Groby w dniu śmierci Tadeusza Kościuszki. Dumy rycerskie

Abstract

Czterotomowa edycja krytyczna "Pism zebranych" księcia Edwarda Lubomirskiego (1796–1823), pod redakcją prof. Jarosława Ławskiego (Kraków–Białystok 2022), ma na celu wydobycie z zapomnienia postaci pisarza działającego na przełomie Oświecenia i Romantyzmu, którego dorobek – mimo iż chronologicznie poprzedzał wileński Romantyzm Mickiewicza – został przesłonięty przez skandal związany z jego tragiczną śmiercią w pojedynku w 1823 roku. Drugi tom prezentuje "Groby w dniu śmierci Tadeusza Kościuszki" (Warszawa 1821), utwór, z którym Lubomirski wiązał duże nadzieje. Opublikowane za życia księcia, dzieło to wpisało się w porewolucyjną dyskusję o Kościuszce. Lubomirski, w swoim "poemacie lirycznym", jak go określił, tworzy nowatorską syntezę poetyk: elementy klasycystyczne przeplata z motywami sentymentalizmu, rokoka, Myśli nocnych Younga, osjanizmu i wczesnego romantyzmu, uzyskując efekt niespotykany dotąd w literaturze polskiej. Publikacja Części 1 wzbudziła oczekiwania na kontynuację (Część 2), która nie powstała lub zaginęła. Dzieło zwróciło uwagę Kazimierza Brodzińskiego, którego pozytywna opinia stała się trwalsza niż pamięć o samym tekście. Brodziński widział w autorze "wielkie nadzieje dla naszej literatury narodowej", podkreślając żywotność, cechę narodową i oryginalność "Grobów..." Lubomirski, poprzez zaproponowanie literatury zakorzenionej w uniwersalnych ideałach, ale jednocześnie oryginalnej i "krajowej", przetarł szlak do sukcesu wczesnemu romantyzmowi. Jego twórczość, w tym wcześniejszy przekład "Fausta" Klingemanna (1819) z programowym Wstępem, stawia go w rzędzie pierwszych polskich romantyków. Lubomirski, wykształcony w Wiedniu, dyplomata, kolekcjoner sztuki i filantrop (fundator Instytutu Oftalmicznego), jest obecnie przypominany jako fundator i postać związana ze skandalem, a jego dorobek literacki, z wyjątkiem wznowionego w 2013 roku Fausta, pozostawał zapomniany. Edycja Pism zebranych została zrealizowana w ramach programu "Regionalna Inicjatywa Doskonałości".

The Sejm of the Republic of Poland proclaimed 2022 the Year of Polish Romanticism to commemorate the 200th anniversary of publication of Poems by Adam Mickiewicz: Volume One (Wilno 1822). Prof. Jarosław Ławski from the University of Białystok supported by Collegium Columbinum Publishers supervised by Prof. Wacław Walecki initiated the project aimed to publish 4 volumes of Collected Works by prince Edward Lubomirski (1796–1823), a writer active at the turn of the Enlightenment and Romantic eras. Lubomirski published three works during his lifetime: a Polish translation of Faust (1815) by E. A. F. Klingemann (1777–1831), issued in Warsaw in 1819 with an extensive Introduction representing the first Polish programme of national Romantic literature, inspired by the German and English models; then a “lyric poem” Graves on the Death Day of Tadeusz Kościuszko. Knight Epics Part 1 (Warsaw 1821) and A Historical-Statistical Description of Vienna (Warsaw 1821), written in Vienna in 1815 during the Congress of Vienna. His Historical and Statistical Sketch of England was published posthumously by his friend, count Edward Raczyński (Poznań 1829). Prince Edward Lubomirski certainly deserved his title of the first Polish Romantic. Unfortunately, although he preceded Mickiewicz’s Vilnian origins of Polish Romanticism, his tragic death and the associated scandal overshadowed his work, consigning it to oblivion. It was not until 2013 that Faust by Klingemann was reissued in Białystok as part of the Scientific Publishing Series “Black Romanticism” in the prince’s Polish translation accompanied by the German original and a scientific commentary. His other works were never reissued until now. The principal reason was the prince’s biography. He was born in the Lubomirskis’ Ukrainian estate in Dubno. His father, general Michał (1752–1825) was considered supporter of the Targowica Confederation and Russia, and both the king of Poland and future generations had very little sympathy for him. Magdalena née Raczyńska (1867–1845) was a pious, loving and unhappy mother. She earlier experienced deaths of her two sons: Marceli (1792–1809) died on a barricade when attacking Austrian troops in 1809, and Kazimierz (1784–1812) contracted typhoid and died when organizing field hospitals in 1812. Edward was educated in Vienna, where immediately after graduation he joined Russian diplomatic service of Alexander I. This gave him the opportunity to take an insider look on political bargains at the Congress of Vienna, and then to work in Berlin and London missions. He surely also knew Prague, Petersburg and Paris. He terminated his diplomatic career in 1820 to settle in his family estate in Radzymin near Warsaw where he managed a model farm and engaged in literary work. He was also an art collector. During a carnival ball on 15 January 1823 he was challenged to a duel for a trivial reason (he denied second lieutenant Ignacy Grocholski’s “excuse me” aimed to supersede him as a dance partner). He did not want to kill his adversary and aimed at earth, but Grocholski shot him. Lubomirski died on 26 February 1823 after weeks of anguish. Before his death, he dictated a letter-testament to count Edward Raczyński, requesting not only publication of his works, but also making substantial donations to charitable causes. They were used to establish the Ophthalmic Institute, i.e. an eye hospital for the poor, open until its destruction by Germans in 1944. Polish culture preserved the memory of scandalous duel and of the prince as a model estate owner from Radzymin, and principally a generous benefactor of the poor, founder of the eye hospital. His literary works were almost completely forgotten. The publication of 4 volumes of his Collected Works is aimed to revive the work and figure of Lubomirski in the history of literature. The full title of the present work reads: Graves on the Death Day of Tadeusz Kościuszko. Knight Epics Part 1, written in original verse by the translator of tragedy “Faust”, Warsaw: Printed by Zawadzki and Węcki, 1821, p. 118. Lubomirski pinned great hopes to this work. It sparked in post-Napoleonic Polish culture a debate on Kościuszko, an important figure for patriotism and ideology. But the young poet also explored the repository of poetic devices wherein elements of classicism are intermingled with elements of sentimentalism, rococo, Night-Thoughts, Ossianic and romantic motifs, producing an effect unprecedented in Polish literature. The publication of Part 1 raised readers’ expectations for “Part 2” that either was not created or was destroyed, or is yet to be discovered in a pile of papers deposited in the archives of Lubomirskis and Raczyńskis. The Graves... attracted attention of the celebrated poet Kazimierz Brodziński (1791–1835), whose opinion became perhaps more famous than the work that was not reissued until now. The author of Wiesław wrote: “This work indicates a poet of great promise in our national literature. (...) His poetic pictures of details, locations, give his poetry life, a national feature and certain originality characteristic of us, much desired by our literature”. Hence the “lyric poem” – so termed by Lubomirski – paved the poet’s road to success. Not by engaging in an argument with the supporters of bygone taste but by proposing national literature that is rooted in universal ideals but also original, Polish, “native”. The Collected Works of Edward Lubomirski are published with support from the project conducted by the Ministry of Education and Science, named “Regional Initiative of Excellence”, implemented in the disciplines of literary theory and linguistics at the Faculty of Philology, University of Białystok.