Page:A history of Hungarian literature.djvu/85

 Rh were written during the stirring and enthusiastic years of Rákóczy's campaign. It is chiefly the poetry of the camp, sung by soldiers to soldiers. The poems were recited, sung, and occasionally copied, but never printed and published. It was not until one hundred and fifty years later that they were collected. The songs are among the finest treasures of Hungarian popular poetry, the richness of which inclines us to say that the greatest Hungarian poet is the Hungarian people.

As they were songs for the camp, they naturally contain at times an element of aggressive and crude strength. But the good fortune of the Kurucz army waned, and the foreign and imperial party gained the upper hand, a fact that accounts for the note of melancholy so common in the songs. Moreover, as the Kurucz party were often prosecuted for their Protestant faith, it is only natural that a fervent religious element should reveal itself in their poetry.

Its dominant feature is the exaltation of racial and national feeling. No other popular poetry can be compared with it. Even its bursts of anger, indignation, sorrow, or bitter sarcasm contain a certain noble dignity. Some of the poems are purely lyrical, breathing the prevailing sentiments of the times—fervent patriotism, or embittered hatred of the enemy; others, however, are of the nature of epics, relating the events of the campaign in the form of a dialogue, and so resembling the Scottish ballads. One of the best is the song about Ocskay's Treason. Another is a plaintive song of the homeless soldiers, who, with no secure shelter, wander about the plains and forests. Very touching is the Farewell of Rákóczy. There are several songs written by Protestant pastors, who had been carried away to