Polish Literature
POLISH LITERATURE The Polish language belongs to the western branch of the Slavonic tongues, and exhibits the closest affinities with the Czech or Bohemian and Lusatian Wendish. Unlike the people of other Slavonic countries, the Poles are comparatively poor in popular and legendary poetry, but such compositions undoubtedly existed in early times, as may be seen by the writings of their chroniclers; thus Callus translated into Latin a poem written on Boleslaus the Brave, and a few old Polish songs are included in Wojcicki's Library of Ancient Writers. A great deal of the early literature written in Poland is in Latin. The earliest specimen of the Polish language is the so-called Psalter of Queen Margaret, discovered in 1826 at the convent of St Florian. The date of the manuscript appears to be the middle of the 14th century, and probably in its present form it is only a copy of a much older text; there is also a translation of the fiftieth psalm belonging to the 13th century. 1 The ancient Polish hymn or war song, Piesn Boga Rodzica, was an address to the Virgin, sung by the Poles when about to fight. The oldest manuscript of this production is dated 1408, and is preserved at Cracow. By a legend which subsequently grew up the composition of it was assigned to St Adalbert. John Lodzia, bishop of Posen from 1335 to 1346, composed several religious songs in Latin.
The next monument of Polish literature to which we come is the Bible of Queen Sophia or Bible of Szaroszpatak. It is imperfect, and only contains the early books, viz. the Pentateuch, Joshua, Ruth and Kings; there are, however, fragments of three others. It is said to have been written for Sophia, the fourth wife of Jagiello, about the year 1455. It has been edited with great care by Malecki. Five religious songs in Polish dating from the 15th century have been preserved; they are ascribed to Andrew Slopuchowski, prior of the monastery of the Holy Cross on Lysa G6ra. There is also the fragment of a hymn in praise of Wycliffe. To these fragments may be added the prayerbook of a certain Wadaw, a sermon on marriage, and some Polish glosses. These are all the existing memorials of the Polish language before the 16th century.
Perhaps a few words should be said concerning the writers in Latin. Martin Gallus lived in Poland between mo and 1135. From his name he has been supposed by some to Chronicles nave been a Frenchman or Walloon, and we must remember that Poland swarmed at that time with foreign ecclesiastics. Lelewel, the Polish historian, considers that it is merely a translation into Latin of some such name as Kura, signifying " a fowl." Others suppose him to have been an Italian, or a monk from the convent of St Gall in Switzerland. He has plenty of legends to tell us, and writes altogether in a poetical style, so that his prose seems to fall into rhythm unconsciously. His quotations from the classics, Sallust, Lucan and others, show the extent of his reading. Gallus was followed by Matthew Cholewa and Vincent Kadlubek, two bishops of Cracow, and Bogufal or Boguchwal (Gottlob), bishop of Posen, who all used Latin. The work of Kadlubek is more ornate in diction than that of Bogufal, and for a long time enjoyed great popularity. He was born in 1160, educated at the university of Paris, and died in Poland in 1223 as a Cistercian monk. His Latin, like that of Gallus, is far from classical, but he writes with spirit and throws a good deal of light upon 1 The Psalter is called after Margaret, the first wife of King Louis, who died in 1349, by a mere conjecture. Caro thinks it more probable that the book belonged to Mary, his daughter.
the events of his time. The education of the country was wholly in the hands of the ecclesiastics, many of whom were foreigners. In this way we must explain the great prevalence of the Latin language. Such a system would be sure to stifle all national outgrowth, and accordingly we have among the Poles none of those early monuments of the language which other countries boast. For instance, there are no bilinl or legendary poems, such as are found among the Russians, although many passages in the ancient chroniclers from their poetical colouring seem to be borrowed from old songs or legends, and the first verses of some of these compositions have been preserved. Mention may here be made of other chroniclers such as Martin the Pole (Polonus), who died in 1279 or 1280, and Jan of Czarnkow, who died in 1389; the latter was the historian and panegyrist of Casimir the Great. With the reign of Casimir III. (1333-1370) must be associated the statutes of Wislica. Jadwiga, the wife of Jagiello, was mainly instrumental in creating the university of Cracow, which received a charter in 1364, but did not come into effective existence till its reconstitution in 1400. In this institution for many years all the great men of Poland were trained among others Gregory of Sanok, Dlugosz and Copernicus. Casimir the Great may be said to have laid the foundation of this university. Having obtained the consent of Pope Urban V., he established at Cracow a sludium generale on the model of the university of Bologna. It consisted of three faculties Roman law, medicine and philosophy. But the aristocratic youth still preferred frequenting the universities of Prague, Padua and Paris, and accordingly the newly founded studium languished. Jadwiga, however, obtained from Boniface IX. permission to create a new chair, that of theology; and the university of Cracow was remodelled, having been reorganized on the same basis as that of Paris. Another university was founded later at Vilna by Batory, and one at Zamosc by the chancellor Zamoyski. There were also good schools in various places, such as the Collegium Lubranskiego of Posen and the school of St Mary at Cracow. In the year 1474 a press was set up in the latter city, where Günther Zainer printed the first book. The first press from which books in the Polish language appeared was that of Hieronymus Wietor, a Silesian, who commenced publishing in 1515. A few fragments printed in Polish had appeared before this, as the Lord's Prayer in the statutes of the bishops of Breslau in 1475, the story of Pope Urban in Latin, German and Polish in 1505, etc.; but the first complete work in the Polish language appeared from the press of this printer at Cracow in 1521, under the title, Speeches of the Wise King Solomon. The translation was executed by Jan Koszycki, as the printer informs us in the preface, and the work is dedicated to Anna Wojnicka, the wife of a castellan. In 1522, a Polish translation of Ecclesiastes appeared from that press, and before the conclusion of that year The Life of Christ, with woodcuts, translated into Polish by Balthasar Opec. Many other presses were soon established. Printers of repute at Cracow, during the r6th and beginning of the 17th century, were Sybeneicher and Piotrkowczyk.
Little as yet had been produced in Polish, as the chroniclers still adhered to Latin; and here mention must be made of Jan Dlugosz, who called himself Longinus. He was bishop of Lemberg, the capital of Galicia, and has left us a very valuable history which has merits of style and shows considerable research. So anxious was Dlugosz to make his work as perfect as he could that he learned Russian so as to be able to read the Chronicle of Nestor. The best part of his book is that which treats of the period between 1386 and 1480. About 1500 was written an interesting little work entitled " Memoirs of a Polish Janissary " (Pamietniki ianczara polaka). Although written in the Polish language, it was probably the production of a Serb, Michael Constantinovich of Ostrovitza. He was taken prisoner by the Turks in 1455 and served ten years among the Janissaries, after which he escaped into Hungary. About this time also flourished Nicholas Copernicus, a native of Thorn, one of the few Poles who have made themselves known beyond the limits of their country.
