Polish Art, Science, and Literature
The Slav mind furnishes excellent material for the building up of genuine literature. There is a quickness and fancy quite unexpected by those familiar only with the political history. It…
From: 1300 C.E. To: 1913 C.E.
Location: Poland
Note: This article has been excerpted from a larger work in the public domain and shared here due to its historical value. It may contain outdated ideas and language that do not reflect TOTA’s opinions and beliefs.
From Poland of To-Day and Yesterday by Nevin O. Winter, 1913.
The Slav mind furnishes excellent material for the building up of genuine literature. There is a quickness and fancy quite unexpected by those familiar only with the political history. It generally reveals a straining after distant ideals, revelling in the sheer delight of wandering in the regions of the unknown. Danger and severe discipline seemed to give a freer flight to thought and imagination.
The literature of Poland has been greatly influenced by the political denationalization of the country. Prior to that event the country does not furnish us with any great or remarkable works.
In Poland there is an absence of the legendary poetry and celebration of national heroes common among the Slav people. Throughout all of Russia we meet an endless series of legends, called “bylini,” the “things that were,” in each of which there is a moral to leave the reader thinking.
Some of these date earlier than the time of Vladimir, while others are not a quarter of a century old. The Ukraine is a rich source of folk-songs and folk-lore. With all the imaginative and idealistic characteristics of the Poles, we find little of this early folk-lore among the records that are left. If such existed, the works have not been handed down to the succeeding generations. They may have been lost or, perhaps, destroyed by the clerical authorities as irreligious. The upheavals caused by the Reformation, which appeared so prominently in the nations of Western Europe, had little effect in Poland. As a matter of fact it had little influence among any of the Slav people, with the exception of the Bohemians, who were greatly affected by the Hussite movement, which waged for at least two centuries in that country.
Much of the early literature in Poland was written in the Latin tongue, for that language was used by the court in its official utterances, as well as by the clergy. The Latin spoken and written in Poland is said to have been as pure as in Rome itself. One Martin Gallus wrote in that tongue as early as the twelfth century. Prior to the fourteenth century nothing in Polish is preserved, with the exception of some very insignificant fragments. A printing press had been established in Cracow as early as 1474, but the first book in Polish was not printed until 1521.
Hence we find two of the earliest writers who are worthy of mention, Nicholas Rej (1505-1559) and John Ko|tianovski (1530-1584), made their entry into the field of literature as Latin poets. The same may be said of Casimir Sarbiewski, who wrote in the seventeenth century, and was designated by the Pope as laureate. All of these writers seemed to write only for the nobles, for the peasantry were too ignorant to appreciate literature.
Many of the clergy wrote Latin, and their themes are naturally the Church and the preservation of the Catholic faith among the people. One priest, Orzechowski, was affected by the Reformation, and has left some stirring polemics. His writings were included in the Papal Index Expurgatus, and he was declared to be “a servant of the devil.''
Peter Skarga, also a priest, delivered some wonderful sermons before the Diet, in which he did not mince the truth in dealing with the national weakness. He plainly foretold the downfall of their country as a consequence of their perpetual feuds. Skarga was a Jesuit and an ardent churchman, but he was a Polish patriot and opposed corruption in both secular and religious life. It would have been well for the Poles if they had listened to some of his fiery eloquence. He was the court preacher of Sigismund III, and has left behind a host of sermons and religious works. He is thought by Polish critics to have raised the prose style of the language to a high standard of excellence. He had much to do with stamping out Calvinisin and Orthodoxy in Poland. An idea of the influence of Protestantism at this time may be gained by a complaint of Skarga that two thousand Romanist churches had been converted to Protestant places of worship. A complete Protestant Bible had already been published at Brzesc and at Dantzig. Historical works in Latin also began to appear at this period.
