POLAND, (LITERATURE.) 



601 



condition till the sixteenth century. The seed sown 

 by him ripened slowly and silently, and the progress 

 of cultivation first became apparent in Joh. Dlu- 

 gosa's (bishop of Lemberg) Polish history (he died 

 in 1480), which was rich in materials and in docu- 

 ments. The first Polish printing-press was estab- 

 lished at Cracow, in 1488. (See Bentkowski, On 

 the oldest printed Works in Poland, Warsaw, 1812, 

 and Bandtke's History of the Cracow Printing- 

 presses.} Under the prosperous reigns of the two 

 Sigismunds, from 1507 to 1572, the proper national 

 literature began, which, in a remarkably short time, 

 made a wonderful progress. The reformation, 

 which met with the silent favour of government, 

 and found so many adherents, that even the Soci- 

 nians were tolerated, contributed to increase free- 

 dom of thought. Under the vigorous reign of 

 Stephen Bathory, from 1576 to 1586, the literary 

 activity did not cease, and in the following reigns 

 the royal general, Joh. Zamoyski, effected much by 

 the establishment of institutions, and by his own 

 example. But he was the last active promoter of 

 the national culture, and it was owing to him that 

 it did not decline under the feeble reign of the Swe- 

 dish Sigismund, and the injurious influence which 

 the zealous and ambitious Jesuits exerted on free- 

 dom of thought and of the press. That it did not 

 rise higher, is to be attributed to the unhappy fate 

 of the country, distracted by party violences, so that 

 even its national existence was frequently endan- 

 gered. Under the Saxon princes, literature was 

 not in a more promising condition; but it flourished 

 more under the wise administration of the accom- 

 plished Stanislaus Poniatowski, and attained, during 

 Mis reign, such a vigour, that even the subsequent 

 storms, in the course of which Poland was erased 

 from the list of states, were not able to destroy it. 



The Polish literature is not very valuable in a 

 scientific point of view, though it has produced 

 many excellent works in this department; but its 

 greatest interest is owing to its pure nationality, of 

 which the literature of few nations can boast in the 

 same degree. At no period did the bold and aspir- 

 ing national spirit of this active people fail, how- 

 ever full of foreign usurpation the history of Poland 

 may be. The literature always continued to ad- 

 vance with the state of society, and turned mostly 

 on those points which are of the highest interest in 

 the relations of a state. Hence the almost total 

 absence of philosophers and mathematicians (the 

 astronomers Copernicus, and Pockzobut, Job. Snia- 

 decki, and the natural philosophers, Rogalinski and 

 Jos. Sosinski,excepted) ; hence also, on the other 

 side, the abundance of national historians and of 

 lofty poets praising the exploits of their ancestors, 

 or lamenting the present state of their country. In 

 works of mere fiction they met with less success : 

 still the Poles successfully transferred to their own 

 language the productions of other nations. The 

 ex-Jesuit Ign. Nagurczweski translated the Iliad, 

 Virgil's Eclogues, and other writings of antiquity ; 

 the excellent critic Francis Dmochowski translated, 

 in noble flowing language and easy versification, 

 the Iliad (Warsaw, 1800, 3 vols.) ; and there is 

 another translation of this poem, together with the 

 Odyssey, by Przybylski ; Pet. Kochanowski trans- 

 lated Tasso's Jerusalem (Cracow, 1687 ; edited by 

 Czayowski, professor of Polish literature at the 

 university of Cracow, Breslau, 1825) ; Krasicki, 

 Tymieniecki and Brodzinski translated Ossian ; 

 Joh. Kochanowski, and afterwards Naruscewicz, 

 Horace. The latter, in a masterly manner, and 

 perfectly in the spirit of the original, translated 

 Tacitus ; and Karpinski, the Jardins of Delille. 

