the Conrad Gesners and Sylburgs, published, in the midst of poverty and misery, Hungarian dictionaries; a valuable Hungarian translation of the Psalms (1607, after French models), which is in use to the present day; a Hungarian Grammar (1610); and a Hungarian translation of Calvin’s _Institutio_. Finally, the gorgeous picture of the Cardinal cannot be set off to more advantage, than by a slight mention of the fanatic and obscure _Sabbatarians_ (“_Szombatosok_”), in the background, whose religious poetry is no uninteresting evidence of the Hungarian theological literature of that time. Amongst the numerous _protégés_ and pupils of the victorious archbishop we find also Count Michael Zrinyi (1618-1664), a descendant of the famous Zrinyi, who, in 1566, defied single-handed the invasion of Sultan Soliman the Splendid, by offering him, with a handful of men, unconquerable resistance in the Castle of Szigeth, some twenty miles west of Pécs. Count Michael was one of the best educated men of his time, and equally great as a patriot, poet and general. The sad state of Hungary could not but affect deeply a man, whose historic _rôle_ seemed to be clearly indicated by the glorious heroism of his ancestor. Having travelled abroad, especially in Italy, where Tasso’s religious epic _Gerusalemme liberata_ was read then more than ever after, he conceived the idea of stirring up a vast crusade against the Turks, by singing the deeds of his great-grandfather in an epic at once political and religious. This epic is commonly called the “Zrinyiad” (“_Zrinyiász_”), and consists of fifteen cantos, written in rugged and rough style. It reveals much power of description and religious enthusiasm; but it is lacking in form and moderation; nor can the portraits of its heroes be called plastic by any means. It is, from the artistic standpoint, spoiled by the deficiency above mentioned; the central hero is too perfect to be lastingly interesting. Old Zrinyi is capital matter for ballads; for an epic he is too faultless. On the other hand, the “Zrinyiad” is one of the most effective of patriotic epics. Like the epic works of Klopstock in Germany, or “_Ossian_” in England, it had at the time of its appearance a great national value, apart from its literary merits. In telling the Hungarian nation in tones of sacred anger, that the Turkish oppression was due to the depravity of the Magyars, in exhorting them in vigorous modes to rally and shake off the yoke of the infidels, Zrinyi added an internal lustre to his work which even now, after more than two centuries, has not lost much of its splendour. Like the daring and glorious deed of his ancestor, his poem is more of a patriotic than an historic event. It were only gross exaggeration to count the “Zrinyiad” amongst the world’s great epics. The poet might well belie history in letting his ancestor personally kill the great Sultan. It would be dishonest to add to the glory of the poet by ignoring the truth of the literary canon.