There is no doubt that Matej Bel and A. F. Kollár were already influenced by the enlightenment ideas which were gradually penetrating central Europe. However, enlightenment settled here somewhat later. And only completely when it became a part of Habsburg Empire politics. This was under the reign of Joseph II (he ruled from 1780 to 1790). A range of laws and decrees meant to accelerate development in the country and improve the position of the masses were adopted during this decade. Of Joseph's reforms, the Edict of Toleration giving churches equal rights and the state's effort to improve the economic situation through rational measures were the main ones to resonate in the Slovak domain. It can be said that the standard of living started to improve in Slovakia in the period of enlightenment, giving rise to more advantageous conditions for cultural development. As for language, Joseph II wanted to unify the monarchy on the basis of German, not Latin. His attempts at Germanisation, however, had almost no effect in Slovakia. In fact, this period led to the emancipation of the local language. The overall cultural progress also signalled the establishment of scholastic societies and attempts to publish newspapers. At least two of the many associations need to be mentioned: Slovenské učené tovarišstvo (Slovak Learned Society) seated in Trnava and Společnost česko-slovanská (Czecho-Slavic Society, 1827) in Bratislava, which was transformed into Ústav reči a literatúry (Institute of Language and Literature) ten years later. The existence of associations (their aim was to develop Slovak history and geography, language and literature) meant that isolated individuals were replaced by groups and thus individual endeavours grew into joint projects. In this period, too, Slovak culture continued to travel down two separate religious tracks. Catholic priests founded Učené tovarišstvo, while Společnost česko slovanská was established at an evangelical lyceum. The leading personality in Tovarišstvo was Anton Bernolák, whose name - as already mentioned - is connected with the attempt to introduce a written language in Slovakia through the promotion of a local dialect, in this case western Slovak. Společnost česko-slovanská and later Ústav reči a literatúry were important because the Štúrite movement (led by Ľudovít Štúr), which acquired political as well as cultural importance, developed from their activities. In the 1848 - 49 revolution, the leaders of this movement (Ľudovít Štúr, Jozef Miloslav Hurban, Michal Miloslav Hodža, and others) came forward with a political agenda and provoked a rebellion for the fulfilment of their demands. The Štúrites are also linked, as already said, with the introduction of a written language (this time based on a central Slovak dialect) in 1843, which even the Catholic part of Slovak culture eventually adopted. The existence of a uniform written language influenced the unprecedented development of literature and gradually cemented both confessional camps.
           The above associations (there were also others in other regions of Slovakia) were mainly organised by the clergy. The situation in Slovakia was such that the dominant personalities of the cultural sphere were still clergymen, although they developed much more varied and richer cultural activities than in the past. But from the second half of the 19^th century there was a diversification in this area, too. The clergy gradually began to withdraw from culture and literature and was replaced by lawyers, doctors, teachers, and in the 20^th century even technicians and engineers.
           Attempts to raise the general level of the Slovak masses prevailed in the Catholic part of the cultural spectrum. These were made with the help of practical publications on various areas of life, which corresponded with the period's enlightenment tendencies. The work of Juraj Fándly (1750 - 1811), a co-founder of Slovenské učené tovarišstvo who focused on rational farming methods in rural areas, was typical from this point of view. The titles of his individual works betray their nature: Piľní domajší a poľní hospodár (The Industrious Housekeeper and Farmer), Slovenský včelár (The Slovak Beekeeper), Zeľinkár (The Herbalist) and others. However, Fándly entered literature as a fiction writer with the book Dúverná zmluva mezi mňíchom a diáblom (Secret Pact between a Monk and the Devil). The book wanted to entertain the reader, but its subject, revolving around the monk and devil's discussion, was serious: it concerned the cancellation of monastic orders by Joseph II, mainly the "mendicant" ones in which monks performed no practical activities, which Fándly approved of. The final chapters of the book were not published because they were banned by church censors.
           Juraj Fándly - like other authors from the circle of catholic intellectuals - wrote in Bernolák and this meant that effectiveness of his work was limited because Slovak protestants of the period retained Czech (more or less slovakised), which in its "Biblical" form was essentially the liturgical language of the protestant church until the second half of the 20^th century. The shift to a new literary language attempted by the Bernolákites and later the Štúrites was motivated by an endeavour to eliminate the difference between the language of literature and language spoken by the masses. The literature which now appeared counted on a mass readership, often it was directly addressed, and therefore authors renounced the former exclusivity of Latin or Czech, preserved and already dying out in Slovakia, which had enabled only a small number of intellectuals to understand and use works of literature. The trend of writing in a "new" language was not limited to the Slovak region; similar linguistic attempts were also made in other Slavic cultures: Serbian, Croatian, Bulgarian, even Russian. In almost every case this linguistic activity was an expression of growing national awareness - and self-assertion - because at the time language was (and still is) a dominant manifestation of national self-identification. And this was also true in Slovakia.
           The Bernolákites' endeavour to popularise enlightenment, documented by a whole series of works with practical themes like Fándly's, was also connected with attempts to give the Slovak reader corresponding works of beautiful literature. Jozef Ignác Bajza (1755 - 1836) published the first part of the novel René mláďenca prihodi a skusenosťi (Childe René's Adventures and Experiences) in 1784. The church censor prevented the printing of the second part. It is the first novel in Slovak

