Page:A history of Hungarian literature.djvu/279

 G REGORV CSIKY 1'ransylvanian nobleman who has spent ali his money and now helps the u m:artyr's widow " to live at other people's expense, and to do all manner of sh ady business. ln additio n to this r u ined landowner, there is a broken-down lawyer whose diploma was cancelled by the authorities some twenty years before, and who now works in the widow's petition office. ln this society we find the widow's daughter Irma, a wh ite lily amid ali this foulness. She bears everything patiently as she believes the widow to be her mother, but at an eve ning party the widow dri nks a littie too much p unch and betray s the secret that Irma is not her daughter. This is the tum ing-point of the d rama. Irma escapes from the house to avoid a humiliating busin ess-like marciage to which she cannot consen t, and there is a steiking scene wh en the lawyer's better natu re a wakes and he .helps the girl to get clear of her evil associates and marry the man whom she loves and who is worthy of her. The play owed its success to the realistic and almost too bold drawing of its characters. Similar in its tendency is another drama by Csiky entitled Gildeci Misery. A much more tragical play is The lron Man, in which there is a truly dramatic confiict. The man of iron is a rich manufacturer, stem, obstinate, and i mplacable, who demands absol ute obedience from every one. He has a son who is an 11 iron mari " too in a calm strong way, and wh o falls in love with the daughter of a poor nobleman. But the manufact urer, who owes all his for tune to his own industry, scoms the idle aristaerat an d will not hear of the marriage. He has his way, and extorts from the girl a promise to give up her !over, on the threat that otherwise he will