Kalla Zsuzsa: Beszélő tárgyak. A Petőfi család relikviái (Budapest, 2006)

Rita Ratzky: Sándor Petőfi, his tastes and style

Peleskei nótárius [The Notary of Peleske], was a pop- ular work among companies of strolling players. Petőfi appeared in the play many times and in Lhi levelek Kerényi Frigyeshez XIV he writes ‘By God, I wish I had written The Notary of Peleske.'

In the notes for A régi jó Gvadányí in the most recent critical edition of Petőfi’s works (Petőfi Osz- szes Művei 1983, 415) the editor points out the thematic similarities between this work and a series of articles Vahot wrote for the 1844 July-August issues of Pesti Divatlap. In these writings Vahot advocates national language and costume, thus showing a connection between the poem, the articles and the clothing.

Reactions to Petőfi’s 1844 outfit varied. It was in sharp contrast to Pest fashion of the day, where German and French styles held sway, and German tailors outnumbered their Hungarian counterparts by ten to one. It did not help him fit in, showing instead a desire to be different and, according to István Sass, was extremely conspicuous. The wife of the poet Sándor Vachott, who probably saw these clothes every day, said: ‘He always dressed in an unusual way and did not combine his clothes

Petőfi as a National Guard by Miklós Barabás

particularly tastefully, but then neither was his personality ordinary.’ (Vachott Sándomé 1887, 341) Miklós Szemere, who loathed his talented colleague, remarked: ‘It is impossible to imagine a character sillier than him in that outfit, and what is more... very loose, kidney-skin boots! and thin, bandy legs in the loose-fitting boots!’ (1891, 329-330)

To summarise: this outfit, which Petőfi wore in 1844, and which he had designed himself, was of a decidedly national character. It was the clothing a Hungarian man of the previous generation, the end of the 18th century, would have worn, and represented what Gvadányi and his friends had wished for: an archaic Hungarianness untouched by Western culture or foreign influence (Bíró 1989).

A study by József Kiss entitled Tóth Gáspár, Petőfi „mecénása” — Egy jeles polgári magyar szabómester a reformkorban és a forradalomban [Gáspár Tóth, Petőfi’s Patron — an Upright Hungarian Master Tailor of the Reform Era and the Revolution] reveals that tailors with patriotic sentiments had begun promoting the new Hungarian-style national fashion twenty years before the establishment of the organised society of protection movement (i.e. twenty years before the autumn of 1844). By the 1840s, they had created a stylised national costume based on the Hungarian costumes of previous centuries, which took as its main element the black, dark blue or possibly claret braided military coat. (Research: Katalin F. Dózsa in ms.) Petőfi had one of these coats made on credit by Gáspár Tóth at the end of the winter of 1845, before travelling to Northern Hungary, and this may have been the coat in which Miklós Barabás drew him for a print published in the Pesti Divatlap supplement of 3rd June 1845. From then on this braided military coat formed the basis of his wardrobe. He wore it, or one very similar, in 1848, as seen in the painting by Orlay Petries Petőfi in Pest 1848, and this may also be the coat that, after 1926, was taken to the Petőfi House from Mezőberény. It was not, however, the black coat he wore at his wedding, as that was made of moire (Lauka 1879, 115-16).

Recollections of the period 1845-1847 also frequently mentioned a blue coat with buttons and red lapels, and a circular felt hat with a turned-up brim and feathergrass decoration (Egerváry 1882, 290-91; Deák 1902, 2-3; Miskolczy 1906, 62). For a while he also wore a black neck scarf with either a gold fringe or silk trimming, which was also part of the 18th-century national costume. Later he abandoned this in favour of the familiar

208