He was the greatest poet of the Polish Renaissance, and according to many, the greatest poet of the Polish language in history. This type of poetic genius appeared in Polish literature for the first time and remained the only one until Romanticism.
Jan Kochanowski, of the Korwin coat of arms, was born in Sycyna near Radom. The exact date, but symbolically we celebrate the Master's birthday on 6th of June. He was the son of Piotr Kochanowski, a lawyer and judge of Sandomierz, and Anna Białaczowska.
In 1544 he entered the Kraków Academy, from which he graduated as a bachelor of liberal arts. He then studied at the University of Königsberg. There he encountered reformation trends, but never changed his Catholic faith. In the years 1552–59 he came to study at the University of Padua three times (it is difficult to establish the order of Kochanowski's stays) under the supervision of the outstanding humanist Francesco Robortello. At that time he gained a thorough philological education and began his literary activity in Latin, writing epigrams and elegies imitating the works of Roman poets, mainly Martialis and Horace.
After returning to Poland, he found himself at the court of the Bishop of Kraków, Filip Padniewski, a valued patron of men of letters at the time. He also became involved in public activity, supporting King Sigismund II Augustus and the reform movement of the enforcement of laws. The literary traces of this support were the didactic poems Zuzanna (1562), Szachy (ca. 1562), Zgoda (1563) and Satyr, albo Dziki Mąż (1564). In 1564, thanks to Bishop Piotr Myszkowski (one of the main animators of the poet's talent), Kochanowski was accepted among the royal secretaries, but he was not permanently employed in the chancellery, but was only entrusted with special tasks. His main source of income were the provostships (parishes) in Poznań and Zwoleń, characteristic of the pre-Trent era. The stay at the "moving" royal court, which at that time traveled between Vilnius and Piotrków and Warsaw, where the Sejm sessions were held, resulted in many works, mainly Polish epigrams (Latin foricoenias) and Polish songs (Latin elegies).
The epigrams (epigrams) and songs created at that time circulated only in handwritten copies among the circle of court friends (mostly belonging to the so-called Padua friends). One of the 16th-century handwritten copies (the so-called J. Osmólski manuscript from 1562) has survived to this day, containing some of the later unpublished Latin elegies, as well as a copy of the poet's presumably first Polish work, Hymn to God ("What Do You Want from Us, Lord"), which according to later legend was written during the poet's trip to France and was sent to the country by letter, together with the Song of the Deluge.
The concise and witty epigrams illustrate the atmosphere of the Renaissance court environment. In the songs, composed in accordance with the Renaissance poetics as imitations (mimesis) of the works of classical poets, Kochanowski expressed his philosophical worldview, which was a peculiar synthesis of Aristotelianism and Platonism saturated with late Senecan stoicism. However, a court career was not his calling. After writing the political dialogue Wróżki (or "fortunes"), the poetic manifesto Muza (written around 1567) and the poem Proporzec, albo Hołd pruski (on the occasion of the homage paid by Duke Albrecht II in Lublin in 1569), he increasingly determinedly sought to abandon the court for the life of a landed gentry.
He finally said goodbye to the royal court after the death of Sigismund II Augustus, renouncing his benefices and marrying Dorota Podlodowska in 1574. He settled in a manor house in Czarnolas near his native Sycyna, writing on this occasion Pieśń świętojańska o Sobótce (a separate edition in 1617), praising family life in the countryside. He participated in the first two free elections (1573 and 1576), putting forward his candidates for the throne during the second, at which Stefan Batory was elected. These breakthrough political events for the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth were reflected in his works.
In the so-called Czarnolas period, more epigrams, songs and paraphrases of psalms were created. Kochanowski put special creative effort into translating the psalms; before they were published, they circulated in copies among the poet's friends, as evidenced by Kochanowski's preserved letter to S. Fogelweder from 1571. An important role in the work on the psalms was played by Vice-Chancellor Myszkowski, who as the Bishop of Kraków (from 1578) particularly encouraged the poet to work on literature; Kochanowski confirmed this with a dedication to him, attached to the Psalter of Davids published in 1579 by the Łazarzowa Printing House.
