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[[File:Nie-boska komedia 1835.jpg|thumb|Cover of the ''The Undivine Comedy'' (1835 edition)]]
[[File:Nie-boska komedia 1835.jpg|thumb|Cover of the ''The Undivine Comedy'' (1835 edition)]]
[[File:Nie-boska komedia 1837.jpg|thumb|Cover of the ''The Undivine Comedy'' (1837 edition)]]
[[File:Nie-boska komedia 1837.jpg|thumb|Cover of the ''The Undivine Comedy'' (1837 edition)]]

Revision as of 09:22, 2 June 2020

Cover of the The Undivine Comedy (1835 edition)
Cover of the The Undivine Comedy (1837 edition)
Cover of the The Undivine Comedy (1923 edition)

The Undivine Comedy or The Un-divine Comedy (Polish: Nie Boska komedia or Nie-boska komedia)[a] is a drama written in prose composed in 1833 by the Polish Romantic poet Zygmunt Krasiński and published anonymously in 1835.[6] The work's main theme is sociopolitical conflict – in Krasiński's words, between "aristocracy and democracy". It is Krasiński's best-known work[7][6][8] and has been recognized as one of the most significant works of literature of the Polish Romantic period.[9][10][11]

History

Krasiński began work on The Undivine Comedy in June 1833 in Vienna, and finished it in autumn the following year in Venice.[7] It was published in Paris in 1835 anonymously,[7] likely to protect the author's family from any repercussions in the Russian Empire, of which they were subjects. Krasiński's writings often contained thinly veiled references to current politics.[12][6]

Krasiński would later work on another drama related to The Undivine Comedy. He considered composing a trilogy, of which the Undivine Comedy would likely have been the middle part, but he never finished the project (the draft of the first part would eventually be published in 1852 as Sen. Pieśń z „Niedokończonego poematu”, wyjęta z pozostałych rękopisów po świętej pamięci J. S., and more extensively, posthumously as Niedokończony poemat – The Unfinished Poem in 1860).[13][7][14][15] The entire trilogy was to have featured the same protagonist, Count Henry, called "The Youth" in the unfinished prequel, and "The Husband" in The Undivine Comedy.[14]

The play has been translated into more than a dozen languages.[16] Within few years it received a French translation by Władysław Mickiewicz [pl].[2] Based on the French translation, in 1868 Robert Lytton published a drama titled Orval, or the Fool of Time which has been inspired by Krasiński's work to the point it has been discussed in scholarly literature as an example of a "rough translation",[17] paraphrase[18] or even plagiarism.[2]The Undivine Comedy was first translated to English in 1864 by Marthy Walker Cook (although she based it on earlier French and German translations),[2][18] again in 1924 (by Harriette E. Kennedy and Zofia Umińska, with a preface by G. K. Chesterton), for the third time in 1977 (By Harold B. Segel) and most recently in 1999 (by Charles S. Kraszewski).[19][5]

Initially it was considered too difficult to be adopted properly into a theatre,[6][20] and it was never staged during Krasiński's liftetime.[9] It was finally put on the stage in 1902 in the Juliusz Słowacki Theatre in Kraków by Józef Kotarbiński [pl][9][21] and since that time it has been staged numerous times in Poland and abroad.[16] Gordon M. Wickstrom, writing in 1972, noted that "since World War II nearly all leading Polish directors have undertaken" directing that play, also noting that while it has been produced in a number of other European countries, it has remained "unproduced and nearly unknown in English".[9] In 1988 Michael Finnissy directed an operatic version of it, shown in Paris and London.[20] In Poland, it has been directed by among others Arnold Szyfman (Warsaw 1920), Leon Schiller (Warsaw 1926, Łódź 1938), Bohdan Korzeniewski [pl] (Warsaw 1959), Konrad Swinarski (Kraków 1965), Adam Hanuszkiewicz (Warsaw 1969) and Jerzy Grzegorzewski [pl] (Warsaw 2002) to the music of composers such as Ludomir Różycki, Jan Maklakiewicz, Grażyna Bacewicz and Krzysztof Penderecki staged the play from 1920's onward.[16]

