The Sun.
London, England, 1851-11-18 00:00:00

LITERATURE

TALES AND TRADITIONS OF IIUNGARY.
3 Vole. By Francis and Theresa Pulszky. Col-
burn and Co.
Under any circumstances these volumes could not
but prove singularly attractive. At present, how-
ever, they will be welcomed with especial cordiality.
The reader will bear in recollection not merely the
fact that Francis Pulszky is still resident in our me-
tropolis, but that England is enjoying the privilege,
more wer, of receiving with all hospitality the illus-
trious man who deputed him to this country some
three years since, as the Hungarian Ambassador.
It was scarcely possible for an intimate personal
friend of Louis Kossuth, and for one who was also
his political associate during the great war of inde-
penllnce, to pass altogether free from sharing in the
calu:nnies directed against the distinguished leader of
his compatriots. Francis Pulszky has therefore par-
ticipated of late, and that somewhat, largely, in the
odium (if as such it can be regards ) of the vitupera-
tions iodulged in towards the chitnpions of the
Magyar race by the apologists of continental absolu-
ism. As an evidence of the flimsy pretexts upon
which those slanderous aspersions have been raised, it
is only necessary to observe that Polszky 1138 been
assailed of la'e with very considerable violence,
simply because of the manner in which he was cur-
sorily mentioned the other day in a newspaper para-
graph. 11...quarking that the writer of thit p
graph spoke, of our author as Cou-)t Francis Pul-e:7,
the assailants of the cause of Rungary alluded to
that unotnading gentleman in [truss of the mast
scurrilous description, as a pretender to a rank alto-
gether suppositious. It would seem that these
writers are wholly ignorant of a fact sufficiently
notorious to the rest of the educated community, that
throughout Hungary almost every gentleman is a
member of the national aristocracy. Supposing even
that Francis Pulszky came not in any way under this
category, and that his designation as Count was en-
tirely incorrect, it would assuredly be somewhat
unfair to speak of him derisively as an
upstart, assuming to himself an unmerited
dignity, purely because of a blunder on the part
of a misinformed penny-a-liner. Whether the work
before us is from the hand of Count Francis Pulszky
or from that of Mr. Francis Pulszky, it is manifestly
the effusion of a patriot, a scholar, and a gentleman.
As such it is welcome to us, more peculiarly when it
is remembered that the three volumes under con-
sideration afford those who may have been previously
unacquainted with the subject some accurate notion
of the peculiarities of life and manners among the
heroic and betrayed Hungarians. In his literary
labours, as compiler, adapter, or translator, Francis
Pulszky has been admirably aided by his accom-
plished wife, Theresa Pulszky, and the result of their
labour has been the production of a work eminently
calculated to afford at one and the same time a con-
siderable amount both of instruction and entertain-
ment. In the first volumes are collected together no
less than twenty of the shorter " Tales and Tra-
ditions" relating to Hungary, the second and third
being dedicated to the story of the " Jacobins
in Hungary." Our authors have very gracefully in-
scribed the former, or the miscellaneous portion of
them, to Sydney, Lady Morgan, and the latter to
Professor Francis W. Newman, as some expression of
their sentiments of friendship. According to an inge-
nious expression contained in the " Introduction," it
may with truth be said that " the poetical genius of a
people is expressed in its traditions." What the
nature of the poetical genius of the Hungarians really
is, may therefore be recognised with no inconsider-
able facility from the pages here submitted to our
criticism; and the publication before us will conse-
quently be singularly acceptable to those who may
not have had the opportunity of perusing ere this the
specimens of " Magyar poetry" given to the world in
an English version some years since by the present
Consular-General for the British empire among the
Chinese. To quote yet once more from the " In-
troduction" to the volumes lying at this moment
on our desk, " the analytical understanding de-
velopes itself only in the riper age of men
and nations ; their childhood is governed by
imaginations." And in regard:to Hungary, as these
traditions " are the artificial tokens of the riches or
the poverty of its imagination"—they will be received
by the more reflective readers with delight as eluci-
dative of the character of the Magyar race in its in-
fancy. They will be found to comprise within them,
like most other national traditions, very significant
hints indeed in reference to the early poetry, as well
as to the philosophic and mythological predilections
prevalent long centuries back among the masses of
the Hungarians. From an examination of the pre-
sent remarkable work from the hands of Francis and
Theresa Pulszky, it will be perceived that through its
contents new testimonies are afforded of the correct-
ness of the assertion first advanced by the Ger-
man brothers Gramm, that " many popular
tales and proverbs are fragments of ancient
mythology," demonstrating while so doing the
remarkable fact that the worship of Wodin,
Thor, Friga, &c., once extended as- far as the
Teutonic languages are spread," as may be detected
by reference to the Slovak tradition of the Robber
" Yanoshik." Among the narratives given in the
present collection will be found not merely several
relating to particular localities, but others generally
familiar to the entire population, such for example us
those about " Poor Tartar" and "Pan Twar-
dowtky." Added to these we have three legendary
tales valuable-in another particular, as showing three
separate and distinct phases of Hungarian life during
the middle ages. First, there is "The Baron's
Daughter," revealing the contrast of the haughty
landed proprietor, scorning to receive territorial pos-
sessions as fief from the Sovereign. Secondly, we
have " The Castle of Zipsen," pourtraying the struggle
between the knights and the burghers, or, as
we should express in modern phrases 4 between
the aristocracy and the bourgeoise. Thirdly,
we have in the tale already mentioned,
namely, that of " Yanoshik," an aeceunt of the man-
ner in which a robber appeared as the avenger of
social injustice, just as among ourselves we have the
same notion exemplified in the history of Robin Hood
and his merry men of Sherwood. One of our lady
novelists contributed only last season to the readers
of romance an entertaining fiction, in which she en-
deavoured to illustrate the old adage of " many a slip
'twixt the cup and the lip." Yet further illustrations
have here come to us from the remote provinces of
Hungary in the German story of " The Free Shop,"
and again in the Slovak story of "The Golden Cross
of KiirWrci." Besides the tales relating more particu-
larly to the Hungarian people themselfes, the volumes
before us contain some referring to other races of man-
kind essentially different in oharacter—the introduc-
tion of which, while partaking somewhat of the
blemish of an anachronism, is still agreeable as lend-
ing the charm of variety to the compositions. In this
way we doubt not that the "Guardians" will
be read with interest, though referring to Judea
rather than to Hungary, "Anabid," though it relates
to Persia, and " The Men of Ranshenbach," though
it traces its origin to the Carpathian valleys. Various
other narratires, some of them of the strongest
fascination, will be found to adorn the present
volumes, " The Jacobins of Hungary" being
more pretentious in its character than the majority of
the tales and traditions collected together in the pre-
sent publication. We must, before closing our notice,
transcribe the apologetic sentence in which our
authors close their brief but excellent introduction.
They remark that "the popular tale is deprived of its
natural brilliancy and vigour when repeated far from
the country to which it belongs, as the butterfly which
gleefully flutters around the flowers on which he at
last rests, opening and closing his wings with slow
cadence, is no longer the same when pinned
and cased up under the glass of a cabinet,
or as the flower itself, pressed between
the leaves of a herbarian loses its original
colour and fragrance." After that very graceful re-
ference to what may be regarded as deficiencies in the
work under notice, it would be very ungenerous to
object in any manner to some of the stories here re-
lated to us, on the score that they are beyond the
reach of oar sympathies. While some of them may
be open to this objection, the majority are such as
must necessarily be perused with interest by those
thousands amongst us who view with feelings of
hope and admiration the heroic and generous-hearted
citizens of Hungary.

