Janina Kamionka-Straszakowa
"The Sickness of the Age" and the
Romantic Life-Style
Literary Studies in Poland 5, 91-120
Janina Kamionka-Straszakowa
“The Sickness o f the A g e ”
and the R om antic Life-Style
The Romantic revolution was not confined to literature but rejuvenated all other areas o f art and life, not excluding manners. The task I have set myself is to attempt to confront the changes in cultural manners that took place during the Romantic period with the literature o f the epoch —a task I undertake with the purpose o f drawing out a few (and only a few) o f the connections between literature and attitudes in morals and manners during the first half o f the nineteenth century.1 The formula contained in the title —“the sickness o f the age,” “the Romantic disease” — is employed, in a pole mical context, as a signal o f the existence within studies o f Rom an tic manners o f a specific tradition, up to this point practically the
1 By “ m ann ers” I m ean a fixed, c o n v e n tio n a liz e d m o d e o f b eh a v io u r a c cep ted by (or recently in trodu ced in to ) a given c o lle c tiv ity , and subject to its e v a lu a tio n and m oral sa n ctio n , or to sa n ctio n and ev a lu a tio n with regard to other value sy ste m s p revalent w ithin the given c o lle c tiv ity . I ex clu d e from m y co n sid e r a tio n s m ann ers a s a regu lator o f rela tio n sh ip s a m o n g in d iv id u a ls or b etw een in d iv id u a ls and their prim ary g ro u p s, and co n cen tra te m y a tten tio n o n th e m o d e s o f b eh aviou r and a c tio n that d efine the in d iv id u a l's rela tio n to the c o m m u n ity , to the va lu es o f c o lle c tiv e life. In se lectin g social m o ra lity as m y area for stu d y, m y in te n tio n is to c o n sid e r it in the perspective o f so c ia l and p ro fessio n a l careers, and 1 take as m y p o in t o f d ep arture the assertio n w id ely a ccep ted in so c io lo g y that the p erso n a lity ’s “c o llis io n ” w ith the so cia l sy stem occu rs a b o v e all o n the level o f role- -playin g. 1 d o n o t ex a m in e the im m ed iate extern al m a n ife sta tio n s o f m ann ers —dress, gestu re, the m in u tiae o f everyd ay life, elem en ts w hich w o u ld be in d isp en sib le for a full a n a ly sis, but w hich I have set asid e: 1 have severed m anners from the co n crete d etail o f their m a n ifesta tio n in order to draw ou t their m ea n in g , their gen eralized form , the a ttitu d e s and p attern s o f va lu es they co n cea l.
only one, which has cast a shadow across all subsequent under standing and evaluation o f Romantic manners.
Literature’s influence on manners is usually taken to be self-evi dent, but convictions o f such an influence are seldom supported by cogent argumentation — which is understandable in the light o f the theoretical and m ethodological difficulties and problems o f documen tation that present themselves the moment this task is undertaken. Studies devoted to the links between literature and Romantic manners serve to illustrate these difficulties. I concern m yself here with merely one such study, whicl} is in fact the sole one to pretend to be a monograph o f the area in question: namely, Louis M aigron’s foundation-laying study Le Romantisme et les moeurs (Paris 1910) which arose on the basis o f the critique o f Romanticism executed after 1870 by the French nationalists.2 This study constitutes the sole attempt so far at a total review o f the links between R om an tic manners and literature, and it does not stop short o f synthetic assessment.
The key formula under which the author subsumes Romantic manners is that o f “the Romantic disease.” The fundamental pre mise o f Maigron’s study is his conception o f Romanticism as a m o vement whose essence is a flight from reality into the various spheres of: Imagination, Feeling, Fantasy, Exoticism, Utopia, Tradition, the Folkloric etc. According to this conception Romanticism is a species o f mental aberration manifesting itself in disturbances o f the psychic powers. The chief symptoms o f “the Romantic disease” were seen to be: a hypertrophy o f the imagination, dreaminess, a yearning for the extraordinary, a luxuriation in feeling culminating in neurasthenia, a contempt for the real world, and a rampant egoism leading to revolt against, and violation of, the norms o f social life. The pain
2 T he w ork o n e has to d eem m o st typical o f this lin e o f criticism o f R o m a n t ic is m - in it ia t e d by T hiers, w h o accu sed R o m a n ticism o f in tr o d u cin g an arch y in to so cia l life —is C h . M a u r r a s ’s T rois id ées p o litiq u e s: C h ateau brian d, M ic h e le t,
S ain te-B eu ve, Paris 1898; in a d d itio n to th is there is P. L a s s e r r e ’s m o n o g r a p h L e R o m a n tism e fra n ç a is. E ssa i su r la revolu tion dans les se n tim en ts e t les id é e s au X I X e siècle, P aris 1907, w hich en jo y ed great fam e in its tim e, an d b o ile d this
m o v em e n t d o w n to the sy n th etic fo rm u la “la m alad ie r o m a n tiq u e .” T h e fo llo w in g w ork s, a m o n g o thers, a lso fo llo w th is trend: R . C a n a t , Une F orm e du m a l du
siè cle, Paris 1904; J. L e m a i t r e , Jean Jacqu es R ousseau, P aris 1907; E. S e i l l i è r e , L e M a l rom a n tiq u e, P aris 1908.
