Page:A history of Hungarian literature.djvu/286

 272 HUN GARIAN LITERATURE defects. Sometimes Gyulay is too biting and carries on his p olemics for its own sake and not merely for the sake of truth. He is a consummate master of prose style. His chief works are an admirable and profound essay on Katona's Bánk bán, and Vörös marly's Biograp hy, in wh ich he gives a wooderfui description of the whole period. Among his orations and in his essays the best are those in which he spoke of his great friend Arany. ln his short stories he does not excel in inventive power but in truthful characterisation, in style and in the realistic atmasphere with which he ís able to surround an event. His best short story is Th e Old Mansion's Last Te nant, describing the gradual decay of an ancient estate as weil as of its owner. Gyulay is also distinguished as a lyric poet. His style is simple and concise, without much passion. An element of reftection moderates or represses his sentiments, but these restrained feelings serve to reveal his· strength. ln some poems the critic is manifest and we detect here and there a note of bitter ness. A peculiar quality of his subj ectíve poetry is the ra pid alternation of irony and emotion. One of the best known of his poems telis of an incident in the war for freedom. DEA R CA PTAIN M INE. " Oh Captain mine, oh Captain see l " " What is it, lad, that aileth thee 1 " " Look 1 on you,. cloak a crimson patch l " "Nay, heed it not, 'tis but a sCf'atch " " Oh Captain, tuf'n aside I p,.ay, The way is sleep, you,. footsteps stay." "Istumbled o•e,. a stone, pMchance, FiN bayonets, men, and ali advance l " The Honveds jOf'Waf'd press ; not so, The Captain wounded by the joe ; "Onwaf'd, my lads ," he cries again, And falls tn death amid the slain.