Körmöczi Katalin szerk.: Historical Exhibition of the Hungarian National Museum 3 - From the End of the Turkish Wars to the Millennium - The history of Hungary in the 18th and 19th centuries (Budapest, 2001)

ROOM 13. Culture and National Consciousness at the End of the 18th Century and in the First Half of the 19th Century (Eszter Aczél)

42. Mme Jókai, née Róza Laborfalvy (1817-1886), Lithograph spective authors -, visitors can see a selection of the rich Press material of the time, and of journals. An important success for the language renewal and for the diets of the Reform Age was Law II of 1844, which made Hungarian the official language of legislation, of the Diet, of the Council of Lieutenancy's and the Chancellery's correspondence within Hungary, and of the judgments of the higher courts. Academy goblets offered as prizes for merit represent the outstanding results achieved in Hungarian intellectual life. THE BEGINNINGS OF HUNGARIAN THEATRE The literary language was spread not only through books and journals, but also through the theatre. In the first decades of the 19th century, a growing national consciousness appeared in every area of culture. As a result of Romanticism as a stylistic period and as an endeavour for national independence, a characteristic national art was born which strove to express a certain kind of national character, not only in its content, but also in the forms it used. Theatre director László Kelemen (1760-1814) and his colleagues were the first "professional" Hungarian theatre troupe. The first theatres were in Pozsony (Bratislava), Kassa (Kosice), Balatonfüred, Kolozsvár (Cluj), and Pest. The Old Theatre in Pozsony was opened in 1776 for German players. Hungarian players first appeared on its stage in 1820, when Mme Déry and Mme Schodel achieved magnificent successes with their opera performances. In addition to a map depicting travelling theatre in Hungary, we also show pictures of a few theatres, accompanied by portraits of the great figures in theatre and musical life, and by gifts presented by devotees. Besides the singer-actresses Mme Schodel, née Róza Klein (1811-54); Mme Déry, née Róza Széppataki (1793—1872); Mme Jókai, née Róza Laborfalvy (181786) (Fig. 42); Mme Lendvay, née Anikó Hivatal (1814-91); and Ida Komlóssy (1822-93); there are also the great figures of musical life: Ferenc Erkel (181093), Ferenc Liszt (1811-86), György Ruzitska (1789-1869), and Gábor Egressy (1808-66). THE HUNGARIAN NATIONAL MUSEUM Hungarian national culture was born in the first decades of the 19th century. Outstanding branches of it were literature and theatre (both of which conveyed the renewed Hungarian language), Hungarian