During the eighteenth century and up to 1815, the great and scarcely interrupted wars of the Habsburgs enlisted all the powers of Hungary. In 1741 the Magyars, and they alone, saved Austria from what seemed to be inevitable dismemberment. From that date onward to the campaign of 1788 the History of Hungary is but a chapter in that of Austria. Towards that latter date the wave of Nationalism started in France had reached Hungary. Like the Belgians and the Czechs (Bohemians), the Hungarians too began to revolt from the anti-nationalist and egalitarian autocracy of Emperor Joseph II., one of the characteristic geniuses of the last century, who was exceedingly enlightened on everything else but his own business. The old Magyar institutions, and weightiest amongst them, the Magyar language was, by the Hungarian diet, alas! not by the Hungarian people, decreed to be the public language of the country. Resistance to Joseph’s “reforms” became so serious, as to prevail upon the dying monarch to revoke them, 1790; and under his successor, Leopold II., 1790-1792, who was of a less aggressive temper, Hungarian nationality seemed to approach its revival. This was, however, not to be.
The French Revolution, although essentially a nationalist movement, forwarded in Europe outside France, for nearly two generations after its rise, none but the cause of the monarchs. The Hungarians, who gave Austria many of her best generals, and fought in nearly all the battles of the Revolutionary Wars from 1792 to 1815, were in the end shorn of all their hopes and expectations by the successful fop who directed Austria’s policy from 1809 to 1848. Prince Metternich had not the faintest conception of the rights or wants of the Hungarians; and having brought to fall, as he thought he did, the French Revolution and its personification, Napoleon Buonaparte, he could not but think that a small nation, as the Hungarians, would speedily and lastingly yield to high-handed police regulations, to gagging the public conscience, and to unmanning the press. The year 1848 witnessed the final victory of the French Revolution all over Europe. Hungary, foremost amongst the countries where oppressed nations were demolishing the bulwarks of tyranny, freed herself from the yoke of Austrian ministers. The Austrian armies were driven out of Hungary; the Habsburgs were declared to have forfeited the crown of St. Stephen; and but for the help of Russia, the Austrian monarchs would have been deprived of more than one half of their empire. When a now nameless Hungarian general surrendered to the Russians at Világos (1849), Hungary was bodily incorporated with the Austrian Empire, and Czech and Austrian officials were sent down to germanize and denationalize Hungary. In 1860 the reaction set in. The nation, offering a passive resistance of a most formidable character, brought the Vienna Cabinet to its senses; and when, at Königsgrätz (July, 1866), the Prussians had routed the armies of Austria, Hungary’s greatest political sage, Francis Deák, aided by the Austrian minister, Count Beust, restored the ancient Magyar autonomy and independence. Ever since (1867) Hungary’s relation to Austria has been that of confederation for purposes of foreign policy, and absolute independence for the work of domestic rule. The Emperor of Austria is at the same time the King of Hungary; and thus the two halves of the Empire are united by a personal link. Law and its administration; Parliament and municipal government; commerce and trade; in short, all that goes to form the life of a separate nation is, in Hungary, of as independent a character as it is in Austria. A Hungarian must, like any other foreigner, be formally naturalized in order that he may be considered an Austrian citizen, and vice versâ.
CHAPTER III.
The preceding short survey of the history of Hungary may now be followed by a brief sketch of the character and temper of the Hungarians. The Magyar proper, and all the numerous individuals in Hungary who have become completely assimilated to and by the Magyar element, bear in character much similarity to the Poles on the one hand, and to the Spanish on the other. They are rhapsodic and enthusiastic; excellent orators and improvisators; and most sensitive as to their personal dignity and social respect. As their music so their character is written in passionate rhythms, moving from broad and majestic largo to quick and highly accentuated presto. Yet Hungarians, unlike Poles and Spaniards, do not let their rhapsodic impetus run away with them, and they have shown on all great occasions of their history, much coolness and firmness of judgment. Nor do they exaggerate their sense of dignity into bloated grandezza. They are rather humorous than witty; yet in a country replete with so many idioms and peoples, there may be found curious borderlands of pun, wit, and humour. Passionately fond of music and dancing, to both of which the Hungarians have given a peculiar artistic development of their own, the Magyars have seldom manifested remarkable talent for architecture. Painting and sculpture have found many an able devotee in Hungary.
