<i>The Mouseiad and Other Mock Epics</i> [Myszeis]

Ignacy Franciszek Błażej Krasicki (1735–1801), the greatest man of letters during the Polish Enlightenment, known as “the Prince of Poets” among his contemporaries, was a prolific writer, who created in many genres, including epic and lyrical poetry, mock heroic poems, satires, fables, novels, comedies, feuilletons, encyclopedia articles, and critical essays as well as translations of the works of ancient writers. Julian Krzyżanowski points out in his History of Polish Literature that Stanisław Trembecki praised Krasicki's talent in verse, receiving him in Warsaw: Biedne naśladowniki zostawiasz w rozpaczy.Próżno się onych pióro z twoim równać sili,Tysiąc było poetów— a jeden Wirgilii.Your poor imitators can only despair,As they wield their pens in vain and tear their hair.Poets there are thousands, Virgil only one. (p.181)Krasicki played a crucial role in the revival of Polish literature during King Stanisław August's times. He was a master of a clear, concise, and persuasive style and had a great talent for use of humor, irony, grotesque, and parody. Krasicki's fame as the greatest poet was due to his literary works in which his exceptional talent as a humorist was combined with the didacticism of the age of Enlightenment. His Satires [Satyry] show that he was a good observer and psychologist. Czesław Miłosz claims in his History of Polish Literature that Krasicki's role in Polish literature may be compared to that of Alexander Pope in English poetry. Additionally, Krasicki was the author of the first Polish modern novel entitled The Adventures of Mr. Nicholas Wisdom [Mikołaja Doświadczyńskiego przypadki, 1776], inspired by works of Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Voltaire, Diderot, Daniel Defoe, and Jonathan Swift, which is significant in the development of that literary genre in Polish literature. His second novel, Mr. Pantler [Pan Podstoli 1778], is a treatise on the best way to live and foreshadows the “organic labor” program promoted by the Polish Positivists. Moreover, Krasicki is famous for his witty collection of Fables and Parables [Bajki i przypowieści] as well as New Fables [Bajki nowe] influenced by Aesop, Phaedrus, and La Fontaine, which heightened his moralistic and didactic nature and assured him a foremost place in Polish literature.1Krasicki descended from an aristocratic family. His father Count Jan Boży Krasicki was a castellan of Chełmsko. At the age of sixteen, Krasicki was destined for the priesthood because of his family's modest financial situation. Early on, Teofila Podoska, a wife of voivode Płocki, took care of him, and after her death, young Krasicki learned modern languages under the guidance of private teachers at his aunt Anna Sapieha's (née Krasicka, primo voto Cetnerowa) magnate residence. Then, he enrolled at a Jesuit college in Lviv and studied works of Jan Kochanowski with Stefan Terlecki who also taught him the art of writing, oral presentation, and translation skills. Afterwards, Krasicki attended a seminary in Warsaw (1751–1754) where his tutor in French belles-lettres was a priest Jean des Tournelles while his relative Bishop Michał Kunicki became his guardian. During his stay in Warsaw Krasicki took advantage of visiting the Załuski Library and saw plays written by Corneille and Molière staged at the Collegium Nobilium. In 1754, at the age of nineteen, Krasicki graduated from the seminary, five years later, after passing all the required exams he was ordained a priest. Then, he was invited to the magnate residences of Ignacy Sapieha and Hieronim Florian Radziwiłł to deliver his sermons that were accepted as cum summo applausu. Krasicki received many such invitations and he traveled to the court of Bishop Wacław Sierakowski in Przemyśl, Ludwika Potocka in Krasiczyn, Antoni Lubomirski in Medyka, Franciszek Salezy Potocki in Krystynopol, Bishop Kajetan Sołtyka in Kraków, and Princess Barbara Sanguszkowa in Lubartów. His talent as a poet was recognized right away by Barbara Sanguszkowa who was herself a poet and translator.Krasicki had excellent networking skills and acquired fame as a talented speaker. Consequently, he participated in various balls, receptions, dinners, and Church ceremonies winning the favor of the powerful with his personal charisma and his social skills. Krasicki continued his theological education in Rome (1759–1761) encountering the traces of the ancient culture reflected later in his literary works. He returned to Poland in 1761, changed his political affiliation and eventually became a royal chaplain of King Stanisław August and attended his Thursday dinners, organized for the cultural elite, presenting fragments of his literary works there. Krasicki was a co-founder, a co-editor, and a contributor to The Monitor initiated by the King and modeled on Addison and Steele's Spectator to expand readers minds and improve their morals. The first literary journal