Page:Brandes - Poland, a Study of the Land, People, and Literature.djvu/317

Rh whose stage is the outer world, are found here in abundance. But the greatest tragedy, that of which the human soul may be the theatre, even without any special pursuit of a hostile fate, is not presented to the reader's consciousness in the same degree. These poets have so naturally felt impelled to say a consoling, hopeful word to their readers, that they have not sounded misery to the lowest depth with their imaginative power. And on the other side the romantic literary group of Poland, rich as it is, has this defect, that it has allowed very little scope to the comic elements of existence. Thus it lacks a full grasp of human life, its whole intensity. It seems as if the sense of the comic were not very strong or very widespread among the Polish people. The poets, who like Fredro have had a sharp eye for it, have not used their talent for the comic in the service of the more elevated ideas, and the poets, who, like the romanticists, have laboured in the name of ideas, have shown little skill in the use of laughter either as a weapon or as the expression of cheerfulness.

There is a gleam of humour diffused throughout Pan Tadeusz, which could not be more delicately beautiful, but it is weak, and the poet has not succeeded in making a really comic impression when he intends to. Thus the Count now and then becomes tedious when he ought to be comic. With a better developed sense of humour Mickiewicz again would not have produced a figure like Gustav in Dziady. He is unintentionally comic when he ought to be most impressive. Neither does Slowacki ever achieve a strong comic effect. His comic secondary characters are never observed from real life, but constantly remind us either of a Shakesperean clown or of a Calderonian Gracioso, and at best create a smile, never laughter. He really produces a comic effect only when he does not intend to, as in depicting the achievements of his sottish and desperate hero Lambro. Finally, however alien comic effects are to a talent like Krasinski's, still the drawing of the character of the Italian baron in The Unfinished Poem shows that he possessed undeveloped ability in that direction. It is a pity that he did not in the least feel the impulse to use U