Mihály Vörösmarty

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Mihály Vörösmarty (December 1, 1800 - November 19, 1855), Hungarian poet, was born at Puszta-Nyék, of a noble Roman Catholic family.

His father was a steward of the Nádasdys. Mihály was educated at Székesfehérvár by the Cistercians and at Pest by the Piarists. The death of the elder Vörösmarty in 1811 left his widow and numerous family extremely poor. As tutor to the Perczel family, however, Vörösmarty contrived to pay his own way and go through his academical course at Pest.

The doings of the diet of 1825 first enkindled his patriotism and gave a new direction to his poetical genius (he had already begun a drama entitled Salomon), and he flung himself the more recklessly into public life as he was consumed by a hopeless passion for Etelka Perczel, who socially was far above him. To his unrequited love we owe a whole host of exquisite lyrics, while his patriotism found expression in the heroic epic Zalán futása (Zalan's Flee) (1824), gorgeous in colouring, exquisite in style, one of the gems of Magyar literature. This new epic marked a transition from the classical to the romantic school.

Henceforth Vörösmarty was hailed by Károly Kisfaludy and the Hungarian romanticists as one of themselves. All this time he was living from hand to mouth. He had forsaken the law for literature, but his contributions to newspapers and reviews were miserably paid. Between 1823 and 1831 he composed four dramas and eight smaller epics, partly historical, partly fanciful. Of these epics he always regarded Cserhalom (1825) as the best, but modern criticism has given the preference to A két szomszédvár (Two Neighbouring Castles) (1831), a terrible story of hatred and revenge.

When the Hungarian Academy was finally established (November 17, 1830) he was elected a member of the philological section, and ultimately succeeded Károly Kisfaludy as director with an annual pension of 500 florins. He was one of the founders of the Kisfaludy Society, and in 1837 started the Athenaeum and the Figyelmező, the first the chief bellettristic, the second the best critical periodical of Hungary.

From 1830 to 1843 he devoted himself mainly to the drama, the best of his plays, perhaps, being Vérnász (Blood Wedding) (1833), which won the Academy's 200-gulden prize. He also published several volumes of poetry, containing some of his best work. Szózat (Appeal, 1836), which became a national anthem, Az elhagyott anya (The Abandoned Mother) (1837) and Az uri hölgyhöz (To the Noble Lady) (1841) are all inspired by a burning patriotism. His marriage in 1843 to Laura Csajághy inspired him to compose a new cycle of erotics. In 1848, in conjunction with Arany and Petőfi, he set on foot an excellent translation of Shakespeare's works. He himself was responsible for Julius Caesar and King Lear.

He represented Jankovics at the diet of 1848, and in 1849 was made one of the judges of the high court. The national catastrophe (the fall of the revolution of 1848-49) profoundly affected him. For a short time he was an exile, and when he returned to Hungary in 1850 he was already an old man. A profound melancholy crippled him for the rest of his life. In 1854 he wrote his last great poem, the touching A vén cigány (The old Gypsy). He died at Pest in the same house where Károly Kisfaludy had died twenty-five years before. His funeral, on November 21, was a day of national mourning. His penniless children were provided for by a national subscription collected by Ferenc Deák, who acted as their guardian.

The best edition of Vörösmarty's collected works is by Pál Gyulai (Budapest, 1884). Some of them have been translated into German, e.g. Gedichte (Pest, 1857); Ban Marot, by Mihály Ring (Pest, 1879); Ausgewählte Dichte, by Paul Hoffmann (Leipzig, 1895). See Pál Gyulai, The Life of Vörösmarty (Hung.) (3rd ed., Budapest, 1890), one of the noblest biographies in the language; Brajjer, Vörösmarty, sein Leben und seine Werke (Nagy-Becskerek, 1882).

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This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.