The Poles call the period between 1548 and 1606 their golden Dlugosz.
Poland was the great land of eastern Europe, and owing to the universal toleration encouraged by the government, Protestantism was widely spread. Many of the chief nobility were Calvinists, and the Socini came to reside in the country. All this, however, was to pass away under the great Jesuit reaction. At Rakow in Poland was published the catechism of the Socinian doctrines in 1605. The Jesuits made their appearance in Poland in 1564, and soon succeeded in getting the schools of the country into their hands. Besides extirpating the various sects of Protestants, they also busied themselves with destroying the Greek Church in Lithuania. Latin poetry was cultivated with great success by Clement Janicki (1516-1543), but the earliest poet of repute who wrote in Polish is Rej of Naglowice (1505-1569). After a somewhat idle youth he betook himself to poetry. He was a Protestant, and among other religious works translated the Psalms. His best work was Zwierciadlo albo zyivot poczciiaego czlowieka (The Mirror or Life of an Honourable Man) a somewhat tedious didactic piece. He was also the author of a kind of play a mystery we may term it, and productions of this sort seem to have been common in Poland from a very early time entitled Life of Joseph in Egypt. This piece is interesting merely from an antiquarian point of view; there is but little poetry in it. It teems with anachronisms; thus we have mention of the mass and organs, and also of a German servant. Lucas Goinicki (1527-1603) wrote many historical works, and Dworzanin polski, an imitation of the Corlegiano of Castiglione.
Jan Kochanowski 1 (1530-1584), called the prince of Polish poets, came of a poetical family, having a brother, a cousin and a nephew who all enriched the literature of . their country with some productions. Kochanowski studied for some time at the university of Padua, and also resided in Paris, where he made the acquaintance of Ronsard. Returning to Poland, he became in 1564 secretary to Sigismund Augustus. He has left The Game of Chess, an imitation of Vida, and Proporzec albo hold pruski (The Standard or Investiture of Prussia), where he describes the fealty done by Albert of Brandenburg to Sigismund Augustus. He also executed a translation of the Psalms. He wrote a play a piece of one act, with twelve scenes The Despatch of the Greek Ambassadors. It is written in rhymeless five-foot iambics, and is altogether a product of the Renaissance, reminding us of some of the productions of George Buchanan. Rhyme is employed in the choruses only. It was acted on the marriage of the chancellor Jan Zamoyski with Christine RadziwiH, in the presence of King Stephen and his wife, at Ujazdowo near Warsaw in 1578. The poet's most popular work, however, is his Treny or " Lamentations, " written on the death of his daughter Ursula. These beautiful elegies have been justly praised by Mickiewicz; they are enough to raise Kochanowski far above the level of a merely artificial poet. Besides poems in Polish, he also wrote some in Latin. It will be observed that we get this double-sided authorship in many Polish writers. They composed for an exclusive and learned circle, certainly not for the Jew, the German trader of the town, or the utterly illiterate peasant. It may be said with truth of Kochanowski that, although the form of his poetry is classical and imitated from classical writers, the matter is Polish, and there is much national feeling in what he has left us. Mention must also be made of his epigrams, which he styled " Trifles " (Fraszki) ; they are full of spirit and geniality. Stanislaus Grochowski (1554-1612) was a priest; but his poetry is of little merit, although he was celebrated in his time as a writer of panegyrics. His satire Babie Kola (The Women's Circle) gave offence .on account of its personalities. A great partisan of the Catholics in the time of Sigismund III. was Caspar Miaskowski, whose Waleta Wloszizonowska (Farewell to his Native Country) deserves mention. Szarzynski, who died young in 1581, deserves notice as having introduced the 1 His collected works were printed in 1584; they were many times reprinted, the best edition being that of Warsaw (4 vols., 1884). His life was written by Przyborowski (Posen, 1857).
sonnet to the Poles. This species of poetry was afterward to be carried to great perfection by Mickiewicz and Gaszynski.
Szymonowicz (1554-1624) was a writer of good pastorals. Although they are imitated from classical writers, he has introduced many scenes of national life, which he describes with much vigour. Among the best are Sz y moao " " The Lovers," " The Reapers," and " The Cake " (Kolacz). Mickiewicz is very loud in his praise, and considers him one of the best followers of Theocritus. The condition, however, of the Polish peasants was too miserable to admit of their being easily made subjects for bucolic poetry. There is an artificial air about the idylls of Szymonowicz which makes one feet too keenly that they are productions of the Renaissance; one of their best features is the humane spirit towards the miserable peasantry which they everywhere display. Another excellent writer of pastorals was Zimorowicz, a native of Lemberg, who died at the early age of twenty-five. Some of his short lyrics are very elegant, and remind us of Herrick and Carew e.g. that beginning " Ukochana Lancellotol Ciebie nie proszq o zloto." Another writer of pastorals, but not of equal merit, was Jan Gawinski, a native of Cracow. Some good Latin poetry was written by Casimir Sarbiewski, better known in the west of Europe as Sarbievius (d. 1640). He was considered to have approached Horace more nearly than any other modern poet, and a gold medal was given him by Pope Urban VIII. Martin Kromer (1512-1589) wrote a history of Poland in thirty books, and another volume, giving a description of the country and its institutions both in Latin. The history is written in an easy style and is a work of great merit. A poet of some importance was Sebastian Fabian Klonowicz (1545-1602), who latinized his name into Acernus, Klon being the Polish for maple, and wrote hi both Latin and Polish, and through his inclination to reform drew down on himself the anger of the clergy. Sometimes he is descriptive, as in his Polish poem entitled Fits (" The Boatman "), in which he gives a detailed account of the scenery on the banks of the Vistula. There is some poetry in this composition, but it alternates with very prosaic details. In another piece, Rhoxolania, in Latin, he describes the beauties of Galicia. Occasionally he is didactic, as in Worek Judaszow (The Bag of Judas) and Victoria deorum, where, under the allegory of the gods of Olympus, he represents the struggles of parties in Poland, not without severely satirizing the nobility and ecclesiastics. A curious work called Quincunx, written by Orzechowski (1515-1566), is concerned with religious polemics. Andrew Modrzewski, a Protestant, in his work De republica emendanda (1551), recommended the establishment of a national church which should be independent of Rome, something upon the model of the Anglican.
