Page:Poetry of the Magyars.djvu/77

Rh She refused her hand; and he, in his gloom, abandoned the Professorship which Count Festetics had given him at Csurgó. He lost his health, and died in his thirty-first year. His reading was considerable, and spread over many oriental as well as European tongues. His history is a melancholy one of flightiness and folly. He lived, his epitaph says, somewhat slanderously towards his art, poetae more. After his disappointment he became indifferent to opinion, and produced a series of profligate writings, whose highest privilege will be—oblivion.

The present century dawned prosperously for Magyar literature. The first volume of 's Himfy was published in 1801. No book was ever known to produce such an impression in Hungary as was awakened by this volume; nor was the success of the second part, which appeared in 1807, less than that of the first. He pursued his successful career with his Sagas (Regék) and his Gyula, winning "golden opinions," and becoming alike the companion of the learned and the light-hearted. His Himfy is a series of short descriptive lyrics, the first part celebrating an unsuccessful, the second a happy, love. The main topic is, however, relieved by much beautiful philosophy and salutary