Historical View of the Languages and Literature of the Slavic Nations: With a Sketch of Their Popular PoetryTalvj
History
Historical View of the Languages and Literature of the Slavic Nations: With a Sketch of Their Popular Poetry
Talvj
Folk songs, Slavic; Slavic languages -- History; Slavic literature -- History and criticism
Other poets of this age were, prince Lubomirski, who on account of his
wealth and wise sayings is styled the Polish Solomon; prince
Wisniowiocki, who published whole poems without the letter _r_,
because he could not pronounce that letter; Bratkowski, the author of
a series of happy epigrams; Falibogowski, Szymonowski, the Jesuits
Ignes and Poniatowski, and others.
FIFTH PERIOD.
_From Stephen Konarski, A.D. 1760, to the Revolution in 1830_.
The Polish language, at the beginning of this period, was in a
melancholy state; it was, to use Schaffarik's expression, stripped of
its natural gifts of perspicuity, simplicity, and strength, deformed
by tastelessness, and grown childish and obsolete at the same time. An
able work, _Memoirs_, referring to the period between 1750 and 1760,
written by K.H. Kallontaj, and published a few years since by count E.
Raczynski, gives a graphic picture of the miserable and illiterate
state of society in Poland at that time; and shows clearly how the
seeds of decay and destruction were already scattered with full hands
on a susceptible soil. It was a fortunate circumstance, that, just at
the time when several of the most powerful Polish noblemen began to
feel an intense and patriotic interest in their neglected
language,--the king Stanislaus Augustus and his uncle prince
Czartoryski at their head,--there awoke a number of gifted minds, who
began to plant with so much activity on the long deserted though still
fertile soil, that the field of Polish literature soon flourished and
bore fruit again. These fruits, however artificial and _un_national in
their character, could only be compared to green-house productions.
Various effective measures were taken for the revival of literature,
and also for the promotion of science and art. But the new patrons
could not afford to wait. The French literature of the day, with all
its levity, shallowness, and splendour, seemed to be a material nearer
at hand and more in harmony with the spirit of the court--the only
school of revival for Polish literature--than their own national
productions of former ages. In this way we may explain in part the
frivolous tone, the shallow-mindedness, which prevail in all the
Polish works of this age; during a period when vehement passions and
furious contests already tore the country in pieces, and deep sorrow
and grief reigned among all classes of society.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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