Mattie the Goose-boy (poem)

Mattie the Goose-boy, or Lúdas Matyi, is a Hungarian epic poem written by Mihály Fazekas (1766–1828) in 1804 and first released in 1817.

Trouble ensues when the local lord, Dániel Döbröghy, offers to underpay for them by about half the price, which Matyi declines.

Lord Döbröghy then orders his servants to take the geese by force, and punish Matyi with 50 lashes to his back.

After ordering all the servants and guards to harvest the forest, he then lures Döbröghy away, ties him to a tree with a rope, and lashes him for the first time.

He sends the whole folk of the castle out to the nearby field to collect some special fictional herbs, playing into the ineptitude of the staff.

The poem represented the relationship between nobility and the folk as well, and it emphasized the problems of the Hungarian agro-society in the late 18th century.