Jókai’s drama of the Hungarian conquest period, Levente : “Let the stage be a bit of a podium for a good audience. To learn the history of their ancestors...”

The five-act dramatic poem Levente by Mór Jókai is centred on the death of Árpád’s four adult sons in the ethnic clashes of the Hungarian Conquest Period. The work was written to mark the millennium of the Hungarian Landtaking, or Conquest, and although the National Theatre announced its premiere several times in 1898, and even prepared a musical version, it was never performed there or on any other stage. Reading the text from today’s perspective, its performance could at best be imagined as a Gesamtkunstwerk of “poetic theatre.” As in all his works, Jókai also indulged in linguistic antiquities. Levente thus remained a book drama for those interested in linguistic archaisms. This study also covers the afterlife of the dramatic poem.