The name of the author of the Copernican System, which first taught that the sun was a fixed body and the centre of the solar system, is highly honoured among the Poles. Nikolaus Kappernik was born in Thorn in 1473, but he changed the spelling of his name to the Latin form of Copernicus, which was a common custom in that day. His father was a wholesale trader, and had Jewish ancestors. He was destined for the Church by his mother, and was educated in the University of Cracow. Although deeply religious, he was early attracted by mathematics, but also studied medicine. This was the age of great discoveries of new lands, and these things caused Copernicus to study the heavenly bodies. But the Church frowned upon any new theories, and Copernicus worked in secret. He taught mathematics in Cracow and in Borne, where he also lectured on astronomy in 1500. He developed what later became trigonometry. He was devoted to the Church, and even preached for a while himself. But he was constantly studying astronomy.
The Church would not allow Copernicus to speak in public, except on subjects approved by them. All the time, however, he was working on his great work, “De Orbium Celestium Revolutionibus,” which set forth his theories. This work was forty years in the making and completely upset the old Ptolemaic theory. During the greater part of this time there was not a day or night passed in which something was not added. It was practically finished in 1530, but he withheld it from publication for fear of persecution. At last the manuscript was sent to Nuremberg, where there was greater freedom, and he paid for the publication. It was dedicated to Pope Paul III. The printed book reached him in 1543, just a few days before his death, although he had up to that time enjoyed good health. He had just consciousness enough to recognize the printed form of the work of his life. The death angel thus removed the old astronomer from all danger of persecution for heresy, and now statues stand in his honour in many places. He is buried in the town of his birth.
The period of political decay during the last century of national existence did not bring out a virile literature. Literature in general descended into the same abyss as the leaders of politics. A few patriotic writers arose, but they could not make themselves heard. One of the most energetic of these patriotic writers was Kollataj (1750-1812). He did his best to arouse the people from their lethargy. He fought in the defence of his country, and suffered eight years' imprisonment in an Austrian prison. Following the partitioning of Poland there comes a period when literary as well as national life passes through a period of stagnation. It is really not to be wondered at that a cessation of the intellectual development of the people followed such an event. Many of the writers were included in the large number of exiles who were sent away to Siberia, and some of them were even banished to far-away Kamschatka. Some of these exiles afterwards escaped and emigrated to France and Italy; others lied to those countries upon their release from imprisonment. A greater period of literary activity was destined to follow.
The richest and most fruitful period in Polish literature began as early as the first quarter of the last century. Literature seemed to supply, to some extent, the feeling of deprivation brought about by the loss of a national existence. Especially was that true of poetry. Literature, likewise, gained in its spirit of exaltation, even if it lost in variety of theme. The literature of that period is idealistic in its tendencies, and rivals the French in its capriciousness. It has great vivacity, but little of the shrewd political sense which is characteristic of the Anglo-Saxon and Teutonic literature. Its idealism swept away all barriers, and it is filled with the most fantastic day-dreams. The poets seem to feel as though it was their mission to give the people a spiritual tonic and spiritual nourishment. One is surprised at the love of the ideal expressed in their writings, and the high level attained hj them. The national character of Poland was well adapted to the development of the most intense spirit of romanticism. It swept away all barriers in its coarse. Mysticism also grew, both because of the native religious intensity and the oppression of the Russian censor.
Julian Niemcewicz, a friend of Kosciuszko, and his companion in captivity, is a writer of merit who is of interest to Americans. He was bom in Lithuania in 1758, and lived to the good old age of four score and four years. On the disintegration of his country Niemcewicz fled to the United States, as he had been an active member of the four-years parliament. In it his voice was always raised for the common people. He lived here for ten years and married a rich American widow. He returned to Warsaw and again entered into the political life, serving as secretary of the Polish Senate. After the disastrous revolution of 1830 he went to Paris, where he died in 1841. He wrote odes, epigrams, plays, fables and novels, and translated many works from English into his native tongue. A patriotic comedy, “The Return of the Deputy,” achieved great success. His writings have not been so lasting, but they were very popular in their day and had great influence. Anton Malczewski (1793-1826) was the author of one of the most popular poems among the Poles, called “Marja,” a tale of the Ukraine. Malczewski met Byron, who was about the same age, and was greatly influenced by the English poet.
