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Mickiewicz at the Collège de France, 1840-19401

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 June 2017

W. Lednicki
W. Lednicki*
Affiliation:
Harvard University
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Extract

Now is my soul incarnate in my country,

And in my body dwells her soul;

My fatherland and I are one great whole.

My name is million, for I love as millions,

Their pain and suffering I feel …

On December 22, 1840, at two o'clock in the afternoon, the author of these words stood in the Collège de France. Before him was a brilliant audience, which included the Polish poet Niemcewicz, a veteran both of Polish culture and of the struggle for independence, Prince Adam Czartoryski, the leading figure among the Polish emigrés, Charles Montalembert, the great politician and champion of the Polish cause, Faucher, the playwright and journalist, Nicholas Turgenev, author of La Russie el les Russes, Salvandy, former Minister of Education, Jean-Jacques Ampère, son of the great physicist and himself professor of French literature at the Collège de France, a scattering of German, Dalmatian, Montenegrin, and Russian listeners, and a crowd of French and Polish auditors. The hall was packed.

Type
Research Article
Information
Slavonic Yearbook American Series , Volume 1 , 1941 , pp. 149 - 172
Copyright
Copyright © Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies 1941

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Footnotes

1

Professor Lednicki delivered this lecture in commemoration of the inauguration of Mickiewicz's chair of Slavonic Literature at the Collège de France (December 22, 1840) in December, 1940, at Harvard and Columbia Universities and in January, 1941, at Vassar College.

References

2 A. Mickiewicz, Part II, sc. II-V, “Forefathers’ Eve,” translated from the Polish by Dorothea Prall Radin and edited by George Rapall Noyes, The Slavonic Review, IV (London, 1925–26), 48–49.

3 Cf. Mickiewicz, W., Zywot Adama Mickiewicza (Poznań, 1894), III 19–20 Google Scholar.

4 Cf. Adama Mickiewicza Rzecz o Literalurze Slowiatńskiej, Rok Pierwszy (1840–41) Wyd. II (Poznań, 1850), I 1–2.

5 Cf. W. Mickiewicz, op. cit., p. 69.

6 Cf. Mazon, André, “Le Collège de France et les Études Slaves,” Le Collège de France, 1530–1930 (Paris: Les Presses Universitaires de France, 1932), pp. 409–411 Google Scholar.

7 Cf. “Liste des Lecteurs et Professeurs du Collège de France,” in Le Collège de France 1530–1930, pp. 15–23.

8 Cf. W. Mickiewicz, op. cil., vol. II, p. LXXIII ff.

9 Cf. Privat, E., L'Europe et l'Odyssée de la Pologne au XIXe siècle (Lausanne, 1918), pp. 199–200 Google Scholar.

10 Ibid., pp. 200 ff., and 203–204.

11 Ibid., pp. 132–140.

12 Cf. E. Privat, L'Enrope et l'Odyssée de la Pologne.

13 Cf. W. Mickiewicz, op. cit., vol. II, p. LXVI.

14 Cf. ibid., vol. II, p. LXXVI.

15 Cf. ibid., V, II, p. LXX.

15a Cf. Leger, L., Le Panslavisme et 1'intéret français (Paris: Flammarion, 1917), p. 102 Google Scholar. See Appendix I.

16 W. Mickiewicz, op. cit., p. LXXVII.

17 Cf. Leger, L., Nouvelles Études Slaves (Paris: E. Leroux, 1886), II, 282 Google Scholar.

18 W. Mickiewicz, op. cit., II, 452–453.

19 Cf. Privat, L'Europe el l'Odyssée de la Pologne, esp. 156–171, Chap, XIV: “Grégoire XVI et 1'Eglise persécutée,” where terrible proofs are given of the submission of the Pope to Nicholas I. In Polish romantic poetry we have a wonderful evocation of this Pope's attitude towards Poland, in Slowacki's Kordian; cf. the charming scene of the conversation between the Pole, the Polish Count, and the parrot. (Cf. V. Lednicki, “Jules Słowacki (1809–1849),” Revue de l'Universié de Bruxelles, October-November, 1927.)

20 Cf. Koczorowski, St. P., Adam Mickiewicz el la Pensée Française 1830–1923 (Paris, 1929), pp. 38–16 Google Scholar.

21 Ibid., p. 42.

22 Cf. Lednicki, V., “Existe-t-il un patrimoine commun d'éitudes slaves?” Le Monde slave, Paris, December 1926 Google Scholar.

23 Ostrowski, Christian, Lettres Slaves (1839–1853), Orienl-Pologne-Russie (Paris: D. Giraud), p. 47 ffGoogle Scholar.

24 On Polish Slavic studies before Mickiewicz, vd. Frantzev, V. A., Polskoe slavjanovedenie konca XVIII i pervoi četverti XIX st. (Prague, 1906)Google Scholar. Cf. also Lednicki, W., “Poland and the Slavophile Idea,” Slavonic Review (1928–29), pp. 128–140 and 649–662Google Scholar; also Klarner, Z., Slowianofilstwo w literaturze polskiej lat 1800–1848 (Warsaw, 1926)Google Scholar.

