has been taken away in modern times by the excellent works by Malecki and Malinowski. Rakowiecki, who edited the Rousskaia Pravda, and Macieiowski (who died in 1883, aged ninety), author of a valuable work on Slavonic law, may here be mentioned. Here we have a complete survey of the leading codes of Slavonic jurisprudence. At a later period (in 1856) appeared the work of Helcel, Starodawne prawa polskiégo pomniki (“Ancient Memorials of Polish Law”). Aloysius Feliński (1771-1820) produced an historical tragedy, Barbara Radziwiłł, and some good comedies were written by Count Polish Drama. Alexander Fredro (1793-1876). In fact Fredro may be considered the most entertaining writer for the stage which Poland has produced. He introduced genuine comedy among his countrymen. The influence of Molière can be very clearly seen in his pieces; his youth was spent chiefly in France, where he formed one of the soldiers of the Polish legion of Napoleon and joined in the expedition to Russia. His first production was Pan Geldhab, written in 1819 and produced at Warsaw in 1821. From 1819 to 1835 he wrote about seventeen pieces and then abandoned publishing, having taken offence at some severe criticisms. At his death he left several comedies, which were issued in a posthumous edition. There is a good deal of local colouring in the pieces of Fredro; although the style is French, the characters are taken from Polish life. From him may be said to date the formation of anything like a national Polish theatre, so that his name marks an epoch. The Poles, like many of the other nations of Europe, had religious plays at an early period. They were originally performed in churches; but Pope Innocent II. finding fault with this arrangement, the acting was transferred to churchyards. Mention has already been made of plays written by Rej and Kochanowski; they are mere fruits of the Renaissance, and cannot in any way be considered national. The wife of John Casimir, a Frenchwoman, Marie Louise, hired a troop of French actors and first familiarized the Poles with something which resembled the modern stage. The Princess Franciszka Radziwiłł composed plays which were acted at her private residence, but they are spoken of as inartistic and long and tedious. The national theatre was really founded in the reign of Stanislaus Augustus; and good plays were produced by Bohomolec, Kamiński, Kropiński, Boguslawski, Zabłocki, and others. Perhaps, however, with the exception of the works of Fredro, the Poles have not produced anything of much merit in this line. A great statesman and writer of the later days of Polish nationality was Kolłątaj, born at Sandomir in 1750. He was a man of liberal sentiments, and, had his plans been carried out, Poland might have been saved. He wished to abolish serfdom and throw open state employments to all. The nobility, however, were too infatuated to be willing to adopt these wise measures. Like the French aristocrats with the reforms of Necker, they would not listen till ruin had overtaken them. During the last war of Poland as an independent country Kolłątaj betook himself to the camp of Kościuszko, but when he saw that there was no longer hope he went to Galicia, but was captured by the Austrians and imprisoned at Olmutz till 1803. He died in 1812. An active co-operator with Kolłątaj was Salesius Jezierski, who founded clubs for the discussion of political questions, and Stanislaus Staszic, who did much for education and improved the condition of the university of Warsaw
The reputation of all preceding poets in Poland was now destined to be thrown into the shade by the appearance of Romanticism. Mickiewicz (1798-1855), the great introduce of dsm romanticism into the country (see Mickiewicz). Poland, as has been said before, is not rich in national songs and legendary poetry, in which respect it cannot compare with its sister Slavonic countries Russia and Servia. Collections have appeared, however, by Wacław Zaleski, who writes under the pseudonyms of Wacław z Oleska, Wojcicki, Roger, Żegota Pauli, and especially Oskar Kolberg. Poland and Lithuania, however, abounded with superstitions and legends which only awaited the coming poet to put them into verse. In the year 1851 Romuald Zieñkiewicz published Songs of the People of Pinsk, and collections have even appeared of those of the Kashoubes, a remnant of the Poles living near Danzig Mickiewicz had had a predecessor, but of far less talent, Casimir Brodzinski (1791-1835). He served under Napoleon in the Polish legion, and has left a small collection of poems, the most important being the idyl Wiesław, in which the manners of the peasants of the district of Cracow are faithfully portrayed. The second great poet of the romantic school who appeared in Poland after Mickiewicz was Julius Słowacki (1809-1849), born at Krzemieniec. In 1831 he left his native country and chose Paris as his residence, where he died. His writings are full of the fire of youth, and show great beauty and elegance of expression. We can trace in them the influence of Byron and Victor Hugo. He is justly considered one of the greatest of the modern poets of Poland. His most celebrated pieces are Hugo; Mnich (“The Monk”); Lambro, a Greek corsair, quite in the style of Byron; Anhelli, a very Dantesque poem expressing under the form of an allegory the sufferings of Poland; Krol duch (“The Spirit King”), another mysterious and allegorical poem; Wacław, on the same subject as the Marya of Malczewski, to be afterwards noticed; Beniowski, a long poem in ottava rima on this strange adventurer, something in the style of Byron's humorous poems; Kordyan, of the same school as the English poet's Manfred; Lilla Weneda, a poem dealing with the early period of Slavonic history. The life of Słowacki has been published by Professor Anton Małecki in two volumes.
Mickiewicz and Słowacki were both more or less mystics, but even more we may assign this characteristic to Sigismund Krasiński, who was born in 1812 at Paris, and died there in 1859. It would be impossible to analyse here his extraordinary poem Nieboska komedja (“The Undivine Comedy”), Irydion, and others. In them Poland, veiled under different allegories, is always the central figure. They are powerful poems written with great vigour of language, but enveloped in clouds of mysticism. The life of Krasiński was embittered by the fact that he was the son of General Vincent Krasiński, who had become unpopular among the Poles by his adherence to the Russian government; the son wrote anonymously in consequence, and was therefore called “The Unknown Poet.” Among his latest productions are his “Psalms of the Future” (Psalmy przyszłosci), which were attacked by the democratic party as a defence, of aristocratic views which had already ruined Poland. His friend Słowacki answered them in some taunting verses, and this led to a quarrel between the poets. One of the most striking pieces of Krasiński has the title “Resurrecturis.” The sorrows of his country and his own physical sufferings have communicated a melancholy tone to the writings of Krasiński, which read like a dirge, or as if the poet stood always by an open grave—and the grave is that of Poland. He must be considered as, next to Mickiewicz, the greatest poet of the country. Other poets of the romantic school of considerable merit were Gorecki, Witwicki, Odyniec, and Gaszynski, the last-named wrote many exquisite sonnets, which ought alone to embalm his name. Witwicki (1800-1847) was son of a professor at Krzemieniec. He was a writer of ballads and poems dealing with rural life, which enjoyed great popularity among his countrymen and had the good fortune to be set to music by Chopin. The works of Lelewel have separate mention (see Lelewel); but here may be specified the labours of Narbutt, Dzieje starozytne arodu litewskiego (“Early History of the Lithuanian People”), published at Vilna in nine volumes, and the valuable Monumenta Poloniae historica, edited at Lemberg by Bielowski, of which several volumes have appeared, containing reprints of most of the early chroniclers. Bielowski died in 1876.
A further development of romanticism was the so-called Ukraine school of poets, such as Malczewski, Goszczynski, Ukraine School. and Zaleski. Anton Malczewski (1793-1826) wrote one poem, Marya, a Ukrainian tale which passed unnoticed at the time of its publication, but after its author's death became very popular. Malczewski was one of Napoleon's officers; he led a wandering life and was intimate with Byron at Venice; he is said to have suggested to
