The story which the Wojski never finished, concerning Rejtan’s quarrel with the Prince of Nassau, is known from tradition. Rejtan, offended by the prince’s boasting, once stood beside him on a clearing. Just then a monstrous wild boar, furious with shot wounds, and with being hunted, rushed upon them. Rejtan snatched the prince’s gun from his hands, threw it on the ground, and taking a spear, and giving another to the German, said, “Now let us see which of us can manage a spear best.” The boar was just rushing upon them, when the Wojski Hreczecha, standing at a distance, slew the beast by a fortunate shot. The gentlemen were at first angry, but afterwards became reconciled to each other, and liberally rewarded Hreczecha. ↩
One of the finest palaces in Warsaw is that of General Pac, who died at Smyrna in exile. The Russians converted it into a bazaar of industry. ↩
The Leliwa is a crest of Polish heraldry, and is the horizontal crescent with a star between its horns. ↩
The original words are wioski and zascianki, both of which have been already explained. ↩
A soup made chiefly of beetroot and cream. ↩
Consommé. ↩
In the sixteenth and at the beginning of the seventeenth century, at the time when art was most flourishing, even banquets were arranged by artists, and full of symbols and theatrical devices. At the renowned festival given in Rome to Leo X was a service representing in turn the four seasons of the year, which probably served as the model for that of Radziwill. These table customs were changed in Europe about the middle of the eighteenth century: they lasted longest in Poland. ↩
Pineti, a magician renowned through all Poland; when he was among us we do not know. ↩
Leader first in the insurrection of 1831, later on in the Hungarian war of 1848–49. ↩
Dzierzanowski and the Cossack Sawa were both famous as heroes of the Confederacy. ↩
The lamentation of the wife of Cybulski, whose husband lost her at cards to a Muscovite, is well known in Lithuania. ↩
“Baska panska na pstrym koniu jedzie”—a national proverb. ↩
The five Pulawskis, father, three brothers, and nephew, were all distinguished in the Confederacy of Bar, formed to resist Russian interference; being its first originators and afterwards its life and soul. After the death of his father Casimir Pulawski became chief of the whole Confederacy, maintained it for a long time, and was at length persuaded to accede to the seizure of King Stanislas in Warsaw. This act has been undeservedly reprobated by a once famous English novelist, but it was certainly ill-judged, for it contributed to the loss of prestige in the Confederates, and the downfall of their cause. After the ruin of the Confederacy Pulawski fought for some time in Turkey against the Russians, and subsequently taking part in the American War of Independence, fell in an assault on Fort Wayne (1779). ↩
Several French officers, chiefly Dumourier, also Choiseul Vismenil, and others, took part with the Confederates. ↩
A Piast originally signified a sovereign of the first historic dynasty that reigned over Poland, from Piast, the reputed founder of the race, to Casimir the Great, who died in 1370. In later times, during the period of elected sovereigns, a Piast came to mean a king, or candidate for the throne, of Polish birth. Hence it is here used for a national hero. ↩
The fashion of dressing in the French style increased greatly in the provinces between the years 1800 to 1812. Young men often changed their style of dress before marriage, at the request of their betrothed. ↩
The Polish original is striking, being literally, “roasted a crab.” ↩
We may notice this curious coincidence (a very unscriptural genealogy, by the way) between these ideas and the reasons alleged by the Southerners for keeping the negroes in slavery. The reader will remember that the word Cham is actually used earlier in the poem in addressing a peasant. ↩
The Russian Government acknowledged no freemen except nobles. Serfs, freed by their proprietors, were at once inscribed among the peasants of the Imperial estates, and instead of compulsory labour were forced to pay increased taxes. It is well known that in the year 1818 the inhabitants of the governorship of Wilna decreed in the Senate a project of freeing all the serfs, and appointed for this purpose a delegation to the Emperor; but the government ordered the project to be hushed up, and nevermore to be mentioned. There was no way of freeing a man at that time, under Russian rule, except by adopting him into the family. Therefore many were freed in this way, either by avour or for money. ↩
Before the inauguration of a better taste by Mickiewicz and other great writers, the so-called French or Classical school of literature in Poland produced a quantity of panegyrics or complimentary verses in honour of great personages, with stale classical images, and strained, farfetched metaphors, destitute of real poetry. Our author has seized this happy opportunity of satirising the faults of classicism. ↩
“The cymbals are a species of lyre laid flat on a table, and played with padded sticks. They have great tone and capability of expression, and emit as much sound as a grand piano; the lower strings have immense depth and power.”
