Slavonic and East European Review, 96, 2, 2018 MARGINALIA Kossuth and Solidarity PETER SHERWOOD Introduction Lajos Kossuth (1802–94), the leader and towering personality of the failed Hungarian War of Independence of 1848–49, first visited England en route to the United States in late 1851. In the three weeks between 23 October and 13 November 1851 he made speeches in English in Southampton, Winchester, London, Manchester and Birmingham, and was rapturously received not just as the embodiment of the Hungarians’ noble struggle for freedom, but as a hero of the free world and the enemy of tyrants.1 In spite of its relative brevity, this first visit already aroused enormous general interest in England: for example, it can hardly be an accident that Charles Dickens’s weekly Household Words ran a two-part history of Hungary in its issues dated 6 and 13 December 1851.2 Like every aspect of Kossuth’s career, this episode continues to attract the attention of historians and others, but what especially fascinated contemporaries about his public appearances — better termed performances — was the extraordinary nature of his English oratory. One reporter noted: ‘With a clear and mellow voice, and forceful energy, he began with an apology for his “bad English”, although his accent and Peter Sherwood is László Birinyi, Sr., Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Hungarian Language and Culture, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. 1 The political background relevant to Kossuth’s 1851 visit is outlined in, for example, Thomas Kabdebo, Diplomat in Exile: Francis Pulszky’s Political Activities in England, 1849–1860, Boulder CO, 1979, pp. 70–79. An older and sketchier account, but with extracts from his speeches, can be found in, for example, E. O. S. [Ernő Simonyi?], Hungary and its Revolutions from the Earliest Period to the Nineteenth Century. With a Memoir of Louis Kossuth, London, 1854 (reissued London, 1896), pp. 513–20. A recent article, with new material is Zsuzsanna Lada, ‘The Invention of a Hero: Lajos Kossuth in England (1851)’, European History Quarterly, 43, 1, 2013, pp. 5–26. 2 Issues 89 and 90, pp. 249–54 and pp. 281–85, respectively. KOSSUTH AND SOLIDARITY 311 command of the language were remarkably good.’3 The New York Times reported that even the correspondent of The Times (of London), a paper famously and fervently hostile to Kossuth, conceded: ‘His voice is clear and distinct, but rather deep and monotonous, like that of a man who has used it up in public speaking. His utterance is energetic, his accent wonderfully good, but he seems sometimes embarassed [sic] with too much words [sic], at a loss for any suitable to express his precise ideas.’4 A further report in the New York Times, headed ‘Kossuth in England — The London Times’, with the by-line ‘Correspondence of the New-York Daily Times’, adds: ‘His command of our language partakes, in a foreigner, of the wonderful.’5 The distinguished Hungarian historian Tibor Frank has written extensively about Kossuth’s language and uncovered previously little-known accounts of Kossuth’s performances in the USA.6 Yet, as the linguist Daniel Abondolo has pointed out, ‘[t]he myth that he achieved such wide recognition, i.e. extra Hungariam, through his use of language is […] somehow, and unfortunately, more engaging than the philologist’s still unanswered question: Just what was his English like?’7 László Országh’s note As sound recording was not available in Kossuth’s lifetime, to this question we are unlikely ever to have an entirely satisfactory answer.8 Nevertheless, such was the interest in Kossuth at this time — we can without exaggeration speak of a veritable Kossuth mania — that his speeches were widely published and indeed anthologized. However, there are problems with these publications, too: some speeches, perhaps inevitably, were condensed 3 P. C. Headley, The Life of Louis Kossuth, Governor of Hungary, including notices of the men and scenes of the Hungarian Revolution; to which is added an appendix containing his principal speeches, &c., Auburn NY, 1852, p. 234. 4 New York Times, 10 November 1851. 5 New York Times, 3 December 1851 6 Tibor Frank, ‘“Give Me Shakespeare”: Lajos Kossuth’s English as an Instrument of International...
Read full abstract
Mar 18, 2019
József Mudrák 
Open Access
