Page:Poetry of the Magyars.djvu/64

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INTRODUCTION.

his works at Presburg in 1787-9, He was an officer in the service of Maria Theresa, and obtained many military honours.

Barcsai was of the race of the Transylvanian Prince of his name, and was born at Piski in 1742. He, like so many other literary men of Hungary, took military service, in 1762. He became a Catholic in 1779, having been first known as a poet about two years before. Révai did for his writings the same service he rendered those of Orczy. The works of both were printed in one volume; and so striking is their resemblance that they seem the emanations of one single mind. They are for the most part epistles. In 1794, Barcsai retreated to his rural estates in Maros-Sólymos, and Csóra, which had been ravaged by the Wallachians about ten years before. In 1806, he was found mortally wounded, under a favourite apple-tree, which had been the device of his seal, with the inscription, 'Árnyékban zöldül (Growing under its shadow). Count Haller wrote a funeral oration in French, which was afterwards translated into Hungarian by Kazinczy.

Ányos was a follower of Bessenyei in the general form of his compositions, but their spirit is more decidedly Hungarian. There is a melancholy tone and tendency in his writings which are very harmonious, and portray