Hungarian history, and may be assigned to the middle of the 12th
Early Latin chronicles.
century; the Carmen Miserabile of Rogerius; the Liber Cronicorum
of Simon Kézai, belonging to the end of the 13th century,
the so-called “Chronicon Budense,” Cronica Hungarorum,
printed at Buda in 1473 (Eichhorn, Geschichte der Litteratur,
ii. 319); and the Chronicon Rerum Hungaricarum of
John Thuróczi.[1] An extraordinary stimulus was given to literary
enterprise by King Matthias Corvinus, who attracted both foreign
and native scholars to his court. Foremost amongst the Italians
was Antonio Bonfini, whose work, Rerum Hungaricarum Decades
IV., comprising Hungarian history from the earliest times to the
death of King Matthias, was published with a continuation by
Sambucus (Basel, 1568).[2] Marzio Galeotti, the king’s chief librarian,
wrote an historical account of his reign. The most distinguished of
the native scholars was John Cesinge, alias Janus Pannonius, who
composed Latin epigrams, panegyrics and epic poems. The best
edition of his works was published by Count S. Teleki at Utrecht in
1784.
As there are no traces of literary productions in the native or
Magyar dialect before the 12th century, the early condition
of the language is concealed from the philologist. It is,
however, known that the Hungarians had their own
martial songs, and that their princes kept lyre and lute
Magyar literature. Earliest relics.
Arpadian period, 1000–1301.
Anjou-Sigismond period,
1301–1437.
players who sang festal odes in praise of the national
heroes. In the 11th century Christian teachers introduced
the use of the Roman letters, but the employment of the Latin
language was not formally decreed until 1114 (see Bowring, Poetry
of the Magyars, Introd. xix.). It appears, moreover, that
up to that date public business was transacted in
Hungarian, for the decrees of King Coloman the Learned
(1095–1114) were translated from that language into Latin.
Among the literary relics of the 12th century are the
“Latiatuc” or Halotti Beszéd funeral discourse and prayer in
Hungarian, to which Döbrentei in his Régi Magyar Nyelvemlékek
assigns as a probable date the year 1171 (others, however, 1182 or
1183). From the Margit-Legenda, or “Legend of St Margaret,”
composed in the early part of the 14th century,[3] it is evident that
from time to time the native language continued to be employed as a
means of religious edification. Under the kings of the house of
Anjou, the Magyar became the language of the court.
That it was used also in official documents and ordinances
is shown by copies of formularies of oaths, the import of
which proves beyond a doubt that the originals belonged
to the reigns of Louis I. and Sigismond; by a statute of the
town of Sajó-St-Peter (1403) relating to the wine trade;
by the testament of Kazzai-Karácson (1413); and by other relics of
this period published by Döbrentei in vol. ii. of the R. M. Nyelvemlékek.
To the early part of the 15th century may be assigned also the
legends of “St Francis” and of “St Ursula,” and possibly the original
of the Ének Pannónia megvételéröl, an historical “Song about the
Conquest of Pannonia.” But not until the dawn of the Reformation
did Magyar begin in any sense to replace Latin for literary purposes.
The period placed by Hungarian authors between 1437 and 1530
marks the first development of Magyar literature.
About the year 1437 two Hussite monks named Tamás and
Bálint (i.e. Thomas and Valentine) adapted from older sources a
large portion of the Bible for the use of the Hungarian
refugees in Moldavia. To these monks the first extant
Magyar version of part of the Scriptures (the Vienna or
Jagelló-Matthias or pre-Reformation period
(1437–1530).
Révai Codex[4]) is directly assigned by Döbrentei, but the
exact date either of this copy or of the original translation
cannot be ascertained. With approximate certainty
may be ascribed also to Tamás and Bálint the original of
the still extant transcript, by George Németi, of the Four
Gospels, the Jászay or Munich Codex (finished at Tátros
in Moldavia in 1466), Amongst other important codices are the
Jordánszky Codex (1516–1519), an incomplete copy of the translation
of the Bible made by Ladislaus Bátori, who died about 1456; and
the Döbrentei or Gyulafehérvár Codex (1508), containing a version of
the Psalter, Song of Solomon, and the liturgical epistles and gospels,
copied by Bartholomew Halabori from an earlier translation
(Környei, A Magyar nemzeti irodalomtörténet vázlata, 1861, p. 30).
Other relics belonging to this period are the oath which John Hunyady
took when elected governor of Hungary (1446); a few verses sung
by the children of Pest at the coronation of his son Matthias (1458);
the Siralomének Both János veszedelmén (Elegy upon John Both),
written by a certain “Gregori,” as the initial letters of the verses
show, and during the reign of the above-mentioned monarch; and
the Emlékdal Mátyás király halálára (Memorial Song on the Death of
King Matthias, 1490). To these may be added the rhapsody[5] on
the taking of “Szabács” (1476); the Katalin-Legenda, a metrical
“Legend of St Catherine of Alexandria,” extending to over 4000
lines: and the Feddöének (Upbraiding Song), by Francis Apáthi.
In the next literary period (1530–1606) several translations of the
Scriptures are recorded. Among these there are—versions of
the Epistles of St Paul, by Benedict Komjáti (Cracow,
1533); of the Four Gospels, by Gabriel (Mizsér) Pesti
(Vienna, 1536); of the New Testament, by John Erdösi
Reformation period
(1530–1606).