A florid Jesuitical style of oratory became very popular in the time of Sigismund III., not without rhetorical power, but frequently becoming tawdry. The chief representa- sja tive of this school was Piotr Skarga (1536-1612), one of the main agents in extirpating Calvinism in Poland and the Greek Church in Lithuania. Among his numerous writings may be mentioned Lives of the Saints, Discourses on the Seven Sacraments, and especially his sermons preached before the diet, in which he lashed the Poles for their want of patriotism and prophesied the downfall of the country. Mecherzynski, in his " History of Eloquence in Poland " (Historya ivymowy w Polsce), especially praises his two funeral sermons on the burial of Anna Jagiellonka, widow of Stephen Batory, and Anna of Austria, first wife of Sigismund III. Besides the Latin histories of Wapowski and Gwagnin (Guagnini, of Italian origin), we have the first historical work in Polish by Martin Bielski, a Protestant, viz. Kronika polska, which was afterwards continued by his son. The author was born in 1495 on his father's estate, Biala, and was educated, like so many other of his illustrious contemporaries, at the university of Cracow. He lived to the age of eighty; but, however great were the merits of his Chronicle, it was long considered a suspicious book on account of the leanings of the author to Calvinism. After his death his work was continued by his son Joachim (1540-1599). There is also a Chronicle by Bartholomew Paprocki. In 1582 was also published the Chronicle of Stryjkowski, full of curious learning, and still of great use to the student of history. Five years later appeared the Annales Poloniae of Sarnicki. The last three works are in Latin.
A few words may be said here about the spread of Protestantism in Poland, which is so intimately mixed up with the development of the national language. The Spread of darings o f jjus had entered the country in very Protestant* . . /- i -r> i* i t ism. early times, and we find Polish recensions of Bohemian hymns; even the hymn to the Virgin previously mentioned is supposed to have a Czech basis. The bishops were soon active against those who refused to conform to the doctrines of the Roman church. Thus we find that Bishop Andrew of Bnin seized five Hussite priests and caused them to be burnt in the market of Posen in 1439. A hundred years afterwards a certain Katharina Malcher, on account of her Utraquist opinions, was condemned by Gamrat, the bishop of Cracow, to be burnt, which sentence was accordingly carried out in the ragmarket at Cracow. As early as 1530 Lutheran hymns were sung in the Polish language at Thorn. In Konigsberg, John Seklucyan, a personal friend of Luther, published a collection of Christian Songs. He was born in Great Poland, and was at first a Roman Catholic priest in Posen, but afterwards embraced the Protestant faith and was invited by Duke Albert as a preacher to Konigsberg, where he died in 1578. He executed the first translation of the New Testament in 1551. Four years afterwards appeared a complete Polish Bible published by Scharffenberg at Cracow. In 1553 appeared at Brzesc the Protestant translation of the whole Bible made by a committee of learned men and divines, and published at the expense of Nicholas RadziwiH, a very rich Polish magnate who had embraced the Protestant doctrines. This book is now of great rarity because his son Christopher, having been induced to become a Roman Catholic by the Jesuit Skarga, caused all copies of his father's Bible which he could find to be burnt. One, however, is to be seen in the Bodleian Library, and another in the library of Christ Church at Oxford. A Socinian Bible was issued by Simon Budny in 1570 at Nieswiez, as he professed to find many faults in the version issued under the patronage of RadziwiH; in 1597 appeared the Roman Catholic version of the Jesuit Wujek; and in 1632 the so-called Danzig Bible, which is in use among Protestants and is still the most frequently reprinted.
Up to this time Polish literature, although frequently rhetorical and too much tinctured with classical influences, had still exhibited signs of genius. But now, owing to the fri v l us studies introduced by the Jesuits, the so-called macaronic period supervened, which lasted from 1606 to 1764, and was a time of great degradation for the language and literature. The former was now mixed with Latin and classical expressions; much of the literature consists of fulsome panegyric, verses written on the marriages and funerals of nobles, with conceits and fantastic ideas, devoid of all taste, drawn from their coats of arms. The poets of this period are, as may be imagined, in most cases mere rhymesters; there are, however, a few whose names are worth recapitulating, such as Wadaw Potocki (c. 1622-6. 1696), now known to have been the author of the Wojna Chocimska, or " War of Khotin," the same campaign which afterwards formed the subject of the epic of Krasicki. At first the author was supposed to have been Andrew Lipski, but the real poet was traced by the historian Szajnocha. The epic, which remained in manuscript till 1850, is a genuine representation of Polish life; no picture so faithful appeared till the Pan Tadeusz of Mickiewicz. Moreover, Potocki had the good taste to avoid the macaronic style so much in vogue; his language is pure and vigorous. He does not hesitate to introduce occasionally satirical remarks on the luxury of the times, which he compares, to its disadvantage, with the simplicity of the old Polish life. There is also another poem attributed to Potocki called the New Mercury. In one passage he censures King Michael for ceding Podolia to the Turks. Samuel Twardowski (1600-1660) was the most prolific poet of the period of the Vasas. His most important poem is Wladystaus I V '., King of Poland, in which he sings in a very bombastic strain the various expeditions of the Polish monarch. A bitter satirist appeared in the person of Christopher Opalinski (1609-1656). His works were published under the title of Juvenalis redivivus, and, although boasting but little poetical merit, give us very curious pictures of the times. Hieronymus Vespasian Kohcowski (1633-1699) was a soldier-poet, who went through the campaigns against the Swedes and Cossacks; he has left several books of lyrics full of vivacity, a Christian epic and a Polish psalmody. Another poet was Andrew Morsztyn (born about 1620, died about the commencement of the 18th century), an astute courtier, who was finance minister ( podskdrbi) under John Casimir, and was a devoted adherent of the French party at court, in consequence of which, in the reign of Sobieski, he was compelled to leave his native country and settle in France. His poems are elegant and free from the conceits and pedantry of the earlier writers. In fact, he introduced into Poland the easy French manner of such writers as Voiture. He translated the Cid of Corneille, and wrote a poem on the subject of Psyche, based upon the well-known Greek myth. History in the macaronic period made a backward step: it had been written in the Polish language in the golden age; it was now again to take a Latin form, as in the Chronica Geslarum in Europa singularium of the ecclesiastic Paul Piasecki (1580-1649), who is an authority for the reigns ofSigismund III. and Wladislaus IV., and Rudawski, who describes events from the accession of John Casimir to the peace of Oliva (1648- 1660); and as valuable materials for history may be mentioned the five huge volumes of Andrew Chrysostom Zaluski (1711), bishop of Warmia. This work is entitled Epislolae historicofamiliares. It would be impossible to recapitulate here the great quantity of material in the shape of memoirs which has come down, but mention must be made of those of John Chrysostom Pasek, a nobleman of Masovia, who has left us very graphic accounts of life and society in Poland; after a variety of adventures and many a well-fought battle, he returned to the neighbourhood of Cracow, where he died between 1699 and 1701. Some of the most characteristic stories illustrating Polish history are drawn from this book. A later period, that of the miserable epoch of Augustus III., is described very graphically in the memoirs of Matuszewicz, first edited by Pawinski at Warsaw in 1876. Relating to the same period are also the memoirs of Bartholomew Michalowski (Pamietniki Bartlomieja Michalowskiego). A curious insight into the course of education which a young Polish nobleman underwent is furnished by the instructions which James Sobieski, the father of the celebrated John, gave to Orchowski, the tutor of his sons. This has been twice printed in comparatively recent times (Instrukcya Jakdba Sobieskiego kasztelana Krakowskiego dana panu Orchowskiemu ze strony syndw, Vilna, 1840). The old gentleman in his aristocratic imperiousness frequently reminds us of the amusing directions given by Sir John Wynne to his chaplain, quoted in Pennant's Tour in Wales.
