User:Dobranocka/sandbox

This is a university project, please don't make any changes.

Beniowski is a narrative poem by Juliusz Słowacki, loosely based on the life and legend of Maurice Benyowsky, Hungarian count of Hungarian, Polish and Slovak ancestry, famous explorer, memoirist, army officer and a member of Confederation of Bar. The poem remains unfinished, although Słowacki continued working on it until 1846. First five cantos, which were written in 1840 and 1841, were published by the author in Paris in March 1841. Sketches of further parts were first available posthumously in Pisma pośmiertne (Post mortem writings), edited by Antoni Małecki. It is widely regarded as one of the best examples of Romantic irony in Polish literature, as well as one of the greatest of Słowacki’s lyrical poems.

The poem was inspired by Byron’s Don Juan and bears a similarity to other works, such as Pushkin’s Eugene Onegin or Słowacki’s own Podróż do Ziemi Świętej z Neapolu (The journey to the Holy Land from Neapoli). The plot takes only about fifty percent of its volume, the rest being narrator’s digressions about the current literary life of Great Emigration, social and political issues and his own person. It’s also a place of polemics with several of Słowacki’s adversaries, including Adam Mickiewicz, to whom the famous ending of canto five is addressed.

Synopsis
Canto I

The first canto starts with the introduction of the hero, Maurycy Kazimierz Zbigniew Beniowski, Ukrainian noble, and tells the story of his unruly youth. As a twenty year old, he lost his inheritance due to lawsuits and debts and consequently became unacceptable suitor for his love, Aniela, who came from a wealthy family. However, the lovers continued seeing each other, risking the wrath of Aniela’s father, Starosta, grim and eccentric man. His eccentricity was reflected in his castle, which was both peculiar and sinister. Mention of a castle triggers digression about author’s beloved childhood places and poor state of his motherland, followed by reflection that the reader surely prefers tales of love and adventures to political divagations. The narrative promptly returns to Kazimierz, who just left his family home with a faithful servant, hoping to try his luck in the world and reclaim his wealth. Unfortunately, as the dark falls, his servant gets drunk and falls of a horse and in his place appears a redheaded witch, who grabs the young hero and carries him along to a grove. There it turns out it wasn’t a witch, but Aniela’s nursemaid, following her mistress’s orders to secure a meeting with Kazimierz. Aniela assures him about her love, tells him about her father’s plans to marry her off to another and accuses of leaving her in the lurch. The canto ends there, while the author promises new wonders in the second canto, mentioning the criticism of his previous works.

Canto II

The second canto opens with the reflection about the poet’s own work and allusions towards their malicious reviews, which later transforms into lament about unpoetic nature of Kazimierz. However, the narrator does not continue telling the story of lovers and instead leaves them in favour of recounting events in Starosta’s castle. He is conversing with Dzieduszycki, a candidate for Aniela’s hand and, unknown to him, a traitor and opponent of confederates, whose only interest in Aniela is because of her inheritance. Dzieduszycki is trying to convince Starosta to agree to the marriage and nearly succeeds, but suddenly his hand is nailed to the table with a dagger by unknown priest. Asked by Starosta, he revails to be Marek Jandołowicz, one of the leaders of confederates, who has taken the castle. He also orders to give a signal for other troops with a flare. With this narrator returns to the lovers, who have just parted ways. Aniela, trying to swiftly return to the castle, sees the flare and meets the confederates in the castle’s gates. Terrified, she looks for her father and finds him in presence of the priest and Dzieduszycki, so she grabs the dagger, removes it from Dzieduszycki’s hand and takes it for herself. Dzieduszycki dies, presumably from blood loss. Starosta, protesting against confederates presence in his castle, tells her to write a letter with Dzieduszycki’s blood. Marek violently opposes, telling Starosta that his word is the only thing stopping the confederates from killing everyone inside the castle. The canto ends with the entrance of Sawa, a fearsome confederate soldier.

Canto III

The beginning of the canto consist mostly of a scathing reply towards the critics. Later the narrator returns to Beniowski, musing about how his death would mean an early end to his epic poem. Kazimierz observes the siege of Bar in the morning light. He does not partake in the battle, but follows two white doves to an old oak, where he gets into a fight with a group of Cossacks trying to burn it. After dealing with them Kazimierz enters the oak and meets there a young, beautiful maiden. Before we learn her identity, the narrator changes the topic and starts complain about the Emigration’s expectations of poetry. He resumes his tale with the arrival of Marek and Sawa, to whom the girl gives letters and relates the story of her rescue. Kazimierz introduces himself and learns that Marek knew his father and would gladly see his son fight in the Confederation for his motherland.

