Iwona Słomak

Maciej Kazimierz Sarbiewski’s Cato (Lyr. II 6) and exercitia Seneciana

The starting point for the research presented in this article was an attempt to trace the literary tradition which inspired the creation of the lyrical subject and the titular figure of Maciej Kazimierz Sarbiewski’s ode II 6 (Cato Politicus). The presence of this name implies that the intertextual dimension of the poem should be taken into account in its interpretation, hence, the author of this article assumed that the question of the literary tradition should be addressed before a hypothesis about the meaning of the poem is put forth.

A review of Sarbiewski’s potential sources of inspiration – primarily works that were included in the basic and supplementary reading lists in Jesuit colleges – brings satisfactory results. It turns out that the ancient author who often mentions Cato the Younger is Seneca Philosophus, moreover, there are numerous similarities between some passages in his works and ode II 6. Sarbiewski seems to have been especially inspired by his Epistulae morales ad Lucilium, and also by the Senecan Consolationes. However, rather than refer to the views attributed by Seneca explicitly to Cato, the Polish poet explores the thoughts of the Philosopher himself, possibly assuming that the views of the politician and the philosopher were similar; this assumption could be justified by the fact that Seneca not only repeatedly expresses highest praise of the republican hero, but he also openly recommends to treat Cato Uticensis as a role model.

These issues are discussed in the first part of this paper. In the second part, the author compares selected passages from Seneca’s works and two poems (II 5 and II 7) adjacent to the ode Cato Politicus. The comparison shows that the convergences discussed above are not incidental. On the contrary, there is a series of Sarbiewski’s odes inspired by Seneca, and therefore the Roman philosopher and tragedian can be considered the next, after Horace, master of the Jesuit poet. It is postulated that these inspirations deserve more recognition in further studies on Sarbiewski’s poetry, as they may be helpful in the interpretation of some problematic passages of his odes.

Military themes in selected 18th century prayer books - in relation to the emblem tradition

The starting point in the article is an absence of studies which show the realizations of the military-erotic symbols in religious literature that is associated with the emblem tradition. The discussed works – prayer books by Andrzej Gabriel Kasperowicz; anonymous Atak Niebieskiej Twierdzy… [The attack of the Heavens… or The attack into Fortress of Heavens…] and Wojsko serdecznych afektów… [The army of heartfelt affections…] by Hieronim Falęcki – retain high formal and semantic discipline; as a result, they are examples of interesting phenomena of Baroque culture.
In the first part of her article Iwona Słomak presents three prayer books in which the concept is based on analogy with the organization of the army of Christ. In the second part she shows the book in which the theme of war connects with the issue of „holy erotica”. In part three she discusses a print whose composition refers to the structure of the military detachments. It is conceived as a collection of „affections” whose task is „to conquer” heaven and the hearts of readers. Characteristically, the formula of the discussed books will be understandable only if we reconstruct their reference to the popular allegorical images (we find them in the collections of emblems, in many treatises on religious themes or in descriptions of the great ceremonies of that era); therefore, it is necessary to take into account the emblematic model that clearly influenced their final shape.

Translated from Polish by Kaja Szymańska

This paper was inspired by the lack of studies that would show examples of military-erotic symbols in religious literature associated with the emblem tradition. The works discussed here, namely prayer books by Andrzej Gabriel Kasperowicz, anonymous Atak niebieskiej twierdzy [The attack of the heavens or The attack into the fortress of heavens] and Wojsko serdecznych afektów [The army of heartfelt affections] by Hieronim Falęcki, retain high formal and semantic discipline; as a result, they are examples of interesting phenomena of Baroque culture. In the first part of the study, Słomak presents three prayer books in which the concept is based on an analogy with the organisation of the army of Christ. In the second part, she presents a book in which the theme of war is combined with the theme of “holy erotica”. In part three, she discusses a print whose composition refers to the structure of military detachments. It is conceived as a collection of “affections” whose task is “to conquer” heaven and the hearts of readers. Characteristically, the formula of the discussed books will be understandable only if we reconstruct their reference to the popular allegorical images (to be found in the collections of emblems, in many treatises on religious themes or in descriptions of the great ceremonies of that era); therefore, it is necessary to take into account the emblematic model that clearly influenced their final shape.

* Publication of this paper was financed by the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Republic of Poland under the grant 643/P-DUN/2018. Polish version: I. Słomak, “Militaria w wybranych modlitewnikach XVIII wieku – wobec tradycji emblematycznej”, Terminus 14 (2012), issue 25, pp. 69–84.

The aim of this study is to present the findings of a comparative analysis that covers—on the one hand—the theory of tragedy presented in Poeticarum institutionum libri III by Jakob Pontanus (Spanmuller), the classical and Renaissance poetics and commentaries on which he based his work, as well as the ancient tragedies that belonged to the literary canon in Jesuit colleges, and—on the other hand—Pontanus’s theoretical approach mentioned above and his tragedy Elezarus Machabaeus.

The works of Pontanus have previously been discussed by Joseph Bielmann. However, Bielmann did not present them against the background of the Greek and Roman tragedies or the statements of the ancient theorists on drama, the Renaissance theoretical reflection on tragedies, or the playwriting practice resulting from this reflection. Consequently, his characterisation of the Elezarus Machabaeus is untenable, and his comments on Pontanus’s theory of drama need reviewing. Determining whether Pontanus respected the rules of ancient tragedy or whether he openly violated them is important because he was one of the most outstanding Jesuit humanists and a person of authority in his community. If we take into account the fact that Elezarus Machabaeus was the first tragedy printed by the Jesuits, the Poeticarum institutionum libri tres was one of the first printed Jesuit textbooks of this kind, and Pontanus himself was also the author of other books recommended for reading in Jesuit colleges and participated in the work of the committee for the evaluation and approval of the Jesuit school act, his views on the imitation of ancient models should be considered influential at least to a moderate degree and at least in some literary circles of his time. This matter is addressed in the introductory part of this paper. It also contains a short presentation of Pontanus’s textbook against the background of other Jesuit poetics, as well as of his main sources in the field of drama theory. Subsequently, the author presents Pontanus’s concept of drama and then discusses his piece taking into account the context of ancient and contemporary drama theory and practice of writing.

In the light of this comparative reading, Eleazarus Machabaeus seems to be generally based on ancient models despite certain peculiarities, such as the composition and absence of choruses, which may be surprising at first. Both Pontanus’s tragedy and his theoretical approach should be regarded as classical in nature.