114 HUNGARIAN LITERAT ORE the priests oi a cult, that of the national art and language. 41 What shall we play on the first evening ? " asked an actor of Kazinczy, who then held a high post as superin tendent of one of the educational districts into which H ungary was divided. "Hamlet, of course," answered Kazinczy. " But who will translate it ?" "I will." "But who will play the leading part ? " " I will," again replied Kazinczy. Though the performance did not take place, the dialogue is charactcristic of the time, wh en the future of the theatre was considered of such importance that a prominent man in the educational world was not unwilling to appear on th e stage. It is true that a few years later the first company was dispersed, but the theatre was founded, and the heginning was an accomplished fact. Several other towns followed the example of Pest. In 1792 th e first permanent theatre, which exists to this day, was established at Kolozsvár. From that theatre there issued companies of actors to create new homes for draroatic art. One of them played at Székesfehérvár, and that company, coming once to the capital, first perforrned the dramas of Kisfaludy with marked success. It is Kisfaludy's merit that he created a sympathetic audience for the Hungarian drama. But he not only created a public, he originated the tru e national comedy. Before his time, comedies were mere imitations or adapta tions of foreign plays, but Kisfaludy int roduced Hungarian types and real national life into his comed ies. In his pl ots, he used largely the machinery which was only too wei l known through Kotzebue, Körner, and other playwrights of the heginning of the nineteenth cen tury, namely, misunderstandings and impersonations. One of his types is the genuine, good-natured, but some what unpolished and clumsy coun.try •quire, who cnnot
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