Page:A history of Hungarian literature.djvu/140

 u6 HUNGARIAN LITERATURE Si nce the time of Shakespeare, tragedy has become the representation of one dominating passion. Katona, however, in depicting his hero, does not describe the growth of one passion only, but shows how different passions clash with one another, how they lessen or augment each other's force. ln the hero, the bushand and the patriot contend fiercely with the knight and the palatine. The passion which is most purely human is victorious, but wh ite it destroys every obstacle in its path , it involves the hero bimself in disaster. Th e historical event belongs to the thirteenth century. The noble-minded banus, a knight proud and jealous of his honour, was palatine of King Andrew II. The queen, th e Germao Gertrude, was the mother of St. Elizabeth, who inherited her mother's strength of will with out her arrogance. The king was called away to some distant region to put down a rebellion, and in his abse nce the country was ruled by the queen. Her rule was most disastrous. She was a gifted and ambitiou s woman, and had ali the energy and determination of a man. Unfor­ tunately, however, eve n the best of the Hungarians were merely foreigners in her eyes, and she favoured only her own countrymen, the Germans, and, above ali, the members of her own family. On this account a feeling of animosity sprang up agaiost her, and reached a menacing height as th e Hungarians saw how they were tmpoverished, fiouted and oppressed for the sake of foreign intruders. Illegal taxes crushed the people, as more and more m oney was needed for the riotous revels of the Court. Discontent and disaffection daily increased. The pala.tine, the representative of the king, had the greatest difficulty in preventing open revolution, and found equal difficulty in suppressing his own rising .indignation ,