Io6 HUNGARIAN LITERATURE "Popular poetry is the true poetry . We must strive to as s ure its supremacy in literature. When once the people begin to reign in p oefry, they will be nearer to that political power wh ich it is one of the aims of the century to give them." Arany said " Amen l " The same year in which Petőfi wro te this (1H47), Edward Szigligeti's first popular play, The Horse-Herd, was performed. Szigligeti introduced the peasants on to the stage and showed them in dramatic co nflicts as the centre of serious interest ; before his time they had only furnished the episodic humoraus elements in a play. JOHN ERD:l l: LYI (t814-1868) bega n a work simitar to that of Bishop Percy in England . He studied folk-lore and colleeted a number of songs, tal es and ballads, which had previously been disdained. In his preface he de clared that the collection formed one link of the chain wh ich would bind the different classes of the community together. Th e two great currents, the demoeratic and the patriotic, united, and augmenting each other's powe r and rapidity, gave new direction and force to Hungarian gen i us.
