POLAND
198
POLAND
labours had already doomed the "lihcrum veto" (the
right of any one member of the Diet to prevent a bill
from becoming law); Stazic, followed by Kollataj,
attacked the system of elected kings. A lively dis-
cussion followed, and many pamphlets were published
on either side; but at last the reformers' ideas
triumphed in the Four Years' Diet. At the same time
poetry was making great strides forward, though as
yet inadequate to the utterance of Poland's sorrow.
The contemporary poets, Krasicki and Tremhcki especially, were men of their time, sober, sensible, humourous, witty, aiming at perfection of language and clearness of style; what they produced was not unworthy of an enlightened nation, but in no wise truly great work. Kniaznin, however, and Karpinski have left us productions more lyrical in tone, in which scenes of peasant life, together with religious senti- ments, are often to be found. About this time, too, a multitude of songs without any claim to style began to express the sorrows of the nation; these were the seeds which later produced fruit in the poems of Mickiewicz and his contemporaries. The drama had hitherto been barren in Poland ; it now showed signs of fruitfulness in the comedies of Bohomolec, of Czar- toryski, and especially of Zablocki, a comic writer of no mean powers. Science, too, law, philosophy, art- criticism, geography, grammar, and philology now found exponents in Sniadecki, Poczubut, Czacki, Nagurczewski, Dmochowski, Wyrwicz, and KopczjTi- ski. History was completely transformed by Narus- zewicz, less great indeed than Dlugosz, but the only historian at all comparable to him until after the fall of Poland. If the former laid the foundations of her history, the latter rebuilt it with his critical studies and strict investigation of sources. In the same field, Albertrandi, Loyko, and Czacki were also able work- ers; nor should we omit to notice many memoirs, not all equally valuable, but for the most part very im- portant and instructive. During this period then there was rapid progress. The direction of studies was com- pletely changed. The literature run wild of the former era was succeeded by good, sensible, carefully written work; the unruly nobility of former Diets was re- placed by men like Niemcewicz, Wybicki, Andrew Zamoyski, Ignatius Potocki, and Bishop Krasinski. No wonder that their achievement, the Constitution of the Third of May, was proclaimed by Burke and Sieyes the best in Europe. In a word, this period may be judged by its results — the realization of Poland as a true political organization, the notion of equality before the law, a culture higher than any since the sixteenth centurj-, a literature both serious and worthy of respect, great examples of strenuous work, and an intense sentiment of patriotic dutj'.
Seventh Period {1796-1822). — The silent stupefac- tion of the first few years after Poland's downfall was followed by an awakening prompted by the instinct of self-preservation, which in the first place made for the preservation of the national language and litera- ture. This sentiment became strong, ardent, univer- sal. The Society of the Friends of Learning was then founded in Warsaw. Of its members, many have al- ready been named as men of note in the sixth period. It did admirable work, and was not dissolved until 1831. Prince Adam Czartoryski, having become min- ister to Alexander I, prevailed upon him to sanction a vast plan for public education in Lithuania and Ruthenia, embracing all studies from the most ele- mentary to those of the University of Vilna, whence Mickiewicz was one day to come forth and endow the national poetiy with new life. And as Vilna llniver- sity was inadcciuate to the needs of so xaat a country, the Volhyniun Lyceum was founded in 1805. During this period, the general course of literature was very like that of tli(' preceding epoch, but more strongly inarkefl with patriotic sadness as became a generation imbued with the constitutional ideas of the Four
Years' Diet, but grown up under the shadow of a
great catastrophe. To keep the memories of the past
and the love of the fatherland was now the aim evi-
dently pursued by Niemcewicz in his "songs", by
Woronicz in his "Sybil" (an anticipation of the poetry
that was soon to come), by Kozmian in his "Odes",
by Wezyk and Felinski in their tragedies; but the
form was still French. Poles had come to be ignorant
of any other literature, and the pseudo-classic taste
of the time, together with the glamour of Napoleon's
victories, had an excessive influence upon both htera-
ture and politics, upon language and social life.
It was through the French themselves that the Poles came to know the existence of other sources of inspiration. But this revelation once made, though Kozmian and Osinski still held exclusively to Latin models and the ideas of Laharpc, Wezyk began to study German a;sthetic writers, Niemcewicz imitated Scott and pre-Byronic English poets, and Morawski translated Byron. The drama especially, though still following French models, was making great and much needed progress. Felinski's " Barbara" deserves men- tion as a successful plaj', and the actors who played it were better than had ever been seen in Poland. Ro- manticism was yet to come, but it had a forerunner in Brodzinski, who, though somewhat stereotyped in his diction, was nevertheless familiar with German poetry and tended to simplicity of thought, seeking his inspiration where the Romantics were wont to seek it. In the fields of science and scholarship, also, we meet with great names — Lelewel, Sniadecki, Bandtkie, Linde, Ossolinski, Betkowski, Surowiecki, Szaniawski, Goluchowski, and others already men- tioned. In a word, this period presents a steady and continual upward trend in every direction.
Eighth Period (I S 2 2-50) .—TMis period, though brief, is the most brilliant in Polish Uterature. It may be divided into two parts: before 1831, the search after new and independent paths; after 1831, the splendid efflorescence of poetical creations resulting from this search. What gave its tone to all the poetry of the time was the downfall of Poland, an influence that was patriotic, political, and at the same time mystical. But this factor alone, strong as it was, was not enough; other elements co-operated. There was the great Romantic movement of revolt (in England and Germany especially) against the French Classical school. In Poland the first efforts to cast off the yoke were feeble and timid, but little by little the new forms of beauty kindled interest, while the idea of a return to the poetrj' of the people proved particularly attractive. Both external influences and popular aspirations now tended in the same direction: there was needed only a man able to lead the movement. The needed pioneer appeared in Adam Mickiewicz, after whom the Romantic period of Polish literature should rightly be called. From the outset liis verse marked the opening of a new poetical epoch. It was hailed with delight by the younger generation. New talents sprang up around him at once — the "Ukraine" school, whose most characteristic exponents were Zaleski, his friend Goszczynski, whose best poem was "The Castle of Kaniow", and Malczewski, whose one narrative poem, " Marya", made him famous. Hith- erto the prevailing tone in Mickicwicz's poems had been purely literary and artistic; but he was exiled to Russia, and wrote there his celebrated "Sonnets" and his " Wallcnrod". The latter work shows him for the first time inspired by the history and the actual polit- ical state of Poland. Patriotism apart, the character- istics of his school were the substitution of simpler methods of e\-pression for the old conventional style and vivid delineation of individuals instead of abstract general types. National feeling, present from the first, predominated only after the calamitous insurrec- tion of 1831. Among the pioneers of the movement were many men of talent, but only one of genius, and