The man who is the recognized laureate of Poland is Adam Mickiewicz. A great monument has been erected to this poet in Cracow, which is really a tribute from the whole nation. Stately memorials have also been erected in Posen and Warsaw. He was born in a little town in Lithuania, not far from Vilna, in 1798, and was descended from an old noble family. Many of his productions are based upon the legends of his own country. One of these is “Grazyna," which describes the wars between the old knights and the heathen Lithuanians. Like many poets Mickiewicz had a romance which greatly influenced him. He had, for a long time, been in love with a Polish maiden, but his union with her was forbidden. This caused him to become a voluntary exile, going to Rome, and he never again sought the lady. The memory of her, however, is immortalized in his chief work—“Pan Tadeusz.”
Mickiewicz fell under the same influences as Byron, and there is quite a marked resemblance in the themes of some of his poems to those chosen by the English poet. In 1829, when Mickiewicz was only thirty years of age, he visited Goethe in company with a literary friend. He was greatly attracted by the German poet but being intensely religions himself, he could not understand or appreciate the theology of Goethe. To him Goethe seemed to be without a God. There is an irresistible fountain of freshness in the writings of Mickiewicz which can be seen in the “Ode to Youth” and “Paris.”
Like many of the other literary lights of Poland, Mickiewicz fell under the political ban, and with several companions was arrested by the Russian authorities. He was in prison for a number of months, but afterwards served in some of the government departments of Russia in a minor capacity.
During this period he produced several works. His literary talent had already been recognized and he met Alexander Pushkin, the leading Russian poet at that time, and the two became fast friends. They were of just the same age. Each has left in verse an appreciation of the other, and they are now considered the two greatest Slav poets. The best Russian society was opened to him, even in the capital. Many high Russian ladies carried their enthusiasm so far as to take lessons in Polish from the poet
Julius Slowacki, born in 1809, was a contemporary of Mickiewicz. He had been educated in the same institution, the University of Vilna, and was employed in one of the government departments at Warsaw. In the university he imbibed the exalted patriotism of the age. He became involved in the revolutionary movement of 1830, and left Poland upon its collapse, never again to return. These two contemporary poets both resided for a long time in Paris. But Slowacki seemed at all times to entertain a feeling of jealousy toward Mickiewicz, who had the greater reputation, and he refused to recognize the poetic ability in his rival. Mickiewicz thought there was no God in Slowacki 's poetry, and criticized it on that account. Although the two occasionally met at the homes of mutual friends, they never developed an intimacy.
One of the greatest of Slowacki 's works is “Dziady,” and another notable one is “The Plague in the Desert,” which is all tragedy. An Arab describes how his four sons, three daughters, and his wife were taken from him by the plague, and does so in simple and eloquent words. He revels in his descriptions of the horrible cruelty which characterized the age of which he writes. Perhaps the misfortunes of his own life caused him to dwell upon such themes as prisons, banishments and punishments. He pictures the scenes with which his own sad life was filled. He died in 1849.
Sigismund Krasinski was another contemporary of these two writers. He was born in Paris in 1812, the son of a Polish noble. Despair seemed to fill his soul. He felt himself obliged to give up the woman he loved and marry the girl selected by his father, according to the Polish custom. His father had entered the Russian service, and was looked upon as a deserter of the patriotic cause by the Poles. Sigismund did not approve of this, but his loyalty to his father prevented him from following his own inclinations. He saw no hope for his fatherland, and found no consolation in religion. The latter part of his life was also filled with intense physical suffering, and he died before his fiftieth year. “Temptation" is one of his finest poems. His writings show a loftiness of soul, even if not a healthfulness. “The Godless Comedy'' is another of his noteworthy works.
