THE NEW CLASSICAL SCHOOL 83 in the Seven Years War, and had a share in that brilliant and daring military adventore of 175 7, when General Andrew Hadik suddenly made his appearance before Berlin with his troops, amongst whom were twelve bundred Hungarian Hussars, and so great was the fright occasioned by the u nexpected attack that the terrified town consented to open i ts gates and pay tribute.• Gvadányi wrote most of his works afte r he had retired from active servic e on a pension. The best known, A. Notary's 'Journey to Buda (179o), is a long narrative poem. It strikes the reader as entirely free from imitation, as sincere, and whoily national. The characters and the whole atmasphere of the poem are purely Hungarian. This accounts for the immediate popularity of the · book. A country notary, an honest but inex perienced man, travels on horseback to Buda. After many amosing adve ntures he · · arríves at his destina tion, but to his great disappointment he sees that in the very capital of the country, which ought to be th e fountain-head of the national spirit, everything is foreign, the language the people speak, the books they read, the garments they wear, and even the measures they dan ce. People recognised thernselves in the various characters, for the reign of J oseph I I. had greatly tended to germanise Hungary. The notary bimself is a well-drawn type of the patriotic Hungarian of that day, with his fervent national feeling, Latin education, scanty experience and littie practical knowledge. The centre of the awakening national life was the town
- An anecdote tells us that wben the General left Berlin he wished,
as an act of courtesy, to take home with bim a present for Maria Theresa. The present was to take the form of a dozen pairs of fine gloves, but the apiteful glover sold bim twenty·four lehand glovea.