Anton Bernolák

literature, which had mainly been developed through poetry and the factual literature genre for a long time. J. I. Bajza also began as a poet and prepared a collection of poems for print, but the church censor did not allow its publication. Bajza's novel has two relatively different parts. The first part has an adventurous nature. The heroes travel around the Orient and experience exciting events. Exotica, tension, adventure, sentimental love: these are the ingredients the author used. The second part is much more realistic. The author brought the novel's story to Slovakia. The heroes travel around the country and comment critically on the evident social scourges and inadequacies. This part (it was released later) wants to educate as well as to entertain the reader, which was the author's original aim. This tendency was decisive in enlightenment literature. Jozef Ignác Bajza had reservations about Bernolák's language reform and attempted his own literary language, although on the same basis as Bernolák, i.e. a western Slovak dialect. 
           Bernolák's movement was a triumph of catholic initiative in Slovak literature and culture. It rose from a long tradition started by Trnava university and related activities. However, the growing national awareness and close relationship to the masses were essential prerequisites. The movement's spirit was Anton Bernolák (1762 - 1813). He studied at Trnava and then in Vienna, where he learned about the attempts of other Slavic nations of the Habsburg monarchy to publish books in their mother tongues. He met theologians who agreed with and supported his attempts at the Bratislava seminary. With Juraj Fándly, he founded the above mentioned Slovenské učené tovarišstvo, which a large group of Catholic intellectuals joined, forming the basis of the whole movement. Bernolák then devoted himself fully to the issue of linguistics. He wrote a series of works in Latin, in which he addressed the function of orthography, morphology (Grammatica slavica), vocabulary (the five volume Slovár slovenskí, Česko-Laťinsko-Německo-Uherskí (Slovak, Czech-Latin German-Hungarian Dictionary, 1825 - 27), etc. He explained phraseological expressions as well as words in his dictionary.