“Pan Tadeusz” is pronounced by many critics to be the best poetical work in the literature of Poland, and the only great epic of the last century. It is the attempt of this poet to give an epic which should show the national culture of his country during the period in which he himself lived. Entwined with a slender love story, it is a picture of Polish life at the time of Napoleon's invasion in 1812. It portrays the life of the nobles, their luxury and dissipation, the family feuds and the excessive hospitality. In this way he broke away from the traditions of most epic writers who have portrayed ages with which they were familiar only by reading. He has thus given us beings who existed, and most of whom still exist to this day. The sub-title of the poem is “The Last Raid in Lithuania." It treats of the custom of determining litigation between families in that Grand Duchy. In descriptions of scenery Mickiewicz will rank with the best English poetry and in these he showed his greatest power. There is not a sight or sound to be met with in Lithuania that is not touched upon somewhere in his writings.
“In Pan Tadeusz,'' says Mr. Brandes, "Poland possesses the only successful epic our century has produced. The good star of Mickiewicz ordained that this time he should not go back to the remote past in order to produce something epic. Hence he succeeded in seeing the heroic in his own age.”
Mickiewicz had to endure poverty the greater part of his life, and especially after his marriage in 1834. For that reason his later years were not very productive, and he wrote no more poetry. He taught and lectured to support his invalid wife and six children. He edited a newspaper in Paris at one time. In 1852 Napoleon lII rescued him from dire poverty, and secured for him a position as librarian. In 1855 he was sent on a mission to Constantinople, having another Pole as his companion. Many Polish nobles were then living among the Turks. This mission seems to have been both literary and political. The political part was to organize a legion of the Poles living there to fight Russia.
His mission was unsuccessful in every way. His system became undermined and lie contracted the cholera, then raging there, and died on the 26th of November. His remains were eventually brought to the Cathedral in Cracow, where they rest among Poland's other great men who have passed away. Great crowds attended the obsequies, and the Russian government even relaxed its passport vigilance in honour of the occasion.
Poland has had many historians during her long history, but the chief of all is Lelewal (1786-1861). Of German descent this man became an ardent Polish patriot. He was born in Warsaw, and spent his early life there and at Vilna. He wrote many historical works concerning his own and other countries. During the revolution of 1830, Lelewal became one of the ministers in the temporary government.
After the collapse of that movement, he went to Paris and later to Brussels. In the latter city he spent the last years of his life in extreme poverty. His literary labours were prodigious, but they afforded him only a scant livelihood. His independence caused him to refuse all aid from friends, for he would rather live in want than be dependent. His life is only another striking example of the calamities that have befallen many eminent literary geniuses. The Poles are rightfully proud of their greatest historian.
The writer who is regarded most highly by the Poles of to-day is the novelist, Henryk Sienkiewicz, whose best-known work in America is “Quo Vadis,” that famous novel of the time of Nero which created such a stir when it first appeared. He was born in Siedlce, Russian Poland, in 1846. His mother was a poetess, and from her he undoubtedly inherited his literary taste and ability. Sienkiewicz lived in the United States for a while in the seventies, when he joined a colony established by Madam Modjeska, the famous actress, in California. As a result he has written some criticisms of America that have hurt the supersensitive. When the first Duma was elected in Russia, in 1906, Sienkiewicz was chosen as a member of that body, but he declined to serve, for he had already experienced, in a mild way, the displeasure of the Russian government.
To the Poles Sienkiewicz is not known so much as the author of the popular novel, "Quo Vadis,” but as the author of a number of volumes whose bases are the striking and romantic history of their own country. They look upon him as their first real interpreter to the world. He seems to consider it as his task to reproduce for the people the past, when Poland still existed as a nation, and he describes many of the scenes during the most unhappy period of Poland 's history. The best known works are the three novels, ''With Fire and Sword,'' ''The Deluge,'' and “Pan Michael," all of which treat of the resistance of the Poles to invaders. Upon these three works—known as the Trilogy—the author has really staked his reputation.
