Poland: A Study of the Land People and Literature

by Georg Morris Cohen Brandes

Layout 2

POLAND

By the same Author

MAIN CURRENTS IN

NINETEENTH CENTURY

LITERATURE

By GEORGE BRANDES

I.	THE EMIGRANT LITERATURE
II.	THE ROMANTIC SCHOOL IN GERMANY
III.	THE REACTION IN FRANCE
IV.	NATURALISM IN ENGLAND
V.	THE ROMANTIC SCHOOL IN FRANCE
VI.	YOUNG GERMANY

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. A Critical Study. By George Brandes. Demy 8vo, buckram uncut, 10s. net.

HENRIK IBSEN. BJÖRNSTJERNE BJÖRNSON. Critical Studies. By George Brandes. With Introduction by William Archer. Demy 8vo, Roxburgh, gilt top, or buckram, uncut. 10s. net.

LONDON: WILLIAM HEINEMANN

21 Bedford Street, W.C.

POLAND

A STUDY OF THE LAND

PEOPLE AND LITERATURE

BY

GEORGE BRANDES

LONDON

WILLIAM HEINEMANN

1903

All rights reserved

This Edition enjoys copyright in all countries signatory to the Berne Treaty, and is not to be imported into the United States of America

CONTENTS

PART I

OBSERVATIONS AND APPRECIATIONS

FIRST IMPRESSION (1885)

		page
I.	Journey from Vienna to Warsaw—The Frontier—Custom-House Inspection	3
II.	Warsaw—Physiognomy of the City—Condition of the Language and of the Theatre—Russianisation—Banishments	11
III.	The Antecedents and Characteristics of the Poles	22
IV.	The Poles and the French—Instability, Dilettantism—Feverish Character of the Pleasures of Life—Strength and Susceptibility of the National Feeling	31
V.	Consolidation of Everything Polish—Religious Beliefs and Parties—Poland a Symbol	41

SECOND IMPRESSION (1886)

THE EXPULSION OF THE POLES BY PRUSSIA

I.	The Polish Women	53
II.	The Men—Polish Ideals, Virtues, and Vices	58
III.	Education and Instruction—Democrats, Socialists, Free-Thinkers—Compulsory Choice of the Cultured	66
IV.	Polish Life and the Russian System—Public Festivities and Masquerades, Social Life in Different Circles—The Same Oppressive Atmosphere Everywhere	78
V.	The Censorship Difficulties in Obtaining Permission to Deliver Lectures	85
VI.	How one Writes and Speaks under a Censorship	93
VII.	Mental Effects of the Situation on the Young	96
VIII.	Is Poland as an Object worth the Sacrifices made for it?	103

THIRD IMPRESSION (1894)

A POLISH MANOR-HOUSE

I.	Neighbourhood—Landscape—Increased Severity of Russian Rule	109
II.	Cholera—Censorship—Arrests	115
III.	Monotony and Stillness—Summer-night Sentiments—Political Divergence of the Older and Younger Generations	121
IV.	Poland and France—Poland and Germany	129
V.	A Church Festival—Popular Beliefs	136
VI.	The Memorial Procession of 1894—Painters and Writers	142
VII.	A Common Domestic Occurrence, Significant of the State of the Country	150
VIII.	National Characteristics and Patriotism—Conclusion	156

FOURTH IMPRESSION (1899)

I.-VIII.

Lemberg

165

THE ROMANTIC LITERATURE OF POLAND IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY
(1886)

POINTS OF CONTACT IN POLISH AND DANISH LITERATURE

	PAGE
I. Tendencies Common to All European Literatures—Peculiar Features—Retrospect—Kochanowski—Skarga—Jesuitism—French Philosophy—Rationalism	192
II. Polish Romanticism Determined by the Character of the People, by European Romanticism and the Political Situation—Special Points of View for the Antithesis of Classic and Romantic—Worship of Napoleon and Byron—Relation to Shakespeare and Dante—Influence of Emigrant Life on the Sentiment of Writers	199
III. Brodzinski, the Pioneer of Romanticism—Popular Ballads—The Ukrainian Poets: Malczewski, Zaleski, Goszcynski	215
IV. Mickiewicz and Goethe—Faris and the Ode to Youth—Youth of Mickiewicz—Mickiewicz and Pushkin	224
V. The Political Situation Determines the Manner of Treating all Subjects, the Point of View for Love and Hate, Maternal and Filial Emotions, the Relation between the Individual and the People, between Genius and the Surrounding World, between Emotion and Reason, Relation to Religion and Philosophy	239
VI. The Two Principal Themes of the Leading Poets Mickiewicz, Slowacki, and Krasinski: The First Two the Poets of Vengeance, Krasinski the Poet of Love	253
VII. The Character of Hamlet in Poland—The Type of Hamlet Conceived on Radical Lines by Slowacki, and on Conservative Lines by Krasinski	269
VIII. "Pan Tadeusz," the only Epopee of the Century—Mickiewicz and Rzewuski—Importance of Mickiewicz	282
IX. Division Among the Poets—Disorganisation of Romanticism—Polish Literature of To-Day—Critical Summary	295
X. Conclusion	308