The Encyclopedia Americana (1920)/Slowacki, Julius

SLOWACKI, slō-vä'kē, Julius, Polish poet: b. Kremenecz, in Volhynia, 23 Aug. 1809; d. Paris, 3 April 1849. He was educated in the University of Vilna. His first work was the poetic tale ‘Hugo’; this was followed by the tragedy ‘Mindowe’ (1829); the poem ‘Mnich’ (the ‘Monk’); and the tragedy ‘Marya Stuart’ (1830); in all of which he was under the influence of Byron; but escapes from it in the ‘Ode to Liberty’; ‘Hymn to the Mother of God’; and ‘Song of the Lithuanian Legion’ (1831) . The sentiment of Polish nationality finds fullest expression in the dramatic poem ‘Kordyan’ (1834), and in the tragedy ‘Mazeppa.’ Slowacki reaches the height of his lyric power in the poem ‘In Switzerland.’ His last great work, left incomplete, was ‘King Spirit,’ which he designed to be a “legend of the ages” of Polish history. See Kordyan.