In the year 1626, a young nobleman, at the point of death, was carried into the castle of Archbishop Pázmány, in Pozsony. The dying man was Count George Zrinyi, Commander of the Hungarian army, the King's favourite, the finest soldier of his time, and also the best hunter. It was commonly said of him that he could bring down the game with his lance while riding. He was now brought to his friend Pázmány, who had some years before reconverted him and his family to the Catholic faith. Some said it was the plague that killed him, but certain vague rumours were whispered abroad, that he had been poisoned. Wallenstein, the commander-in-chief of the Imperial army during the Thirty Years War, wished, it was said, to get rid of so formidable a rival, and had the radishes poisoned which he offered to his guest at dinner.

Count George Zrinyi was the bead of the most distinguished family among the aristocracy. His grandfather, the famous Count Nicholas Zrinyi, died a glorious, self-sacrificing death, during the defence of Szigetvár, which he had held with a handful of men against the army of Soliman, innumerable as the sand on the sea-shore. Count George Zrinyi had two little sons, Nicholas and Peter, and the dying ​father entrusted the children to the care of Archbishop Pázmány.

If the veil which hides the future could have been lifted for one moment, and he could have seen the fate which awaited his two sons, and his grandchildren, a series of the saddest pictures would have been presented to the closing eyes of the dying father. He would have seen one of his sons, Peter, in a vast hall, kneeling on a platform draped in black, with an awe-stricken crowd around him, while the German headsman severed the neck of the condemned hero with his heavy sword. He would have seen his other son, Nicholas, to whom the laurel wreath both of poet and hero had been awarded, lying dead on the bloodstained grass, in the depths of the forest of Kruzsedol. Another picture would have shown George Zrinyi his great granddaughter, Ilona Zrinyi, defending for years the fortress of Munkács, the last bulwark of Hungarian independence, against the Austrian army, and at last dying in exile, far from the fatherland, in a town of Asia Minor. And the last member of the family would have appeared to his dying ancestor, with his heart pierced by Turkish lances.

The sons of Count George were brought up by the Arch­bishop. Nicholas Zrinyi (1618-I664), the elder, soon proved to be the more talented of the two. He became the greatest epic poet of the century, and at the same time an eminent statesman, and one of the best strategists in Europe. His whole life was remarkable. At an age when other children merely play at warfare with toy swords and tin soldiers, little Zrinyi was introduced to real war by his father, who was fighting the Turks. The warlike spirit was soon awakened in the child, the more so as he lived in a border fortress where they had to be ​COUNT NICHOLAS ZRINYI 61 ready at any moment to repel the raids of the Turks ; and where his eyes became familiar with fierce foes and deadly weapons. Such was the childhood of the future hero and bard of battles. At the age of sixteen · he went to Italy and visited the papal court. In Rome he became aequainted with the works of the poet, who, next to Virgil, made the deepest impression upon him-Tasso. The whole career of Zrinyi was one of rapid progress. A t eight years of age he was one of the bannerets of Hungary, and accordingly had certain official duties to perform. At twenty-one he was the ban of Croatia. He was twenty-six when his grand epic, the Zrinyiász, was published. As a soldier he first greatly distinguished bimself in r663. But when, after a long battle, and in spite of the victory of Zrinyi, the Austrian Court agreed to the shameful peace of Vasvár, the terms of which made it see m as though the Turks had won the battle, Zrinyi retired, deeply grieved and indignant, to his fortified eastie at Csáktornya. He had consecrated his whole life, his talent as a military writer, as commander and as poet, to one aim, the deliverance of his fatherland fro m the Turkish yoke. And after ali his efforts, he was forced to see Austria withhold justice from Hungary, and to realise that she probably would never do her best to deliver a Christian sister-coun try from the dominion of the Turk. We must not forget that from the six­ teenth ce ntury H ungary was divided into three parts. Th e largest portion was under Turkish rule, the northern belonged to Austria, while the eastern part forrned the independent dukedom of Transylvania. Zrinyi saw that he could not trust Austria, and knowing that the continued rule of the Turks meant utter ruin to Hungary, ​62 HUNGARIAN LITERATURE he resolved to deliver his country by means of foreign aid. He began to weave the threads wh ich, after his death, led to the conspiracy of Wesselényi and his party, the same conspiracy of which his brother Peter Zrinyi was the victim. While occupied with these