Page:Poetry of the Magyars.djvu/68

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INTRODUCTION.

been important auxiliaries to the Magyar stu- dent.[1]

Baróti was born at Barot in Transylvania, and was educated by the Jesuits at Trencsén. When the order was abolished he obtained a professorship at Kassa (Kaschau Germ.), having previously made those experiments on the Magyar prosody which proved that it might be easily and happily adapted to all the antique forms of poetry. These novelties led to much literary discussion, and the controversy gave him new encouragement to proceed in his classical career. He knew no language except Hungarian and Latin, and fighting his way with honour through many a philological controversy, he died, aged fourscore, amidst "labor," but not amidst sorrow.

Rájnis was the son of a German, and born in 1741. Educated by the Jesuits, and thoroughly acquainted with the Greek language, he began, in early life, to write Hungarian verses in the classical measures. To this form of composition he continued devoted, and published, in 1781, at Gyö́r, a collection entitled Magyar Helikonra

vezérlö́ kalaúz, Guide to the Magyar Helicon. In

  1. Especially his Grammar.