The S ic k n e ss o f the A g e 93 o f being and the longing for im m ortality— accompanied by an inca pacity for adaptation —engendered by “the Romantic disease” were held to lead in consequence to extravagances in behaviour, disorien tation, and even self-annihilation. Romantic literature thus not only rendered the individual unfit to participate in social life but also precipitated a moral epidemic whose outcom e was incurable suffering or physical suicide (for instance, the fact o f the existence o f suicide clubs was cited in support o f this argument, and abundant material proofs were drawn from court records).
The many-sided and justified criticism to which M aigron’s study (and the entire movement to which that study belonged) was subject ed did not, however, put paid to a certain prevailing stereotype o f Romantic manners; a stereotype, incidentally, that to some degree derives from the Romantics them selves.3 When we read in a book published in 1956 that “Werther’s appearance prompted a wave o f suicides [...] Chateaubriand’s René devastated several generations,” or that Romantic love is “a disease o f the instincts that is rarely fatal and yet recurrently poisons and depresses us” 4—we encounter the effects o f this stereotype. For this reason, a confrontation of Romantic manners with literature must go hand in hand with a reconstruction o f those manners and patterns o f values themsel ves, which, in the case o f Polish Romanticism, not only do not conform to the prevailing stereotype, but also — and in a fundamen tal way —subvert it.
Local varieties o f “the sickness o f the age.”
Werther à la polonaise
Were one to com b the reality o f Polish manners, the situations o f people o f that epoch, in search o f symptoms o f the “Romantic disease” characterized by Maigron, one would notice that only a very
3 C o m p a r e G o e th e ’s fa m o u s d ictu m “ I term th e h ea lth y C la ssica l an d the d isea sed , R o m a n tic ” (J. P. E c k e r m a n n , G espräch e m it G oeth e, part II). S y m p to m s o f the m o o d and a ttitu d e d efined as “le m al du siè c le ” by R o m a n tic ism w ere a n alyzed an d rep resen ted m o st fu lly in the w o rk s o f R o u sse a u , in C h a tea u b r ia n d ’s R ené, in S é n a n c o u r ’s O berm ann, in C o n sta n t’s A d o lfe an d in M u ss e t’s L a C on fession d ’un
enfant du siècle.
few —sporadic and exceptional —types o f career com ply to the above- mentioned schema, and even then, not unreservedly so.
Drawing upon Polish examples, we can locate such a Romantic life-style in the cases o f Ludwik Spitznagel and Tymon Zaborowski. One can term their biographies “Rom antic” both in the course their lives took and in the very manner in which these biographies’ protagonists acted out and stylized their own experiences. The dis tinction is essential, for an om ission o f this secondary level —the stylization o f experiences during the process o f their rationalization, verbalization or notation by the experiencing subject — would compel one to classify as “Rom antic” biographies such as —for instance —Jan Potocki’s, which is rich in peripeteia open to interpretation as results o f Romanticism. Spitznagel’s case is better known and thus does not require exhaustive analysis here: it is sufficient to note that it accords completely with the schemata o f the “Wertheriad” : unhappy romantic love and “the pain o f being,” conflict with the world resolved by an ultimate refusal o f assen t.5
The case o f Tymon Zaborowski, with its characteristics o f social and behavioural conflict, appears to resemble even more closely the type o f the Wertherian biography. A youth from a monied and well-connected family “fell in love with an impoverished girl, whom he wished to lead to the alter, but‘pride, aristocracy and misguided parental love’ would not consent to this mésalliance,” 6 which di rectly precipitated the poet’s tragic demise —thus F. B oberska7 and, after her, Biegeleisen, presented the affair to their times. The author o f the monograph on Zaborowski corrects certain factual details (mentions two unhappy passions) and considers the cause o f the dramatic step to be o f an internal nature, rather than the
consequen-5 O n the sam e them e see a lso —apart fro m S lo w a c k i’s G o d zin a m y ś li (A n H our
o f M e d ita tio n ) — the m em o irs o f A . E. O d y n i e c , W spom nienia z p r z e s z ło ś c i o p o w ia dane D e o ty m ie (M e m o rie s o f the P a st R e la te d to D e o ty m a ), W arszaw a 1884, pp. 103,
152; J. S a n d h a u s , L u d w ik S p itzn a g e l, “ F ilo m a ta ,” 1938, nr 96, p. 2 2 0 —232; W. L a c h n i t t , O fiara zie lo n eg o f r a k a i ż ó łte j k a m iz e lk i (A V ictim o f th e Green
F ro c k -C o a t a n d Y ellow W a istc o a t), “K u ltu r a ” , 1939, nr 21.