25 K. Męzyński, Rosja w wykladach Paryskich Mickiewicza (Poznańskie Towarz. Przyjaciol Nauk, Prace komisji filolog.), X (Poznań 1938), esp. 144–168, where the author discusses Karamzin and Šafařík as sources for Mickiewicz.

26 Cf. Brückner, A., “Wydanie sejmowe Mickiewicza,” Rocznik Literacki (Warsaw 1935), pp. 115–118 Google Scholar.

27 Cf. V. Lednicki, “Pouchkine et Mickiewicz,” Revue de Littérature Comparée (1937), pp. 128–144.

28 V. Mickiewicz, op. cit.

29 Cf. St. P. Koczorowski, op. cit.

30 This influence was discovered by Prof. J. Tretiak of Cracow; cf. his book (not available in this country) Adam Mickiewicz w świelle nowych źrodel 1815–1821 (Cracow, 1917).

31 Helvetius, De l'Esprit, disc. iii.

32 Cf. St. P. Koczorowski, op. cit., p. 69.

33 Cf. Dzieła wszyslkie Adama Mickiewicza, Pisma Polityczne, ed. Pini, T., IX (Lwów), pp. 32–35 Google Scholar.

34 Cf. Lednicki, W., Przyjaciele Moskale, Prace Polskiego Towarzyslwa dla badań Enropy wscliodniej i blizkiego wschodu (Cracow, 1935), pp. 147–193 Google Scholar.

35 Cf. Lednicki, W., Aleksander Puszkin (Cracow, 1926), pp. 162–225 Google Scholar; also W. Lednicki, “Mickiewicz en Russie,” Revue de l'Université de Bruxelles (1929); and Lednicki, W., “Pouchkine et Mickiewicz,” Revue de Littérature Comparie (Paris, 1937), pp. 129–144 Google Scholar.

36 Cf. Kallenbach, J., A. Mickiewicz (Lwów-Warsaw-Cracow, 1923), I, 455–457 Google Scholar.

37 Cf. Mickiewicz, W., Legion Mickiewicza. Rok 1848, Cracow, 1921, 39–40 Google Scholar. Stanisław Wyspiański gives a poetical report of this remarkable talk in Scene VI of his drama The Legion.

38 Cf. Dzieła wszyslkie A. Mickiewicza (Pini), I, 348; also Kallenbach, op. cit., II, 317–318.

39 Michelet, J., Légendes démocratiques du Nord, Pologne, Russie, Kościuszko (Paris, 1852)Google Scholar.

40 J. Kallenbach, op. cit., II, 316–356.

41 Leger, Le Panslavisme, p. 106.

42 Cf. Le Collège de France, p. 410.

43 Ibid.

44 Prof. Pogodin, A. L., Adam Mickiewicz, ego žizn i tvorčestvo (Moscow, 1912), II, 261 Google Scholar.

45 Cf. J. Michelet, Légendes démocratiques du Nord.

46 Konrad Wallenrod and other writings of Adam Mickiewicz, trans, by Jewell Parish. Dorothea Prall Radin, G. R. Noyes, etc. (Berkeley, 1925), p. 176.

47 Pogodin, op. cit., II, 279.

48 Lecture XXVI, Saturday, May 4, 1841.

49 Lecture XLI, Friday, June 25, 1841.

50 Lecture I, Tuesday, December 14, 1841.

51 Lecture XLI, Tuesday, June 29, 1841.

52 Cf. Lednicki, W., Pouchkine et La Pologne (Paris: Leroux, 1928)Google Scholar, and Lednicki, W., Aleksander Puszkin (Cracow, 1926)Google Scholar; also E. Privat, L'Europe et l'Odyssée de la Pologne. Professor Privat, whose work I did not know at the time I was publishing my books on Pushkin, presents a broad compendium of European opinions on the Russian-Polish struggle. Cf. also Puszkin 1847–1937, V. I-II, ed. Lednicki (Cracow, 1939), esp. the essay of M. Jakóbiec and my study, “Mój Puszkinowski Table Talk,” ibid., I, 227–453.

63 Le Polonais (Paris: Bureau du Polonais, No. 9, 1834), pp. 108–109.

54 Expression of Prince P. A. Vyazemski, as quoted by Mickiewicz; cf. V. Lednicki, “Mickiewicz en Russie,” Revue de l'Université de Bruxelles (1928).

55 Cf. Dzieła wszystkie Adama Mickiewicza (Pim), VIII, Literatura Słowiańska, 153–154 (Lekcya XIV, wtórek, 28 maja 1844 r.).

56 Cf. the good popular study by Stanislas Szpotański, Adam Mickiewicz et le Romantisme (Paris: Societé d'Etudes Les Belles Lettres).

57 Lectures III and IV, January 9 and 16, 1844.

58 Cf. a very good book on Mickiewicz, Marjan Szyjkowski's Adam Mickiewicz Budowniczy prawdziwej Polski (Lwów: A. Altenberg, 1922).

59 Wiek XIX, Sto Lit mysli polskiej (Warsaw, 1907), III, 117.

60 A metaphor once used by Professor H. Kołaczkowski of Cracow, who died of exhaustion the day after his return to Cracow from Oranienburg, where he had been imprisoned by the Germans. Professor Kolaczkowski spoke of this episode in the poet's life in one of the volumes of the Sejmowe Wydanie; but, since we do not possess this volume in this country, I am quoting from memory.