Petrőczi Éva: Holt költők társaságában. A Puritanizmuskutató Intézet és a Medgyesi Pál Puritán Kiskönyvtár emlékére - Nemzet, egyház, művelődés 9. (Sárospatak, 2014)

James I. and Hungary

Our brain can be freshened, like a flowery garden.

There composed his books William Whitaker And doctor of all doctors, he, William Perkins He, whose work in Spanish appeared by Massanus Wilhelm,

And from the Latin printed by Antonius Wilhelm.

But for Hungarians, being read in their tongue,

Re-wrote Kecskeméti, from the language of Rome....etc.”268

(translated by Eva Petrőczi)

The above quoted, not-too-brilliant poetical fragment illustrates a certain reverence towards King James, who - though often a political “double-dealer”- played more interest to intellectuals, writers, poets, than the majority of the mighty ones of the earth ever. In the original text the following line shows it: “At his court the same grade is offered to scholar and to soldier:”

In 1620, when this puritan maiden voyage happened (less metaphorically: when the very first English puritan work appeared in Hungary!), and even later, the names of the English towns were mentioned in a Latinized form: Cantabrigium, Whitakerus, Perkinsus...etc. The function of this linguistic “trick” was to offer the sensation of some homeliness, when leading the readers to a remote, alien land and culture.

György Szepsi Korotz, author of the above-quoted poem, interpreter of the Basilicon dóron transplanted his positive James-image into the younger generation of Hungarian theologians as well. In 1623, eleven years after the Hungarian Basilicon a sort of its replica appeared, not for a prince, but for a young boy of high birth, Ferenc Bedeghy Nyáry, entitled Courtly School. The author of it, Márton Szepsi Csombor was born in the same town as György Korotz, in Szepsi, at the Highlands of Hungary and for some years was tutored and supported by him.269 In the Dedication of the Courtly School we can experience that the author very flatteringly draws a parallel between King James and Seneca: “A great number of people wrote such regulations of life. Among others, Seneca, for his lewd disciple, Nero...and wrote this present king James of England for his son, the diligent efforts of its translation being

268 György Szepsi Korocs, Rhytmi ungarici.., = RMKT XVII. 8,154-155.

269 About the György Szepsi Korocs - Márton Szepsi Csombor relationship deatils can be found in: Szepsi Csombor Márton 1968,14-15.

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