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Polish Romantic Drama: Three Plays in English Translation ed. by Harold B. Segel (review)
- Comparative Drama
- Western Michigan University
- Volume 12, Number 4, Winter 1978-1979
- pp. 372-373
- 10.1353/cdr.1978.0050
- Review
- Additional Information
372 Comparative Drama Polish Romantic Drama: Three Plays in English Translation. Selected and edited by Harold B. Segel. Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press, 1977. Pp. 320. $17.50. Probably no other play in world literature has created more problems for a government than Mickiewicz’s Forefathers’ Eve. Every new produc tion in Poland has had the censor busily sharpening his red pencil. How ever, since every schoolchild in Poland knows Mickiewicz’s classic by heart, any attempts to amend the text invariably bring a chorus of voices from the audience reciting the proper version. Thus, the criticism of Tsarist Russia becomes an indictment against present Soviet influence: “The wicked tsar has put them all in dungeons: Like Herod, he would wipe the whole race out” (p. 121). The more things change, the more they remain the same. Recently in reviewing an anthology of avant-grade Polish drama, I wrote that Mickiewicz’s Forefathers’ Eve will prove to be the best repre sentative of Polish avant-garde drama. Harold Segel has affirmed that claim. This beautifully translated collection will finally give American readers a taste of Polish Romanticism, a movement which can comfort ably hold its own with counterparts in England, France and Germany. It is, however, a mere sampling: hopefully its artistic value will permeate the commercial recesses of our university presses and further translations will follow. Not everyone will agree with Segel’s thoughtful and convincing (to me) commentary regarding sources of Poland’s Messianic Mission, but few will argue that Poland’s emigres (during the Great Emigration of the nineteenth century) were some of the most colorful, original and talented artists that ever emigrated en masse from one country (Poland) to an other (France). The final word has not yet been written concerning these highly motivated people. Their tragedy was truly Grecian. Having de veloped later than in Germany or in England (1798), Polish Romanti cism seemed to put into practice what Wordsworth, Goethe, and Byron put into words. Towianism, with its emphasis on man as saint and prophet, epitomized Poland’s contribution to the Romantic Movement. And Mickiewicz set out to become its spokesman. Segel’s excellent account of Mickiewicz’s progression from Wertherian onlooker to Byronic doer does justice to Poland’s greatest poet. It is also encouraging to find a critic who is not afraid to state that Forefathers’ Eve belongs to the greatest of romantic plays, as original in construction as Buchner’s contributions. It is a shame that Segel did not include Slowacki’s Kordian in this anthology. He makes ample use of this drama in his discussion of the three plays, and the reader feels cheated that he cannot turn to the original. But undoubtedly the play will appear in the next volume; there are at least ten more like these included that have never been translated. Segel’s introduction is a clear and effective précis of the research that has been done in Poland on the Romantic Movement and includes ma terial from Maria Janion’s excellent study on The Un-Divine Comedy, Stefan Treugutt’s Juliusz Slowacki: Romantic Poet, and Wiktor Weintraub ’s life-long research on Mickiewicz. The translations contain few Reviews 373 awkward constructions. I would cite the following as most jarring: “Fear horrider than” (p. 113); “God who gave my fathers rule” (p. 227); “a million of the people obeyed me” (p. 245). On the other hand, the number of felicitous phrasing is immense. These are not “easy” plays. The Un-Divine Comedy, the first play to treat revolution as envisaged by twentieth-century rebels, is effective theater but on the level of Teatr Mundi. The world is its setting, and humanity makes up its cast. In the hands of an inventive director, the play could work. Slowacki’s Fantazy is another matter. It is truly a funplay , filled with sunshine and smiles, lovely ladies holding on to their heralded virginity, and courtly and uncourtly gentlemen who have ap parently kissed and smothered the Polish Blarney Stone. And it all seems to have been written in English! The satire is broad, and the characters provide ample fodder for good actors. A volume like this would...