Plot

The plot of the drama takes place in the near future, where Krasiński used recent contemporary events, such as the French Revolution, and the ensuing power struggle between the Jacobins and other factions as inspiration and extrapolating a number of social trends, describing a fictional pan-European revolution against the Christian aristocracy.[7][6][16][9] The protagonist of the drama, Count Henry (in Polish, Henryk), is an conflicted poet, who find himself leading, together with his fellow aristocrats, a defense of the Holy Trinity castle,[b] against revolutionary forces professing democratic and atheist ideals, commanded by a leader named Pancras (in Polish, Pankracy). In the end, both sides are portrayed as a failure: while the revolutionaries take the castle, their leader increasingly doubts the righteous of their cause, and the drama ends with him seeing the vision of the Christianity being triumphant after all.[6][16][9]

The play is divided into four parts and thirty-two scenes.[9] The first two parts of the work build up the character of Count Henry, focusing on his private life as a husband, father, and artist; while the next two are focused on large revolutionary struggle.[6]

Analysis

The initial title of the work was Mąż (The Husband).[24] Another title that Krasiński considered was the Ludzka Komedia (The Human Comedy).[25][26][c] That title as well as the final title of the drama that Krasiński settled on were both inspired by Dante's Divine Comedy and have a double meaning: it depicts history as a work of humanity, or as a comedy taking place in absence of divine intervention, but contrary to God's will.[27][25] The work has been influenced by Krasiński's thoughts about the Polish November Uprising and the contemporary French July Revolution of 1830, coupled with his study of the changes wrought by the emerging capitalism to Western Europe.[7][6]

Krasiński's work effectively discussed the concept of class struggle before Karl Marx coined the term.[6][28][8] It has been described as the "first literary expression of class war"[12] and a "queer prefiguring of Marx".[29] The philosophy of the revolutionaries in the drama has been described as "nothing other than dialectical materialism".[6] The drama's themes are social revolution and the destruction of the noble class. It is critical both of the weak and cowardly aristocracy, whose destruction it prophesized, but also of the revolution, which he portrayed as a destructive force. The work is also tackling the topics of the identity of a poet, the nature of poetry, and myths of romantic ideals such as perfect love, fame and happiness.[7]

Count Henry has been analyzed as an example of the "worst possible version of Romantic individualism", conceited and egoistical, only partially redeemed by his service to the humankind, a task in which he will ultimately fail in as well.[16][9] Professing to defend the Christian ideals, he ultimately commits the sin of suicide.[6] He has also been described as influenced by Goethe's Faust.[10]

Halina Floryńska-Lalewicz summarized the message of the work as follows: "Krasiński seems to say that in historical reality neither side can be fully in the right. Righteousness resides solely in the divine dimension, and it can be brought into the world by none other than Providence and the forces aligned with it. Man caught up in history is always a tragic figure, condemned to be imperfect and make the wrong choices."[16]

One dimension of the Undivine Comedy has however attracted criticism, with several scholars noting that one of the subplots in the story revolves around the antisemitic canard of Jewish conspiracy against Christians.[30][31][14] It therefore has the dubious honor of being one of the first, if not the first, work in a string of modern antisemitic literary works in Europe leading to the The Protocols of the Elders of Zion,[31][14] For that reason, another scholar of Polish literature, Maria Janion, has called the work a "tainted masterpiece".[30] The controversy related to this issue has resulted in the cancellation of the staged play by director Oliver Frljić [pl] in 2014 in Warsaw.[30][32]

Reception

Since its debut, the reception of the work has been generally positive. Already in the 19th century, Adam Mickiewicz discussed the work in his lectures at the Collège de France, calling it "the highest achievement of the Slavic theater".[6] Monica Mary Gardner in 1915 in her biography of Krasiński described the work as "the masterpiece of matured genius".[33] Over a century after the play was first published, Wacław Lednicki [pl] writing in 1959 for the The Polish Review called it a "masterpiece of Polish drama".[34] Shortly afterward, Polish writer and Nobel Prize in Literature laureate Czesław Miłosz in his 1969 book The History of Polish Literature called this work "truly pioneering" and "undoubtedly a masterpiece not only of Polish but also of world literature”. Miłosz notes that it is uprising such a brilliant work was created by an author who was barely out of his teens.[6] Gordon M. Wickstrom in 1972 writing for the Educational Theatre Journal called it the "The finest achievement of Polish Romantic drama".[9] Robert Mann in 1983 in the The Slavic and East European Journal noted that it "ranks alongside Mickiewicz's Forefather's Eve and Słowacki's Kordian as one of the greatest dramatic works in Polish Romantic literature.[10] In 1986 Frank Northen Magill in the Critical Survey of Drama: Authors wrote that "The Undivine Comedy... suffices to ensure Krasiński's position as a dramatist of international stature".[35] Writing for the same journal as Mann in 1997, Megan L. Dixon described the work as "a classic of 19th-century High Romanticism... worthy of comparison to Goethe or Byron".[36] Gerard T. Kapolka in 2000 in the The Polish Review referred to it as a "great play".[5] Halina Floryńska-Lalewicz in her 2004 biography of Krasiński published in 2004 at Culture.pl called it an outstanding example of Romantic, metaphysical drama".[16] In 2014 Harold B. Segel in his book Polish Romantic Drama: Three Plays in English Translation noted that "the play has steadily gained prestige in the twentieth century and is widely regarded in contemporary Poland as one of the greatest dramatic works to emerge from the Romantic period."[11]

