Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 19.djvu/311

Rh LITERATURE.] POLAND 299 Paskewitch, who had taken the command, Diebitsch having died of cholera (June 10th), and a few weeks afterwards the grand-duke Constantine died at Vitebsk. On February 26, 1832, Poland was declared a Russian province. Ibellion No other outbreak occurred till 1863, but for some c!863. time previously the country had been disturbed. On the 29th November 1860, on the occasion of the thirtieth anniversary of the revolution of 1830, many political manifestations took place both in the churches and streets, and portraits of Kosciuszko and Kilinski, a patriot of the time of the last partition, were distributed. Some riots took place, and unfortunately several persons were killed. These proceedings were followed by concessions from the emperor Alexander, who established municipal institutions in Warsaw and the chief cities of the king dom. The Russian czar was acting under the advice of Wielopolski, a Pole, who was appointed director of public instruction and worship. Riots, however, still continued, and in 18G2 the grand-duke Constantine was named viceroy. On the night of January 15, 1863, a secret conscription was held, and the persons sus pected of being most hostile to the Government were dragged from their beds and enlisted as soldiers. Immedi ately after this the insurrection broke out, which was directed by a secret committee (Rzad), the proceedings of which were as mysterious as those of the Fehmgerichte. Soon after bands of rebels began to make their appearance in the Polish forests. There were, however, no regular battles between the Russian troops and the Poles, only guerilla fighting, in which the Poles, under the greatest disadvantages, showed splendid heroism. The secret emissaries of the revolutionary Government, armed with daggers, succeeded in putting to death many Russian spies not the least memorable case being that of the Jew Hermani, stabbed while on the staircase of the Hotel de 1 Europe at Warsaw. On the other hand the chiefs of the insurgents captured were shot or hanged. Langiewicz held out for some time, but was defeated by the Russians, and succeeded in making his escape into Galicia. A reign of terror was inaugurated by General Mouravieff, and all attempts at reconciliation made by the great powers of Europe were useless. By May 1864 the rebellion was quite suppressed, and it will be seen by the results that it cost Poland dear. The kingdom of Poland now ceased to exist ; it has been parcelled out into six governments. The Russian language was ordered to be used in all public documents instead of Polish, and the university of Warsaw has been Russified, all lectures now being delivered in that language. We have not dwelt upon the terrible massacres of the Polish nobles by the peasants in Galicia in 1846, said to have been instigated by the Austrian Government. This province has been tolerably quiet since, but the Poles have to struggle with the large Ruthenian or Red-Russian popu lation, speaking a different language, and adherents of the Greek Church or Uniates. In Prussian Poland, though it is but fair to add that we hear no stories of massacres, the Germanization of the pro vince has been more complete. Posen will soon be lost as a Polish town, and many historical places have had their names obliterated for such substitutes as Bismarcksdorf and Sedan. POLISH LITERATURE. The Polish Language, according to the latest statistics, is still spoken by nearly ten millions of people, distributed, according to the Revue Slave (Warsaw, 1878, vol. i. p. 78), as follows: in Russia, 4,640,000; in Austria, 2,444,200; in Prussia, 2,405,800; in Turkey, 10,000. It belongs to the western branch of the Slavonic tongues, and exhibits the closest affinities with the Czech or Bohemian and Lusatian Wendish (see SLAVONIC LANGUAGES). Unlike the people of other Slavonic countries, the Poles are com paratively poor in popular and legendary poetry, but such compositions undoubtedly existed in early times, as may be seen by the writings of their chroniclers ; thus Gallus translated into Latin a poem written on Bolesiaw the Brave, and a few old Polish songs are included in Wojcicki s Library of Ancient Writers. A great deal of the early literature written in Poland is in Latin. The earliest specimen of the Polish language is the so-called Psalter of Queen Margaret, discovered in 1826 at the convent of St Florian. The date of the MS. appears to be the middle of the 14th century, and probably in its present form it is only a copy of a much older text ; there is also a trans lation of the fiftieth psalm belonging to the 13th cen tury. 1 The ancient Polish hymn or war song, &quot;Piesn Boga Rodzica,&quot; was an address to the Virgin, sung by the Poles when about to fight. The oldest manuscript of this pro duction is dated 1408, and is preserved at Cracow. By a legend which subsequently grew up the composition of it was assigned to St Adalbert. John Lodzia, bishop of Posen from 1335 to 1346, composed several religious songs in Latin. The next monument of Polish literature to which we come is the Bible of Queen Sophia or Bible of Szarosz- patak. It is imperfect, and only contains the early books, viz., the Pentateuch, Joshua, Ruth, and Kings ; there are, however, fragments of three others. It is said to have been written for Sophia, the fourth wife of Jagielio, about the year 1455. It has been edited with great care by Matecki. Five religious songs in Polish dating from the 15th century have been preserved; they are ascribed to Andrew Slopuchowski, prior of the monastery of the Holy Cross on Lysa Gora. There is also the fragment of a hymn in praise of Wickliffe. To these fragments may be added the prayer book of a certain Waciaw, a sermon on marriage, and some Polish glosses. These are all the exist ing memorials of the Polish language before the 16th century. Perhaps a few words should be said concerning the The writers in Latin. Martin Gallus lived in Poland between Latin 1110 and 1135. From his name he has been supposed by ^j 1 some to have been a Frenchman, and we must remember that Poland swarmed at that time with foreign ecclesias tics. Lelewel, the Polish historian, considers that it is merely a translation into Latin of some such name as Kura, signifying &quot; a fowl. &quot; Others suppose him to have been an Italian, or a monk from the convent of St Gall in Switzerland. He has plenty of legends to tell us, and writes altogether in a poetical style, so that his prose seems to fall into rhythm unconsciously. His quotations from the classics, Sallust, Lucan, and others, show the extent of his reading. Gallus was followed by Matthew Cholewa and Vincent Kadlubek, two bishops of Cracow, and Bogufal or Boguchwal (Gottlob), bishop of Posen, who all used Latin. The work of Kadlubek is more ornate in diction than that of Bogufal and for a long time enjoyed great popularity. He was born in 1160, educated at the university of Paris, and died in Poland in 1223, as a Cistercian monk. His Latin, like that of Gallus, is far from classical, but he writes with spirit and throws a good deal of light upon the events of his time. The education of the country was wholly in the hands of the ecclesiastics, many of whom were foreigners. In this way we must explain the great prevalence of the Latin language. Such a system would be sure to stifle all national outgrowth, and accordingly we have among the 1 The Psalter is called after Margaret, the first wife of King Louis, who died in 1349, by a mere conjecture. Cam thinks it more probable that the book belonged to Mary, his daughter.