Capulet-sorsú erdélyi lány a 18-19. század fordulóján
A Capulet-Fate for a Transylvanian Girl at the Turn of the 19th Century

Summary/Abstract: The young aristocrat girl named Polyxéna Radák committed suicide at the early age of seventeen, presumably because of a broken heart. The poem which tells a part of her story must have been very popular at the time, since it was published four times during a single year in Kolozsvár/Cluj. We can be sure that the poem was not ordered by the family, as it is not a funeral oration and there is no author indicated on it (though his identity is speculated upon based on fragmented descriptions). The poem tackles instead the protestant views on education, motherhood and marriage in a liberal manner. The Radáks were most probably familiar with the prayer and advisory books and the rules of conduct in such matters, as the father attended the University of Göttingen, the mother wrote poems, while the brothers and their descendants all patronized the fine arts in Transylvania.

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