His Excellency Ignacy Krasicki | |
|---|---|
| Archbishop of Gniezno Primate of Poland | |
 | |
| Archdiocese | Gniezno |
| In office | 1796–1801 |
| Predecessor | Michał Jerzy Poniatowski |
| Successor | Ignacy Raczyński |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1735-02-03)3 February 1735 |
| Died | 14 March 1801(1801-03-14) (aged 66), |
| Nationality | Polish |
| Denomination | Roman Catholicism |
| Occupation | Writer,Primate of Poland |
| Coat of arms |  |
Ignacy Błażej Franciszek Krasicki (3 February 1735 – 14 March 1801), from 1766Prince-Bishop ofWarmia and from 1795Archbishop of Gniezno (thus,Primate of Poland), was Poland's leadingEnlightenment poet[1] ("the Prince of Poets"), a critic of the clergy,[1]Poland's La Fontaine, author of thefirst Polish novel, playwright, journalist,encyclopedist, andtranslator from French andGreek.
His most notable literary works were hisFables and Parables (1779),Satires (1779), and poetic letters and religious lyrics, in which the artistry of his poetic language reached its summit.[1]
Ignacy Krasicki was born inDubiecko, on southern Poland'sSan River, into the nobleKrasicki family, which bore the title ofImperial Count. His parents were Count Jan Boży Krasicki (1704–1751) and the Count's wife, Anna Starzechowska (1706–1766) of theNieczuja coat of arms. Ignacy was related by blood to the most illustrious families in thePolish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, including theSapieha,Potocki, andRzewuski families, and spent his childhood surrounded with the love and solicitude of his own family.
He attended a Jesuit school inLwów, then studied at aWarsawCatholicseminary (1751–54). In 1759 he tookholy orders and continued his education in Rome (1759–61). Two of his brothers also entered the priesthood.
Returning to Poland, Krasicki became secretary to thePrimate of Poland and developed a friendship with future KingStanisław August Poniatowski. When Poniatowski was elected king (1764), Krasicki became his chaplain. He participated in the King's famous "Thursday dinners" and cofounded theMonitor, the preeminent Polish Enlightenment periodical, sponsored by the King.
In 1766 Krasicki, after having served that year ascoadjutor toPrince-Bishop of WarmiaAdam Stanisław Grabowski, was himself elevated to Prince-Bishop of Warmia andex officio membership in the Senate of theCommonwealth. This office gave him a high standing in the social hierarchy and a sense of independence. It did not, however, prove a quiet haven. The Warmiacathedral chapter welcomed its superior coolly, fearing changes. At the same time, there were growing provocations and pressures fromPrussia, preparatory to seizure ofWarmia in theFirst Partition of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. Krasicki protested publicly against external intervention.
In 1772, as a result of theFirst Partition, instigated by Prussia's KingFrederick II ("the Great"), Krasicki became a Prussian subject. He did not, however, pay homage to Warmia's new master.
He now made frequent visits to Berlin,Potsdam andSanssouci at the bidding of Frederick, with whom he cultivated an acquaintance. This created a difficult situation for the poet-bishop who, while a friend of the Polish king, maintained close relations with the Prussian king. These realities could not but influence the nature and direction of Krasicki's subsequent literary productions, perhaps nowhere more so than in theFables and Parables (1779).
Soon after the First Partition, Krasicki officiated at the 1773 opening of Berlin'sSt. Hedwig's Cathedral, whichFrederick had built for Catholic immigrants toBrandenburg and Berlin. In 1786 Krasicki was called to thePrussian Academy of Sciences. His residences in the castle of thebishops of Warmia atLidzbark Warmiński (in German,Heilsberg) and in the summer palace of the bishops of Warmia atSmolajny became centers of artistic patronage for all sectors ofpartitioned Poland.[1]
AfterFrederick the Great's death, Krasicki continued relations with Frederick's successor.
In 1795, six years before his death, Krasicki was elevated toArchbishop ofGniezno (thus, toPrimate of Poland).
Krasicki was honored by Poland's KingStanisław August Poniatowski with theOrder of the White Eagle and theOrder of Saint Stanisław, as well as with a special 1780 medal featuring theLatin device, "Dignum laude virum Musa vetat mori" ("The Muse will not let perish a man deserving of glory");[2] and by Prussia's KingFrederick the Great, with theOrder of the Red Eagle.
Upon his death inBerlin in 1801, Krasicki was laid to rest at St. Hedwig's Cathedral, which he had consecrated. In 1829 his remains were transferred to Poland'sGniezno Cathedral.
Czesław Miłosz describes Krasicki:
He was a man of the golden mean, a smiling, skeptical sage [who] prais[ed] moderation and despis[ed] extremes. His was a mentality which returned toHoratian ideals of theRenaissance, to a life of contemplative retirement. This did not interfere with his talents as a courtier: he was a favorite of [Poland's King] Stanisław August [Poniatowski], and after the[F]irst [P]artition [of Poland, in 1772], when his bishopric of Warmia became the property of Prussia, he was a favorite of KingFrederick the Great. [H]e was a cosmopolit[e] and owed his imposing literary knowledge to his readings in foreign languages, yet... he was indebted to the mentality of the Polish "Golden Age," and in this respect his admiration forErasmus of Rotterdam is significant. As a poet, he was [chiefly responsible] for that distillation of the [Polish] language which for a while toned down the chaotic richness of theBaroque. In a way, he returned to the clear and simple language of[Jan] Kochanowski, and his role in Polish poetry may be compared to that ofAlexander Pope in English poetry. [H]e conceived of literature as a specific vocation, namely, to intervene as a moralist in human affairs. Since he was not pugnacious by temperament (contrary to one of his masters,Voltaire), his moralizing, rarely distinguishable from sheer play, [does not show] vitriolic accents.[3]
Ignacy Krasicki was the leading literary representative of thePolish Enlightenment—a prose writer and poet highly esteemed by his contemporaries, who admired his works for their wit, imagination, and fluid style.[4]
Krasicki's literary writings lent splendor to the reign of Poland's KingStanisław August Poniatowski, while not directly advocating the King's political program.