A History of the Lithuanians in Latin was published by the Jesuit KoiaJowicz; the first volume appeared at Danzig in 1650. A valuable work on the condition of Poland was written by Stanislaus Leszczynski, who was twice chosen king, entitled Glos wolny wolnost ubezpieczajqcy (A Free Voice Guaranteeing Freedom), where he tells the Poles some homely and perhaps disagreeable truths illustrating the maxim Summa libertas etiam perire volentibus.
A notable man was Joseph Andrew Zaluski, bishop of Kiev, a Pole who had become thoroughly frenchified so much so, that he preached in French to the fashionable congregations of Warsaw. He collected a splendid library of about 300,000 volumes and 15,000 manuscripts, which he bequeathed to the Polish nation; but it was afterwards carried off to St Petersburg, where it formed the foundation of the imperial public library. According to Nitschmann in his Geschichte der polnischen Litteratur a work which has been of service in the preparation of this article the books were transported to Russia very carelessly, and many of them injured by the way. It was especially rich in works relating to Polish history. Konarski edited in six volumes a valuable work entitled Volumina }egum, containing a complete collection of Polish laws from the time of the statute of Wislica. He did much good also in founding throughout the country schools for the education of the sons of the upper classes, but as yet nothing had been done for popular education properly so-called. About the close of this period we have some valuable writers on Polish history, which now began to be studied critically, such as Hartknoch in his Alt- und Neues Preussen (1684), a work in which are preserved interesting specimens of the old Prussian language, and Lengnich (1689- 1774), author of the valuable Jus publicum regni Poloniae, which appeared in 1742.
We now come to the reign of the last Polish king, Stanislaus Poniatowski, and the few quiet years before the final division of the country, during which the French taste was allpowerful. This is the second great period of the development of Polish literature, which has known nothing of medieval romanticism. The literature of the first or Renaissance period gives us some good poets, who although occasionally imitators are not without national feeling, and a goodly array of chroniclers, most of whom made use of Latin. In the second or French period we get verse-makers rather than poets, who long to be Frenchmen, and sigh over the barbarism of their country; but the study of history in a critical spirit is beginning under the influence of Naruszewicz, Albertrandi and others. In the third period, that of modern romanticism, we get true nationalism, but it is too often the literature of exile and despair. Here may be mentioned, although living a little time before the reign of Stanislaus, a Polish poetess, Elizabeth Druzbacka (1695-1760), whose writings show a feeling for nature at a time when verse-making of the most artificial type was prevalent throughout the country. The portrait prefixed to the Leipzig edition of her works is a striking one, representing a handsome, intellectual-looking woman, dressed in the garb of some religious order. Her Life of David in verse appears tedious, but many of the descriptions in the Seasons are elegant. Unfortunately she introduces latinisms, so that her Polish is by no means pure. A national theatre was founded at Warsaw in 1765 under the influence of the court, but it was not till long afterwards that anything really national connected with the drama appeared in Poland. Thomas Kajetan Wegierski (1755-1787), who was chamberlain to the king, enjoyed a considerable reputation among his countrymen for his satirical writing. He was a kind of Polish Churchill, and like his English parallel died young. His life also appears to have been as irregular as Churchill's. In consequence of an attack on the empress of Russia, he was compelled to leave Poland, and accordingly made a tour in Italy, France, America, and England, dying at Marseilles at the early age of thirty-three. His poetry shows the influence of the French taste, then prevalent throughout Europe. In times of great national disasters he deserves to be remembered as a true patriot; but the spirit of his poetry is altogether unwholesome. It is the wailing cry of a moribund nation. The great laureate of the court of Stanislaus was Trembecki (1722-1812), whose sympathies were too much with the Russian invaders of his country. He was little more than a fluent poetaster, and is now almost forgotten. One of his most celebrated pieces was Zofjoivka, written on the country seat of Felix Potocki, a Polish magnate, for this was the age of descriptive as well as didactic poetry. Perhaps the English gave the hint in such productions as " Cooper's Hill." The old age of Trembecki appears to have been ignoble and neglected; he had indeed "fallen upon evil days and evil tongues "; and when he died at an advanced age all the gay courtiers of whom he had been the parasite were either dead or had submitted to the Muscovite yoke. He comes before us as a belated epicurean, whose airy trifles cannot be warbled in an atmosphere surcharged with tempests and gunpowder.
The end of the 18th century was not the period for a court poet in Poland.
