Petőfi

Petőfi, SANDOR, Hungarian poet, was born on 1st January 1823 the son of a butcher, at Kis-Körös, in the county of Pesth, and after school-days was successively actor, soldier, and literary hack. His first poem, published in 1842, was followed by a volume in 1844 which secured his fame as a poet. He diligently studied German, French, and English, translated Shakespeare's Coriolanus, but in 1848 threw himself heartily into the revolutionary cause, writing numerous popular war-songs. He fell in the battle at Schässburg (Segesvár), 31st July 1849; but it was long believed by the Hungarians that he had escaped, and would reappear. His lyrical poetry breaks completely with the old pedantic style till then in vogue, and, warm with human and national feeling, began a new epoch in Hungarian literature. The first collected edition of his poems appeared in 1874; selections have been translated into English by Bowring and others. There are lives by Öpitz (1868) and Fischer (1888).