TIB 



KISFAI.UDY, SANDOR. 



KI8KALUDT, SANDOR 



710 



success ws* tremendous ; and the enthuaiasm of the audience for the 

 ullior, who WM present, knew no bound* : they almost forced him on 

 to the stage to receive their thanks, lie wu applied to for anothe 

 play, and had another in readiness on a national subject, ' Clara Zaoh 

 a lady whose wrong* from the royal family, and their revenge by 

 her father in 1330, form one of the darkest pages of Hungarian 

 history. The authorities refuted permission for the performance, and 

 not to disappoint expectation, Kisfaludy completed in four days a 

 tragedy in four acts, entitled 'Ilka,' which was acted on the 16th o 

 June, and was as successful as its predecessor. His next play, 'Stibor 

 Vajda,' or ' Stibor the Chieftain,' written in ten days, was produced on 

 the 7th of September, and on the 24th of the same month the comedy 

 of 'A Koruk,' or 'The Suitors;' and in the same year another comedy, 

 A Partutok,' or 'The Insurgent*.' In the course of eight months it 

 1319 five plays from his pen had been welcomed with the most tern 

 pestuous applause on the stage, and the verdict of the audience was 

 afterwards ratified by the reading public. In the midst of his 

 triumph the poet was not satisfied with himself, and applied to 

 Kasinczy [KA/INCZY] for instructions how to' write the Hungarian 

 language, to some of the delicacies of which his long residence abroad 

 had made him comparatively a stranger. The next year, 1820, was 

 occupied with a fresh set of dramas, many of them of a comic 

 character, in which it was the opinion of some of his admirers that 

 he was more successful than in those of a serious cast; but this 

 opinion, which was the poet's own, will not we think be shared in by 

 most foreign readers. In the year 1821 he commenced the publication 

 of an Huugarian annual, in imitation of tho Qerman works of the 

 same class, under the title of ' Aurora.' Its success was great, and for 

 several years it was the vehicle of conveying to the Hungarian public 

 not only the new productions of Charles Kisfaludy in fiction and the 

 drama, but contributions from almost all the other authors of dis- 

 tinction in the country. The more his popularity increased the more 

 critical he became in hia own productions, and ho submitted with 

 readiness to the adverse decisions of his friend Helmeczy, chiefly in 

 matters of language and style. Encouraged by the success of the 

 'Aurora,' he was projecting other journals, and was sketching out a 

 style of national tragedies, which he was confident would surpass all 

 that bad preceded, when, at the close of 1829, the fatal illness com- 

 menced which, after a short interval of apparent improvement, carried 

 him off on the 21st of November 1830, at the age of forty-two. 



The friends of Kisfaludy raised a subscription to erect a monument 

 to Ms memory, which was so warmly patronised that the funds 

 amounted to about 5002. more than was wanted. With this it was 

 determined to publish a collected edition of his works, and also to 

 institute prizes for the most successful productions in polita literature. 

 The works met with so rapid a sale that the fund went on augmenting, 

 and the society has become every year more and more important. One 

 of its most valuable publications is the ' Nemzeti Kb'nyvtKr,' or 

 ' National Library,' a collection of the best works in Hungarian lite- 

 rature, issued in a cheap but handsome form, in closely-printed 

 double columned octavos. The first volume of the collection com- 

 prises the works of Charles Kisfaludy, the greater part of which 

 consists of plays, the remainder of tales and short poems. Ilia fame 

 will probably rest on his tragedies in verse, which are brief, energetic, 

 and dramatic in their dialogue, and have the recommendation of being 

 entirely national in their subjects. 