6 H . B i e g e l e i s e n , T ym on Z a b o ro w s k i, “A te n e u m ” , 1883, v o l. 4, p. 539. 7 F. B o b e r s k a , O p o w ia d a n ie zd a rze ń rz e c z y w is ty c h . Z ż y c ia T ym on a Z a b o ro w
sk ie g o (R e la tio n s o f True O ccu rren ces. F rom the L ife o f T ym on Z a b o ro w s k i), [in:] P ism a (W ritin g s). L vov 1893. p. 319 — 329.
The S ick n ess o f the A ge 95 ce o f external circumstances: the private torments o f love, the reading o f D ziady (Forefathers), Werther and La Nouvelle Héloise (one could equally well add René), doubts concerning his own creative gifts —“all these direct one to seek the causes o f death within rather than w ithout.” 8 Doubtless every one o f the external circumstances — the conflict with the environment resulting from the impossibility of satisfying his em otions and entering into marriage, psychic predispo sitions and, finally, “murderous b ooks” — played a part in the shaping o f the poet’s fate. The element to which one should assign the essential part was the stylization o f external circumstances, together with the interpretation o f private experience through categories sup plied by the reading o f said products o f Romantic (and pre-Ro- mantic) literature. Zaborowski’s letters give direct and emphatic witness to his continual construction o f analogies between his own life and the fortunes o f literary heroes.
The romanticizing o f biography and epistolography is palpably visible in the way in which the deed o f writing to a friend becomes, through the placing o f the addressee in the especially intimate role o f a confident, an act o f confession, an expression o f the personal ity; it is also apparent on the stylistic level (in the manner in which the utterance is “dialogized” ; in the formation o f two diame trically opposed speaking subjects, reminiscent o f an interchange with a crowd o f elders; and in the series o f characteristic opposi tions: m yself as an alien to people; reason and feeling; dream and reality; learning and simplicity; feeling, sentiment, the heart —lifeless practical things; grand —vulgar; non-existent, i.e. dead —essential, alive etc.). Its most central manifestation lies in the crystalliza tion o f a situation o f irresoluble conflict, a conflict o f the type: me versus them (people, “the world”). Biegeleisen was o f the opi nion that Zaborowski’s correspondence bore so distinct a “pseudo- Wertherian sentimentalist character” that one could simply account it part o f his works. In this case literature shaped the poet’s em o tional world, at the same time as it provided the inhabitants of his environment with categories permitting them to understand and classify his actual life. The poet’s contemporaries were incapable o f
8 M . D a n i l e w i c z ó w a, Tym on Z a b o ro w s k i. Ż y c ie i tw ó r c zo ś ć 1799 — 1828 Tvm on
considering his life-story except in terms o f the story o f Werther, or o f the poetry- and tragedy-laden history o f Gustav and Maryla. Thus, with literature’s help, an outpouring o f individual imaginings on the themes o f love, personal happiness, the value o f life and the meaning o f death led to the foundation, within the sphere o f manners, o f a new Romantic emotional culture, contradicting tradi tional norms and notions. Its basis was individualism, a conviction o f the individual’s uniqueness, distinctness, and a belief in his inner mental and em otional world, whose right to fulfilment and self-expres sion is denied by reality, and whose destruction is irreparable. The absolutization o f the feelings o f love characteristic o f Zaborowski (and glaringly obvious in his correspondence) is just one early variety o f this em otional culture founded on the conception o f “the man o f feeling” and on the defence o f his heart’s claims. Nevertheless, certified cases o f life-long Wertherism have to be seen as exception al within the confines o f our own culture. One should add that the manner o f the situation o f conflict’s resolution did not entail renun ciation o f the world “as such,” but rather a refusal o f assent to the existing world’s socio-historical shape, which quashed all the in dividual’s proposals. As a rule, however, the fortunes o f the Werthers and Gustavs were not cut short in tragic youth but were prolon g ed —romantically or unromantically.