 The historians who deserve mention are, Stryikow- i 



ski (author of the Lithuanian Chronicle, from the 

 best sources), Stanislaus Orzechowski, Mart. Cro- 

 mer, Joh. Demetr. Sulikowski, Stanislaus Kobiel- 

 zycki (who wrote a history of Wladislaus IV., in 

 classical Latin), the spirited Piasecki, the impartial 

 Vespasian Kochowski, and, above all, the celebrat- 

 ed Jesuit Is'aruszewicz, distinguished alike for deep 

 research, critical acuteness, and the excellence of 

 his manner. The latter began the general history 

 of the Poles, the continuation of which several 

 members of the royal Warsaw society of sciences 

 undertook in the name of the society. Niemcewicz 

 esteemed as a statesman, a warrior and a poet, has 

 published national historical songs (with engravings 

 and music, 1815), with historical illustrations. 

 Count Potocki has distinguished himself by his 

 history of the fine arts in his Polish tVinckelmann 

 (Warsaw, 1816, 4 vols.), by his Rhetoric, and by 

 his Political and Occasional Speeches (Warsaw, 

 1815, 5 vols.) Count Seb. Sierakowski has pub- 

 lished a splendid work on architecture ; Braty- 

 mowicz, well known for his services in draining the 

 marshes in the vicinity of Pinsk, and for his plan 

 for the union of the navigable rivers of Poland, a 

 work on agriculture. Barth. Paprocki, Okolski, 

 and Casp. Niesiecki, who is not sufficiently valued 

 by many, have published important works on 

 genealogy and heraldry. Stanislaus Konarski is 

 distinguished as a writer on politics and education, 

 and Andr. Zamoyski (1777), as the author of a 

 Polish code of laws, which was unwisely rejected 

 by the diet, that had caused it to be drawn up. 

 Kluk, Ladowski, and Jundzill wrote on natural 

 history. 



The oldest and finest monument of Polish poetry 

 is the works of Joh. Kochanowski (born in 1550, 

 and died in 1584), which are distinguished for their 

 pure and noble style, beauty of versification, deli- 

 cacy and feeling. They consist of a translation of the 

 Psalms, a didactic poem on chess, songs, elegies, 

 and epigrams, Sim. Simonowicz is still a model in 

 the idyl, and Stanislaus Grochowski in sentimental 

 lyric poetry. Vespasian Kochowski and Joh. 

 Twardowski, in the seventeenth century, are not 

 remarkable for taste, but the latter is distinguished 

 for his fire. Of the moderns, Stanislaus Trembecki, 

 Francis Kniaznin, Francis Zablocki, Kajetan Wen- 

 gierski, Valer. Gorski, Francis Wenzyk, Dysma 

 Tomaszewski, the animated Kajet. Koemian, 

 Tymowski, Louis Osinski, Rekelewski, the fiery 

 Kasim. Brodzinski, the tasteful Joh. Kruszynski, 

 the epigrammatic and flowing, but incorrect Ant. 

 Gorecki, the correct Alois Felinski, Francis Ma- 

 rawski, the national and Pindaric Joh. Woronicz, 

 deserve to be mentioned. Franzisczek Karpinski ia 

 esteemed for his noble and pure language and deep 

 and tender feeling (Lyric and Elegiac Poems, War- 

 saw, 1790, 2 vols.) The great, but unhappy king 

 Stanislaus Leczynski also composed with success. 

 But the prince-bishop Ignatius Krasicki (q. v.), who 

 died in 1802, is the only writer who is classic both 

 as a poet and prose writer : he is also a witty sati- 

 rist, the only original epic poet (ff- r oyna Chocim- 

 ska] of the Poles, and the translator of Ossian. In 

 1817, Dyrma Tomascewski published a heroic poem 

 in 12 cantos, under the title Jagellonida (the Union 

 of Lithuania with Poland). (See Bowring's Speci- 

 mens of the Polish Poets.) The literature of Poland 

 is rich in popular songs (Salanki Polske, Warsaw, 

 1778), and also in dramatic works, cf which the 

 most celebrated are those of Jos. Bielnwski, Francis 

 Zablocki, Jos. Kossakowski, Niemcewicz, Drozdow- 

 ski, Louis Dmuscewski, Francis Wenzyk, Felinski, 

 Louis Osinski, Alb. Boguslawski, Ant. Hoffman, 

 &c. The dramatic works written between 1770 



