Page:A history of Hungarian literature.djvu/284

 270 HUNGARIAN LITERATURE ing no flattery and displaying remarkable power of analysis was that of Kölcsey. Besides Kölcsey, JOS EPH BAJZA (1804-1858) became important as a critic. He was a poet as weil, whose poems are of an abstract, sentimental and írnpersonal character, a kind of drawi ng­ room poet, with culture and a refined taste. Bajza started the first eritical j9urnal in Hungary, realising that instead· of the prevail ing friendly eulogies, serious and just criticism was needed. He was twenty-seven when the journal first appeared, and he continued the work in the supplements of "The Athenreum." JOHN ERDtLYI (1814-1 868) was much less polished in his style than Bajza, but possessed more i nsight. He too was a poet, and became tie Percy of H ung!lry by his compilation of H ungarian folk-lore, the first book of its kind. In aesthetics he was a follower of Hegel, and in his charact er sketches of autbors he anticipated Hyppolyte Ta ine, for like bim he endeavoured to discover that fundamental quality [ 11 qualité maitresse "] of an author from which his remaining characteristics were derived. The best work on aesthetics was by AUGUSTUS GREGUSS (1825·1882), a University professor. His life and work were the mirror of the refinement of his mind. He wrote an excellent book on the ballad, dealing especially with the sources of Scottisb ballads and also, of those of Arany. He defined the ballad very pithily as a tragedy told in song. Greguss consecrated his life to the task of raising the taste of the nation by teaching men to love the beautifui and the good, which he declared were not different elements, but merely different rays from the same sun . PAUL GYULAY (born 1826), Hungary's chief critic, is a very interesting figure. He was horn at Kolozsvár and is