KISFALUDY, Kâroly or Charles (1788-1830), one of the most genial, prolific, and gifted poets of Hungary, and especially celebrated as the regenerator of the national drama, was born on the 6th of February 1788, at Tét, in the county of Györ. His birth cost his mother her life, which unfortunate circumstance preyed upon the father’s mind and caused him to view the child with feelings akin to aversion. The austerity of his father and the loss of his mother were, however, in a great measure made amends for to Kâroly by the love of his elder sister Teréz, who tended him during his early years with maternal care, and remained devoted to him through his whole life. In 1799 he was sent to the gymnasium at Györ (Raab), where he made only moderate progress in his studies, whilst the impetuosity of his disposition often involved him in trouble. Placed as a cadet in Duke Eszterhâzy’s regiment in 1804, he saw a good deal of service, rising to the rank of captain. In 1811 he quitted the army with the intention of marrying. Offended at this step, his father withdrew from him all support, and his affianced bride rejected him upon finding him at variance with his father. His sister, then the wife of Captain Gâbor Farkas, offered him an asylum in her home, where he remained during the winter of 1811-12; but, unwilling to eat the bread of dependence, Kâroly removed to Pest and afterwards to Vienna, where he tried to live by his skill in painting. He at this time began assiduously to study the works of Shakespeare, Schiller, and Lessing, became a frequent visitor at the Vienna theatre, and made the acquaintance of its official poet Theodore Körner, whose drama Zrvnyi was written at Kisfaludy’s suggestion. Rendered impatient by ill success, he soon left Vienna, and for over ...four years wandered, mostly on foot, through Germany, Switzerland, France, and Italy as far as Rome, obtaining as before a precarious livelihood as an artist. At length subdued by misfortune, and longing for his home and a more honourable career, he in 1817 sought by the aid of his sister reconciliation with his father, who, though still hard to be entreated, allowed him a slight pecuniary assistance. Although not without friends at Pest, where he now took up his abode, he continued to support himself by his brush until the spring of 1819. It was on the 3d of May in this year that the successful performance at Pest of his national drama, in five acts, The Tatars in Hungary, placed the name of Kâroly Kisfaludy on the roll of literary fame. It was rapidly followed by other dramas, all of which met with popular favour. Not only was he now admired by his own countrymen, but by means of the German translations of Gaal in the Theater der Magyaren (Brünn, 1820) he soon became known abroad. Freed from pecuniary embarrassment, Kâroly Kisfaludy was now able to devote his best energies to literature, poetry, and the drama. In 1822 he started an annual under the name ef Aurora, which he continued to edit until the year of his death. Although its success was great and his popularity continued to increase, he became ever more and more critical with regard to his own productions; and, if his earlier pieces must be regarded rather as the outcome of natural talent than as the result of matured consideration, his later productions bear evidence to the high culture of his mental powers. In recognition of his exceptional literary merit, he was in 1826 rewarded with the prize of the Marczibânyi foundation; about this time also he came into possession of the estate at Tét through the death of his father. Towards the close of 1829 his health began to fail, and, though he rallied for a time, consumption, accelerated by the news of his sister’s death, brought his career to a close on the 21st November 1830, at the early age of forty-two, while his friends were rejoicing at the tidings of his election as a member of the Hungarian academy of sciences. The first edition of his collected works was published by Toldy in 10 vols. (Buda, 1831). To the Kisfaludy Kdroly elete, prefixed to the Pest edition of 1872, we are indebted for many of the foregoing particulars.
KISFALUDY, Sândor or Alexander (1772-1844), elder brother of Kâroly Kisfaludy, whom he excels as a lyric poet though not as a dramatist, was born on the 27th of September 1772 at Sümeg in the county of Zala, Hungary. Choosing the career of a soldier, he entered the army in 1793, and was soon appointed to a lieutenancy in the Hungarian life guards at Vienna. There he employed his spare time in literary pursuits, and especially in the study of Italian poets. Upon the death of his patron Prince Anton Eszterhâzy, Kisfaludy was sent back to Hungary. Soon after this, at a vintage festival in Badacsony, he made the acquaintance of Rozalia Szegedy, whom, notwithstanding a subsequent long estrangement, he eventu ally married, and who under the name of Liza is the subject of his Himfy. During the Italian campaign of 1796 Kisfaludy was stationed at Milan, and upon the surrender of that city he was sent as a prisoner of war to Vaucluse, where he began to write the series of love sonnets for which he afterwards became so famous, and which were suggested to his mind by the songs of Petrarch. After his release at the peace of Campo Formio (17th October 1797), Kisfaludy was posted as captain in a regiment quartered at Würtemberg, and in 1799 he took part in the battles of Stockach, Winterthur, and Zürich. In 1800 he left the army, and stayed for five years at Kâm in the county of Vas, subsequently removing to his native place Sümeg, where he devoted himself to agricultural and literary pursuits. By this time Kisfaludy had gained the highest reputation as a lyric poet by his Loves of Himfy, the first part of which, published anonymously at Buda in 1801, was received with such applause as had never before been accorded to any Magyar work. The second part appeared under his own name in 1807. On the “insurrectio,” or general rising of the Hungarian nobles against Napoleon, in 1809, Kisfaludy accepted the post of major of cavalry, and was also nominated by the palatine one of his adjutants. After his return to private life Kisfaludy wrote several dramatic pieces, and from 1820 contributed largely to his brother’s annual Aurora. In 1818 he gained the Marczibânyi prize for his Ballads (2d edition, Buda, 1818), which work was translated into German by Gaal (Vienna, 1820); and in 1831 he was elected member of the Hungarian academy of sciences, in the formation of which he had taken an active part. He died on the 28th of October 1844, at the age of seventy-two. His collective works, in 6 vols., were published at Pest in 1847 by Toldy. Exquisite metrical English renderings of several verses from the Himfy will be found in Sir John Bowring’s Poetry of the Magyars (London, 1830).
See J. Ferenczy, Magyar Ir6k. Életrajz-Gyüjternény, Pest, 1856.
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