But it is in music that most artists of Hungary have excelled. Hungary is saturated with music. No student of Magyar literature can afford to neglect the study of Magyar music. The parallelism between the growth of Hungarian music and Hungarian Literature is not so complete, as that between German music and German literature. Yet nothing will furnish us an ampler commentary on Magyar lyrics or epic poetry, than that magnificent music which has inspired heroes on the battlefield, lovers in their closets, Bach and Beethoven in their studies alike. It is intense music of torrential and meteoric beauties, and a bewildering bass. Strange to say, Bach’s preludes à la fantasia come nearest in character to the original Hungarian music, as played in the wayside inns of the immense puszta, or Plain of Hungary. In Hungary, all musical performances at social gatherings are entrusted to the gypsies, who undoubtedly added much outward ornament and characteristic fioriture to the melodies and harmonies of the Hungarian people; yet the body and soul of that music are thoroughly Hungarian. Music in Hungary is the vocal and instrumental folk-lore of the people; and no lyrical poet of the Magyars could help writing without having in view the musical adaptation of his poem. On the other hand, it cannot be denied that the continual indulgence in music has had its serious drawbacks. In a measure, music is the opium of Hungary. It fosters but too much that bent for dreamy idleness, which is the chief failing in the Hungarian character. Much has been done in recent times to inspirit the slumbering energies of the nation not only in the high walks of public life, but also in the lowly avenues of industrial, commercial, and other less picturesque activity. Still more remains to be done.
The lack of a middle class, or bourgeois proper, has retarded the growth of literature no less than that of political independence. Within recent times there were only two classes of Hungarians in Hungary, nobles and peasants. The floating and unassimilated portion of the population between these two classes remained either quite alien to Hungarian aspirations, or it attempted to imitate the nobles, of course chiefly in their less commendable qualities. The undeniable indolence of the small nobleman, or country-squire; his aversion to town-life; his abhorrence of trades and crafts; all these and similar shortcomings inherent in a caste of nobles had a baneful influence on their numerous imitators. Literature is, as a rule, an urban growth. The urban element in Hungary, however—was till the end of the last century of very subordinate importance. The frequent social gatherings of the Hungarian country gentlemen and their numerous imitators were indeed full of spirited talk and engaging conversation. In what might be called the Parlature of a nation, or the aggregate of their private discussions, dialogues, speeches, etc., the Hungarians are and always have been very rich. Many a brilliant essay or novelette has been talked in Hungarian drawing-rooms and dining-halls, which in other countries would have made the fortune of a writer. In fact, there is little exaggeration in advancing the statement that the literature of a nation is the complement of its parlature; and where the latter is inordinately developed, the former is necessarily of a less exuberant growth. This “law,” if so it may be called, operated with much force in a country where it is far easier to find listeners than readers. It also accounts for much that is characteristic of Hungarian prose. Like French literature, Hungarian poetry or prose applies more to the ear than to the eye, and accordingly suffers very much from translation. That rich parlature in Hungary has, however, another and still more serious drawback. Up to 1870, in round numbers, there was in many parts of Hungary, more especially in the north-west and north, a custom of using, in common conversation, two or three idioms, almost at a time. Sentences were commenced in Latin, continued in Hungarian, and wound up in German, or Slovak. The constant use of several idioms, as it has rendered Hungarians peculiarly apt for the acquisition of foreign languages, so it has made them more than apt to read and assimilate foreign literatures. This again made many a less enterprising mind hesitate, and likewise many a feeble mind but too prone to imitate, especially the German writers, both in style and subject. The originality of Hungarian authors was thus at times much impaired. In the course of the present work we shall meet with several cases. At present we must hasten to speak of the most potent of the factors of Hungarian Literature; of the Hungarian language.
CHAPTER IV.
The Hungarian language is totally different in vocabulary and grammar from the Teutonic, Latin, Slav, or Celtic languages. Between Russian and German, or between Russian and English there is much affinity, both groups of languages belonging to the Aryan, or Indo-German class of idioms. Between Hungarian and German, or Hungarian and Slav, there is no affinity whatever. The Hungarians have indeed inserted some Slav and German mortar into crevices left open by an occasional decay of the Hungarian material; but the structure and functions of the Magyar language are totally alien to either Slav or German idioms. It is an agglutinative language, the root of words being almost invariably formed by their first syllables, unto which all affixes and pronouns are soldered according to a fairly regular process of word and case-formation. In Aryan languages the root is, as it were, subterranean, and frequently hard to lay bare. In Hungarian the root is always transparent. The vowels have a distinct musical value, and do not resemble the musically indeterminable vowels or diphthongs of English or German. Consonants are never unduly accumulated, as in Bohemian; and strong accents on one syllable of a word are unknown. Generally, the first syllable of the word has a heavier stress on it. Hungarian is rich both in its actual vocabulary, especially for outward things and phenomena, more especially still for acoustic phenomena; and in its prospective word-treasury. In few languages can new words, expressing shades and phases of meanings, be coined with greater ease. This facility applies to abstract terms as well as to material ones. It is probably not too much to say, that for purposes of Metaphysics or Psychology few languages offer so ample a repository and laboratory for terms as does the Magyar language. Although far from being as adapted for rhyme as English or German, yet Hungarian has many and sonorous rhymes. On the other hand, it crystallizes with readiness into all the metres of Greek or Latin poetry. A peculiarity of Hungarian (and Finnish) are the diminutives of endearment and affection.