plans, his life was suddenly brought to an end by an accident. During a hunt, he was found dying in the forest, his throat ripped open by the tusks of a wild boar. The people, however, were convinced that their hero had been treacherously slain by his rival, Montecuccoli, the commander-in-ch ief of the Austrian army, who felt as if under a cloud. Zrinyi's chief work is a long epic poem wh ich was pub­ iish ed with a Latin title : Obsidio Szigetiana-The Siege of Szige tvdt, popularly known as the Zrinyidsz . In it, he glorifies his great-grandfather, the first Nicholas Zrinyi, Szigetvár's valiant defender. I n the choice of his subject the poet was influenced partly by family tradi­ tions, and partly by the similarity of his own life to that of his hero. The poem opens with a scene in Heaven. The Hungarians, th ro ugh their civil dissensions, have roused the wrath of God, who resolves to chastise them by sending the Turks upon them. In th e en d, Zrinyi sacrifices bimself for the Hungarians, and wh en he sees that the fortress cannot hold out any longer, sal lies forth for one last fierce conflict, slays th e Sultan, and dies with ali his heroic comrades. The poem is of the purely national epic order, in the style of Virgil and Tasso. lts language, although at times rough and unpolished, is wonderfully powerfu l . The chief value of the poem lies in its structure and its character drawi ng. The men are ali real and drawn ​COUNT NICHOLAS ZRINYI 63 from actual life. Tasso also depicts soldiers an d Turks, but his writings reveal his ignorance of military life, and his Turkish heroes are mere opera-Turks. In the world of European literatore Zrinyi stands high amongst those who can characterise whole races. We are struck by the truth and reality of his sketches of both Turks and H ungarians. He depicts battles, camp­ life and councils of war, as one wh o knows them by personal experience, and who is as weil aequainted with the enemy as he is with his own army. It may be that in many details Zrinyi unconsciously írnitated Tasso, but for ali that, he is thoroughly national and original. His work reveals the energetic, emotional yet laconic, and proud but generous Hungarian aristaerat and general, just as in the works of Tasso we detect the religious, highly refined, sensnal Italian. The martyr's death of th e hero of Szigetvár was not really a decisive event, and did not mark a turning point in the history of Hungary, brilliant as it was as an episodc of the Turkish wars. But the poet so groups th e events as to give the incident greater importan ce. Zrinyi is made to appear as on e who voluntarily sacrifices his life for .the salvation of his country, and he is rewarded for this deed by a vision annooneing that God accepts his sacrificc, and that after fo ur generations have arisen, Hungary will be delivered from the Turk. The fourth generation was that to which the poet hímself belonged, and it was as if by a prophetic inspiration that he fore­ told the coming deliveranec of Hungary, for only his sudden death prevented him from seeing th e rea lisa­ tion of his visions. Tw enty-two years after his death, the fortress of Buda, wh ich the nations of Europe had always regarded as the key of the Turkish dominion, ​64 HUNGAR IAN LITERATURE and also of Jerusalem, was reconquered by the Chris­ tians. In 1664, th e year of Zrinyi's death, an epic poem appeared which became vastly more popular. Th e sub­ ject of the poem was the romantic marriage of Count Francis Wesselényi (afterwards Palatine ·of Hungary) and the beautifui Countess Maria Széchy. Its chief in terest for us lies in the fact that it marks the heginning of an entirely new literary style, which quickly became popular throughout Europe. The title, The Ve nus of Mttrány allied to Mars, is in itself enough to show the nature of the new style, which was characterised by florid metaph or and mythological allusions. It is the Baroque style, which influenced every department of life during the second half of the sevénteenth century. Th e palaces display it as much as the pictu res ; the laying out of gardens, as the hinding of books ; literat ure not Iess than hairdressing. In al i things there was something grotesque and over­ ornamental , originating in the exaggeration of the Renaissance. The change of taste introduced the Rococo period. The restfui straight lines of the Renaissance buildings suddenly became twisted, curved, or broken. There was more wealth of detait but Iess dignity. Every­ where were rounded corners, shell - shaped hollowed surfaces, or intersecting lines. Sculpture, too, assurned an entirely diflerent character. The statues as it were became restless. The ample and twisted folds of their garments seemed agitated by the wind, and their very gestures became nervous or excited, although the spectator could not possibly tell why. It was as though some emotion stirred them, the source of which could ​COUNT NICHOLAS ZRINYI 61 ready at any moment to repel the raids of the Turks; and where