Canto IV

Marek, hidden within the oak with the mysterious maiden, writes letters about Confederation matters. But before he finishes he is interrupted by a duel between Beniowski and Sawa, started for reasons unknown. He chooses not to interfere and instead just observes as Sawa, wounded by Maurycy, prepares to shoot him. He misses, however, as the young girl jumps on his horse and forces him to gallop away. After their sudden departure Marek question Kazimierz as to what was that about. Beniowski reveals that the fight broke over a golden locket on Sawa’s neck; the priest replies that the locket was send to him by Aniela, along with a letter. His beloved sends him not only promises of her love and faithfulness, but also news of her departure to Warsaw. Maurycy is not allowed to remain heartbroken for long, as Marek immediately sends him with letters to Crimea. The poet, saying he has lost his inspiration, remembers the times of his youth and muses about his old love.

Canto V

Beniowski, on his way to Crimea, passes Dnepr and meets two queer travellers. The poet, abandoning Maurycy for other heroes, reflect about nature of his poetry. Meanwhile Sawa with the maiden arrives to his secluded home, where only his dog waits for him. The girl turns out to be his sister, Swentyna. They proceed to argue about her solitary escapades and, in Sawa’s eyes, inappropriate behaviour. But before they’re done they’re interrupted by an army marching nearby. However, the narrator doesn’t elaborate what army it was, saying he’s tired, and instead tells readers of his beliefs and God. From there he attacks the unnamed bard and his followers, foretelling his victory over them in the future. The confrontation with his great poetic antagonist marks the ending of the canto.

Further parts
In the second half of 1841 Słowacki wrote next five cantos, which tell a story of Beniowski’s diplomatic efforts on Crimea. He also started working on cantos from XI to XV – fragments from this period describe Beniowski’s journey to besieged Bar. During 1842, while he stayed under influence of Andrzej Towiański, he started rewriting those cantos so they would be more suited to Towiański’s messianic philosophy. At the same time he wrote a drama titled Beniowski, of which fragments remained. In 1844 Słowacki once again rewrote further parts, this time according to his own mystical system, known as genesic philosophy. Later he also tried to connect Beniowski to his other great, unfinished work, Król-Duch (King-Spirit), which he continued writing until his death.

History
In December 1838 Słowacki returned to Paris, which he left in 1833 and where most of Polish Great Emigration lived. Previously conflicted with most of his peers, most notably Adam Mickiewicz, whom he considered his great antagonist, he remained unpopular within literary circles. In 1839 Słowacki published Balladyna and received, once again, generally negative reviews. Especially painful was the one written by Stanisław Ropelewski, because it was not only heavily critical towards the drama, it also condemned the author and was signed by initials Z.K., suggesting it was written by Słowacki’s dear friend and one of the few fans of his works, Zygmunt Krasiński. This was only one instance of the on-going conflict, which only became more apparent after Mickiewicz was elected as a professor of Slavic literature at Collège de France. The following feast, at which both bards improvised, was described by the press as a proof of Mickiewicz’s superiority and Słowacki’s lack of poetic talent, even though both poets has seen this as a occasion to reconcile. Parts of Beniowski were written as a response towards those events and were supposed to serve, in Słowacki’s own words, as his defence against critics.

Structure
The poem is written in ottava rima, similarly to Byron’s Don Juan and Krasicki’s mock-heroic poem, Monachmachia. Originally, this stanza was used for long poems on heroic themes, as can be seen in works of Tasso and Ariosto. However, it later started to be used for comic effect, which is also exploited in Beniowski. The structure of the poem is open and the narrative is extremely loose, with the digression being as long as parts of the plot and freely intermingling with it. The narrator, being the most important hero, is speaking directly to the reader and often changes his behaviour, going from humorous story-taller to grandiloquent bard. He is often ironic towards the hero, as well as himself, and employs rhetoric irony in his polemics. He also distances himself from the act of writing as such and appears to be sceptic towards the world created in his poem. All of this makes Beniowski an important example of the use of Romantic irony in Polish literature.

Feedback
Krystyna, this is excellent work, well done. Please consider making the following minor revisions: Piotr.Szymczak (talk) 22:06, 11 December 2013 (UTC)
 * add translations of Polish titles
 * italicize titles rather than put them in quotes (in English quotes are usually used for titles of short poems)
 * Romantic in the sense of historical period is usually capitalized
 * please consider formatting the article and adding hyperlinks to unfamiliar things like Bar (the town), the Bar Confederation, etc.
 * we'll fix the grammar later but for the time being please note that you occasionally overuse the apostrophe (its, not its') or the Saxon Genitive (Mickewicz's was elected)