As to the other magnates who wrote poetical works in Hungarian during the seventeenth century, it will be sufficient to say, that their poems were meant chiefly for the gratification of their authors; and although some of them were printed in book form, yet the bulk was left in the well-deserved obscurity of family archives. The most noteworthy of these poets were: John Rimay de Rima (1564-1631), an imitator of Balassi; Peter Beniczky de Benicze (1606(?)-1664); Count Stephen Kohári (1649-1731); Baroness Catherine Sidonia Petrőczi; Count Peter Zichy; Count Valentin Balassi, the second poet of that name (1626(?)-1684); and Baron Ladislas Listhy (1630-1660(?)), whose epic, “The Disaster of Mohács” (“_Mohács veszedelme_”), betokens a remarkable talent for versification. So exclusive was the influence of the magnates on the literature of that time, that the one remarkable poet of the seventeenth century who was no magnate himself, although a nobleman, selected as the subject of his epic poem a romantic event from the life of one of the leading magnates. Count Francis Wesselényi besieged, in 1644, the Castle of Murány, defended by the beautiful widow, Mary Szécsi. In the end he won both the heart of the heroic beauty and the castle. This famous event forms the burden of one of the most popular of Hungarian poetical narratives, briefly called, “The Venus of Murány” (“_Murányi Vénus_”, 1664), written by Stephen Gyöngyössi. Its language is musical, and the narrative tone very felicitous. The poet has evidently made a close study of Ovid, and frequently reaches the light touch and charm of the Roman; he even adds an element of romance, which has endeared his work to more than six generations of Hungarian readers. The metre is Alexandrine. CHAPTER VIII. 1520-1711.