VOROSMARTY, MIHALY (1800-1855)

This article appears in Volume V28, Page 213 of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

Encyclopedia Britannica - Main :: VIR-WAT

VOROSMARTY, MIHALY (1800-1855) , Hungarian poet, was born at Puszta-Nyek on the 1st of December 'Soo, of a noble Roman Catholic family. His father was a steward of the Nadasdys. Mihaly was educated at Szekesfejervar by the Cistercians and at Pest by the Piarists. The death of the elder Vorosmarty in 1811 left his widow and numerous family extremely poor. As tutor to the Perczel family, however, Vorosmarty contrived to pay his own way and go through his academical course at Pest. The doings of the diet of 1825 first enkindled his patriotism and gave a new direction to his poetical genius (he had already begun a drama entitled Salamon), and he flung himself the more recklessly into public life as he was consumed by a hopeless passion for Etelka Perczel, who socially was far above him. To his unrequited love we owe a wholehost of exquisite lyrics, while his patriotism found expression in the heroic epos Zaldn futdsa (1824), gorgeous in colouring, exquisite in style, one of the gems of Magyar literature. This new epic marked a transition from the classical to the romantic school. Henceforth Vorosmarty was hailed by

Kisfaludy

KISFALUDY, KAROLY

and the Hungarian romanticists as one of themselves. All this time he was living from hand to mouth. He had forsaken the law for literature, but his contributions to

newspapers

NEWSPAPERS

and reviews were miserably paid. Between 1823 and 1831 he composed four dramas and eight smaller epics, partly historical, partly fanciful. Of these epics he always regarded Cserhalom (1825) as the best, but modern criticism has given the preference to Ka szomsed vdr (1831), a terrible story of hatred and revenge. When the Hungarian Academy was finally established (November 17, 1830) he was elected a member of the philological section, and ultimately succeeded Kar61y

Kisfaludy

KISFALUDY, KAROLY

as director with an annual pension of 500 florins. He was one of the founders of the Kisfaludy Society, and in 1837 started the

Athenaeum

ATHENAEUM

and the Figyelmezo, the first the

chief

CHIEF (from Fr. chef, head, Lat. caput)

bellettristic, the second the best

critical

CRITICAL (in alphabetical order of authors)

periodical of Hungary. From 183o to 1843 he devoted himself mainly to the drama, the best of his plays, perhaps, being Verndsz (1833), which won the Academy's too-gulden prize. He also published several volumes of poetry, containing some of his best work. Szozat (1836), which became a national hymn, Az elhagyott anya (1837) and Az uri holgyhoz (1841) are all inspired by a burning patriotism. His marriage in 1843 to Laura Csajaghy inspired him to compose a new cycle of erotics. In 1848, in conjunction with Arany and Petofi, he set on foot an excellent translation of Shakespeare's works. He himself was responsible for Julius Caesar and King Lear. He represented Jankovics at the diet of 1848, and in 1849 was made one of the judges of the high court.. The national catastrophe profoundly affected him. For a short time he was an

exile

EXILE (Lat. exsilium or exilium, from exsul or exul, which is derived from ex, out of, and the root sal, to go, seen in salire, to leap,
consul
- CONSUL
- CONSUL (in Gr. generally ihraros,ashortened form of errpavgybs 8hraeos, i.e. praetor maximus)
, &c.; the connexion with solum, soil, country is now generally considered wrong)

, and when he returned to Hungary in 185o he was already an old man. A profound melancholy crippled him for the rest of his life. In 18J4 he wrote his last great poem, the touching A via eighty. He died at Pest in 1855 in the same

house

where Kar6ly Kisfaludy had died twenty-five years before. His funeral, on the 21st of November, was a day of national mourning. His penniless children were provided for by a national subscription collected by Ferencz Deal, who acted as their guardian.
The best edition of Vorosmarty's collected works is by Pal Gyulai (Budapest, 1884). Some of them have been translated into German, e.g. Gedichte (Pest, 1857) ; Ban Marot, by Mihaly Ring (Pest, 1879) ; Ausgewahlte Dichte, by Paul

Hoffmann

(

Leipzig

LEIPZIG

, 1895). See Pal Gyulai, The Life of Vorosmarty (Hung.) (3rd ed., Budapest, 189o), one of the noblest biographies in the language; Brajjer, Vorosmarty, sein Leben and seine Werke (Nagy-Becskerek, 1882). (R. N. B)

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