, K. M. (Literary Bibliographer), 254 + + Kis, John, founds Magyar Literary Society, 77 + + Kisfaludy, Alexander. (Poet), 101, 109 + + Kisfaludy, Charles. (Poet), 116, 121, 209, 212 + his dramas, 116, 117 + + Kisfaludy Society, the, 113 + + Kiss, Joseph. (Poet), 245 + + Kiss, Stephen. His “Constitutional Law of Hungary”, 251 + + Klein, J. L. (The Historian of the Drama), a Hungarian, 12 + + Klopstock’s _Messias_, 123 + + Kohári, Count Stephen. (Poet), 58 + + Kölcsey, Francis. (Orator and Poet), 98, 104, 107, 121 + + Kolosváry, S. (Historian), 253 + + Komócsy, Joseph. (Poet), 245 + + Königsberg Fragment, the, 39 + + Kónyi, John. (Eighteenth Century Writer), 83 + + Kossúth, Lewis, 250 + + Krajner, Emericus. (Historian), 253 + + Kraus. (Hungarian Historian), 164 + + Kriza, John. His collection of Folk-Poetry, 247 + + Kropf, Lewis. His “Magyar Folk-Tales”, 247 + (Historian), 253 + + Kubinyi, F. (Historian), 253 + + Kurucz Poetry, patriotic ditties, 60 + + Kúthy, Louis, 240 + + + Laborfalvy, Rose. Hungarian actress, wife of M. Jókai, 222, 237 + + Ladányi, G. (Historian), 253 + + Lánczy, Julius. (Historian), 253 + + Language, its influence on literature, 14, 15, 136 + + Lányi, K. (Historian), 253 + + Latin used in Hungary, 12, 52, 63, 64, 66, 68, 109, 250 + + Lauka, Gustavus. (Novelist), 240 + + Lenau, Nicolaus. (Hungarian-German Author), 12 + + Lendvay. (Actor), 222 + + Lenkei, H. (Literary Critic), 255 + + Leopold II. of Austria, 25 + + Lessing, a genius both critical and creative, 93, 216 + + Lévay, Joseph. (Poet), 244 + + Lewis the Great, of Hungary, 44 + + Liberty affected by Reformation, 20 + + Listhy, Baron Ladislas. (Poet), 58 + + Lisznyay, Coloman. (Poet), 245 + + Liszt, Francis, 114, 128, 231, 236 + + Literature of a nation, as compared with its _parlature_, 31 + influenced by language, 14 + can only thrive in a republic of minds, 52 + an urban growth, 72, 109 + the influence of critical genius upon, 92 + born of Greek parents, 96 + universality of great writers, 107 + + Lugossy, Joseph. (Philologist), 255 + + Lucretius’ “_De rerum natura_” compared with Madách’s “Tragedy of + Man”, 219 + + Lustkandl. (Austrian Professor), 251 + + Luther, Martin, as an author, 45 + + Lytton’s novels, their popularity in Germany and Austria, 137 + + + Madách, Emericus. (Poet), 217 + + Maeterlinck, his veiled pessimism, 168 + + Magyar, _see_ Hungarian + + Majláth, Count John. (Historian), 252 + + Marczali, Henry. (Historian), 253 + + Margit, Saint, daughter of Béla IV., 42 + her life extant, 42 + + Maria Theresa, her government of Hungary, 73, 75 + + Matthew Corvinus, King of Hungary, 43, 143 + + Metastasio’s influence on Csokonai, 89 + + Metres used in Hungarian Poetry, 50, 59, 78, 81, 84, 97, 101, 103, + 104, 119, 130 + + Metternich, Prince, his work in Hungary, 25, 100 + + Middle Classes, a product of Feudalism, 24 + + Mikes, Clement, his “Letters”, 67 + + Mikó, Francis. (Hungarian Author), 164 + + Mikszáth, Coloman. (The Hungarian Bret Harte), 242 + + Mirandola, Pico della, 200 + + Molnár de Szencz, Albert. (Grammarian), 55 + + “Moralities,” Hungarian, 47 + + Music, _see_ Hungarian Music + + + Nagy, Alexander. (Historian), 253 + + Nagy, E., his “Constitutional Law of Hungary”, 251 + + Nagy, Emeric. (Poet), 135 + + Nagy, Francis. (Translator), 83 + + Nagy, Ignatius. (Novelist), 215, 240 + + Nagy de Bánka, Matthew. (Poetical Chronicler), 47 + + _Naïveté_, its origin and _locus_ in life and literature. None in + America, little in England, reasons, _ib._, 198 + + Naláczi, Joseph, (Poet), 80 + + Nature’s “Laws,” a convenient fiction, 170 + + Négyessy, L. (Author on Prosody), 255 + + Neo-Latin poets, the reason of their failure, 14 + + Novelists of Hungary, 137, 138, 140 + popularity of foreign in Hungary, 137 + + Novels, Hungarian, their peculiarities, 139 + reviews of individual works. (_See also_ Fiction), 141, 146, 149, + 166, 237 + + + Obernyik, Charles. (Dramatist), 215 + + Oláh, Nicholas. (Hungarian Author), 164 + + Orczy, Baron Lawrence. (Eighteenth century writer), 79 + + Ormós, Sigismond. (Historian), 253 + + Óváry, K. (Historian), 253 + + + Pálffy, Albert. (Journalist and Novelist), 241 + + Pannonius, Janus, _see_ Cesinge, John + + Pap, Andreas. (Poet), 135 + + Páriz-Pápai, Francis. (Lexicographer), 62 + + _Parlature_, as contrasted with Literature, 31, 229 + + Parliament, the soul of political life in Hungary and England, 115 + + Pathos, the Hungarian tendency to, 217 + + Pauler, Julius. (Historian), 253 + + Pázmány, Peter. (Cardinal and controversialist), 54 + + Peasantry of Hungary, 195, 213, 225 + + Pécs University, 44 + + Pessimism, the outcome of thought, 163 + + Pesth, suspension bridge connecting it with Buda, 127 + + Pesty, Frederick. (Historian), 254 + + Pesti, Gabriel. (Lexicographer and Translator), 47, 48 + + Péczeli, Joseph. (Translator), 80 + + Periodical literature in the eighteenth century, 77, 88 + the periodical press in the nineteenth century, 113, 116, 134, 237 + + Petthő, Gregory. (Hungarian History), 164 + + Petőfi, Alexander, the greatness of his poetry, 169, 172 + its spontaneity, 173 + character of his work, 177, 181, 183, 190, 200, 233 + his objectivity, 177, 183 + his humour, 179 + ill-judged comparisons with Burns and Béranger, 180 + his patriotic poems distributed by Government, 183 + appreciated in America, 185, 192 + his poetry, the exponent of Hungarian nationality, 185 + sketch of his life, 186 + his growing European reputation, 192 + compared with Arany, 195 + + Petrarch’s influence on Kisfaludy, 101 + + Petrik, Géza. (Bibliographer), 255 + + Petrőczi, Baroness Catherine S. (Poetess), 58 + + Platen compared to Berzsenyi, as writer of odes, 104 + + Podhorszky, his view of Magyar, 37 + + Poetry not inherent in Nature, but a human creation, 171 + its greatness to be gauged by objective beauty, 184 + + Poetry and Poets of Hungary, sixteenth century, 47, 49 + seventeenth century, 56 + eighteenth century, 67, 79, 80, 84 + nineteenth century, 116, 127, 129, 135, 169, 245 + + Poland, continuity of its liberties, 21 + + Pope’s influence on Csokonai, 89 + European character of his work, 106 + + Porzó (Dr. Adolph Ágai), prince of feuilletonists, 237 + + Pozsony University, 44 + + Pray, G. (Historian), 252 + + Printing in Hungary, 44 + + Priscus, the Byzantine, records Magyar epics, 41 + + Prosody, _see_ Metres + + Pulszky, Augustus. (Hungarian Jurist), 251 + + “Punch,” the Hungarian, 237 + + Pusztas the, of Hungary, 174 + types of the dwellers there, 175 + the Fata Morgana, 176 + + Pyrker, Ladislaus. (Hungarian-German Author), 12 + + + Radákovics, Joseph, _see_ Vas, Gereben + + Ráday, Count Gedeon. (Eighteenth century writer), 79 + + Radnai, R. (Art-historian), 255 + + Radvánszky, Béla. (Historian), 254 + + Rajnis, Joseph. (Poet), 80 + + _Rákóczy March_, the, 60 + + Rákóczy Francis, II., 23, 144 + + Rákosi, Eugene. (Dramatist), 221, 223 + + Ramler compared to Virág, 80 + + Ranzanus, Peter, at work in Hungary, 43 + + Realism inimical to art, 165 + + Reformation, the, in Hungary, 43, 45, 46 + + Reguly, Anton, his views on Magyar, 36 + + Reicherstorffer. (Hungarian Author), 164 + + Renascence, the, its influence in Hungary, 43, 45 + + Révai, Nicolas. (Philologist), 80, 97 + + Reviczky, Julius. (Poet), 245 + + Revivals in dead languages, a failure, 14 + + Revolutionary spirit in Europe, 70 + Hungary, 72 + + Rhapsody in the music and poetry of Hungary, 185 + its dangers, 233 + + Riehl, Wilhelm, his writings on continental peasantry, 196 + + Rimay de Rima, John. (Poet), 58 + + Romantic School, the, in England, France, and Germany, 100 + + + “Sabbatarians,” their religious poetry, 55 + in Transylvania, 167 + + Sajnovics, John. (Philologist, 1770), 36 + + Sárosy, Julius. (Poet), 135 + + Salomon, Francis. (Historian), 253 + + Sand, George, her popularity in Hungary, 137 + + Schesaeus. (Hungarian Historian), 164 + + Scott compared to Jósika, 144 + + Shakespeare better known in Austria than England, 107 + his influence on Katona, 211 + + Shelley studied by Petőfi, 181 + + Simonyi, Sigismund. (Philologist), 35, 255 + + Sobieski, John, King of Poland, 22 + + Somogyi (Ambrosius). (Hungarian Author), 164 + + Sonnets first written by Kazinczy, 97 + + Stephen, Saint, King of Hungary, 18, 41 + + Sylvester, John, _see_ Erdősi + + Szabó, Baróti David. (Poet), 80, 81 + + Szabó, Charles. (Historian), 253, 255 + + Szalárdi, John. (Chronicler), 62 + + Szalay, Ladislas. (Historian), 252 + + Szalóczy, Bertalan. (Folk-Novelist), 241 + + Szamosközy, Stephen. (Hungarian Historian), 164 + + Szana, T. (Literary Historian), 255 + + Szarvas, Gabriel. (Philologist), 256 + + Szász, Béla. (Poet), 245 + + Szász, Charles. (Poet). (The Hungarian Richard Garnett), _ib._, 244 + + Szathmáry, Charles. (Novelist), 241 + + Szatmáry, Joseph, _see his assumed name_, Szigligeti, Edward + + Széchenyi, Count Stephen, 37, 250 + his patriotism and political views, 111 + a founder of the Academy of Science, 112 + connects Buda and Pesth with a suspension bridge, 127 + + Székely, Alexander. (Preacher and Poet), 122 + + Székely, Joseph. (Poet), 245 + + Székely de Bencéd, Stephen. (Chronicler), 48 + + Szekér, Joachim. (Educationalist), 83 + + Szemere. (Joint Author of _Felelet_), 98 + + Szendrey, Juliet, wife of Petőfi, 188 + + Szigeti, Joseph. (Dramatist), 222 + + Szigligeti, Edward. (Dramatist), 211 + + Szilády’s Collection of Hungarian Poets, 39 + + Szilágyi, Alexander. (Historian), 253 + + Szinnyei, József. (Bibliographer), 255 + + Sztárai, Michael. (Dramatist), 47 + + + Teleki, Count Joseph. (Historian), 99, 253 + first President of the Academy, 112 + + Teleky, Count Ladislas. (Dramatist), 215 + + Temesváry, Stephen. (Poetical Chronicler), 47 + + Tennyson, not popular abroad, 139 + + Thackeray, not popular abroad, 139 + + Thallóczy, Lewis. (Historian), 253 + + Thaly, Coloman. (Historian), 253 + his collection of Folk-poetry, 247 + + Tinódy, Sebastian, his “Chronicle”, 47, 164 + + Toldy, Francis. (Historian of Literature), 134, 254 + + Toldy, Stephen. (Dramatist), 222 + + Tolnai, Lewis. (Novelist and Poet), 241, 245 + + Tompa, Michael. (Poet), 206 + + Tóth, Andrew. (Poet), 245 + + Tóth, Coloman. (Poet), 245 + + Tóth, Edward. (Dramatist), 221, 224 + + Tóth de Ungvárnémet, Ladislas. (Poet), 105 + + Town life necessary to develop a literature, 72, 109 + + Translations from Magyar, 192, 238, 239, 242, 247 + into Magyar, 47, 48, 55, 80, 81, 82, 83, 86, 94, 112, 128, 206, 244 + + Transylvania, her efforts for independence, 51 + the home of patriotism, 140 + her history in Kemény’s novels, 163 + + Turks driven out of Hungary, 22, 23, 56 + effect of their dominion, 22, 23, 51 + + + Ugoletus, Thaddeus, at work in Hungary, 44 + + Ugrian group of languages, 35 + + United States, its constitution, 152 + + + Vachott, Alexander, 135 + + Vadna, Charles. (Novelist), 241 + + Vajda, John. (Dramatist and Poet), 222, 245 + + Vámbéry, Arminius. (Philologist), 36, 256 + + Várady, Anton. (Dramatist), 222 + + Varjas, John. (Versifier), 84 + + Vas, Gereben (Joseph Radákovics). (Humorist), 240 + + Vay, Baron Abraham, a founder of the Academy, 112 + + Verantius. (Hungarian Historian), 164 + + Verseghy, Francis. (Poet), 85, 98 + + Vértesi, Arnold. (Novelist), 241 + + Vienna, siege of, 1683, 22 + + Viennese, character, 87 + + Virág, Benedictus, 80 + + Virozsil, Professor. (Authority on Hungarian Constitutional Law), 251 + + Vitkovics, (Folk-Poet), 109 + + Vörösmarty, Michael, his character as a poet, 120, 127 + his epic poem, 124 + his power of language, 126, 127 + his dramas, 127 + contributor to the _Athenæum_, 134 + + + Wertner. (Genealogist), 254 + + Wesselényi, Baron Nicolas. (Political Writer), 250 + + Wit of Hungary, 237 + + Wohl, Stephania. (Novelist), 241 + + + Zalár, Joseph. (Poet), 245 + + Zichy, Count Peter. (Poet), 58 + + Zolnai, Julius. (Philologist), 255 + + Zrinyi, Count Michael. (Poet and Patriot), 56 + + “Zrinyiad,” the, 56 + its national influence, 57 + + Zsámboky. (Hungarian Author), 164 + + _Jarrold and Sons, Printers, Norwich, Yarmouth, and London._ + + + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 75227 *** |