Page:Poetry of the Magyars.djvu/99

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MAGYAR LITERATURE.
lxxvii

nyos Gyǘjtémeny, he is one of the most influential, as undoubtedly one of the most distinguished, of the literary men of his country.

The lyrics of Szenvey are more remarkable for their form, than their correctness of language. He is a preceptor at Maglod, and was born in 1798. The greater part of his manhood was passed in the neighbourhood of Visegrád, "the paradise of Hungary, in the midst of those ruins which make the memory of the past so beautiful, living a life of enthusiasm and of song."[1] He has written seven tragedies, and many ballads.

I have thus gone through the list of those Magyar authors who seem more particularly entitled to notice. I trust in this good work I am the forerunner of wiser and more successful men.

That the Magyar language and literature will receive greater attention from foreigners, and that the interest excited elsewhere will act upon the better and brighter part of Hungarian ambition is certain. I see without jealousy the ardent national feeling of the Magyars, and feel that a nationality founded upon knowledge, and representing a spirit of freedom and independence, is

itself a virtue, and the parent of many virtues.

  1. Schedel.