KISFALUDY, SANDOR, or ALEXANDER, by general consent 

 the first of the Hungarian poets of his time, was born at Siimeg in 

 the county of Szalad, on the 22nd of September 1772. His full name 

 in the Hungarian order of arrangement is Kisfaludi Kisfaludy Sandor 

 or Alexander Kisfaludy of Kifalud in Scotland it would be said " of 

 that ilk." Educated first at the high school at Raab, and afterwards 

 at the University of Presburg, be was always among the leading pupils 

 or students, but was not distinguished for application to the severer 

 sciences. It was said that the violin was seldom out of his hand till 

 be exchanged it for the sword. At the Diet of Presburg in 1791, 

 when the Hungarian language, which had been banished from the 

 tribunals by Joseph II., was restored to its rights, he was present as 

 spectator, and a flame of patriotism appears to have been kindled in 

 his breast His father who, in 1786, was left a widower with eight 

 children, wished Alexander to study the law, but the young man's 

 wishes were all for the army. A time of compulsion and discontent 

 followed, in which Alexander spent his days over Verboczy, still the 

 liUckstone of Hungarian jurisprudence, though when the Turks over- 

 ran the country, lie turned Turk himself and became eminent as a 

 cadi and bis nights in writing tragedies, of which it is remarkable 

 that the subjects; were far from national, one of them being entitled 

 ' Ulysses and Penelope,' the other, ' The Death of Seneca.' At length 

 the father yielded, and Alexander became in 1793 a cadet in a regiment 

 quartered in Transylvania. la a letter to a friend named Szublica, 

 written at this period on the occasion of his first passing the 

 Hungarian frontier, it is remarkable with what confidence the young 

 officer anticipates his future literary fame and devotes himself to the 

 glory of his country. He was soon afterwards transferred to the 

 regiment of Life Guards at Vienna, that remarkable regiment which, 

 at one period, boasted five or six officers, all of whom had earned a 

 name in their country's literature. On one occasion when Prince 

 Nicholas Estcrhazy, the colonel, took Lord Spencer and Lord Gran- 



villo over the barracks, the party, much to the Englishmen's surprise, 

 came on Kisfaludy iu deshabille smoking his pipe and translating 

 Tasw. He was at that time engaged in the study of the Italian 

 poets, but had nothing unmilitary about him, and might have passed 

 on the parade-ground, where his toll aud athletic figure set off his 

 splendid uniform, for an officer whoso thoughts were all in his pro- 

 fession. He had about this time a narrow escape from being 

 involved in an anVir of danger. Martinovics, the conspirator 

 [KAZINCZY], who courted his society, had engaged him to attend a 

 party at his house on a certain evening, and in the morning before 

 it Martinovios was arrested on the charge of treason, for which he 

 lost his head. Kisfaludy soon after fell in love with a young Hun- 

 garian lady, the beautiful Rosalia Szogedy, by whom he was at first 

 looked on with favour, but ere long a misunderstanding arose, and 

 they parted with feelings of mutual estrangement His regiment was 

 ordered to the wars of Italy at the period when the Austrian armies 

 in that country were destined to a series of defeats from the rising 

 genius of the young Napoleon. Kisfaludy was one of the garrison of 

 the citadel of Milan, which surrendered to the conqueror iu 1797, 

 and he was sent as a prisoner of war to Vaucluse. "In the spring- 

 time of my youth," he says in a preface written iu after-life, ' I was 

 a prisoner on the very spot where the sweet and melancholy songs of 

 Petrarch filled the heart with love, among the fiery good-natured 

 French." The thought arose of celebrating bis own love to the Rosalia, 

 to whom he was still attached, in a strain of poetry like that 

 addressed to Laura, and he commenced a series of poems, lor the most 

 part still briefer even than sonnets, as the lines were equally scanty 

 and the feet in each line were fewer. He went on with hi* poetical 

 labours when returned, by exchange of prisoners, to the Austrian 

 army and quartered in Wurtemberg, as one of a regiment which did 

 not contain a single Hungarian but himself, where, " far iruui his 

 country, his nation, aud his kin," says one of bis biographers, " he 

 lived as an Hungarian only in his poem." Most of it was written in 

 his solitary walks or on horseback. In the year 1799 he was engaged 

 in the victorious campaign of the Austrians and Russians against the 

 French in Switzerland, and took part iu the great buttle of Zurich. 

 This was the last of his military experience. Iu the next year he 

 returned to Hungary ; he succeeded iu regaining the. affections of his 

 Rosalia, aud he left the army a married man to settle on his estates 

 at his birthplace Siimeg iu 1801. His poem, or collection of poems, 

 was published anonymously at Buda in 1800, under the title of 

 'Himfy.' "Never before or since," says Dobrentei, writing iu 1839, 

 " did any book excite such a 3 usutiou in Hungary as this." The 

 name of ' Himfy ' was on every tongue, and it became an object of 

 general curiosity to discover the " Great Unknown " who wrote it 

 In a second edition, which appeared in 1807, the author revealed 

 tiiuiself, aud he published at the same time a second part of the poem 

 which bore the name of 'Boldog Szerelem,' or 'Happy Love,' and 

 described the wedded life of Himly with his Liz >, the poetic name 

 which Kisfaludy assigned to the object of his affection, in the same 

 pear the first part of hU Rege'k & Magyar Eloidobol,' or 'Legends 

 rom Hungarian Days of Yore,' made their appearance, and were also 

 warmly received. 



From the year 1S01 he was settled for more than forty ye:>rs at 



Siimeg, engaged in the management of his estates, aud in particular in 



the cultivation of the vine, to his skill iu which Suhams, the author of 



some volumes ou the Hungarian vineyards, pays a respectful tribute. 



Though so good a farmer his pen was not idle. In 1816 he tried his 



>owers as a dramatic poet in ' lluuyadi Jiuoa,' a play in five acts, on 



he exploits of John lluuyadi, the celebrated Hungarian hero, but not 



with his wonted success. It was said that though he desorioed his 



characters well, he had not the power of putting them iu action. He 



wrote a few other plays, ' LodUlaus the Cumauiau,' ' The House of 



Jarda,' tie., which were afterwards collected in two volumes (Uuda, 



825-1826), but none of them ever met with the marked tucces* A Inch 



was showered on those of his brother Charles, tho founder of the 



iungarian stage. The metre of those in verse, which was very irro- 



;ular, like the metre of Southey's ' Kehama,' seems to have met with 



ittle favour, though it appears at first sight not unsuited to the varied 



emotions of dramatic poetry. He also wrote additional legend*, which 



were worthy of their predecessors : one of his poems, ' Gy ula Szere- 



em,' or 'Julia's Love,' published in 1825, was considered a failure, 



and Kisfaludy gradually allowed himself to pass into retirement He 



pent most of his time in rural occupations, except on an annual visit 



to one of the Hungarian watering-places, when groups of the young 



md literary were fond of gathering round him. He was always of a 



ively aud cheerful disposition, though his poems wear a general air 



f tender melancholy, which he himself describes as a national Hun- 



arian characteristic, observing that " it may be said the Huugarian 



iven dances in tears." His brother Charles, who was of a remarkably 



jloomy turn, was on the contrary fond, in his works, of aiming at 



>road humour, in which the Hungarian critics consider that he suc- 



eeded. Kohl tho traveller, who visited Siimeg in 1841, gives an 



ntercstiug account of an interview with its then widowed master. 



n 1843 a festival in honour of Kisfaludy was held at Pesth, in which, 



mong other speeches, Eotvbs declared that " some of the poet's works 



rere more aud some less successful, but there was not ono that was 



ot national in every thought and feeling, and he had never written a 