Ján Hollý

           The Bernolákite movement reached its literary high point in the work of poet Ján Hollý (1785 - 1849), an important representative of Slovak literary classicism. He entered literature with translations of classical poetry and his own Latin poems. He also later published numerous books of translations (Rozličné básňe hrdinské, elegiacké a lirické z Vergilia, Teokrita, Homéra, Ovídia, Tirtea a Horáca (Various Heroic Poems from Vergil, Theocritus, Homer, Ovid, Tirteus, and Horace, 1824). He also rendered Ovid's Aeneid into Slovak. He created natural lyricism in bucolics but mainly made his name in Slovak literature as a creator of national epics, in which he elaborated in verse the famous epoch of Great Moravia (Svätopluk, 1833; Cirillo-Metodiada, 1835) and Slovak mythology (Slav, 1839). In the first epic he depicts Svätopluk's battle with the Franks and his victory over them in magnificent scenes. It is an outburst of patriotism and pride in the famous and free national past, which contrasted so much with the demeaning and fettered present. The second epic is not just an homage to the missionaries Constantine and Methodius, but also to Christianity winning over paganism as a whole. In his poems, Ján Hollý used various forms and genres (and poetic rules) of classical poetry, which was an insurmountable ideal for him. His ambition was to bring the whole range of classical epic genres into Slovak literature.
           The era of enlightenment rationalism also encouraged cultural activity among Slovak evangelicals. The leading personalities of this period were the poet Ján Kollár (1793 - 1852) and scholar Pavol Jozef Šafárik (1795 - 1861). The idea of Slavic solidarity, which Ján Kollár formulated into a firm concept, linked the activities of both. Both studied in Germany (Jena), where they learned about the ideas of German philosopher J. G. Herder and his opinions on historical development. Herder gave Slavic nations a chance for the future: he knew their culture and in his opinion they would replace the Romanic-Germanic ethnic group's leadership in history. Both Kollár and Šafárik adopted this idea and elaborated it further. But they were nnot influenced by Herder, the whole atmosphere of reawakening German patriotism affected them. Ján Kollár took part in the Wartburg castle celebrations of the 300th anniversary of Luther's reformation, which started as a student manifestation but became directly national, and it left a lasting impression on him.

Ján Kollár

           His travels around north-eastern Germany, where he found relics of former Slavic settlements, were also a stimulus for Kollár the poet. The Elbe and Baltic Slavs were defeated by aggressive Germanic tribes and gradually died out. This sentimental mood, awakened historical awareness and will to return Slavs (and therefore also Slovaks) to their past fame gave rise to Kollár's cyclical composition Slávy dcera (Daughter of Glory, 1824). He included many sonnets from his first anthology Básně (Poems, 1821). He added more and more mainly political poems and so many concrete facts in later editions of Slávy dcera that he had to add a special section of notes and comments. Another source of inspiration to him besides patriotic sentiment was his love for Friderika Schmidt. In Slávy dcera, he transformed her into Mína and made her a symbol of patriotism. Love for a woman and love for his homeland merged within him. Kollár's composition was well received in the Czech lands and Slovakia; on one hand because it appeared to meet the rising wave of national revival, but on another because in contrast to rococo sentimentality it tabled real human emotions, which meant a significant divide in the development of poetry. Kollár laid out his pan-Slavic concept in O literárnej vzájomnosti medzi kmeňmi a nárečiami slávskymi (On the Literary Reciprocity between Slavic Tribes and Dialects, 1836), he later extended the work and published it in German under the title Uber die literarische Wechselseitigkeit zwischen den verschiedene Stammen und Mundarten der slawischen Nation (About the Literary Solidarity between Different Families and Dialects of the Slavic Nation). It arose from the idea of a Slavic nation consisting of four families: Russian, Polish, Czechoslovak and Illyric (southern Slavs). The common national language was supposed to be Russian, the families had their own "dialects". The main idea was cultural: Kollár required that the members of individual families mutually recognised individual cultures and languages ("dialects"). He attributed an important historical mission to Slavic culture as a whole along the lines of Herder's philosophy. Since he defended the idea of a common "Czechoslovak family", he was later opposed to Štúr's written Slovak and condemned it as a factor of tribal dissension. He himself (P. J. Šafárik joined him) considered reforming the Czech language, which was to adopt certain Slovak elements, but the Czech side refused. However, by collecting and eventually publishing (together with Šafárik) texts of Slovak folk songs (Národnie zpievanky), he indirectly supported the creation of written Slovak.