Pleasant and Useful Pastimes [Zabawy przyjemne i pożyteczne] reflecting the Horatian utile et dulce was issued shortly afterwards and in 1774 Krasicki published his “Sacred Love of Our Cherished Homeland” [Hymn do miłości ojczyzny] there, which became an official anthem of the Cadet Corps. Thanks to his powerful connections, exceptional talent, his experiences in a wide range of fields, and personal charisma Krasicki made a splendid career in the church hierarchy and was a notable dignitary figure who held many important offices, becoming the Prince Bishop of Warmia, and eventually the Archbishop of Gniezno. King Stanisław August, his close friend, offered him the Order of the White Eagle and King Frederick II of Prussia, his good acquaintance, to whom he never paid official homage, recognized his skills as a writer and an administrator. Consequently, Krasicki was invited to participate in the major cultural events, and he was an active member of the Commission for National Education and served as the president of the highest judicial court, the Crown Tribunal of Małopolska.Ignacy Krasicki made a literary debut with the mock-heroic poem, Mouseiad [Myszeis], in 1775, written in the spirit of Alexander Pope's Rape of the Lock, followed by two satires on monastic orders, Monachomachia, or the War of the Monks [Monachomachia albo wojna mnichów, 1778] and Anti-Monachomachia [Antymonachomachia, 1780]. The mock-heroic poem is a very old literary genre and it goes back to ancient Greece's Batrachomyomachia [War of the frogs and mice], a work from the fourth century BC. Krasicki's Mouseiad is a humorous work combining legendary and fairytale elements about the battle of the cats and the mice linking it with the old Polish tale of Lake Gopło and a legendary King Popiel, who was eaten by mice because of his evil actions. The poem gives a humorous presentation of the material taken from the past, namely Wincenty Kadłubek's Chronicles, offering literary allusions, allegorical, political, and universal references. Zbigniew Goliński suggested that Krasicki wrote this work as his reply to the King of Prussia's pamphlet rendered in French as La guerre des confédérés filled with hate towards everything that was Polish: tradition, language, literature, and religion. His pamphlet was sent to Russia and Parisian philosophers.The mock-heroic poem was very popular in France in the eighteenth century, and it turned out to be an excellent didactic instrument in the Prince Bishop's fight against the immoralities and wickedness of his times. Krasicki wrote a second mock-heroic poem, Monachomachia, or the War of the Monks, in 1778. The subject of this work recalls Boileau's Le Lutrin. Monachomachia makes fun of monks attacking sharply their way of life. The monks lead a pleasing life which consists of sleeping, eating, and drinking. There is a scholarly dispute between the Dominican and the Carmelite orders which shows that they are not so strong in theology, but they are good in quarrels. The poem provoked many attacks from clergymen, to which Krasicki replied by writing a poem Anti-Monachomachia in 1789, where he seemingly takes back his allusions and implications, but the work is even more malicious in his use of irony.Krasicki's later works include The Chocim War [Wojna chocimska, 1780], modeled on plots taken from Virgil's Aeneid, TorquatoTasso's Jerusalem Delivered, and Voltaire's Henriade and based on Jakub Sobieski's Commentariorum chotinensis belli. Rooted in the Sarmatian tradition of antemurale christianitatis, The Chocim War deals with battles of Jan Karol Chodkiewicz during the Polish-Ottoman war of 1620–1621. It can be compared with Wacław Potocki's Transaction of the Chocim War [Transakcja wojny chocimskiej, 1670].Charles Kraszewski faced many challenges in translating Krasicki's literary works, among them was the reproduction of the ottawa rima, the beautiful rhyme scheme is ABABABCC and the same number of syllables in each line applied by the author. Kraszewski reproduced the Mouseaid, the Monachomachia, and the Anti-Monachomachia successfully. However, he departed from rendering the verse form of the original in The Chocim War as closely as possible. He justifies his decision in his introduction, which offers significant information on Krasicki's works in the context of comparative literature.Charles Kraszewski is an accomplished poet and translator as well as a professor of English. He authored three volumes of poetry and translated the works of Jan Kochanowski, Adam Mickiewicz, Zygmunt Krasiński, Juliusz Słowacki, Stanisław Wyspiański, and Tytus Czyżewski. His translation of The Mouseiad and Other Mock Epics extends the scope of Polish literature available in the English language intended for academic use in the comparative, Polish, Slavic, and Enlightenment studies as well as aimed at a wider audience of readers interested in European belles-lettres.

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