ecclesiastical history; John Szombathi, Emeric Révész and Balogh,
writers on Protestant church history; William Fraknói, biographer
of Cardinal Pázmán, and historian of the Hungarian diets; and
Anthony Gévay, Aaron Sziládi, Joseph Podhradczky, Charles Szabó,
John Jerney and Francis Salamon, who have investigated and
elucidated many special historical subjects. For the medieval
history of Hungary the Mátyáskori diplomatikai emlékek (Diplomatic
Memorials of the Time of Matthias Corvinus), issued by the academy
under the joint editorship of Ivan Nagy and Baron Albert Nyáry,
affords interesting material. As a masterly production based on
extensive investigation, we note the Wesselényi Ferencz ... összeesküvése
(The Secret Plot of Francis Wesselényi, 1664–1671), by Julius
Pauler (1876). Among the many historians of Magyar literature
Francis Toldy alias Schedel holds the foremost place. As compilers
of useful manuals may be mentioned also Joseph Szvorényi, Zoltán
Beöthy, Alexander Imre, Paul Jámbor, Ladislaus Névy, John
Környei and Joseph Szinnyei, junior. For philological and ethnographical
research into the origin and growth of the language none
excels Paul Hunfalvy. He is, moreover, the warm advocate of the
theory of its Ugrio-Finnic origin, as established by the Uralian
traveller Anthony Reguly, the result of whose labours Hunfalvy
published in 1864, under the title A Vogul föld és nép (The Vogul
Land and People). Between 1862 and 1866 valuable philological
studies bearing on the same subject were published by Joseph
Budenz in the Nyelvtudományi közlemények (Philological Transactions).
This periodical, issued by the academy, has during the
last decade (1870–1880) contained also comparative studies, by
Arminius Vámbéry and Gabriel Bálint, of the Magyar, Turkish-Tatar
and Mongolian dialects.
As compilers and authors of works in various scientific branches allied to history, may be particularly mentioned—in statistics and geography, Alexius Fényes, Emeric Palugyay, Alexander Konek, John Hunfalvy, Charles Galgóczy, Charles Keleti, Leo Beöthy, Joseph Körösi, Charles Ballagi and Paul Király, and, as regards Transylvania, Ladislaus Köváry; in travel, Arminius Vámbéry, Ignatius Goldziher, Ladislaus Magyar, John Xantus, John Jerney, Count Andrássy, Ladislaus Podmaniczky, Paul Hunfalvy; in astronomy, Nicholas Konkoly; in archaeology, Bishop Arnold Ipolyi, Florian Rómer, Emeric Henszlmann, John Érdy, Baron Albert Nyáry, Francis Pulszky and Francis Kiss; in Hungarian mythology, Bishop Ipolyi, Anthony Csengery,[1] and Árpád Kerékgyártó; in numismatics, John Érdy and Jacob Rupp; and in jurisprudence, Augustus Karvassy, Theodore Pauler, Gustavus Wenczel, Emeric Csacskó, John Fogarasi and Ignatius Frank. After 1867 great activity was displayed in history and its allied branches, owing to the direct encouragement given by the Hungarian Historical Society, and by the historical, archaeological, and statistical committees of the academy.
Notwithstanding the exertions of Paul Bugát to arouse an interest in the natural sciences by the establishment in 1841 of the “Hungarian Royal Natural Science Association,” no general activity was manifested in this department of knowledge, so far as the native literature was concerned, until 1860, when the academy organized a special committee for the advancement of mathematical and natural science.[2] The principal contributors to the “Transactions” of this section of the academy were—for anatomy and physiology, Coloman Balogh, Eugene Jendrassik, Joseph Lenhossék and Lewis Thanhoffer; for zoology, John Frivaldszky, John Kriesch and Theodore Margó; for botany, Frederick Hazslinszky, Lewis Jurányi and Julius Klein; for mineralogy and geology, Joseph Szabó, Max Hantken, Joseph Krenner, Anthony Koch and Charles Hoffman; for physics, Baron Lorando Eötvös, Coloman Szily and Joseph Sztoczek; for chemistry, Charles Than and Vincent Wartha; for meteorology, Guido Schenzl. As good text-books, for which the so-called “Ladies’ Prize” was awarded by the academy, we may mention the Természettan (Physics) and Természettani földrajz (Physical Geography) of Julius Greguss.
Almost simultaneously with the formation of the above-mentioned committee of the academy, the “Natural Science Association” showed signs of renewed animation, and soon advanced with rapid strides in the same direction, but with a more popular aim than the academy. Between 1868 and 1878 the number of its members increased from some 600 to about 5000. After 1872, in addition to its regular organs, it issued Hungarian translations of several popular scientific English works, as, for instance, Darwin’s Origin of Species; Huxley’s Lessons in Physiology; Lubbock’s Prehistoric Times; Proctor’s Other Worlds than Ours; Tyndall’s Heat as a Mode of Motion, &c. Versions were also made of Cotta’s Geologie der Gegenwart and Helmholtz’s Populäre Vorlesungen. As important original monographs we note—Az árapály a Fiumei öbölben (Ebb and Flow in the Gulf of Fiume), by Emil Stahlberger (1874); Magyarország pókfaunája (The Arachnida of Hungary), by Otto Hermann (1876–1878); Magyarország vaskövei és vasterményei (The Iron Ores and Iron Products of Hungary), by Anthony Kerpely (1877); Magyarország nevezetesebb dohányfajainak chemiai ... megvizsgálása (Chemical Examination of the most famous Tobaccos of Hungary), by Dr Thomas Kosutány (1877). (E. D. Bu.)