THE APHORISMS OF NAPOLEON. Trans-
lated by J. A. Manning. Ackermann and Co.
A new collated edition of the celebrated
,ilocum.ent,
entitled " Les Aphorismes de Napoleon,, sayings
collected together from many scattered sources,
each and all of them remarkable for their au-
thenticity, must be an agreeable announcement
at all times to the intelligent student of modern
history. Just now its interest must necessarily be
enhanced by the consideration that, before long, a
struggle will be commenced in France, the result of
which may not improbably be, the restoration of the
Napoleonian dynasty. Speaking of the position in
s hich the heir to the glories of the second Sesostris
is to he regarded throughout Christendom, even in
his simple dignity as Republican President, the com-
piler of the pamphlet here issued, in the gaudy trap-
pings of the tricolour, observes, " It will never he for-
gotten by those who happily participated in the bril-
liant and magnificent fetes of Paris, that the President,
whose urbanity, kindness, and courty, were the
thence of such just and universal praise, is the nephew
and heir of the mighty Emperor, whose moral, political,
and philosophical thoughts are faithfully recorded in
this little volume." Those, ho vs
rn ry judiciously -
arks,may be viewed as affording the key by which the
mysteries of Napoleon's mind aril actions may be un-
locked. They are arranged in the present edition In
parallel columns, giving them both in the original
and in the English translation—numbering in all no
less than six hundred and fifteen paragraphs.
Tempted though we are to indulge ourselves with