Page:A history of Hungarian literature.djvu/208

 194 H UNGARIAN LITERATU RE this short time thou shalt express all that was slumbering in the heart of thy nation for a thousand years. Thou wilt have to feel in thy heart every thrill, each pang, multiplied a thousandfold in intensity, but thy joy and thy sorrow will live for ever. For thy sufferings, and restiess wanderings, thy reward shall be supreme inspira­ tion and an early death." ln the course of the following year he hesitated between two careers. Alternately, he was student at the College of Pápa, and actor. The stage seems to have presented irresistible attractions. During the summer of 1843 he lived by his pen, translating Freneh and English novels, but in the autumn he returned to his old love, and agai n became an actor. The winter {1843-44} he spent in great misery in Debreczen, for after rarnhling about the country as an actor, he became dangerously ill. At first he lived with a friend, and then he hired a littie room in the house of an aged widow. Throu gh the window of this room, if it was not thickly coated with frost, he could see the town gallows. A large clay stove was his writing-desk. The only ornaments were the portraits of Vörösmarty and Sch iller. During his illness, Petőfi made collection of his poems, and at the end of February, he went to Buda­ pest. This j ourney, the last of those marked by privation, he des cribes in a letter as follows : 1 1 l went on foot, in ragged cloths, with a few coppers and a volume of poems in my pocket. AU my hopes were centred in that collection of vrses. If l could seU them, ali would be weil. If not, then it wo uld also be weil, for l should either starve or be frozen to death, and my sufferings would be ended. l was wanderi ng alone. Far as l could see, there was n o living being in sight. Every one had