Polish Literature

Humanism and the Reformation.—A period justly called "the golden age" of Polish literature was prepared by the spread of Renaissance humanist culture, and of the doctrines of the Reformation. Poland, like other countries, began to produce Latin prose and poetry during the i6th century. The witty and licentious, satirical and erotic epigrams of Bishop Andrew Krzycki (d. 1537), the serious political and moral epistles of the diplomat Joannes Dantiscus (a burgher of Danzig, d. 1548), the tender elegies of Clement Janicki ( Janicius), dead in his prime in rank with the best Latin poetry of modern Europe. The mediaeval historical work of Dlugosz is surpassed in grace by the humanist Latin of Martin Kromer's History of Poland (1555). Poland's greatest political thinker of the period, Andrew Frycz-Modrzew ski, used Latin for his work De republica emendanda (1551), a systematic treatise on social philosophy; and as late as the 17th century a Polish jesuit, Mathew Sarbiewski (d. 1640), became known throughout Europe as "the Christian Horace" for the beauty of his Latin religious lyrics. On their travels abroad, Polish students not only perfected their Latin and Greek, but witnessed the new growth of vernacular literatures based on classical models, and this awakened the ambition to rival foreign achievements by Polish verse and prose. Such ambitions were stimulated by a Protestantism which favoured the vernacular. After the council of Trent and the coming of the Jesuits (1564-1565), Protestantism began to decay: but what it had done for national literature remained effective. The Catholic Polish bible of Bishop J. Wujek (1599) has greatly influenced language and style.

The Poets of the Golden Age.

The year 1543 is a landmark, being the date of the appearance of the first important work of Nicholas Rej of Naglowice (1505-1569). After a somewhat idle youth he wrote a long series of poetical works. He turned Calvinist in middle age, and produced a translation of the Psalms. His principal and most mature works—the Image of an Honest Man's Life, in verse, and the more elaborate prose Life of an Honest Man—present his moral ideals, being those of a good-natured country gentleman. The latter work is also known as The Mirror.

Rej's popularity was outshone by the fame of Jan Kochanow ski (153o-1584). He resided in Paris, where he met Ronsard. Returning to Poland, he became in 1564 secretary to the king.

His less important early works, among which a paraphrase of Vida's poem on the Game of Chess may be singled out, were fol lowed by epigrams called Trifles ("Fraszki") and by numerous Songs varied in tone, idea and form like the Odes of his master Horace, yet instinct with modern sentiment. In a longer poem, The Satyr, he deals with the serious political problems of Poland in his time, in St. John's Eve (SobOtka) he delights us with pictures of nature and country life. Kochanowski's only dramatic work, The Dismissal of the Grecian Envoys (Odprawa poslow greckich) (Eng. tr. Noyes and Merrill, Berkeley, Cal., 1918), is a verse tragedy in the Greek style, with choruses, on a subject from Iliad iii. Another work of Kochanowski's, his verse para phrase of the Psalms, remains one of the masterpieces of religious lyrical poetry in Polish, only rivalled among his works by the Treny or Laments for his little daughter Ursula who died in childhood (Eng. tr. Prall, Berkeley, Cal., 1920). Another great lyrist of the period, Nicholas Sep Szarzyriski (1550-1581) died in his prime. He introduced the sonnet into Polish poetry. The long descriptive and satirical poems, in Polish and Latin, by the townsman Sebastian Klonowicz (1545-1602) are interesting as illustrations of the social life of Poland. Simon Szymonowicz (or Simonides, 1554-1642), a burgher of Lw6w, and an elegant Latin poet and dramatist, acquired fame as a Polish writer by his Pas torals which imitate Theocritus and Virgil, but contain vivid scenes from Polish life.

Prose Classics of the 16th Century.—Simultaneously with poetry, Polish prose rises into excellence. The religious and polit ical controversies of the hot-blooded prelate Stanislas Orzechow ski (1515-1566) were conducted in a style of admirable vigour. The version of Castiglione's 11 Cortegiano, by Lucas Gornicki (1566) is a fine monument of Polish prose style. Ecclesiastical eloquence found its master in the Jesuit Peter Skarga 536– 1612), indefatigable as the protagonist of the Catholic cause in Poland. His Lives of Saints have remained a religious classic ; but his Parliamentary Sermons published in 1597 are the crown of his life's work. It is here that Skarga, exposing the faults of the Polish national character and foretelling the downfall of the State, challenges comparison with the Hebrew prophets.