352 Horce Polonicce. [April, 



The next century is not much more productive. In a couple of comedies, 

 one against pretenders to bravery, and another which is an extravaganza des- 

 criptive of a drunken fellow, who imagines himself a king, there are some 

 touches of broad humour. Twardoiiski, a poet of some name in Poland, wrote 

 a lyric scene on the old story of Daphne ; and the Andromaque of Racine, and 

 the Cid of Corneille, very excellently translated by Moriztyn, were acted before 

 John Casimir in his own palace. The tragedies attributed to Seneca found 

 translators, but as they are not worth much in the original Latin, they did not 

 tend to augment the dramatic wealth of Poland. If we add to these a sort of 

 serious opera, or rather a w^/^/eri,', interspersed with music, on the Life of Saint 

 Cecilia, performed in honour of the marriage of Wladislaus IV. with Cecilia 

 of Ragusa, we shall have completed the list of all afforded to us by the 

 seventeenth century : a pitiful contrast, when compared with what the same 

 century produced in England, France, and Spain, from the immortal talents of 

 Shakspear, Jonson, Beaumont and Fletcher (to ])ass by the great though 

 inferior names of Lee, Otway, Dryden, Farquiiar, and others), among ourselves : 

 of Corneille, Racine, Moliere, among the French ; and of Calderon, with many 

 others, among the Spaniards ! In justice to Poland, however, we must remark, 

 that during the same century she was kept in countenance, as fai- as the dearth of 

 dramatic composition is concerned, by Italy, which was slumbering'; and Ger- 

 many, which had not as yet awakened. 



The times which immediately followed the reign of John Casimir were 

 marked by every misfortune, internal and external, that could deaden the energies 

 of a country, and the muses were wholly silent for seventy or eighty years. 

 Stanislaus Konarski at last, after a long interval, revived the drama of his country. 

 He was the youngest of six sons of George, Castellan of Zaurichost, and at an ■' 

 early age entered into a religious order. He sojourned for four years at Rome, 

 and afterwards at Paris, where he formed a great intimacy with Fontenelle, 

 He espoused, on his return to Poland, the party of Stanislaus Leczinski, and had 

 the magnanimity to refuse the offer of a bishopric from thalf prince's rival, 

 Augustus, preferring to follow the defeated king into Lorraine. In 1746, 

 however, he revisited his native countrj', where he occupied himself entirely in 

 the education of youth, having again refused a bishopric offered him by Pope 

 Benedict XIV. He founded the College of Nobles at Warsaw, and composed 

 several valuable works, among which was the immense collection of the 

 Voluviina Legum. He wrote for the stage the plays of Epaminondas, St. 

 Casimir, and Vitenes de Zatouski, besides translations from the French. He 

 was a man of considerable talent in every thing he undertook, but his plays are 

 cramped by the school which he made his model. 



The in)pulse which he gave was soon felt. Even the Jesuits became play- 

 wrights ; but they in general drew from Scripture, translating the French dialogues 

 of Le Jay, or composing original pieces in the same style, such as Jonathan, 

 Tiliio, Zedekial.', &c. ; none of which possessed much merit. People of high 

 rank caught the passion. A princess of the great house of Radzivil, the richest 

 subjects of Europe, wrote several comedies and tragedies, acted at her own 

 theatre, which she printed in 1754. We are sorry to say that she deserves more 

 credit for the attempt than the execution. Wenceslaus Bornouski, however, 

 show ed that some among the nobility could w-rite plays ; he vv^s the palatine of 

 Podolia, great general of the crown, and castellan of Cracow — all offices of 

 the highest rank and importance. One of his tragedies, Wladislaus at Varna, 

 displays much genius, and we shall probably give a notice of it hereafter. He 

 also wrote some comedies which possess a share of merit. 



These were written before the days of Stanislaus Poniatowski, the last king of 

 Poland, who ascended the throne in 1764. He was an accomplished, although 

 a weak prince, and did every thing in his power to advance the literature of his 

 kingdom. In Archdeacon Coxe's travels will be found so»ne very interesting 

 conversations which he held with that w^ell-informed traveller on the subject, 

 and to them we beg leave to refer the reader. Before his time there was no 

 regular theatre in Poland, and dramatists wrote, either to amuse themselves. 