The most conspicuous poet, however, of the time was Ignatius Krasicki, bishop of Warmia (1735-1801). He Was the friend of Frederick the Great and a prominent member of KrasicU. the king's literary club at Sans Souci. Krasicki wrote an epic on the war of Khotin the same as had furnished the subject of the poem of Potocki, of which Krasicki in all probability had never heard, and also that of the Dalmatian Gundulich. Krasicki's poem is at best but a dull affair, in fact a pale copy of a poor original, the Henriade of Voltaire. His mock heroics are, to say the least, amusing, and among these may be mentioned Myszeis, where he describes how King Popiel, according to the legend, was eaten up by rats. His Monachomachia is in six cantos, and is a satire upon the monks. The bishop was also the writer of some pretty good comedies. In fact most styles of composition were attempted by him of course satires and fables among the number. He presents himself to us much more like a transplanted French abb6 than a Pole. In the year 1801 he travelled to Berlin, and died there after a short illness. Among his other works the bishop published in 1781-1782, in two volumes, a kind of encyclopaedia of belles lettres entitled Zbidr WiadomoSci. His estimates of various great poets are not very accurate. Of course he finds Shakespeare a very " incorrect " author, although he is willing to allow him considerable praise for his vigour. F. Morawski (1783-1861) published some excellent Fables (1800) in the manner of Krasicki, and in 1851 an epic entitled My Grandfather's Farm. Adam Naruszewicz (1733-1796) was bishop and poet. The existence of so many ecclesiastical writers was a natural feature in Polish literature; they formed the only really cultured class in the community, which consisted besides of a haughty ignorant nobility living among their serfs, and (at a vast distance) those serfs themselves, in a brutalized condition. Burghers there were, properly speaking, none, for most of the citizens in the large towns were foreigners governed by the Jus magdeburgicum. Naruszewicz has not the happy vivacity of Krasicki; he attempts all kinds of poetry, especially satire and fable. He is at best but a mediocre poet; but he has succeeded better as a historian, and especially to be praised is his " History of the Polish Nation " (History a narodu polskiego), which, however, he was not able to carry further than the year 1386. He also wrote an account of the Polish general Chodkiewicz, and translated Tacitus and Horace. Interesting memoirs have been published by Kilinski, a Warsaw shoemaker, and Kosmian, state referendary, who lived about this time and saw much of the War of Independence and other political affairs. Among the smaller poets of this period may be mentioned Karpinski (1741-1828), a writer of sentimental elegies in the style then so very much in fashion, and Franciszek Dyonizy Kniaznin (1750-1807), who nourished his muse on classical themes and wrote several plays. He was the court poet of Prince Adam Czartoryski at Pulawy, and furnished odes in commemoration of all the important events which occurred in the household. He lost his reason on the downfall of Poland, and died after eleven years' insanity in 1807. Julian Ursin Niemcewicz (1758-1841) was one of the most popular of Polish poets at the commencement of the present century (see NIEMCEWICZ). His most popular work is the " Collection of Historical Songs " (Spiewy historyczne) , where he treats of the chief heroes of Polish history. Besides these he wrote one or two good plays, and a novel in letters, on the story of two Jewish lovers. John Paul Woronicz (1757-1829) born in Volhynia, and at the close of his life bishop of Warsaw and primate of Poland, was a very eloquent divine, and has been called the modern Skarga. A valuable worker in the field of Slavonic philology was Linde, the author of an excellent Polish dictionary in six volumes. For a long time the cultivation of Polish philology was in a low state, owing to the prevalence of Latin in the 17th century and French in the 18th. No Polish grammar worthy of the name appeared till that of Kopczynski at the close of the 18th century, but the reproach has been taken away in modern times by the excellent works by Malecki and Malinowski. Rakowiecki, who edited the Rousskaia Pravda, and Macieiowski (who died in 1883, aged ninety), author of a valuable work on Slavonic law, may here be mentioned. Here we have a complete survey of the leading codes of Slavonic jurisprudence. At a later period (in 1856) appeared the work of Helcel, Starodawne prawa polskifgo pomniki (" Ancient Memorials of Polish Law "). Aloysius Felinski (1771-1820) produced an historical tragedy, Barbara Radziwill, and some good comedies were written by Count Polish Alexander Fredro (1793-1876). In fact Fredro may Drama. be considered the most entertaining writer for the stage which Poland has produced. He introduced genuine comedy among his countrymen. The influence of Moliere can be very clearly seen in his pieces; his youth was spent chiefly in France, where he formed one of the soldiers of the Polish legion of Napoleon and joined in the expedition to Russia. His first production was Pan Geldhab, written in 1819 and produced at Warsaw in 1821. From 1819 to 1835 he wrote about seventeen pieces and then abandoned publishing, having taken offence at some severe criticisms. At his death he left several comedies, which were issued in a posthumous edition. There is a good deal of local colouring in the pieces of Fredro; although the style is French, the characters are taken from Polish life. From him may be said to date the formation of anything like a national Polish theatre, so that his name marks an epoch. The Poles, like many of the other nations of Europe, had religious plays at an early period. They were originally performed in churches; but Pope Innocent II. finding fault with this arrangement, the acting was transferred to churchyards. Mention has already been made of plays written by Rej and Kochanowski; they are mere fruits of the Renaissance, and cannot in any way be considered national. The wife of John Casimir, a Frenchwoman, Marie Louise, hired a troop of French actors and first familiarized the Poles with something which resembled the modern stage. The Princess Franciszka RadziwiH composed plays which were acted at her private residence, but they are spoken of as inartistic and long and tedious. The national theatre was really founded in the reign of Stanislaus Augustus; and good plays were produced by Bohomolec, Kaminski, Kropinski, Boguslawski, Zablocki, and others. Perhaps, however, with the exception of the works of Fredro, the Poles have not produced anything of much merit in this line. A great statesman and writer of the later days of Polish nationality was Kollataj, born at Sandomir in 1750. He was a man of liberal sentiments, and, had his plans been carried out, Poland might have been saved. He wished to abolish serfdom and throw open state employments to all. The nobility, however, were too infatuated to be willing to adopt these wise measures. Like the French aristocrats with the reforms of Necker, they would not listen till ruin had overtaken them. During the last war of Poland as an independent country Kollataj betook himself to the camp of Kosciuszko, but when he saw that there was no longer hope he went to Galicia, but was captured by the Austrians and imprisoned at Olmiitz till 1803. He died in 1812. An active co-operator with Koliataj was Salesius Jezierski, who founded clubs for the discussion of political questions, and Stanislaus Staszic, who did much for education and improved the condition of the university of Warsaw.
