Opinie Stanisława Tarnowskiego o Mickiewiczu, Słowackim i Krasińskim. Z prac ogłaszanych w "Przeglądzie Polskim" w latach 1866-1890

Abstract

Przegląd Polski (1866-1914), a monthly of Cracow conservative circles, which was devoted to politics and literature, included permanent sections: literaiy chronicle, literary review, bibliography and theatre chronicle. All important announcements of literary and artistic publications that appeared in Galicia, other partitions and abroad were given in it. Stanisław Tarnowski, one of the founders of Przegląd, in the years 1866-1890, published 8 studies and review dissertations, as well as 29 reviews and book reports on the literary output of Mickiewicz, Słowacki and Krasiński in it. He expressed his own, sometimes controversial opinions on the three great Polish bards. He perceived Mickiewicz as a man and a poet of exceptional talent. He stated that a perfect harmony between feeling, imagination and thought was achieved in Pan Tadeusz. He was the first one to notice humour as the deepest aesthetic value of the poem. Grażyna was named a true gem of poetry whereas Dziady drezdeńskie was read as a drama “least perfect of all Mickiewicz’s works” due to their mental and structural “inertia”. Studies on Słowacki and Krasiński include most of subjective opinions. Kordian's author’s works inspired the critic to express his views on the romantic poetics, his dislike for Romanticism both “rapturous”, and “sentimental”; they allowed criticism of independence and Messianic ideas, and panslavism expressed as conservative and legalist patriotism. Opinions coloured by personal antipathy to Słowacki and his output include many subjective statements and judgements. Thus the critic considered the poems W Szwajcarii, Ojciec zadżumionych, Grób Agamemnona, “masterpieces of poetic inspiration” whereas the ones created during the mysticism period were called “the works of the mind in slackness and decay”. Krasiński’s literary output was raised idealistically into “moral greatness”. Almost all literary works and letters of the author of Nie-Boska Komedia were perceived as moral and aesthetic models. Although Tarnowski did not comprehend romantic mixing of literary genres and overlap of various aesthetic tendencies, he was a determinate advocate of “beauty” and “noble form”. In his works devoted to Romanticism he used his own method of critical analysis and individual rhetorical style with an emotional tinge.