Pavol Jozef Šafárik

           Pavol Jozef Šafárik entered literature as a poet when barely twenty years old (Tatranská Múza s lýrou slovanskou - Tatra Muse with a Slavic Lyre, 1814). After studying in Jena he decided to become an academic. Initially he focused on the study of poetry (he published Počátkové českého básnictví obzvláště prozódie (The Beginnings of Czech Poetry, Particularly Prosody) with F. Palacký in 1818, later, as headmaster and teacher at the gymnasium in Novy Sad, then editor of academic periodicals and custodian at the University Library in Prague, he expanded his sphere of interest to history, language, ethnography and the culture issue as a whole. He studied the roots and documents of individual Slavic cultures and the outcome of his work was the German publication Geschichte der slawischen Sprache und Literatur nach allen Mundarten (History of Slavic Languages and Literature of all Dialects, 1826). As can be seen from the title, he adopted Kollár's concept of a Slavic nation and individual families (he called them "branches" or "sprigs") and the concept of a Slavic language and individual dialects. He became a generally respected authority on Slavic languages and literature through this book. He expanded on the issue of Slavic culture in later works, of which the most famous is Slovanské starožitnosti (Slavic Antiquity, 1837). In it he shows his extensive knowledge of the history, culture and ethnography of Slavdom. In Herder's spirit, he noted the high level of Slavic cultural history and so corrected the undervalued judgements of Slavic nations. He became known all over the Slavic world, where he contributed towards mutual awareness. He did not adopt Štúr's written Slovak either, although he did not condemn it as strongly as Kollár.
           Ján Kollár and Pavol Jozef Šafárik were integrated into the Czech cultural environment; the former as a poet, the latter as a scholar. Today we consider them to be creators who belong to both national cultures, Czech and Slovak.
           Slovakia bustled with activity in the first half of the 19^th century. This activity developed Společnost česko-slovanská (1829) and after it Ústav reči a literatúry česko-slovenskej (Institute of Czecho - Slovak Language and Literature, 1837) led by Štúr. Spolok milovníkov reči a literatúry slovenskej (Association of Enthusiasts of Slovak Language and Literature) appeared in Buda in 1834. Ján Kollár, then an evangelical pastor in Pest, became its first chairman. Societal activity, mainly student, quickly spread in Levoča, Kežmarok and other towns. These societies' mission was to disseminate knowledge of Slovak literature, culture and history, release books, and create in the national spirit. Of the authors who worked in line with the ideals of the period and acquired general recognition in these pre-revolutionary years, let us mention Ján Chalupka (1791 - 1871), a dramatist and the author of very popular plays, many of which are still a part of theatre's repertoires today. He created a cycle of comedies situated in the imaginary town of Kocúrkovo ("Bedlam Town": Kocourkovo, anebo Jen abychom v hanbě nezůstali - K., or: Just so the shame does not stick, 1830; Všecko naopak, aneb: Těsnošilova Anička se žení a Honzík se vydává - Everything the wrong way round, or: Nannie takes a wife and Jack a husband, 1832; Starouš plesnivec anebo Čtyry svadby na jednom pohřebě v Kocourkově - Old Fusty or Four weddings at one funeral in K., 1837 and others). In all of them he ridiculed the nationally lukewarm petit bourgeois and mainly denationalised squires who aped the Hungarian nobility and wanted to magyarise the whole of Slovakia. The bearers of the Slovak idea are representatives of the nationally aware intelligentsia and the masses. Ján Chalupka is at the same time author of the novel Bendeguz (1841), with the subtitle "Don Quixotiad", originally conceived in Hungarian and published in German. The novel's subject is based on the travels of two magyarised squires who set out in search of the Magyars' original homeland. The novel wanted to parody some of the chauvinistic opinions of Hungarian writers who glorified their Magyar past. J. Chalupka mainly gained wide popularity through his comedies.