Notes

  1. ^ Less commonly, the title has been also rendered in English as The Ungodly Comedy,[1] the The Infernal Comedy[2][3] and The Unholy Comedy[4] Gerard T. Kapolka suggested that a better title conveying Krasiński's intent might be The Godless Comedy[5] while Mary Lowell Putnam suggested the title The Profane Comedy.[2]
  2. ^ A real castle (Okopy Świętej Trójcy [pl]), located in the Okopy, Ternopil Oblast.[22][23]
  3. ^ In fact, this title might have inspired Honoré de Balzac, author of the La Comédie humaine, likely passed ot him through their mutual friend Henry Reeve.[26]

References

  1. ^ Deborah Holmes; Lisa Silverman (2009). Interwar Vienna: Culture Between Tradition and Modernity. Camden House. p. 44. ISBN 978-1-57113-420-2.
  2. ^ a b c d e Budrewicz, Aleksandra (2014). "Przekład, parafraza czy plagiat? "Nie-Boska komedia" Zygmunta Krasińskiego po angielsku". Wiek XIX. Rocznik Towarzystwa Literackiego Im. Adama Mickiewicza (in Polish). XLIX (1): 23–44. ISSN 2080-0851.
  3. ^ Wacław Lednicki (1964). Zygmunt Krasiński, Romantic Universalist. Polish Institute of Arts and Sciences in America. p. 180.
  4. ^ Artur Sandauer (1 June 2005). On the situation of the Polish writer of Jewish descent in the twentieth century: it is not I who should have written this study--. Hebrew University, Magnes Press. p. 18.
  5. ^ a b c Kapolka, Gerard T. (2000). "Review of The Undivine Comedy, Zygmunt Krasiński". The Polish Review. 45 (2): 239–241. ISSN 0032-2970. JSTOR 25779189.
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Czeslaw Milosz (24 October 1983). The History of Polish Literature, Updated Edition. University of California Press. pp. 245 and 246. ISBN 978-0-520-04477-7.
  7. ^ a b c d e f g Sudolski, Zbigniew (2016). "Zygmunt Krasiński". Internetowy Polski Słownik Biograficzny (in Polish). Archived from the original on 2019-08-12.
  8. ^ a b Christopher John Murray (13 May 2013). Encyclopedia of the Romantic Era, 1760–1850. Routledge. p. 626. ISBN 1-135-45579-1.
  9. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wickstrom, Gordon M. (1972). ""The Un-Divine Comedy": Drama of Art and Revolution". Educational Theatre Journal. 24 (3): 269–282. doi:10.2307/3205896. ISSN 0013-1989. JSTOR 3205896.
  10. ^ a b c Mann, Robert (1983). "Krasiński's Undivine Comedy and Goethe's Faust". The Slavic and East European Journal. 27 (3): 354–364. doi:10.2307/307862. ISSN 0037-6752. JSTOR 307862.
  11. ^ a b Segel, Harold B. (8 April 2014). Polish Romantic Drama: Three Plays in English Translation. Routledge. p. 26. ISBN 978-1-134-40042-3.
  12. ^ a b "Zygmunt Krasiński | Polish poet and dramatist". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 2020-05-26.
  13. ^ Twórczość. Związek Literatów Polskich. RSW "Prasa-Książa-Ruch". 1960. p. 93.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
  14. ^ a b c d Fiećko, Jerzy (2014-11-27). "Co zrobić z Niedokończonym poematem Zygmunta Krasińskiego?". Sztuka Edycji (in Polish). 6: 23–28. doi:10.12775/SE.2014.004. ISSN 2391-7903.
  15. ^ Victor Erlich (1964). The double image: concepts of the poet in Slavic literatures. Johns Hopkins Press. p. 53.