In the so-called Czarnolas period, more epigrams, songs and paraphrases of psalms were created. Kochanowski put special creative effort into translating the psalms; before they were published, they circulated in copies among the poet's friends, as evidenced by the preserved letter from Kochanowski to S. Fogelweder from 1571. An important role in the work on the psalms was played by Vice-Chancellor Myszkowski, who as the Bishop of Kraków (from 1578) particularly encouraged the poet to work on literature; Kochanowski confirmed this with a dedication to him, attached to the Psalter of Davids published in 1579 by the Łazarzowa Printing House.
The work gained significance and popularity thanks to the musical arrangement of 150 psalms by Mikołaj Gomółka (published in 1580). These psalms, being a poetic adaptation of texts mainly from Latin (the so-called versio vulgata) and Latin paraphrases from the 16th century, were a poetic event. Thanks to them, biblical psalm poetry was assimilated into Polish poetry, often similar in poetics and melicity to the Hebrew original. Kochanowski's psalms found universal recognition; they were placed in Protestant hymnals of various denominations and in Catholic hymnals. In the era of religious wars and religious polemics of the Reformation and Counter-Reformation, the Psalter of Davids played an exceptional ecumenical role. King Stefan Batory granted a special privilege to the Kraków Łazarzowa Printing House for the exclusive printing of this work (approx. 30 editions until the mid-18th century).
After the death of his 2.5-year-old daughter Urszula, Kochanowski published Treny (1580), an artistically innovative collection, because contrary to the previous poetic tradition, he made a child the hero with extraordinary features, and not, as was the tradition of the genre, an adult. They reflect the father's pain and the crisis of faith in the ideals of the Renaissance, as well as the attempt to overcome human tragedy, characteristic of Renaissance humanism.
At that time, Kochanowski became close to the Grand Crown Hetman Jan Zamoyski and supported the military and political initiatives of King Stefan Batory with his works. This support was expressed in the pioneering classical tragedy in Polish, Odprawa posłów greckich, written both to celebrate Zamoyski's marriage to Krystyna Radziwiłłówna and to support Stefan Batory's war plans for an expedition to Moscow.
The accompanying Latin poem Orpheus sarmaticus was sung as a war reveille on 12th of January 1578 during the premiere of Odprawa... in Jazdów. The director and scriptwriter of the play was the royal physician Wojciech Oczko. The idea of the tragedy, based on a plot from Book III of Homer's Iliad, was a pretext for the Polish poet to use ancient characters and costumes to present the political issues of the Republic (important systemic decisions were made at that time, such as the establishment by the king of the Crown Tribunal, and military decisions about starting the Muscovite wars). The victory of Stefan Batory at Połock (1580) was celebrated by Kochanowski (nominated by the king in 1579 as the Sandomierz voivode) with a volume of Latin and Polish odes praising the ruler's military courage. The continuation of this political theme was the poem Jezda do Moskwy (1582) and the Latin Epinikion written to celebrate the war festival praising the victorious weapons of Stefan Batory, organized in Kraków on 13th of June 1583. On that day, the third marriage of Jan Zamoyski to Gryzelda Batorówna was celebrated in Kraków, which Kochanowski celebrated with the Latin poem Epithalamium. At that time, the poet took the initiative to publish his collective works in the Kraków Łazarzowa Printing House of Jan Januszowski. In 1584, Elegiarum libri IV and Foricoenia were published, while Pieśni i Fraszki were published after the poet's death, who died suddenly on 22nd of August 1584 in Lublin (buried in Zwoleń). In 1585, Januszowski's Printing House published a collective edition of the poet's works, Jan Kochanowski, which was reprinted many times later, supplemented in 1590 by the volume Fragmenta albo końca [Fragmenta or other writings of Jan Kochanowski].
Thanks to Kochanowski, Polish literature entered the circle of European intellectual culture, and a modern poetic language emerged, rich in modern forms of genre, versification, style, and thematic threads — from the most personal internal experiences to philosophical issues, public and national affairs. Kochanowski's lyric poetry quickly became a model for numerous imitations in Polish Baroque poetry and the subject of unquestionable adoration of descendants. He is still considered the absolute master of the Polish language, and some — such as Jarosław Marek Rymkiewicz — believed that it was impossible to write better in Polish.
Source: Book Institute
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