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the priests of a cult, that of the national art and language. "What shall we play on the first evening?" asked an actor of Kazinczy, who then held a high post as superintendent of one of the educational districts into which Hungary was divided. "Hamlet, of course," answered Kazinczy. "But who will translate it?" "I will." "But who will play the leading part?". "I will," again replied Kazinczy. Though the performance did not take place, the dialogue is characteristic of the time, when the future of the theatre was considered of such importance that a prominent man in the educational world was not unwilling to appear on the stage. It is true that a few years later the first company was dispersed, but the theatre was founded, and the beginning was an accomplished fact. Several other towns followed the example of Pest. In 1792 the first permanent theatre, which exists to this day, was established at Kolozsvár. From that theatre there issued companies of actors to create new homes for dramatic art. One of them played at Székesfehérvár, and that company, coming once to the capital, first performed the dramas of Kisfaludy with marked success.

It is Kisfaludy's merit that he created a sympathetic audience for the Hungarian drama. But he not only created a public, he originated the true national comedy. Before his time, comedies were mere imitations or adaptations of foreign plays, but Kisfaludy introduced Hungarian types and real national life into his comedies.

In his plots, he used largely the machinery which was only too well known through Kotzebue, Körner, and other playwrights of the beginning of the nineteenth century, namely, misunderstandings and impersonations. One of his types is the genuine, good-natured, but somewhat unpolished and clumsy country squire, who cannot