his eyes became familiar with fierce foes and deadly weapons. Such was the childhood of the future hero and bard At the age of sixteen he went to Italy In Rome he became acquainted with the works of the poet, who, next to Virgil, made the deepest impression upon him-Tasso. The whole career of Zrinyi was one of rapid progress. At eight years of age he was one of the bannerets of Hungary, and accordingly had certain official duties to perform. At twenty-one he was the ban of Croatia. He was twenty-six when his grand epic, the Zrinyiász, was published. As a soldier he first greatly distinguished himself in 1663. But when, after a long battle, and in spite of the victory of Zrinyi, the Austrian Court agreed to the shameful peace of Vasvár, the terms of which made it seem as though the Turks had won the battle, Zrinyi retired, deeply grieved and indignant, to his fortified castle at Csáktornya. He had consecrated his whole life, his talent as a military writer, as commander and as poet, to one aim, the deliverance of his fatherland from the Turkish yoke. And after all his efforts, he was forced to see Austria withhold justice from Hungary, and to realise that she probably would never do her best to deliver a Christian sister-country from the dominion We must not forget that from the six- teenth century Hungary was divided into three parts. The largest portion was under Turkish rule, the northern belonged to Austria, while the eastern part formed the independent dukedom of Transylvania. Zrinyi saw that he could not trust Austria, and knowing that the continued rule of the Turks meant utter ruin to Hungary, of battles. and visited the papal court. of the Turk. Digitized by Microsoft ® ​66 HUNGARIAN LITERATORE gain an entrance to the fortress, together with a number of his men: That event gave Wesselényi possession of the strongest fortress and the loveliest woman in the land. With Richard Ill. Wesselényi might have asked "Was ever woman in this humour woo'd i' Was ever woman in this humour won il" Stephen Gyöngyössi was in the service of Wesselényi, and it was in accordance with Wesselényi's suggestion that Gyöngyössi · made the history of the lover-com­ batants the subject of his poem. The poet, like the other writers of his day, used the somewhat conventional and mythological deus ex machina, and commenced by sayi ng that Cupid, th e son of Venus, wounded Wesselényi and Maria Széchy with his arrows. It is not only in its mythological element that Gyöngyössi's poetry reveals the influence of the Baroque taste, but also in an exaggerated use of ornamental metaphors, such as "The arrows of the sunrays wound the clouds," or "The lustre of the diamond eballenging the sun." The calm and eritical eye of history does not see as much romance in the marriage of the Hungarian Mars and the Venus of Murdny as the poet did. History telis us that Maria had not lived very peacefully with her relatives, and wished to make herself indepenclent of them. Wesselényi, on the other hand, certai nly had an eye to the advantages which such a marriage would bring bim. I t was regarded as a mariage de ra ison on both sides, and there is one delicate point in it which no poet or histori;1n can quite ignore, an d that is the undo ubted treason of which Mari was guilty. The personality of Gyöngyössi was ver y different from that of Zrinyi. Zrinyi died young, and Gyöngyössi, who was born almost in the same year, outl ived bim by forty ​COUNT NICHOLAS ZRINYI 67 years. Zrinyi possessed a certain austere dignity. He did not regard fine, grandiloqaent language of great importance in poetry, and his strength lay chiefly in composition an d character drawing. He was a. great general who employed his master-hand in carrying out great plans and in the wise government of his men. Gyöngyössi, on the otherhand,was a poet of the Ovidian order, full of softness and mclody. His technique is highly developed, and in descriptive an d Iyric poetry his style is remarkably pleasing. Another el aborate allegoricai work by bim is entitled The Phcenix that Sp rang to New Life from his Ashes, or the Memory of John Kemény. It also treats of a stirring historical episode, and is no mere adventure of love. Charles X. of Sweden invad ed Poland and asked the help of the Prince of Transylvania. The Prince con­ sented and one of the heroes in his army was Joh n Kemény, a Transylvanian magnate. But the war was brought to a sudden end by a great catastrophe. Th e Poles were helped by the Tartars, who decoyed the Hungarian army further and further, until at length, having receíved reinforcements, they were able to take most of the H ungarians prisoners. Among them was John Kemény. _ A Tartar priso n meant slavery, and that became the fate of the unfortunate captives. In the first part of the poem, Gyöngyössi's theme is the suffering of his hero, while in the second he relates how Kemény was delivered, became Prin ce of 'fransyl­ vania, and married An ne Lónyay, to whom he wrote touching letters from his prison.