WRITTEN LITERATURE. EARLIEST TINIES. With Christianity (e.965) came also the rejection of everything national as reminiscent of heathen ism. The indigenous letters were replaced by the Latin alphabet and all studies in the sehools had for their sole object the mastery of the Latin language. In tie thirteenth century edu cation was extended. and more than 120 different schools are known to have existed in the period of But the Polish scholars, writing in Latin. are in tin way respresentative of the Polish The literary remains of this period to the end of the fifteenth century fall into three groups: (a) Annals anal ('lronkie. of Martin Gallus fantastic in subject matter, but unaffected in style and humorous; Wikenty Nadlubek in most arti ficial and labored medieval 1.a tin; the journeys of the Franciscan ('arpini (Giovanni di Piano) and Benedict Polaens to the Tatar Khan Hayuk in the thirteenth century. The flistoria Poloniur of Jan Dlugosz (1415-80). Bishop of Lemberg. in 12 volumes, is a remarkable result of more than two decades of independent research. and is animated by strong patriotism and written in artistic style. (b) Didactic. Sermons, though delivered in Polish, were written in Latin, to give them a wider circulation abroad. They con tain much anecdotic material, important for the history of literature, as well as accounts of cur rent superstitions and ethical instruction valuable for the history of Polish morals. (e) Poetic. These are very few: most of the extant manuscripts contain medizeval translations of the classics. (if the Polish poems preserved in Callus, Wik enty, and Dlugosz, many are poetic in spii it and feeling, though crude in form. Of these the ear liest and most remarkable specimen is the famous battle hymn to the Virgin cllogiirod:-.ico), as cribed by tradition to Saint Wojciech of the tenth century. Other specimens are: the Psalter of Queen Margaret, in a manuscript of the four teenth century, also known as the TIorian Psalter; a prayer-book of the year 137.5; a Polish translation of the fiftieth Psalm: the Onesen sermons; the Bible written for Queen Sophia. Some Polish statutes and religious hymns belong to the fifteenth century.
During this period humanistic ideas gained ground. The number of schools increased rapidly to satisfy the great demand for study among the laity. The contest between scholastics and hu manists, raging in other parts of Europe. was carried on also in Poland. Andrzej Halka's
Eulogy of Wiclif proves that literature was be coming a means of religious propaganda.
In the sixteenth century the Polish language was gradually superseding Latin. The first hook in Polish was printed in 1521 (The Discourse of King Solomon). and this is commonly taken as the beginning of the new 'golden' period of Po lish literature. A Protestant translation of the Bible appeared at (Brest-Litovsk) in 1553. The great names of this period are: llikolaj Rej of Naglowice (1505-69), who gives in his poems vivid pictures of contemporary man ners. typical studies in character and graphic de scriptions of scenery. Jan Kochanowski (q.v.) (1530-84) is best known by his Psalms. His La ments (on the death of his daughter Ursula) are characterized by depth and sincerity of feeling, and perfection of form. His Jests are rol licking with fun or bitter with satire. His dramatic effort (Departure of the Greek En voys) was the pioneer in Polish drama. The names most closely allied with his are those of Szarzyfiski, Groehowsk i, Peter Koehanowski. Szymonowicz, and Sebastian Klonfiwiez (1545 1602). a keen satirist, lint not a poet, and Stan Islas Orzeehowski (1573-66). who perfected the Polish language in his publicist writings.
The only poet of merit that the seventeenth century produced was Maciej Kazimierz Sar biewski (1595-1640), a writer of Latin poems. The exhaustion of the poetic vein brought about the so-called 'macaronie period' of Polish litera ture. The only valuable achievements were the increasing number of translations of European poets. A theatre was established by ladislas IV., where English, French. and Italian actors appeared. There had been native mysteries, such as Reis Joseph. All of them were very poor. the best being those of Andrzej STorsztyn. hut even he was more an imitator of French and Italian models than a creative poet: his translations of Corneille's rid and Tasso's pastoral drama Amin ta, however, were excellent. Waclaw Potocki's The War of Khotin, discovered in manuscript in 1850, is a powerful realistic poem, more striking when contrasted with the general barrenness of the period. The first half of the eighteenth century served to emphasize the dangers arising from in ternal disorders. Martin Matuszewski (1714 65) gave vivid pictures of the moral depravity of the times. Warning voices were heard against the licentiousness of the nobility (Karwieki) and the liberum veto (Konar,ki).