Page:Poetry of the Magyars.djvu/58

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xxxvi
INTRODUCTION.

obtained the favour of the then Palatine Eszterházy, and continued to hold different distinguished offices to the time of his death, having reached the age of eighty-four. His Keményiad an epic poem, in four books and thirty cantos, was received with great enthusiasm, and his name was long one of the most honoured among Hungarian writers. In 1796, a complete edition of his works was published by Dugonics.[1]

Kohári did the service, with Beniczy, of breaking down the monotony of the Zrinian quartet rhyme. He is a moralist, "dwelling among the tombs" and bringing the shortness and the nothingness of life to bear constantly on his moralities. He was born in 1648. He was in military service, and suffered all the miseries of dungeons and chains and cold and thirst and hunger. Delivered from imprisonment, he was received with marked distinction; but soon after, being again engaged in war, his right arm was shot away by the Turks. Charles the Third advanced him to high office—and that of Oberstreichsrichter, and gave him the privilege of employing a silver stamp for his signature, which is often

mentioned as the Lamina Koharii, in the Corpus

  1. Gyöngyösi Istvannak költeményes maradványai.