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The Wanda Theme in Polish Literature and Life
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 07 August 2018
Extract
If a Polish Tennyson were to appear, intent on composing a Polish Idylls, the maiden he would have to choose from the national gallery for his “lily-maid” Elaine would be the one bearing the simple but euphonious name Wanda. Similarly, if some Polish Shakespeare were to arise, and if he were to undertake the writing of a Polish Lear, he too would have to use this Wanda, in the role of the third daughter Cordelia. At the same time, the Polish writer seeking a figure in his nation's past akin to the Englishman's Boadicea would likewise be obliged to turn to this very Wanda. For in the Polish Wanda, as she has come to be enshrined in the national vocabulary, are to be found the qualities of mind and heart for which each of these three characters, so familiar and so different, are famous: here we have the pure white chastity of Elaine and the filial devotion of Cordelia; here also the Amazonian sternness and manly vigor of the iron-willed Boadicea.
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References
1 An interesting possibility suggests itself here, thanks to the stimulating remarks of Professor Jacob Hammer on the links existing between Kadhibek's Cronica Polonorum (see below) and Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia Regni Britanniae, in the Bulletin of the Polish Institute of Arts and Sciences in America, Vol. II, No. 2, Jan. 1944, pp. 538-674. Could Kadhibek's Wanda (for whom see later) have been derived in part from the original of Shakespeare's Cordelia found in Geoffrey's Historia, Book II, Ch. 15?
2 1373-1399. For a good short account of her life and meaning see, Charlotte Kellogg,“Poland's Great Queen,” in Great Men and Women of Poland, S. P. Mizwa, Ed., N.Y.,1941, pp. 24-36.
3 Op. cit., in Dziela Juljusza Slowackiego, Tad.Pini, Ed., Vol.I, p.214
4 Brückner, Alexander, Dzieje kultury polskiej, Krakόw, 1931, Vol. I, p. 149.Google Scholar
5 Here we are following Prof. W. Kętrzyήski who, from long study of Gervase, came to believe the part of Otia imperialia containing the Polish reference was written prior to the death of Henry III, and therefore, no later than early 1183, as Henry died in June of that year. See Kętrzńyski, “Ze studyόw nad Gerwazym z Tilbury,” in Rozprawy wydz. histfiloz. Akad.Um., Krakόw, Vol. XLVI, 1903, pp. 159-162.
6 Leibnitz Edition of Gervase's Otia imperialia, Scriptores rerum Brunsvicensium, 764 and 765.
7 See Brückner, Alexander, Slownik etymologicany, p. 624 Google Scholar, who notes the single exception of Constantine Porphyrogennetos, who called the river, inexplicably, by the name Dizika. Balzer, in his Studyum o Kadłubku, 1934, pp. 103-105, is our authority for the statement in the text.
8 Balzer, op. cit., p. 120.Google Scholar A thorough reading of Balzer, pp. 81-120, is recommended as throwing light on this subject.
9 References to Kadłubek are to the edition of August Bielowski, Cronica Polonorum, in Vol. II of Monumenta Polloniae Historica, Lemberg, 1872. Our thanks are due to the Library of Columbia University, which kindly microfilmed the text we needed from the copy in the Library of the University of California.
* In the Latin, “pro suis victimet.” See reference to this below.
10 In Justin (Iunianus Iustinus), Historiae Philippicae, Book xIv, Ch. 4, 10. See also, K. F. Kukaniecki, “Podanie o Wandzie w świetle źródeł starożytynch,” Pamiętnik literacki, XXII-XXIII, pp. 46-55.
11 Kochanowski, Jan, Carmina Latina, Warsaw, 1884, Carmen xv, pp. 46–52.Google Scholar
12 Klonowicz, Sebastjan Fabjan, Fits, Warsaw, 1830, p. 40.Google Scholar Translations are from a forthcoming work by A. P. and M. M. Coleman, The Boatman: A Voyager's View of The Polish Renaissance, to be published probably in 1947.
13 Op.cit., p.42.
14 Droga do Szwecyey, in K. Wόjcicki, Biblioteka starożytna pisarzy polskich, Vol. II, pp. 21-22.
15 For a full discussion of this and other points, see Romer, K., “Podanie o Kraku i Wandzie,” Biblioteka Warszawska, 1872, Vol. III, p. 17 Google Scholar, et seq.
16 Brückner, Alexander, Slownik etymologiczny, p. 624.Google Scholar The idea of White is retained in the German name for the Vistula, Weichsel, from weiß, white.
