Online Encyclopedia

JANOS ARANY (1817-1882)

Online Encyclopedia
Originally appearing in Volume V02, Page 318 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
Spread the word: del.icio.us del.icio.us it!

JANOS

ARANY (1817-1882)  , the greatest poet of Hungary after Petofi, was born at Nagy-Szalonta on the 2nd of March 1817, the son of Gyorgy Arany and Sara Megyeri; his
See also:
people were small Calvinist yeomen of noble origin, whose
See also:
property consisted of a rush-thatched cottage and a tiny plot of
See also:
land . An only son,
See also:
late born, seeing no companions of his own age, hearing nothing but the voices of his parents and the
See also:
hymns and prayers in the little Calvinist
See also:
chapel, Arany grew up a
See also:
grave and gentle, but by no means an ignorant child . His precocity was remarkable . At six years of age he went to school at Szalonta, where he read everything he could
See also:
lay his hands upon in Hungarian and Latin . From 1832 to 1836 Arany was a
See also:
preceptor at Kis-Ujszallas and
See also:
Debreczen, still a voracious reader with a wider field before him, for he had by this time taught himself French and German . Tiring of the monotony of a scholastic
See also:
life, he joined a troupe of travelling actors . The hardships he suffered were as nothing compared with the pangs of conscience which plagued him when he thought of the despair of his
See also:
father, who had meant to make a pastor of this prodigal son, to whom both church and college now seemed for ever closed . At last he borrowed sixpence from the stage-manager and returned home, carrying all his property tied up in a hand-kerchief . Shortly after his home-coming his
See also:
mother died and his father became stone-blind . Arany at once resolved that it was his duty never to leave his father again, and a conrectorship which he obtained at this time enabled them to live in modest comfort . In 184o he obtained a notaryship also, and the same
See also:
year married Juliana Ercsey, the penniless
See also:
orphan daughter of an advocate . The next few happy years were devoted to his profession and a good
See also:
deal of
See also:
miscellaneous
See also:
reading, especially of Shakespeare (he learnt
See also:
English in order to compare the
See also:
original with his well-thumbed German version) and Homer .

End of Article: JANOS ARANY (1817-1882)
[back]
ARANJUEZ (perhaps the ancient Ara Jovis)
[next]
ARAPAHO (possibly from the Pawnee for " trader ")

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." Paste it into a website, email, or other HTML document.