Hungary [antikvár]

Préfacé '0 base Hungárián wight ' Thus Shakespeare has Pistol addressing Bardolph in The Merry Wives of Windsor. It is one of only three references to 'Hungary' or 'Hungárián' in the entire works of the playwright. 'Wight' is an old term meaning 'fellow'. 'Hungárián' here has nothing to do with Bardolph's nationality, but is actually a term of abuse! In 17C England, 'Hungárián' had a meaning of thievish, needy or beggarly. There was alsó a saying: 'He is hidebound (bigoted), he is an Hungárián'. Scholars are undecided as to why 'Hungárián' had such a negatíve resonance at the time. One idea is that there was an association with the needy, discarded soldiers who had returned Írom the wars in Hungary against the Turks, and perhaps there was alsó a pun on the word 'hungry', considering that hunger can lead to theft. Maybe the simplest explanation lies in the fact that even in modern times the names of faraway, unknown nations have often been turnéd into an adjective of abuse, since ignorance of something allows the perception of a threat to arise. It is a long time since the term 'Hungárián' could be used so negatively, though there is still much ignorance about the country in the English-speaking world. How common it still is, for example, to find the names of Budapest and Bucharest being confused. Unfortunately, the Hungárián language doesn't help, it being one of the world's most obscure tongues. The aim of this Blue Guide is to help dispel ignorance about Hungary in both an informative and a lively way. This is a detailed, serious guidebook to Hungary's history and culture and in particular its architecture and monu-ments, though 'serious' should not be taken too seriously, since the goal has been to provide historical, political and other information in the text in such a way as to make the towns and regions of the country 'come alive'. This Blue Guide Hungary is a completely revised edition which, in view of the now-available, separate Blue Guide Budapest, gives relatively more weight than before to provinciai Hungary, particularly to the far eastern and northeast regions of the country. Another departure from the first edition, and indeed írom the traditional style of Blue Guides, is that there are local listings of both places to stay and restaurants. You don't have to be Hungárián Relatively speaking, the Hungárián 'diaspora' is one of the largest in the world (about five millión ethnic Hungarians live in countries other than Hungary) and thus many visitors to Hungary are Hungárián or of Hungárián descent. Such people have a 'natural' connection with the country. For others, one way of generating interest in this small, central European country of only ten millión people is to consider how many Hungarians or items with a Hungárián connection are actually quite well known, albeit not in a 'Hungárián' context. Much of the research for this book, for example, was undertaken with paper and a ballpoint pen. For the pen I am indebted to its inventor, a Hungárián called László Bíró (hence the word 'biro'j. In fact, Hungarians have been quite an inventive lot, particularly in the world of mathematics and science—consider