@article{2129b017-8df7-4cd7-b497-3ed21e9260f5, author = {Radosław Rusnak}, title = {To Konstantynowa Sobieska on her Leaving Żółkiew: On a Translation of the Latin Octavia}, journal = {Przekładaniec}, volume = {Numery anglojęzyczne}, number = {Special Issue 2013 – Selection from the Archives}, year = {2013}, issn = {1425-6851}, pages = {102-123},keywords = {Octavia; translation; Józef Jan Woliński; Maria Józefa Wessel}, abstract = {The paper discusses a translation of the Roman tragedy Historia albo tragedia Oktawii cesarzówny rzymskiej (History or Tragedy of Octavia the Roman Emperor’s Daughter) by Józef Jan Woliński, published in 1728 and completed shortly beforehand. Its author presents himself as a faithful servant of the Wessels and dedicates his adaptation of the fi rst-century praetexta Octavia to Maria Józefa Wessel, Konstanty Sobieski’s widow. The translator adapts the Latin text, on the one hand emphasising Nero’s ferocity and despotism, on the other employing the stereotype of the abandoned wife. The cruel emperor is charged with all the responsibility for the evil which consumes Rome and his relatives, while Octavia is depicted as a fragile and passive victim of his malice. However, the translator does not disregard the protagonist’s intimacy with her brother and her nurse. Woliński underlines the moral aspect of the drama, hinting at the imminent collapse of Nero’s power and his violent death by suicide, which does not feature in the original. By removing Octavia’s fi nal lamentation, the Polish translator makes her follow her nurse’s advice and desist from expressing her grief. Given Woliński’s closeness to his benefactors around the time of writing his Historia albo tragedia, it seems plausible to suggest the drama was privately commissioned, and conceived as a solace to Wessel’s concerns when handing her beloved estate at Żółkiew to her odious brother-in-law, Jakub Sobieski.}, doi = {10.4467/16891864ePC.13.040.1457}, url = {https://ejournals.eu/czasopismo/przekladaniec/artykul/to-konstantynowa-sobieska-on-her-leaving-zolkiew-on-a-translation-of-the-latin-octavia} }