“Without Dogma” is a psychological story; “Children of the Soil” deals with the hollowness of modem life; ''The Family of Polaniecke,” "The Knights of the Cross,'' and “On the Field of Glory” are the titles of three other works written by him. His writings in some respects might be compared to those of Dumas and Scott, but sometimes they become a little too tedious in their descriptions, for in length they compare with the works of Thackeray.
His writings have had at least one good effect, for all Poles, who are able to read at all, read the novels of Sienkiewicz, and he writes in the purest Polish. Thus the Poles in Austria, Germany and Russia are drawn together by their love of this writer and their fascination for his writings, so that he has helped in no small measure to counteract the effects of both Germany and Russia to suppress and supplant the Polish tongue.
If any one wishes to see a pen picture of Polish history, he can do no better than to read the three books of the Trilogy, all of which appear in good English translations. They show in a vivid way what a descriptive work does so inadequately, the excessive pride of the Poles in their birth, the lawlessness which existed in the Ukraine, the slight regard which both Poles and Cossacks had for human life, and the lack of cohesion which finally resulted in the disintegration of all national life.
Battles and personal encounters filled with heroism stand out prominently on almost every page. He has gathered up national types and the threads of national character, and has woven them together in these three works. He has painted human beings, not gods, although he has naturally laid great stress on the princely characteristics of the Polish nobles. Pan Yan, or Skrzetuski, is an instance of this.
One interesting character in “With Fire and Sword" is old Zagloba, a sort of Polish Falstaff. He is the same sort of a boastful and crafty character, with a shrewd tongue, like unto Shakespeare's creation, only he has real courage when compelled by force of conditions to exercise it, as his numerous encounters prove. In appetite for food and drink he is even greater than Falstaff, for he could quaff a gallon of liquor with true Polish ease, and for that reason was the envy of many.
In spite of the difficulties under which Polish literature labours, owing to a dismembered country, the amount of it that appears is very large. There are four active centres—Cracow, Lemberg, Warsaw and Posen. The smallest amount appears at the last named city, because it has been more completely denationalized. Many editions of old and almost forgotten Polish authors are being issued under the patronage of the University of Cracow. A number of excellent reviews, fully up to the English and German standards, are issued.
Of these the Ataneum and Biblioteka Warszawska, of Warsaw, and the Przegland Wszechpolski, of Cracow, probably take the lead. The Tygodnik lllustowany, published in Warsaw, is an illustrated weekly popular with Poles the world over, and the Bluszcz (Ivy), of the same place, is an old journal for women. The Praca (Work), of Posen, is an able weekly, strongly anti-German in its tendencies. There are also many special periodicals, and the Polish Jews have a number of journals of their own.
Of the daily press the Gazeta Warszawska (Warsaw Gazette) was founded in 1761, and is still influential. The Kurjer Warsawski (Warsaw Courier) has reached an age of seventy-five years. It has a high literary standard, and exemplifies the very best in Polish dailies. It is edited in a dignified style, and contains all the news permitted by the Russian censor. The Dziennik Posnanski (Posen Daily) and Goniac Wielkopolski (Messenger of Great Poland) are the leading patriotic Polish dailies of Posen. The Czas (Times), of Cracow, is one of the best known of the Polish press. It is an old and conservative newspaper, and is the organ of the rich nobility of Austrian Poland. The Nowa Reforma (New Reform) is liberal and patriotic, pro-Austrian but anti-German, and anti-Russian, and is widely read. In Lemberg appear the Slowo Polskie (Polish Word) and Kurjer Lwowski (Lemberg Courier). The former is a high-class journal, liberal but anti-socialistic, while the latter is more radical.