The reputation of all preceding poets in Poland was now destined to be thrown into the shade by the appearance of Mickiewicz (1798-1855), the great introducer of romanticism into the country (see MICKIEWICZ). Poland, as has been said before, is not rich in national songs and legendary poetry, in which respect it cannot compare with its sister Slavonic countries Russia and Servia. Collections have appeared, however, by Waclaw Zaleski, who writes under the pseudonyms of Waclaw z Oleska, Wojcicki, Roger, Zegota Pauli, and especially Oskar Kolberg. Poland and Lithuania, however, abounded with superstitions and legends which only awaited the coming poet to put them into verse. In the year 1851 Romuald Zienkiewicz published Songs of the Romanticism.
People of Pinsk, and collections have even appeared of those of the Kashoubes, a remnant of the Poles living near Danzig. Mickiewicz had had a predecessor, but of far less talent, Casimir Brodzinski (1791-1835). He served under Napoleon in the Polish legion, and has left a small collection of poems, the most important being the idyl Wieslaw, in which the manners of the peasants of the district of Cracow are faithfully portrayed. The second great poet of the romantic school who appeared in Poland after Mickiewicz was Julius Slowacki (1809-1849), born at Krzemieniec. In 1831 he left his native country and chose Paris as his residence, where he died. His writings are full of the fire of youth, and show great beauty and elegance of expression. We can trace in them the influence of Byron and Victor Hugo. He is justly considered one of the greatest of the modern poets of Poland. His most celebrated pieces are Hugo; Mnich ("The Monk ") ; Lambro, a Greek corsair, quite in the style of Byron; Anhelli, a very Dantesque poem expressing under the form of an allegory the sufferings of Poland ; Krol duch (" The Spirit King "), another mysterious and allegorical poem; Waclaw, on the same subject as the Marya of Malczewski, to be afterwards noticed; Beniowski, a long poem in ottava rima on this strange adventurer, something in the style of Byron's humorous poems; Kordyan, of the same school as the English poet's Manfred; Lilla Weneda, a poem dealing with the early period of Slavonic history. The h'fe of Slowacki has been published by Professor Anton Malecki in two volumes.
Mickiewicz and Slowacki were both more or less mystics, but even more we may assign this characteristic to Sigismund Krasinski, who was born in 1812 at Paris, and died there in 1859. It would be impossible to analyse here his extraordinary poem Nieboska komedja (" The Undivine Comedy "), Irydion, and others. In them Poland, veiled under different allegories, is always the central figure. They are powerful poems written with great vigour of language, but enveloped in clouds of mysticism. The life of Krasinski was embittered by the fact that he was the son of General Vincent Krasinski, who had become unpopular among the Poles by his adherence to the Russian government; the son wrote anonymously in consequence, and was therefore called " The Unknown Poet." Among his latest productions are his " Psalms of the Future " (Psalmy przyszlosct), which were attacked by the democratic party as a defence of aristocratic views which had already ruined Poland. His friend Slowacki answered them in some taunting verses, and this led to a quarrel between the poets. One of the most striking pieces of Krasinski has the title " Resurrecturis." The sorrows of his country and his own physical sufferings have communicated a melancholy tone to the writings of Krasinski, which read like a dirge, or as if the poet stood always by an open grave and the grave is that of Poland. He must be considered as, next to Mickiewicz, the greatest poet of the country. Other poets of the romantic school of considerable merit were Gorecki, Witwicki, Odyniec, and Gaszynski; the last-named wrote many exquisite sonnets, which ought alone to embalm his name. Witwicki (1800-1847) was son of a professor at Krzemieniec. He was a writer of ballads and poems dealing with rural life, which enjoyed great popularity among his countrymen and had the good fortune to be set to music by Chopin. The works of Lelewel have separate mention (see LELEWEL) ; but here may be specified the labours of Narbutt, Dzieje starozytne arodu litewskiego (" Early History of the Lithuanian People "), published at Vilna in nine volumes, and the valuable Monumenla Poloniae historica, edited at Lemberg by Bielowski, of which several volumes have appeared, containing reprints of most of the early chroniclers. Bielowski died in 1876.
A further development of romanticism was the so-called Ukraine school of poets, such as Malczewski, Goszczynski, and Zaleski. Anton Malczewski (1793-1826) wrote ,, TT1 . . x i !_ Ukraine one poem, Marya, a Ukrainian tale which passed school.
unnoticed at the time of its publication, but after its author's death became very popular. Malczewski was one of Napoleon's officers; he led a wandering life and was intimate with Byron at Venice; he is said to have suggested to the latter the story of Mazeppa. Marya is a narrative in verse in the manner of Byron. It is written with much feeling and elegance, and in a most harmonious metre. The chief poem is Severin Goszczynski (1803-1876) is Zamek Kaniowski (" The Tower of Kaniow "). The most interesting poem of Bogdan Zaleski is his " Spirit of the Steppe " (Duck od stepu). Other poets of the so-called Ukraine school, which has been so well inspired by the romantic legends of that part of Russia, are Thomas or Timko Padoura (who also wrote in the Malo-Russian, or Little-Russian, language), Alexander Groza, and Thomas Olizarowski. For many of the original songs and legends we must turn to the work of Messrs Antonovich and Dragomanov. Bogdan Joseph Zaleski was born in 1802 in the Ukraine village, Bohaterka. In 1820 he was sent to the university of Warsaw, where he had Goszczynski as a fellow student. Besides the longer poem previously mentioned, he is the author of many charming lyrics in the style of the Little Russian poems, such as Shevchenko has written in that language. He died at Villepreux, in France, in 1886, after more than fifty years of exile. Michael Grabowski (1805-1863) belongs also to this school by his fine Melodies of the Ukraine (1828). Maurice Goslawski also won fame by his Poems of a Polish Outlaw in the struggle of 1830-1831. A poet of great vigour was Stephen Garczynski (1806-1833), the friend of Mickiewicz, celebrated for his War Sonnets and his poem entitled The Deeds of Wactaiv.
