Page:A history of Hungarian literature.djvu/198

 184 HUNGARIAN LITERATURE were to appear-Hungarian peasants, knights of the Middl e Ages, great magnates, honvéds, beggars, Roman senators, Greek sailors, Indian mah araj ahs, Turkish jani­ zaries, nomadic Arabs and English lords, Assyrian kings and Christian martyrs and modern stockbrokers, negr oes, Russians, Armenians and Gipsies-the multitude would line the streets for more than a mile." The man wh o made all these variaus characters live, began his activity as a writer in the time of Petőfi. and Arany, though he was younger than they. He was a student wh en he first met Petőfi and the two became firm friends. After the defeat at Világos the sentence of death hung over him and for some time he had to live i n hiding. His flight was aided by Kossuth's secretary, who hired a carriage and horses, dressed hímself as a coachman, and drove Jókai through the Russian camp. For months Jókai and his wife lived in seclusion amongst the wooded hills. After the revolution he settied in Budapest as an author and editor, and from 1861 was a member of Parl iament. I n 1 863 an article appearcd in his paper, in consequence of which he was summaned before the military court and sentenccd to a year's rigoraus imprisonment in chains. His treatment in prison was n ot severe, however, in spite of the terms of his sentence, and after a month he was liberated. Jókai's popularity became unbounded, and at his jubilee, among other presents he receíved from the nation a gift of 2oo,ooo korona, or about J;S,ooo. His first wife was a very celebrated H unga rian actress, and twelve years after her death he married a young woman wh o for a time was also an actress. He was a friend of the Crown Prince Rudolf, who died while still a young man.