The number of Magyar writers has since 1880 increased to an extent hardly expected by the reading public in Hungary itself. In 1830 there were only 10 Magyar periodical publications; in 1880 we find 368; in 1885 their number rose to 494; in 1890 to 636; and at the Literature since 1880. beginning of 1895 no fewer than 806 periodical publications, written in the Hungarian language, appeared in Hungary. Since that time (1895) the number of periodical as well as of non-periodical literary works has been constantly rising, although, as in all countries with a literature of rather recent origin, the periodical publications are, in proportion to the whole of the output, far more numerous than the non-periodical.[3] This remarkable increase in the quantity of literary work was, on the whole, accompanied by a fair advance in literary quality.
In lyrical poetry, among the poets who first came to the fore in the ’sixties several were active after 1880, such as Joseph Komócsy (d. 1894), whose Szerelem Könyve (“Book of Love”) has become a popular classic; Victor Dalmady, who published in the ’nineties his Hazafias Költemények (Patriotic Poems); and Ladislas Arany, son of the great John. Among the prominent lyrists whose works, although partly published before 1880, belong largely to the later period, the following deserve special mention: The poetry of Emil Ábrányi (born 1850) is filled with the ideas and ideals of Victor Hugo. Ábrányi excels also as a translator, more particularly of Byron. Julius Reviczky (1855–1899) also inclined to the Occidental rather than to the specifically Magyar type of poets; his lyrics are highly finished, aristocratic and pessimistic (Pán halála, “The Death of Pan”). Count Géza Zichy (b. 1849) published his lyrical poems in 1892. Joseph Kiss (b. 1843) is especially felicitous in ballads taken from village and Jewish life, and in love-songs; Alexander Endrödi (b. 1850), one of the most gifted modern lyrical poets of Hungary, has the charm of tenderness and delicacy together with that of a peculiar and original style, his Kurucz nóták being so far his most successful attempt at romantic lyrics. Louis Bartók (b. 1851) is a remarkable satirist and epigrammatist (Kárpáti emlékek). Ödön Jakab (b. 1850) leans towards the poetic manner of Tompa, with perhaps a greater power of expression than the author of the Virágregék (“Flower-fables”); Jakab wrote Hangok az ifjuságból (“Sounds of Youth”), Nyár (“Summer”), both collections of lyrical poems. Louis Pósa (b. 1850) has made a sphere of his own in his charming poems for and about children, Édes anyám (“My dear Mother”). In Andor Kozma (b. 1860), author of A tegnap és a ma (“Yesterday and To-day,” 1889), Versek (Poems, 1893), &c., there is undoubted power of genuine satire and deep humour. Michael Szabolcska (b. 1864), author of Hangulatok (“Moods,” 1894), showed great promise; Julius Vargha (b. 1853) cultivates the népies or folk-poetry as represented by Hungary’s two greatest poets, Petőfi and Arany; Vargha has also published excellent translations of Schiller and Goethe. Perhaps scarcely less remarkable are the modern Magyar lyrists, such as, of the older set, John Bulla (b. 1843), J. D. Temérdek, Gustavus Csengey (b. 1842), Paul Koroda (b. 1854), E. Julius Kovács (b. 1839, Poems, 1892), Ladislas Inczédi, Julius Nógrádi Pap, Julius Szávay (b. 1860), John Dengi (b. 1853); among the juniors, Anton Radó (also an excellent translator), Louis Palágyi (Magányos úton, “On Lonely Way,” &c.), Géza Gárdonyi (b. 1863, Aprilis, 1894), Zoltán Pap, Eugen Heltai (Ignotus), Julius Rudnyánszky (b. 1860, Szerelem, “Love”; Nyár, “Summer”), Árpád Zemplényi, Julius Szentessy, Emil Makai (b. 1870), Cornelius Gáspár, Julius Varsányi (b. 1863, Mulandóság, “The Unstableness of Things”), Alexander Luby (Vergödés, “Striving”), Eugen V. Szászvárosi, Endre Szabó (b. 1849), political satirist. In the most recent lyrics of Hungary there is a growing tendency to socialistic poetry, to the “poetry of misery” (A nyomor költészete). In epic poetry Josef Kiss’s Jehova is the most popular work. Amongst rhymed novels—novels in verse form—the best is the Délibábok hőse (“The Hero of Mirages”), in which Ladislas Arany tells, in brilliantly humorous and captivating fashion, the story of a young Magyar nobleman who, at first full of great ideals and aspirations, finally ends as a commonplace country squire.
Among Hungarian novels we may distinguish four dominant genres or tendencies. The first is represented almost exclusively by Maurus Jókai (q.v.). To the school so perfectly represented by
- ↑ The translator of Macaulay.
- ↑ See, however, J. Szinnyei & Son’s Bibliotheca Hungarica historiae naturalis et matheseos, 1472–1875 (Budapest, 1878), where the number of Magyar works bearing on the natural sciences and mathematics printed from the earliest date to the end of 1875 is stated to be 3811, of which 106 are referred to periodicals.
- ↑ This will appear even more striking by a consideration of the number of periodical publications published in Hungary in languages other than Magyar. Thus, while of German periodicals appearing in Hungary there were in 1871 only 85, they increased in 1880 to 114, in 1885 to 141; and they were, at the beginning of 1895, still 128, in spite of the constant spread of that process of Magyarization which has, since 1880, considerably changed the linguistic habits of the people of Hungary.
