Page:A history of Hungarian literature.djvu/165

 MICHAEL VÖRÖSMARTY Vörösmarty, the poet of melancholy and grand passion, translated King Lear, Petőfi chose the proud, defiant Coriolanus, and Arany, the contemplative Hamlet. • In the sixties, the Kisfal udy Society published th e com­ plete Hungarian Shakespeare, and to that work the best writers contributed. Among the contemporaries of Vörösmarty whose work displayed similar tendencies, the most noteworthy was a Benedictine monk named GREGORY CzuczoR (18oo-1866). About the year 1848 he wrote a fiery poem entitled The Alarm, summoning the nation to revolt against the Austrians. For this he was put into prison, wh ere he remained for n early two and a half years, at first in chains aceording to the order of General Haynau. Czuczo r's ch ief epic poem is Botond; dealing with the pagan period of Hungarian history. lts hero is the ch i eftain Botond, who drove his mace through the bronze gates of Byza ntium, and the poem telis of his love for a Greek girl. Czuczor was the son of a peasant, and his songs brought with them into the realm of poetry the sweet fresh a1r of the country ; they at once found their way to the hearts of th e people, and are still popular. JOHN GARAY (1802- 1853) was also an epic poet. One of his poems relates the deeds of the national hero, St. Ladislas, but his best known work is a ballad about the chieftain Kont, who was beh eaded by King Sigismund. Very popular, too, is a tale of his about a soldier returned from th e wars against Napoleon, who relates the most absurd and impossibl e adventures in a very amosing way. translation in the Hungarian language, that of Cervantes' Do11 Quixote, was the work of William Gyróy (1838-I88s).
 * Arany was the best translator of poetry, while the best prose