17 The tale was often retold after Kadłubek. A list of the different retellings is found in Oswald Balzer, op. cit., p. 100.
18 Wojciech Kętrzyński, “O Kronice Wielkopolskiej,” in Polska Akademja Um. Rozprawy wydz. hist.-filoz., Ser. 2, Vol. 8, 1896, pp. 1-54.
19 Kronika Wielkopolska, in Scriptores silesiacarum rerum, 1839, Vol. II, p. 21.
* See above, p. 22.
20 Jan Dhigosz (Longinus), 1415-1480. His work, entitled Annales seu cronice inclyti Regni Poloniae, was written 1455-1480 at the urgence of the man who was then virtual ruler of Poland, Cardinal Zbigniew Oleśnicki, and was based on carefully assembled sources, as well, of course, as on the older Chronicles.
21 The edition we have used is that of 1711, Historia Polonica. See p. 55 et seq.
22 Krasicki, Ignacy, Historja, in the one-volume Dzieła, Paris, 1830, p. 443.Google Scholar
23 Op. cit ., vIII, xx, 6-41.
* P. 23, above.
24 In his Poezye, 1833, pp. 43-44. A copy of this rather rare volume is in Columbia University Library.
25 Op.cit., p.443.
26 See note 11.
27 Dziela polskie, Jan Lorentowicz, Ed., Vol. II, Song x, p. 18.
28 Op. cit., in Dziela Juljusza Slowackiego, Tad. Pini, Ed., Vol. i, p. 328.
29 Same, p. 302.
30 For Wężyk, and especially for an analysis of Wanda, krόlowa polska, the play here referred to, see Szyjkowski, M., Dzieje nowożytnej tragedji polskiej, Krakόw, 1920, pp. 277–279.Google Scholar
31 This was reprinted in 1937 (Leipzig), in the Deutsche Literatur Series, Reihe, Romantik, Vol. XX, Dramen von Zacharias Werner, pp. 208-274. This was by no means the first use of the theme in German. See Arnold, Robert, Geschichte der deutschen Polenliteratur, Vol. I (1900), p. 20 Google Scholar, for mention of two novels based on the theme: Joachim Meier's Die polnische Wenda and J. L. Rost'sVenda, Königin in Pohlen (1715). The German work on the theme that may have influenced Werner is L. T. Kosegarten's stirring poem, “Ritogar und Wanda,” in the Deutsches Museum for June, 1783, pp. 515-539. To Germans Wanda easily becomes the symbol of Polish maidenhood and of Poland as a whole, thanks to the fact that from time immemorial they have referred to the Poles as Wends.
32 Werner in a letter to Iffland, in Teichmann, J. V., Literarischer Nachlass, 1863, p. 320.Google Scholar
33 Ibid., p. 322.
34 Ibid., pp. 323-326, letter of Iffland to Werner.
35 Bědrĭch (Frederick) Smetana (1824-1884).
36 The text was prepared by Václav Beneś-Šumavský and F. Zakrejš from a Polish libretto translated by. Juljan Surzycki (1820-1882), a patriotic worker and engineer. See Paul Stefan's Anton Dvořák (Greystone Press, 1941).
37 A. Loewenberg, Annals of the Opera (1943) under the year 1879.
38 Krzyżanowski, Jüijan, Polish Romantic Literature, 1931, pp. 274–275.Google Scholar
* Working one's self into the confidence of the enemy in order to serve one's own people Cf. Mickiewicz's Konrad Wallenrod.
39 The text of this in Polish is as follows:
Wanda leży w polskiej ziemi,
Bo nie chciala Niemca.
Zawsze lepiej mieć swojego,
Niźli cudzoziemca.
Z tamtej strony Wisiy jest Wandy mogila,
Co to za swὁj narὁd życie poświęciła.
Z tamtej strony Wisly jest Wandy mogiła,
Polki bądźcie takie, jaka Wanda była.
40 Bełcikowski, , Dramaty i komedye, Vol. v, p. 120.Google Scholar
41 Op. cit., pp. 302-303
42 Dzieła Wyspianskiego, 1924, Vol. I, pp. 101-102.
43 Of the well-known treatments of the Wanda theme which we have been unable to consult, two may be mentioned, Wanda, a play by Euzebjusz Słowacki, father of the poet, which appeared in 1813; and Święta wiosna (The Holy Spring) by F. Płażek (1904).
44 Deutsches Museum, June 1783, p. 524. See note 31.