Fraternity-Testvériség, 1955 (33. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)

1955-10-01 / 10. szám

18

TESTVÉRISÉG

Zrínyi as a political and military thinker who formulated important policies for the protection of his nation and of Christendom against insidious foes. He proposed a Hungarian army, the concept and plan of which dated back to King Mátyás Corvinus. As a public man and political writer he symbolizes the culmination of seething emotions of national and cultural resentment in a country which was squeezed between the imperialistic aims of the Habsburgs and the ruthlessness of the Turkish Janissaries. In Hungarian history his name is synonymous with the nation’s will to live. He spoke out with the voice of a “European Hungarian” in an epoch when the nation was severed from the advantages of western civilization. His voice is still heard, and it is still timely. Placing the welfare of the nation ahead of all other obligations, devoting himself to political, military and cultural tasks, counselling against Machiavellianism (although at times inevitably succumbing to it himself), he comes nearest in style and manner to the man who personifies “the hero of the sword and the lyre.”12

III.

The world more or less agrees with the view that in the East, Vienna is the gate to western Europe. Many facts support this view. It is true that frequently -— and this pertains to Hungary — western ideas and ideals failed to be adopted for reasons which were either inherent in the national ethos or for external reasons. Nothwithstanding geographical and linguistic hazards and barriers, Hungary exemplifies the attempt and ability of a somewhat “eastern” nation to become integrated into western culture. Fifteenth century Hungary had Renaissance characteristics, mainly during the reign of King Mátyás Corvinus, the son of János Hunyadi, “the scourge of the Turks.” “The seeds of Hungarian secular literature were planted by King Mátyás Corvinus.”13 Italian scholars visited the country, they enjoyed their sojourn there, and in most instances wrote favorably about their impressions; yet a few decades later, having received little or no encouragement from the West in the struggle with the invading Ottomans, in fact bypassed by the world, Hungary was reduced to the status of a Balkan colony. But the yearning for the West remained.

The contribution of Count Miklós Zrínyi to epic poetry, the artistic value of his work, despite a certain prosiness in style and flaws in composition, represent him as a western poet writing in Hungarian. While Zrinyi’s debt to foreign poets is

12 Antal Szerb, MAGYAR IRODALOMTÖRTÉNET (Budapest, 1946) p. 126.

13 János Horváth, AZ IRODALMI MŰVELTSÉG MEGOSZLÁSA (Budapest, 1944), p. 284.

undeniable and the Zrinyiász does not measure up to the classical heroic epics of world literature, nonetheless the intensity and tension of the author’s poetic manner, his elevated feelings, the use of the supernatural, his lofty viewpoint display attributes of the true epic poet. Compared with his Hungarian predecessors, Zrínyi has qualities of intention, perception and expression which place him in a superior position; he paved the way for the epic of János Arany and Mihály Vörösmarty, the distinguished nineteenth century poets.

Zrinyi’s poems were published in Vienna in 1651 under the title; Adriai tengernek syrenaia. (The Siren of the Adriatic Sea.) The book contains his major epic and a few shorter poems. The Zrinyiász was “rediscovered” in the late eighteenth century by Count Gedeon Ráday, a minor writer, who called it to the attention of Ferenc Kazinczy, the prominent critic and literary historian. János Arany, who modernized some parts of the Zrinyiász, was the first to teach the readers to form a true appreciation of this epic. He explained Zrinyi’s intent to preserve the national spirit and Christian faith and the role this work plays in the development of Hungarian epic art, and presented other views which are still instructive. Ferenc Kazinczy and Mihály Babits wrote poems about Zrínyi; Miklós Jósika, the prolific romantic novelist, based one of his novels on the poet’s life and work; he is the central character of a drama by Sándor Sik. Ferenc Toldy, Ferenc Salamon, Zsolt Beöthy and other literary scholars wrote with understanding about Zrínyi and his work. Vilmos Tolnai discussed the relationship of the Zrinyi-line to the alexandrine, and Ignác Gábor analyzed the impact of ancient Hungarian versification on Zrinyi’s metrical manner. Sándor Piszárevics compared the Hungarian version of the Zrinyiász with the Croatian version. Towards the end of the nineteenth century the Hungarian Academy commissioned Ferenc Badics and Károly Széchy to prepare a complete edition; to a large extent it is due to their exegetical method that this epic is recognized as an important signpost of Hunarian literature. With the annotations of László Négyesy there appeared an authentic edition in 1914, under the auspices of the Kisfaludy Társaság, a national literary society. There is a Marxian interpretation of Zrínyi by Tibor Klaniczay. Ernő Dohnányi composed a Zrínyi overture.

(To be continued)