Page:A history of Hungarian literature.djvu/127

 CHARLES KISFALUDY 113 After the Mysteries came the second stage in the history of the drama, the satirical plays, intended for reading and not for acting, dating from the time of the Reformation. The Reformation, like every other revolutionary epoch, was highly favourable to satire. Authors found the dramatic form introduced into literato re during Renais-­ sance times the most suitable for these satires. The best of them is perhaps a play entitled Meinhardt Balassa's Treachery, probably the work of a Unitarian minister. Though a primitive production as a whole, it is remark-­ able for the powerful drawing of its chief character. Balassa was an unprincipled magnate, who sided with the Protestants and Catholics alternately in pursuit of his own selfish ends. The finest and most important scene is that in which Balassa confesses his crimes. The third stage in the development of dramatic litera­- ture is marked by the Morality plays performed at the high schools. These were again a fruit of the Reforma-­ tion. Their authors were the schoolmasters. They were at first written in Latin, but afterwards in Hungarian, and their subjects were taken from the Bible or from ancient history. In the eighteenth century these per-­ formances at the schools were all the acting there was. There was no regular theatre. Yet Bessenyei tried to reform Hungarian literature through the agency of his dramas at a time when there was no possibility of their being performed. At last, in 1790, the first theatre was built at Pest. Members of good families formed a company under the superintendence of Ladislas Kelemen , and then, for the first time, the regular stage was open for the Hungarian tongue. The actors were animated by a sacred enthusiasm ; they considered themselves