Wincenty Pol (1807-1872) was born at Lublin, and though of foreign extraction by both parents proved an ardent patriot. He wrote a fine descriptive work, Obrazy z zycia i podrozy (" Pictures of Life and Travel '), and also a poem, Piesn o ziemi naszej (" Song of our Land ") For about three years from 1849 he was professor of geography in the university of Cracow. In 1855 he published Mohort, a poem relating to the times of Stanislaus Poniatowski. Ludwik Wladyslaw Kondratowicz (who wrote chiefly under the name of Syrokomla) was born in 1823 in the government of Minsk, and died on the ith of September 1862 at Vilna. His parents were poor, and he received a meagre education, but made up for it by careful self-culture. One of his most remarkable poems is his Jan Deboroe, in which, like Mickiewicz, he has well described the scenery of his native Lithuania. He everywhere appears as the advocate of the suffering peasants, and has consecrated to them many beautiful lyrics. In Kaczkowski the Poles found a novelist who treated many periods of their history with great success. His sympathies, however, were mostly aristocratic, though modified by the desire of progress. An important writer of history is Karl Szajnocha (1818-1868), born in Galicia of Czech parents. He began his labours with The Age of Casimirthe Great (1848), and Bolenaw the Brave (1849), following these with Jadwiga and Jagiello, in three volumes (18551856) a work which Spasovich, in his Russian History of Slavonic Literature, compares in vigour of style and fullness of colour with Macaulay's History of England and Thierry's Norman Conquest. Our author was still further to resemble the latter writer in a great misfortune ; from overwork he lost his sight in 1857. Szajnocha, however, like Thierry and the American Prescott, did not abandon his studies. His excellent memory helped him in his affliction. In 1858 he published a work in which he traced the origin of Poland from the Varangians (Lechicki poczatek polski), thus making them identical in origin with the Russians'. He began to write the history of John Sobieski, but did not live to finish it. dying in 1868, soon after completing a history of the Cossack wars, Dwa lata dziejow naszych (" Two Years of Our History"). A writer of romances of considerable power was Joseph Korzeniowski (1797 1863), tutor in early youth to the poet Krasinski, and afterwards director of a school at Kharkov. Besides some plays now forgotten, he was author of some popular novels, such as Wedrowki oryginata (" Tours of an Original "), iS^SiGarbaty (" The Hunchback "), 1852, etc. But the most fertile of Polish authors was J.I. Kraszewski (q.v.). His works constitute a library in themselves; they are chiefly historical and political novels, some or which treat of early times in Poland, and some of its condition under the Saxon kings. As lyrical poets may also be mentioned Jachowicz; Jaskowski, author of a fine poem, The Beginning of Winter; Edmund Wasilewski (1814-1846), the author of many popular songs; and Holowinski, archbishop of Mogilev (1807-1855), author of religious poems. The style of poetry in vogue in the Polish parts of Europe at the present time is chiefly lyrical. Other writers deserving mention are Cornelius Ujejski (1823-1897), the poet of the last revolt of 1863; Theophilus Lenartowicz (born 1822), who wrote some very graceful poetry; Sigismund Milkpwski (T. T. Tez, born in 1820), author of romances drawn from Polish history, for the novel of the school of Sir Walter Scott still flourishes vigorously among the Poles. Among the very numerous writers of romances may be mentioned Henry Rzewuski (1791-1866); Joseph Dzierzkowski wrote novels on aristocratic life, and Michael Czajkowski (1808-1876) romances of the Ukraine; Valerius Wieloglowski (1865) gave pictures of country life.
In 1882 the Poles lost, in the prime of life, a very promising historian Szujski (born in 1835), and also Schmitt, who died in his sixty-sixth year. Szujski commenced his literary career in 1859 with poems and dramas; in 1860 appeared his first historical production, Rzutokana History e Polski (*' A Glance at Polish History "), which attracted universal attention; and in 1862 he commenced the publication in parts of his work Dzieje Polski (" The History of Poland "), the printing of which ceased in 1866. The value of this book is great both on account of the research it displays and its ehilpsopnical and unprejudiced style. One of the last works of zujski, written in German, Die Polen und Ruthenen in Galizien, attracted a great deal of attention at the time of its appearance. Schmitt got mixed up with some of the political questions of the day he was a native of Galicia and therefore a subject of the Austrian emperor and was sentenced to death in 1846, but the penalty was commuted into imprisonment in Spielberg, whence he was released by the revolution of 1848. In 1863 he took part in the Polish rebellion, and was compelled to fly to Paris, where he only returned in 1871. His chief works are History of the Polish People from the Earliest Times to the year 1763 (1854), History of Poland in the 18th and 1gth centuries (1866), and History of Poland from the time of the Partition (1868), which he carried down to the year 1832. In opposition to the opinion of many historians, his contemporaries, that Poland fell through the nobility and the diets, Schmitt held (as did Lelewel) that the country was brought to ruin by the kings, who always preferred dynastic interests to those of the country, and by the pernicious influence of the Jesuits. Adalbert Ke.trzynski, who succeeded Bielowski in 1877 in his post of director of the Ossolinski Institute at Lemberg, is the author of some valuable monographs on the history of Poland. He was born in 1838. Casimir Stadmcki has treated of the period of the Jagiellons; and Szaraniewicz, professor at the university of Lemberg, has written on the early history of Galicia. Thaddeus Wojciechowski has published a clever work on Slavonic antiquities. Xavier Liske, born in 1838, professor of universal history at Lemberg, has published many historical essays of considerable value, and separate works by him have appeared in the German, Polish, Swedish, Danish and Spanish languages. The " Sketch of the History of Poland " (Dzieje Polskie w zarysie) by Michael Bobrzynski, born in 1849 in Cracow (professor of Polish and German law), is a very spirited work, and has given rise to a great deal of controversy on account of the opposition of many of its views to those of the school of Lelewel. Vincent Zakrzewski, professor of history at Cracow, has written some works which have attracted considerable attention, such as On the Origin and Growth of the Reformation in Poland, and After the Flight of King Henry, in which he describes the condition of the country during the period between that king's departure from Poland and the election of Stephen Batory. Smolka has published a history entitled Mieszko the Elder and his Age. Wladyslaw Wislocki has prepared a catalogue of manuscripts in the Jagiellon library at Cracow. Dr Joseph Casimir Plebanski, besides editing the Biblioteka iparszawska, a very valuable literary journal which stands at the head of all works of the kind in Poland, has also written a dissertation (in Latin) on the liberum veto, which puts that institution in a new light. Felix Jezierski, the previous editor of the above-mentioned journal, published in it translations of parts of Homer, and is also the author of an excellent version of Faust.
