Online Encyclopedia

Search over 40,000 articles from the original, classic Encyclopedia Britannica, 11th Edition.

BALASSA, BALINT, BARON OF KEKKO

Online Encyclopedia
Originally appearing in Volume V03, Page 240 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
» Make a correction to this article.
» Add information or comments to this article.
Spread the word: del.icio.us del.icio.us it!

See also:

BALASSA, BALINT, See also:BARON OF KEKKO and GYARMAT (1551-1594), Magyar lyric poet, was See also:born at KekkS, and educated by the reformer, See also:Peter Bornemissza, and by his See also:mother, the highly gifted See also:Protestant zealot, See also:Anna Sulyok. His first See also:work was a See also:translation of See also:Michael Bock's Wiirtzgertlein See also:fir See also:die krancken Seelen, to comfort his See also:father while in See also:prison (1570-1572) for some See also:political offence. On his father's See also:release, Balint accompanied him to See also:court, and was also See also:present at the See also:coronation See also:diet of See also:Pressburg in 1572. He then joined the See also:army and led a merry See also:life at the fortress of See also:Eger. Here he See also:fell violently in love with Anna Losonczi, the daughter of the See also:hero of See also:Temesvar, and evidently, from his verses, his love was not unrequited. But a new See also:mistress speedily dragged the ever See also:mercurial youth away from her,and deeply wounded, she gave her See also:hand to Kriszt6f Ungnad. Naturally Balassa only began to realize how much he loved Anna when he had lost her. He pursued her with gifts and verses, but she remained true to her pique and to her See also:marriage vows, and he could only enshrine her memory in immortal See also:verse. In 1574 Balint was sent to the See also:camp of Gaspar Bekesy to assist him against See also:Stephen See also:Bathory; but his troops were encountered and scattered on the way thither, and he himself was severly wounded and taken prisoner. His not very rigorous captivity lasted for two years, and he then disappears from sight. We next hear of him in 1584 as the wooer and winner of See also:Christina Dobo, the daughter of the valiant commandant of Eger. What led him to this step we know not, but it was the cause of all his subsequent misfortunes.

His wife's greedy relatives nearly ruined him by legal processes, and when in 1586 he turned See also:

Catholic to See also:escape their persecutions they declared that he and his son had become See also:Turks. His simultaneous See also:desertion of his wife ied to his See also:expulsion from See also:Hungary, and from 1589 to 1594 he led a vagabond life in See also:Poland, sweetened by innumerable amours with damsels of every degree from See also:cithara players to princesses. The See also:Turkish See also:war of 1594 recalled him to Hungary, and he died of his wounds at the See also:siege of See also:Esztergom the same See also:year. Balassa's poems fall into four divisions: religious See also:hymns, patriotic and See also:martial songs, See also:original love poems, and adaptations from the Latin and See also:German. They are all most original, exceedingly See also:objective and so excellent in point of See also:style that it is difficult even to imagine him a contemporary of See also:Sebastian Tinodi and Peter Ilosvay. But his erotics are his best productions. They circulated in MS. for generations and were never printed till 1874, when Farkas Dealt discovered a perfect copy of them in the Radvanyi library. For beauty, feeling and transporting See also:passion there is nothing like them in Magyar literature till we come to the See also:age of Michael See also:Csokonai and See also:Alexander See also:Petofi. Balassa was also the inventor of the See also:strophe which goes by his name. It consists of nine lines—a a b c c b d d b, or three rhyming pairs alternating with the rhyming third, See also:sixth and ninth lines. See Aron Szilady, Balint Balassa's Poems (Hung.) See also:Budapest, 1899. (R.

N.

End of Article: BALASSA, BALINT, BARON OF KEKKO

Additional information and Comments

There are no comments yet for this article.
» Add information or comments to this article.
Please link directly to this article:
Highlight the code below, right click, and select "copy." Then paste it into your website, email, or other HTML.
Site content, images, and layout Copyright © 2006 - Net Industries, worldwide.
Do not copy, download, transfer, or otherwise replicate the site content in whole or in part.

Links to articles and home page are always encouraged.

[back]
BALASORE 		[next]
BALATON (PLATTENSEE)

Site © 2006 - Net Industries