It is even so with the world of peasantry in Hungary or in Austria. How silly of some painfully enlightened people to ascribe, for instance, the mass of prejudice and superstition in the Hungarian or German peasantry to a lack of that “_Bildung_” or school-knowledge which is acquired through books and bookmen! The current belief in witches, fairies, imps and such-like elf-folk, good and bad, grows with the peasantry of those countries, out of the same roots that nourish in the “higher classes” the craving for and the delight in fairy operas and fantastic novels. Each social “world” demands pleasures and distractions of the same kind; each satisfying that craving in a different manner. The urban gentleman and lady while away tedious winter evenings by visits to theatres, where unlikely, demoniac and over-exciting pieces are an everyday occurrence. The peasants in Hungary have no such theatres; yet long winter evenings hang just as heavily on their hands. They therefore while away their leisure-hours by stories fantastic and demoniac, the literal belief in which must needs grow in direct proportion to the lack of all theatrical stage environment. As with superstitions, so it is with all the other great social needs. The Hungarian peasant, when outraged in his sentiments, does not, it is true, fight a duel like the gentleman. Yet he, too, becomes a duellist, retiring into the woods, and fighting society at large as a “_szegény legény_” or brigand. _Plus cela change, plus c’est la même chose._ It will now be perhaps somewhat clearer that the Hungarian peasantry, _qua_ peasantry, lends itself to dramatization in the same way as does any other of the “worlds of men.” The common humanity of men is to be found in that peasantry too; but it is modified, coloured, and discoloured, “timbred” and attuned in a different mood. It admits of tragedies proper; of comedies; and of burlesques. It is Szigligeti’s great merit to have discovered this new dramatic ore. Without in the least trying to diminish his glory, we cannot but add, that through the great revolution coming over Hungary as over the rest of Europe, in the period from the third to the seventh decade of this century, a revolution social no less than political, the peculiar and distinct character of the world of peasants became, by contrast to the rising _bourgeoisie_ and the changing nobility, much more easily discernible than it had been ever before in Hungary. Yet Szigligeti was the first to seize on that dramatic _res nullius_; and both for this discovery and the excellent specimens of folk-dramas which he wrote, he deserves all credit. His most remarkable folk-dramas are: “The Deserter” (“_Szökött Katona_,” 1843); “The _Csikós_” (1846); and “The Foundling” (“_Lelencz_,” 1863).