  16. ^ a b c d e f g h Floryńska-Lalewicz, Halina (2004). "Zygmunt Krasiński". Culture.pl (in Polish). Retrieved 2020-05-25.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  17. ^ Monica M. Gardner (29 January 2015). The Anonymous Poet of Poland. Cambridge University Press. p. 134. ISBN 978-1-107-46104-8.
  18. ^ a b O. Classe, ed. (2000). Encyclopedia of Literary Translation Into English: A-L. Taylor & Francis. p. 775. ISBN 978-1-884964-36-7.
  19. ^ Thompson, Ewa (2001-11-01). "On Zygmunt Krasinski's Undivine Comedy". The Chesterton Review. Retrieved 2020-05-30.
  20. ^ a b Clements, Andrew (1988). "Finnissy's Undivine Comedy". The Musical Times. 129 (1745): 330–332. doi:10.2307/964740. ISSN 0027-4666. JSTOR 964740.
  21. ^ Małgorzata Sokalska (1 September 2012). Wokół Krasińskiego (in Polish). Wydawnictwo UJ. p. 137. ISBN 978-83-233-8753-4.
  22. ^ Franciszek Wiktor Mleczko (1963). Wieś rodzinna wzywa. Ludowa Spółdzielnia Wydawnicza. p. 53.
  23. ^ Katarzyna Węglicka (2006). Wędrówki kresowe: gawędy o miejscach, ludziach i zdarzeniach. Książka i Wiedza. p. 165. ISBN 978-83-05-13450-7.
  24. ^ Zbigniew Sudolski (1997). Krasiński: opowieść biograficzna. Wydawn. Ancher. p. 149. ISBN 978-83-85576-19-8.
  25. ^ a b Bėlza, Igor (1974). Portrety romantyków. Original from - Pennsylvania State University: Pax. p. 173.
  26. ^ a b Folkierski, Władysław; Maguire, Robert A. (1960). "The History of Two Titles: The Undivine Comedy and the Comedie Humaine". The Polish Review. 5 (1): 103–108. ISSN 0032-2970. JSTOR 25776296.
  27. ^ Kuciak, Agnieszka (2003). Dante Romantyków: Recepcja Boskiej Komedii u Mickiewicza, Słowackiego, Krasińskiego i Norwida (in Polish). Poznań: Wydawnictwo Naukowe UAM. p. 31. ISBN 978-83-232-1240-9.
  28. ^ Czeslaw Milosz (21 August 1981). Emperor of the Earth: Modes of Eccentric Vision. University of California Press. p. 57. ISBN 978-0-520-04503-3.
  29. ^ Anne Applebaum (13 June 2017). Between East and West: Across the Borderlands of Europe. Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group. p. 288. ISBN 978-0-525-43319-4.
  30. ^ a b c Adamiecka-Sitek, Agata (2016). "Poles, Jews and Aesthetic Experience: On the Cancelled Theatre Production by Olivier Frljić". Polish Theatre Journal. 1.
  31. ^ a b Bronner, Stepehn Eric (2019). A Rumor about the Jews: Conspiracy, Anti-Semitism, and the Protocols of Zion (Second ed.). New Brunswick, NJ: Palgrave macmillan. p. 67. ISBN 978-3-319-95395-3.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link)
  32. ^ Mrozek, Witold (20 January 2014). "Niedoszła "Nie-Boska", czyli co zdjął Klata". wyborcza.pl (in Polish). Retrieved 2020-05-27.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  33. ^ Monica M. Gardner (29 January 2015). The Anonymous Poet of Poland. Cambridge University Press. p. 90. ISBN 978-1-107-46104-8.
  34. ^ Lednicki, Wacław (1959). "The Undivine Comedy". The Polish Review. 4 (3): 106–135. ISSN 0032-2970. JSTOR 25776261.
  35. ^ Frank Northen Magill (1986). Critical Survey of Drama: Authors. Salem Press. p. 1095. ISBN 978-0-89356-385-1.
  36. ^ Dixon, Megan L. (1997). "Maria beyond Marriage in Zygmunt Krasiński's Nie-Boska komedia". The Slavic and East European Journal. 41 (3): 442–457. doi:10.2307/310186. ISSN 0037-6752. JSTOR 310186.
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