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22 mingled something of the darkness of night; so in the character of Matthias we may discern features which link him to a bygone age. It was the same with the men who were his spiritual kindred, Lorenzo the Magnificent or Alfonso of Arragon [sic]; but like them Matthias was essentially a man of the Renaissance. Italy herself could not show us a more striking type of the new genus. It is not only that he surrounded himself with the very best works of art of that period, but his whole personality showed that he had drunk deeply of the waters of that enchanting stream which reached Hungary earlier than other countries. His character and education, his tastes and prejudices, his imagination and temperament, were all rooted in the soil of the Renaissance.

Great vitality and uncurbed emotions are frequently to be found linked with a sense of beauty in the typical man of that age; but his lively imagination and his manifold abilities were often mingled with craftiness and rhetorical volubility; he admired the classical world in an intellectual way, and yet was not entirely free from superstitions; finely turned wit and indomitable energy existed side by side in his nature. All those features appeared in Matthias. His imagination was powerful and undisciplined. Gigantic plans seethed in his mind like precious metals in a furnace, rich, yet mingled with dross. At one time it was the crown of Bohemia which he attempted to seize, at another it was the German imperial title. He dreamed of reconquering the territories near the Danube, chasing the Turks back to Asia, or converting them to Christianity. Later on, he found a wild pretext for laying claim to the throne of the Sultan, on the ground that an aunt of his had been carried off to that monarch's harem.