Fraternity-Testvériség, 1955 (33. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)
1955-09-01 / 9. szám
TESTVÉRISÉG 11 preachers, whose vehement or floi'id language and ideas, inspired by sincere faith or unreasoned zeal, bear little or no resemblance to imaginative literature. The liturgical and morality plays and “school dramas” were didactic exercises. Even the greatest Hungarian prose stylist of these times, Cardinal Péter Pázmány, who raised the level of Hungarian culture, had no pronounced literary intentions. No doubt, the advent of printing and its effect, the translations of the Bible into the vernacular by Gáspár Károli, the Calvinist preacher, and the appearance of hymns and other poems inspired by a devotional spirit, are to be considered as cultural phenomena; nevertheless, it would be inaccurate to be enthusiastic regarding these attainments, as Hungarian literary historians have sometimes been, though linguistically some works are of true importance. In the second half of the sixteenth century a poet appeared on the Hungarian Parnassus who infused vitality into the stagnant cultural life of his country. Baron Bálint Balassa, of whom it has been written that “he was the first who established a poetic school in Hungary”1 and that he was “one of the first who prepared the way for the expression of pure sentiment in Hungarian poetry”2 had small hope of being recognized; times were not favorable for poetic acclaim. He lived in an age “when England saw the wrecks of the Invincible Armada floating on the ocean, the waves which were now freed from the tyrant. But in Hungary, alas! the poet and the hero saw nothing but desolation.” 3 There seemed only flux, no permanence ; his writings are fraught with uneasiness and violence, although there is a mingling of joyousness and satisfaction in his poems, too. What he had in common with all his compatriots was a desire to vindicate the prestige of the nation, to lessen the sufferings inflicted upon her, and to regain her independence. Balassa could be graceful and wild; despite the unequal quality of his verses, his skill in traditional poetry and his prosodic innovations prove him a creator of noteworthy traits. He integrated his whole being into a poetic pattern. At times he seems to be “the Hungarian Minnesinger”;4 it is also justifiable to refer to his “fervent love for the fatherland, and bitter grief at its distresses, revealed in his lyric poetry.”5 In some of his poems the Renaissance charac1 Jenő Pintér, A MAGYAR IRODALOM TÖRTÉNETE (Budapest, 1938), Vol. I, p. 304. 2 Frederick Riedl, A HISTORY OF HUNGARIAN LITERATURE (New York, N. Y., 1906), p. 49. 3 Ibid., pp. 3-4. 4 Watson Kirkconnell, THE MAGYAR MUSE (Winne- peg, Manitoba, 1933), p. 49. 5 Frederick Riedl, op. cit., p. 43. teristics are noticeable;6 in others the baroque elements, and the psychology of a typical Hungarian regardless of social position, who yearns for life’s fulfillment by having “wheat, wine, peace, and a pretty wife.”7 Balassa knew the excitements which the times held for the bold, the brave and the reckless. He devoted much time to senseless and irritating quarrels, and was often at odds with well meaning people. He was doomed by his impulsive, ever-warring nature, a captive of uncontrollable emotions. To his environment he seemed like one possessed of the devil. His life served as a fitting background for his works. His restlessness drove him on. His was not a surly, but an intense temper, from which there was no escape; this temper, however, was the source of some of his best poems. II. It is evident that Balassa lacked the kind of peaceful, idyllic atmosphere which, for example, Ronsard enjoyed, who “during a pei’iod of his life was happy in his gardens, planting, grafting, dressing his vines.”8 Balassa’s life was anything but “well managed”; it recalls the irregular, although differently patterned life of Richard Lovelace. Balassa would not be tamed. He lived a life of excess in which ever changing moods were confronted by restraint and decorum. His poetry projects his conflicts bluntly and subtly, his legitimate and wounded pride, his virtues and weaknesses. Hungarian critics concur in the view that “he was the first artist of the Hungarian language, enriching it with a new perspective and with lyrical musicality.”9 Anyone familiar with the poetry of the Renaissance will find in Ba-. lassa’s works similar features. As a pastoral poet, he reminds one somewhat of the “liveliness and grace”10 of Robert Herrick; he can also be likened to the Cavalier poets, such as Thomas Carew and Sir John Suckling. One cannot draw a circle around him and declare that he moved exclusively in one spiritual or empirical sphere. Balassa’s poetry must be judged on its own merit, but also on the basis of its subject matter which within its creative framework offers a vivid picture (precisely because of its artistic 6 LA HONGRIE ENTRE L’ORIENT ET L’OCCIDENT (Paris, 1944), p. 200. 7 Károly Viski, HUNGARIAN PEASANT CUSTOMES (Budapest, 1932), p. 75. 8 Morris Bishop, RONSARD, PRINCE OF POETS (New York, N. Y., 1940), p. 191. 9 Marcell Benedek, ed. IRODALMI LEXIKON (Budapest, 1927), p. 89. 10 William Bradley Otis and Morris H. Needleman, OUTLINE-HISTORY OF ENGLISH LITERATURE (New York, N. Y., 1948), Vol. I, p. 264.
