KRASICKI, IGNACY, a Polish poet of the first degree of eminence, was born at Dubiecko, on the 3rd of February 1734, received his first education at Lemberg, entered the priesthood, and afterwards spent some years in Rome. On his return to Poland, he attracted attention to his literary talents by his contributions to the ' Monitor,' a series of sways in imitation of the English 'Spectator,' published at Warsaw. He was taken notice of by the king, Stanislaus Poniatowski, with whom he became a special favourite, and to whom some of his first poems, which contain delicate flattery in the guise of satire, are addressed. By the king's favour he first became coadjutor to Gra bowski, bishop of Warmia, or, as the Germans name it, Ermeland ; and in 1766, on Grabowaki's death, succeeded to the nee. At the diet of 1768 he made use of his dignified position to endeavour to avert the fast approaching ruin of Poland; but in 1772, on the first partition of tho country, his diocese became a part of Prussia, and he found himself a subject of Frederick the Great. Krasicki was remarkable for his cheerfulness in society and his flow of easy wit, which aeon made him a favourite with Frederick as it had with Stauislaus. When the king told him one day that ho hoped he would take him under his robes into Paradise, the bishop replied—in allusion to the loss of some of his revenues—that his majesty had cut his robes too short to allow him any chance of being able to smuggle contraband—a repartee which hu found its way Into several English jest-books. Frederick once assigned him, when on. a visit to Sans-Souci, the apartments which had been occupied by Voltaire, and told him that under such circumstances he must surely be inspired ; and the bishop wrote in those apartments his humorous poem of the 'ISIonachomachia: or War of the Monks: In 1705 lraaicki was raised to the archbishopric of Gnesen. He died at Berlin, on the 34th of March 1801, and twenty-eight years after, in 1829, his remains were removed to the cathedral of hie archbishopric.
Kruicki wrote Loth in verse and prose, on a great variety of sub jects, though nothing, we believe, on theology. As a poet, he is in Polish literature nearly what Pope is in English. "If he had written nothing but his fables and satires only," said Dmochowski at the beginning of this century, "he would still have been at the head of the poets of Poland ;" and the only Polish names that are placed above his are of a subsequent period. His Fables, which are in eight books,
are of very different kinds : the Slat four are of a simplicity of style end subject almost adapted to children ; in the other four, entitled Bajki Nowo ' (' New Fables), he aims, with success, at a rivalry with Lafontaine and other great masters of the class. His • Epistles' and 'Satires' are full of polished wit, less cutting than urbane; the epistles addressed to Stanislaus Ponistowaki are particularly happy. The Myszeis: or ' Mousiad: is a burlesque poem on the old Polish tradition related by Kadlubek of King Popiel, wbo, like Bishop Ifatto of the Rhine, was for his inhumanity devoured by mice and rats. His Monachornsehia; already alluded to, and his ' Antimonacho machia,' aro two other burlesque poems, of which the former is highly valued. He was less successful in the serious epic : his ' Wojna Chocimska; or War of Chociru: which celebrates the exploits of Chodkiewicz spinet the Turks, is not considered a masterpiece. Ilia translation of ' Fingal,' and a few other of Ossian's poems in heroic verse, rather detracts from than adds to his fame. As a prose writer, his two novels, ' The Adventures of Nicholas Doswiadczynski; iu which he aims at pointing out the faults of systems of oducatiou, is much less esteemed than his ' Pan Podstoli,' in which he satirises tho faults of his countrymen in the history of a country gentleman. This work was a favourite with its author, who was projecting a continua tion of it at the time of his death, and is still we believe a favourite with the Polish public,. The remainder of his prose works consist of translations of Plutarch, &c., and a general survey of the poetry of all nations, which is remarkable for the very superficial acquaintance shown by its author with the English and German authors whom he has occasiou to mention, and the extreme shallowness of his criticism. A nearly complete edition of Krasicki's works was published at War saw in 10 vols. in 1803.4, under the editorship of Dmochowski ; a new edition of the whole in one double-columned octavo, which was issued at Paris in 1830, is perhaps the neatest extant specimen of typography in the Polish language.