THE NEW CLASSICAL SC HOOL 81 offi.cers ? He could not stay in Vienna, so he returned to Hungary and retired to his estate, where he lived a lonely life, shut up with his books. As a Voltairian, he never went to church, and wh en he died, he was buried without any religiaus ceremony. His tomb is not in the churchyard, but in a garden under a tree. During the last few years of his life, H ungarian literatore had begun to take a new direction. Among those who were stirred into activity by Bessenyei were the clergy, and their superior literary education made them important factors in Hungarian life. Their studies were chiefty classical, so that when once th ey began to write, they naturally took the classical poets, and especially Horace, for their models. It must be remembered that during the eighteenth century Latin was so largely used in Hungary that it might almost have been regarded as a living language . In the history of Hungarian literature, the poets wh o followed Latin models are designated by the name of u Th e Classical Poets." Their works, l ike most modern works in imitation of the Latins, are stiff, cold, somewhat too abstract, and naturally full of mythological allu-.;ions. The most noteworthy . of the group was a monk of the Order of St. Paul, Be nedict Virág, the u H ungarian Horace.' ' He was full of genuine enthusiasm for what the Latins called virlus, but his poems impressed other poets rather than the general public. Before poetry could make any further progress, it was necessary to settie the rules of prosody. Hungarian poetry, like that of al l modern nations, is based upon accentual rhythm, but when, in the sixteenth century, John Erdősi (or, in accordance with the latinising fashion of his day, John Sylvester) tried to imitate Latin verses, wh ich are founded F
