KISFALUDY, KAROLY, or CHARLES, the most popular dramatic poet of Hungary, was the youngest brother of SANDOR KISFALUDY, the most popnlar lyric poet. He was born on the 6th of Feburary 1788, at Tete, and his birth cost his mother her life. His father never saw him with pleasure. As a boy he was unruly; and once when, after he had attained the age of sixteen, a professor at the High School of Raab struck him on the face, the pupil answered by hurling at him an inkstand. The army was thought the most suitable pro fession for a youth of this character, and in 1805 he went to Italy as au officer in Prince Eaterhazy's regiment. The only book he took with him was his brother's poem of 'Himfy; by a constant perusal of which, just at the period of life in which new faculties are awaking, he was led at first to make acquaintance with the Italian poets, and then to try his own powers in verse ; but most of his early efforts were destroyed by himself in after years, and Schedel, his biographer, who had seen some of them, assures us that their disappearance ought to cause his admirers no regret. In 1809 he served in the Austrian campaign against Napoleon I. in Germany. In 1810 he quitted the army to marry ; but he was so singularly unfortunate that his father, who had an objection to the lady, threw him off on finding him determined not to renounce her, and the lady threw him off on finding that he was at variance with his father. Deeply wounded in his inmost feelings, Kisfaludy found himself reduced to earn his bread, and established himself at Vienna, where for some years be turned to account some proficiency he had attained in painting, and obtained a scanty subsistence as an artist. His chief amusement was the theatre, to which we are told that he often devoted his last shilling. He became acquainted with the poet Korner, who was then on the point of being made the official poet of the Vienna Theatre, and it was at his suggestion that Kiirner took for a subject the Hungarian Leonidas, Zrinyi, who by his brava self-sacrifice at Sigeth checked the triumph of the Turks, and ended in sorrow the career of Solyman the Magnifi cent. Unfortunately, the remark of Kisfaludy on the play, that the manners were not sufficiently Hungarian, was not well received by Korner, and their friendship cooled. It was at Vienna that Kisfaludy first became a hard reader. "French poetry," says Schedel, "he did not consider poetry. Schiller, among the German authors, he early loved the moat, and ho remained faithful to the preference. Giithe he could never love, though he admired his 'Faust,' which was singular. But Shakapere he read and studied perpetually, and from day to day more and more—at last almost to the exclusion of anything else. Of Shakspere ho was always ready to talk, and he placed him out of the line of even the great poets of the world—as a great solitary. He often said that from him and Leasing be had learned all that be knew that was of value. Scott was never a favourite with him." In 1817 his brothers reconciled him with his father, and he removed to Teeth, where, on his father's death in 1824, he came in possession of his inheritance. It was in 1819 that he suddenly became famous. The theatre at Pesth was in that year opened at the expense of Count Brunszvik by a strolling company from Stuhlweiasenburg, there being at that time no permanent company of Hungarian actors iu the capital. For the sake of greater novelty, they wished to make their appearance with a now play. Kisfaludy offered them one on a national subject, entitled Tatarok Magyarorszagban ' (' The Tartar in Hungary '), and on the 3rd of May it was produced. The success was tremendous; and the enthusiasm of the audience for thi author, who was present, knew no bounds: they almost forced him or to the stage to receive their thanks. He was applied to for another
play, and had another in readiness on a national subject, 'Clara Zilch —a lady whose wrongs from the royal family, and their revenge by her father in 1330, form one of the darkest pages of Hungarian history. The authorities refused permission for the performance, and not to disappoint expectation, Kisfaludy completed in four days a tragedy in four acts, entitled ' which was acted on the 16th of June, and was as successful as its predecessor. Hie next play, "Stiboz Vajda,' or Stibor the Chieftain,' written in ten days, was produced on the 7th of September, and on the 24th of the same month the comedy of 'A Keriilt, or 'The Suitors;' and in the same year another comedy, Pdrtiitlik,' or The Insurgents.' In the course of eight months in 1S19 five plays from his pen had been welcomed with the most tem. pestuous applause on the stage, and the verdict of the audience was afterwards ratified by the reading public. In the midst of his triumph the poet was not satisfied with himself, and applied to Kazinczy (Kazitsczy) for instructions how to' write the Hungarian language, to some of the delicacies of which his long residence abroad had made him comparatively a stranger. The next year, 1820, was occupied with a fresh set of dramas, many of them of a comic character, in which it was the opinion of some of his admirers that he was more successful than in those of a serious cast; but this opinion, which was the poet's own, will not we think be shared in by most foreign readers. Iu the year 1821 he commenced the publication of an Hungarian annual, in imitation of the German works of the same class, under the title of 'Aurora.' Its success was great, and for several years it was tho vehicle of conveying to the Hungarian public not only the new productions of Charles Kisfaludy in fiction and the drama, but contributions from almost all the other authors of dis tinction in the country. The more his popularity increased the more critical he became io his own productions, and he submitted with readiness to the adverse decisions of his friend Helmeczy, chiefly in matters of language and style. Encouraged by the success of the 'Aurora,' he was projecting other journals, and was sketching out a style of national tragedies, which be was confident would surpass all that bad preceded, when, nt the close of 1829, the fatal Moms com menced which, after a short interval of apparent improvement, carried him off ou the 21st of November 1830, at the age of forty-two.
The friends of Kisfaludy raised a subscription to erect a monument to his memory, which was so warmly patronised that the funds amounted to about 5001. more than was wanted. With this it was determined to publish a collected edition of his works, and also to institute prizes for the most successful productions in polite literature. The works met with so rapid a sale that the fund went on augmenting, and the society has become every year more and more important. One of its most valuable publications is the 'Nenizeti Konyvt.ir,' or ' National Library,' n collection of the beet works in Hungarian lite rature, issued in a cheap but handsome form, in closely-printed double columned octavos. The first volume of the collection com prises the works of Charles Kisfaludy, the greater part of which consists of plays, the remainder of tales and short poems. His fame will probably rest on his tragedies in verse, which are brief, energetic, and dramatic in their dialogue, nod have the recommendation of being entirely national in their subjects.