I found the acting decidedly
above the average of the provincial stage generally. I saw a piece of
Moliere's given, and though I could only understand the Hungarian very
imperfectly, I was enabled to follow it well enough to judge of the
acting.
Shakespeare is so great a favourite with the Hungarians that his plays
are certainly more often represented on the stage at Buda-Pest than in
London. The Hungarian translation of our great poet, as I observed
before, is most excellent.
It was a band of patriotic poets who first employed the language of the
Magyars in their compositions. Hitherto all literary utterance had been
confined to Latin, or to the foreign tongues spoken at courts. The rash
attempt of Joseph II. to denationalise the Magyar and to Germanise
Hungary by imperial edicts had a violent reactionary result. The
strongest and the most enduring expression is to be found in the popular
literature which was inaugurated by such men as Csokonai and the two
brothers Kisfaludy, who were all three born in the last century. The
songs of Csokonai have retained their hold on the people's hearts
because, and here is the keynote--"because they breathe the true
Hungarian feeling." The insistent themes of the Magyar poets were the
love of country, the joys of home, the duty of patriotism. Such was the
soul-stirring 'Appeal' ('Szozat') of Varosmazty, the chief of all the
tuneful brethren, the Schiller of Hungary.
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