The artistic sense of the Poles extends to all branches of art. In music, painting, and the drama they are alike pre-eminent. The most noted painter was undoubtedly Jan Matejko, who was the painter of Polish history. No artist ever went to greater pains to be historically accurate. He would study his subject for weeks and months, and would go to any length in order to be correct in the portrayal of a historical character. Some of his canvases contain as many as a couple of hundred figures, each one a different type from all the others. “The Prussians Bringing Tribute,” “The Battle of Grunwald,” “SobieskI before Vienna,” and “The Demon of Skarga," are four of his leading works. The last named received a noted French prize when exhibited in Paris in 1864. It portrays the priest Skarga predicting the downfall of the country if the internal anarchy is not ended. The varying expression on the faces of his hearers is an interesting study. Matejko lived and worked in Cracow, where he founded the Academy of Painting. He was, as his works reveal, an ardent patriot, and most of his work was done without reward.
Arthur Gröttger is another painter whose works are highly appreciated by the Poles, but his productions are not numerous. The Polish painters of to-day are many and able. Their work will be found exhibited in most of the European salons. Some of them follow historical subjects, and others are infected with the craze for symbolical representation, which no one understands unless a key accompanies it Melancholy subjects have influenced the painters as well as the poets, and the horrors of exiles are frequently portrayed.
The Polish soul is musical; its notes are characterized by sadness and melancholy. The same is true of Russian music, and it would seem that the physical characteristics of monotonous plains and a severe climate must have had a marked influence on the Slav nature. Infinite space and boundless landscape have left their indelible impression. The mysticism and fatalism inherited from the East can be readily traced in music as well as in costume and architecture. The tragedy of history has likewise had its effect But beauty runs through even the most melancholy minor note. The Poles feel their music as well as play it, and this can always be noted in the renditions of their orchestras.
The most eminent Polish musician was Frederic Francois Chopin (1809-1849), whose mother was a Pole. The musician was born in Warsaw. His father was a Frenchman, which accounts for the French name. Although Chopin lived in Paris most of his life, he never forgot Poland, and her history inspired many of his compositions. He abandoned that country during the troubles of 1831, and his body still rests in a cemetery in Paris.
Ignace Jan Paderewski is the greatest living Polish musician and was born in Podolia in 1860. He has made several tours through the United States, and his compositions are well known here. What position he will eventually be given, it is probably too early to predict. But it will undoubtedly be a very high one, and the Poles are naturally proud of this man, who is intensely Polish in his sympathies. His opera “Mauru” has received wide praise, and some of his shorter compositions have become household favourites. He lives in Switzerland the greater part of the time, and his home is always open to his fellow-countrymen. There are many other Polish composers, who are not quite so well known, and yet whose work will be heard throughout the entire civilized world.
One of the greatest of modem tragediennes is claimed by the Poles. Helena Modrzejewska, a name she afterwards changed to Modjeska, was one of the world's greatest actresses. She was born in Cracow in 1844, and was married at the early age of seventeen to a Polish actor, G. S. Modrzejewska and soon left a widow. She afterwards married Charles Chlapowski, but was always known by the name of Modjeska. Her early reputation was made in her own country, but, becoming involved in trouble with the Russian government, the talented young actress came to the United States in 1876, and attempted to establish a colony near Los Angeles.
She studied English and went on the American stage. From here she went to London, and took the world’s metropolis by storm. Her favourite role was Shakespearian characters, and her appearances in English were almost wholly confined to such plays. But in Polish her repertoire was extremely varied. She usually returned to Cracow every two years, playing there and in the other Polish cities, until Warsaw was finally denied her. These appearances were for the love of her people rather than financial remuneration, for the returns could not compare with the English or American stage. She maintained a splendid country home at Arden, near Los Angeles, where she spent the last few years of her life in practical retirement She died in 1909, and her passing was mourned by all lovers of real drama. Madam Modjeska was gifted with great beauty in her younger days, and had a charming personality as well, which delighted those who knew her intimately. America is proud to claim her as an adopted daughter.
Winter, Nevin Otto. Poland of To-Day and Yesterday. L. C. Page and Company, 1913.
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