Krasicki, the leading representative ofPolish classicism, debuted as a poet with thestrophe-hymn, "Święta miłości kochanej ojczyzny" ("O Sacred Love of the Beloved Country"), published in 1774. He was then nearing forty. It was thus a late debut that brought the extraordinary success of this strophe, which Krasicki would incorporate as part of song IX in hismock-heroic poem,Myszeida (Mouseiad, 1775). In "O Sacred Love of the Beloved Country," Krasicki formulated a universal idea of patriotism, expressed in high style and elevated tone. The strophe would later, for many years, serve as anational anthem and see many translations, including three into French.
The Prince Bishop of Warmia gave excellent Polish form to all the genres of Europeanclassicism. He also blazed paths for new genres. Prominent among these was the first modern Polish novel,Mikołaja Doświadczyńskiego przypadki (The Adventures of Nicholas Experience, 1776), a synthesis of all the varieties of theEnlightenment novel: the social-satirical, the adventure (à laRobinson Crusoe), theUtopian, and thedidactic.
Tradition has it that Krasicki's mock-heroic poem,Monachomachia (War of the Monks, 1778), was inspired by a conversation with Frederick II at the palace ofSanssouci, where Krasicki was staying in an apartment that had once been used byVoltaire. At the time, the poem's publication caused a public scandal.
The most enduring literary monument of the Polish Enlightenment is Krasicki'sfables:Bajki i Przypowieści (Fables and Parables, 1779) andBajki nowe (New Fables, published posthumously in 1802). The poet also set down his trenchant observations of the world andhuman nature inSatyry (Satires, 1779).
Other works by Krasicki include the novels,Pan Podstoli (Lord High Steward, published in three parts, 1778, 1784 and posthumously 1803), which would help inspire works byMickiewicz, andHistoria (History, 1779); the epic,Wojna chocimska (The Chocim War, 1780, about theKhotyn War); and numerous others, inhomiletics, theology andheraldry.
In 1781–83 Krasicki published a two-volume encyclopedia,Zbiór potrzebniejszych wiadomości (A Collection of Essential Information), the second Polish-language general encyclopedia afterBenedykt Chmielowski'sNowe Ateny (The New Athens, 1745–46).
Krasicki wroteListy o ogrodach (Letters about Gardens) and articles in theMonitor, which he had co-founded, and in his own newspaper,Co Tydzień (Each Week).
Krasickitranslated, into Polish,Plutarch,Ossian, fragments ofDante'sDivine Comedy, and works byAnacreon,Boileau,Hesiod andTheocritus.[5] He wrote a 1772 essay "On the Translation of Books" ("O przekładaniu ksiąg")[6] and another, published posthumously in 1803, "On Translating Books" ("O tłumaczeniu ksiąg").[7]
Krasicki's major works won European fame and were translated into Latin, French, German, Italian, Russian, Czech, Croatian, Slovene, and Hungarian. The broad reception of his works was sustained throughout the 19th century.
Krasicki has been the subject of works by poets of the Polish Enlightenment – Stanisław Trembecki,Franciszek Zabłocki,Wojciech Mier – and in the 20th century, byKonstanty Ildefons Gałczyński. He has been the hero of prose works byWincenty Pol,Adolf Nowaczyński andHenryk Sienkiewicz.
Scholars have viewed Krasicki'sFables andSatires as adaptive to the culture for which they were written, and as politically charged.[8] The characterizations were not based on reconstructions of individuals from direct observation, but were fictional constructs that reflected society's actual values. Krasicki held that Poles, and humanity generally, were governed by greed, folly, and vice.[8]
Evidence for this is found in the preface, "To the Children,", targeted not to children but to villagers, congregations, and the commonalty. The fables were meant to bring attention to major questions of the day, and to advocate for social reforms.[9] Although theNew Fables, the sequel to theFables and Parables, were published posthumously in 1803, the better knownFables and Parables found their audience between 1735 and Krasicki's death in 1801, most of them being published after theFirst Partition of Poland, of 1772. The fables usually find their meaning in the final line, through the symbology of the tale rather than through a complex presentation of ideology, thereby readily conveying even to the illiterate the moral and the Enlightenment ideal behind it.
Katarzyna Zechenter argues inThe Polish Review that Western historians have generally overlooked Krasicki's works, and that the publisher ofPolish Fables (1997) overlooked the importance of the "political and social context contributing to [the fable's] origin."[10] However, it is easy to see Krasicki's influence on his contemporaries and on the early 19th century, as in the case ofGabriela Puzynina, a Polish princess, poet, and diarist. In 1846 she started a newspaper for the intelligentsia of Vilnius and Warsaw, and furthered the establishment of Krasicki'sFables in Poland's suppressed political life. In herDiary of the Years 1815–1843, Puzynina focuses on the fable, "Birds in a Cage", as a commentary on thePartitions of Poland.
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| Regnal titles | ||
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| Preceded by | Prince-Bishop of Warmia (Ermland) 1767–1795 | Succeeded by |
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| Preceded by | Primate of Poland Archbishop of Gniezno 1795–1801 | Succeeded by |
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