The history of Polish literature has not been neglected. We first have the early history of Felix Bentkowski (1781-1852), followed by that of Michael Wiszniewski (1794-1865), which, however, only extends to the 17th century, and is at best but a quarry of materials for subsequent writers, the style being very heavy. A " History of Eloquence " (Historya wymowy w Polsce) was published by Karl Mecherzyski. An elaborate history of Polish literature has been written by Anton Malecki, who is the author of the best Polish grammar (Gramatyka historyczno-porownawcza jezyka polskiego, 2 vols., Lemberg, 1879). The Polish bibliography of Karl Estreicher, director of the Jagiellon library at Cracow, is a work of the highest importance. One oi the most active writers on Polish philology and literature is Wladyslaw Nchring, whose numerous contributions to the Archiy fur slavische Philologie of Professor Jagic entitle him to the gratitude of all who have devoted themselves to Slavonic studies. Wiadimir Spasowicz, a lawyer of St Petersburg, assisted Pipin in his valuable work on Slavonic literature. The lectures of Professor Cybulski (d. 1867) on Polish literature in the first half of the 19th century are written with much spirit and appreciation. The larger poetical works which appear during that time are carefully analysed.
In recent times many interesting geological and anthropological investigations have been carried on in Poland. In 1868 Count Constantine Tyszkiewicz published a valuable monograph on the Tombs of Lithuania and Western Ruthenia. And Professor Joseph tepkowski, of Cracow, has greatly enriched the archaeological museum of his native city.
In philosophy the Poles (as the Slavs generally) have produced but few remarkable names. Goluchowski, the brothers Andrew and John Sniadecki, the latter of whom gained a reputation almost European, Bronislaw Trentowski, Karol Liebelt and Joseph Kremer deserve mention. August Cieszkowski has written on philosophical and economic subjects. Moritz Straszewski, professor of philosophy at the university of Cracow, has also published some remarkable works.
Mention has already been made of the poetess Elizabeth Druzbacka. Female writers are not very common among Slavonic nations. Perhaps the most celebrated Polish authoress was Klementina Hoffmann, whose maiden name was Tanska, born at Warsaw in 1798. She married Karl Boromaus Hoffmann, and accompanied her husband, in 1831, to Passy near Paris, where she died in 1845. Her novels still enjoy great popularity in Poland. Of the poetesses of later times Gabriele Narzyssa Zmichowska (1825-1878), Maria Ilnicka, translator of Scott's Lord of the Isles, and Jadwiga Luszczewska may be mentioned.
A poet of considerable merit is Adam Asnyk (1838-1897). In his poetry we seem to trace the steps between romanticism and the modern realistic school, such as we see in the Russian poet Nekrasov. In some of the flights of his muse he reminds us of Siowacki, in the melody of his verse of Zaleski. Besides showing talent as a poet, he has also written some good plays, as " The Jew " (Zid), Cola di Rienzi, and Kiejstut. Other poets worthy of mention are Zagorski, Czerwienski, and Maria Konopnicka, who has published two volumes of poems that have been very favourably noticed. Mention must also be made of Baiucki (1837-1901), author of novels and comedies, and Narzymski (1839-1872), who was educated in France, but spent part of his short life in Cracow, author of some very popular tales.
The four centres of Polish literature, which, in spite of the attempts which have been made to denationalize the country, is fairly active, are Cracow, Posen, Lemberg and Warsaw. A cheap edition of the leading Polish classics, well adapted for dissemination among the people, has been published, under the title of Biblioteka Polska, at Cracow. Not only are the professors of Cracow University some of the most eminent living Poles, but it has been chosen as a place of residence by many Polish literary men. The academy of sciences, founded in 1872, celebrated the bicentenary of the raising of the siege of Vienna by Sobieski by publishing the valuable Acta Joannis III. regis Poloniae. Some good Polish works have been issued at Posen. At Lemberg, the capital of Austrian Galicia, there is an active Polish press. Here appeared the Monumenta Poloniae historica of Bielowski, previously mentioned; but Polish in this province has to struggle with the Red-Russian or Ruthenian, a language or dialect which for all practical purposes is the same as the Southern or Little Russian. At Warsaw, since the last insurrection, the university has become entirly Russianized, and its Transactions are published in Russian ; but Polish works of merit still issue from the press among others the leading Polish literary journal, Biblioteka warszmvska.
Perhaps the most popular modern writer in Poland is Eliza Orszeszko, of whose novels a complete " Jubilee " edition has appeared. Many of her tales as, for instance, Argonauci (" The Argonauts ") have appeared in the Tygodnik, or weekly illustrated journal _of Warsaw. Meir Ezofowicz has enjoyed great popularity. The object of this tale is to bridge over the gulf between the Jew and Christian in Poland. Adolf Dygasinski writes clever village tales of the " kail-yard " school, as it has been sometimes termed in England. Waclaw Sieroszewski has written Twelve Years in the Land of the Jakuts, a contribution to the literature of folk-lore and ethnology such as only a real artist could produce. Among the latest poets we may mention Wyspianski, Kisiliewski, Reympnt, Mme Zapolska; the latter is the author of some powerful realistic novels and plays, and she has been called the Polish Zola. It is this kind of poetry and traces of the decadent school which we find in the_later Polish poets. A pessimistic spirit is apparent, as in the writings of Wenceslaus Berent. Since the death of Asnyk and Ujejski the most prominent poet is Marya Konopnicka (1846). Some good critical work has been done in the leading reviews by Swietochowski and others. Historical work has been produced by Hirschberg, Pappee, Sobieski, Czermak and others, and the histories of Polish literature by Stanislaus Tarnowski and Piotr Chmielowski are of the highest value, the former dealing more with the aesthetic side of literature and the latter with the historical. The Poles are busy in reviving their great past. Hence the enthusiasm for historical studies, and the Biblioteka pisarzow polskich, which shows us what abundance of literature was produced in Poland in the 16th and beginning of the 17th century. In Henry k Sienkiewicz (q.v.), the historical novelist, Poland has a modern writer of European reputation.
BIBLIOGRAPHY. Pipin and Spafovich, Istoria slavianskikh Literatur (in Russian; St Petersburg, 1879) ; Geschichte der polnischen Literatur von Dr A. Bruckner (Leipzig, 1901 ; also written in Polish) ; Chmielowski, History of Polish Literature (in Polish, 3 vols.) ; Stanislaus Tarnowski, History of Polish Literature (in Polish) ; Grabowski, Poezy a Polska po roku 1863 (Cracow, 1903); Heinrich Nitschmann, Geschichte der polnischen Literatur (Leipzig ; sine anno). (W. R. M.)
Note - this article incorporates content from Encyclopaedia Britannica, Eleventh Edition, (1910-1911)
