TY - JOUR
TI - To Konstantynowa Sobieska on her Leaving Żółkiew: On a Translation of the Latin Octavia
AU - Rusnak, Radosław
TI - To Konstantynowa Sobieska on her Leaving Żółkiew: On a Translation of the Latin Octavia
AB - 
	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.
VL - Numery anglojęzyczne
IS - Special Issue 2013 – Selection from the Archives
PY - 2013
SN - 1425-6851
C1 - 1689-1864
SP - 102
EP - 123
DO - 10.4467/16891864ePC.13.040.1457
UR - https://ejournals.eu/czasopismo/przekladaniec/artykul/to-konstantynowa-sobieska-on-her-leaving-zolkiew-on-a-translation-of-the-latin-octavia
KW - Octavia
KW - translation
KW - Józef Jan Woliński
KW - Maria Józefa Wessel