Michael Vorosmarty, the poet laureate of the nation, lived in Pest, and
there the twin stars of literature, Alexander Petofi and Maurice Jokai,
shone on the national horizon. Jokai, who is still living (1886) and
enjoys a world-wide fame as a novelist, and Petofi, the eminent poet,
who was destined to become the Tyrtaeus of his nation, were then both
young men, full of enthusiasm and intrepid energy, and teeming with
great ideas.
About these two gathered the other writers and youth of the University,
and all of them, helping one another, contrived, on hearing the news of
the sudden revolutions in Paris and Vienna, to enact in Budapest the
bloodless revolution of March 15, 1848, which obtained the liberty of
the press for the nation, and at the same time, in a solemn manifesto,
gave expression to the wishes of the Hungarians in the matter of reform.
The only act of violence these revolutionary heroes were guilty of was
the entering of a printing establishment, whose proprietor, afraid of
the Government, had refused to print the admirable poem of Petofi
entitled _Talpra Magyar_ ("Up, Magyar"), and doing the printing there
themselves.
Pages:
383
384
385
386
387
388
389
390
391
392
393
394
395
396
397
398
399
400
401
402
403
404
405
406
407