(Ujsziget, 1541; 2nd ed., Vienna, 1574[6]), and by Thomas
Félegyházi (1586); and the translations of the Bible,
by Caspar Heltai (Klausenburg, 1551–1565), and by Caspar
Károli (Vizsoly, near Göncz, 1589–1590). The last, considered the
best, was corrected and re-edited by Albert Molnár at Hanau in
1608.[7] Heltai published also (1571) a translation, improved from
that by Blasius Veres (1565), of the Tripartitum of Verböczy, and
Chronika (1575) adapted from the Decades of Bonfini. Karádi in
1569 brought to light the earliest national drama, Balassi Menyhért.
Among the native poets, mostly mere rhyming chroniclers of the
16th century, were Csanádi, Tinódi, Nagy-Báczai, Bogáti, Ilósvay,
Istvánfi, Görgei, Temesvári and Valkai. Of these the best and most
prolific writer was Tinódi. Székely wrote in prose, with verse
introduction, a “Chronicle of the World” under the title of Cronica
ez világnac yeles dolgairól (Cracow, 1559). Csáktornya and Kákony
imitated the ancient classical poets, and Erdösi introduced the
hexameter. Andrew Farkas and the homilist Peter Melius (Juhász)
attempted didactic verse; and Batizi busied himself with sacred
song and Biblical history. During the latter part of the 16th century
and the beginning of the 17th two poets of a higher order appeared in
Valentine Balassa, the earliest Magyar lyrical writer, and his contemporary
John Rimay, whose poems are of a contemplative and
pleasing character.
The melancholy state of the country consequent upon the persecutions
of Rudolph I., Ferdinand II. and Leopold I., as also the
continual encroachment of Germanizing influences under
the Habsburgs, were unfavourable to the development of
the national literature during the next literary period,
17th century period
(1606–1711).
dating from the Peace of Vienna (1606) to that of Szatmár
(1711). A few names were, however, distinguished in
theology, philology and poetry. In 1626 a Hungarian
version of the Vulgate was published at Vienna by the Jesuit George
Káldi,[8] and another complete translation of the Scriptures, the
so-called Komáromi Biblia (Komorn Bible) was made in 1685 by the
Protestant George Csipkés, though it was not published till 1717
at Leiden, twenty-nine years after his death.[9] On behalf of the
Catholics the Jesuit Peter Pázmán, eventually primate, Nicholas
Eszterházy, Sámbár, Balásfi and others were the authors of various
works of a polemical nature. Especially famous was the Hodaegus,
kalauz of Pázmán, which first appeared at Pozsony (Pressburg) in
1613. Among the Protestants who exerted themselves in theological
and controversial writings were Németi, Alvinczy, Alexander
Felvinczy, Mártonfalvi and Melotai, who was attached to the court
of Bethlen Gábor. Telkibányai wrote on “English Puritanism”
(1654). The Calvinist Albert Molnár, already mentioned, was more
remarkable for his philological than for his theological labours.
Párispápai compiled an Hungarian-Latin Dictionary, Dictionarium
magyar és deák nyelven (Löcse, 1708), and Apáczai-Csere, a Magyar
Encyclopaedia (Utrecht, 1653). John Szalárdi, Paul Lisznyai,
Gregory Pethö, John Kemény and Benjamin Szilágyi, which last,
however, wrote in Latin, were the authors of various historical works.
In polite literature the heroic poem Zrinyiász (1651), descriptive of
the fall of Sziget, by Nicholas Zrinyi, grandson of the defender of
that fortress, marks a new era in Hungarian poetry. Of a far inferior
character was the monotonous Mohácsi veszedelem (Disaster of
Mohács), in 13 cantos, produced two years afterwards at Vienna by
Baron Liszti. The lyric and epic poems of Stephen Gyöngyösi, who
sang the deeds of Maria Széchy, the heroine of Murány, Murányi
Venus (Kassa, 1664), are samples rather of a general improvement in
the style than of the purity of the language. As a didactic and
elegiac poet Stephen Kohári is much esteemed. More fluent but not
less gloomy are the sacred lyrics of Nyéki-Veres first published in
1636 under the Latin title of Tintinnabulum Tripudiantium. The
songs and proverbs of Peter Beniczky, who lived in the early part of
the 17th century, are not without merit, and have been several times
reprinted. From the appearance of the first extant printed Magyar
- ↑ An example of this work, printed on vellum in Gothic letter (Augsburg, 1488), and formerly belonging to the library of Matthias Corvinus, king of Hungary, may be seen in the British Museum. Of the three first-mentioned chronicles Hungarian translations by Charles Szabó appeared at Budapest in 1860, 1861 and 1862.
- ↑ Both this and the later editions of Frankfort (1581), Cologne (1690) and Pressburg (1744) are represented in the British Museum.
- ↑ The only copy existing at the present time appears to have been transcribed at the beginning of the 16th century. Both this and the Halotti Beszéd (Pray Codex) are preserved in the National Museum at Budapest.
- ↑ This codex contains Ruth, the lesser prophets, and part of the Apocrypha. According to Toldy, it is copied from an earlier one of the 14th century.
- ↑ First made known by Coloman Thaly (1871) from a discovery by MM. E. Nagy and D. Véghelyi in the archives of the Csicsery family, in the county of Ung.
- ↑ One of the only seven perfect copies extant of the Vienna (1574) edition is in the British Museum library.
- ↑ A copy, with the autograph of the editor, is in the British Museum.
- ↑ A copy is in the British Museum library.
- ↑ There are two copies of this edition in the British Museum library.