Further fortunes o f Gustav
M aryla na m o im ło n ie S ło w o „ k o c h a m ” w yrzec m iała! W tem n ieb o o g n ie m za p ło n ie I ziem ia w strząsła się cała. I z rozpadłej ziem i ło n a N ie w ia sta w bieli o d zia n a , C iern iem laury u w ień czo n a , C ała w yszła za p ła k a n a . W jed n y m ręku m iecz trzym ała. D ru gim o d sła n ia sw e blizn y; U c h o d ź ! u c h o d ź ! za w o ła ła , Jestem cień tw ojej o jczyzn y!
[M aryla sittin g on m y lap W as to have said “ I lo v e ” ! Then fire burned the H eaven s up
The S ick n ess o f the A g e 97
A n d all the earth co lla p sed .
A n d from the w o m b o f sh attered Earth A w o m a n , garbed in w h ite, step p ed forth C row n ed with th o rn s o f laurel
She ca m e forth full-tearfu l. In o n e hand a sw ord she bears. W ith the other sh o w s her scars, " C om e, o c o m e ! ” she then d eclaim ed , “ 1 am the g h o st o f your native la n d .”]
Thus one o f this school’s pupils, a reader o f the same books, and a contemporary o f Z aborow ski—Gustav O lizar9 —portrayed his own metamorphosis from Maryla's lover to the lover o f his fatherland. This young Sarmatian and ranking nobleman, who considers himself the acme o f old noble traditions, at a certain point in his life transforms him self into a romantic lover and begins to act out the role o f Gustaw in his own life. Enamoured, then spurned, he retiers from the world “in despair,” establishes him self in a specially-pur chased “anchorite’s cell” in the Crimea, where he vents his passionate sufferings in verse. Olizar himself was solicitous that a legend be woven around these peripetaeia, which he termed the “poetic-ro mantic epoch” in his life. Gustav fell in love with Maryla —the daughter o f a Russian general, from whom he was separated not only by a disparity in social position (he, a ranking nobleman,
principis nobilitatis; she, “a general’s daughter”), but also by differen
ces o f nationality and religious tradition. The young lady, however, chose a prince and gave her hand in marriage to Sergiusz Volkon sky, the fam ous Decabrist (we are talking o f Maria Rajewska). Olizar acquired the property o f Artek in the Crimea (on the site o f the present-day Artek) and sojourned there
in the h o p e that o n e day h ea rtless M aria, w hilst v isitin g the p lace she lo v ed , w o u ld lo o k w ith p ite o u s eye —an d p erh ap s, later, regret —on the o u tc a st, the herm it o f A ju dah .
The stylization o f life according to a poetic model was partly de termined by the diarist’s situation in the circle o f the Rajewskis, Pushkin and Mickiewicz, where he was introduced to the Decabrists — apparently, to set his ideas right.
y G . O l i z a r . P a m ię tn ik i 1798 — 1865 . . . ( M e m o irs 1798 — 1865). introd. by J. Lesz- czyc. L v o v 1892. p. X X (from the verse S w iq tyn ia b o le śc i — The T em ple o f Suffering).
D u rin g a c o u p le o f years o f m y so jo u rn in this desert —he w rites in his •diary —I en co u n te red no o n e for d a y s and w eek s on end [ ...] 1 liv ed w ithin m yself, with pain fu l m em ories, w hich n ou rish ed the p o e tic m o o d to w h ich I surrendered m yself. It w as then that 1 w rote the m em o irs w h o se printed p o r tio n c o m p rises the fruit o f m y h erm itage. 1 d o u b t that 1 w as a p o et in the o p in io n o f m y readers, but 1 w as o n e w ith o u t d o u b t in the fa sh io n in w hich I th e n c o n d u c te d m y life. •<»
After the recluse-episode there appears a new chapter in the bio graphy—imprisonment and questioning in connection with the De- cabrist affair. The moment he is imprisoned “obiit G ustavus — natus est Conradus.” Olizar’s later fortunes are strikingly analogous to the fate o f Konrad the state prisoner. If one is struck by the affinity between the peripetaeia o f Olizar’s life and the fortunes o f literary heroes, this is due in part to the additional contribution o f the ele ment o f autobiographical legend, which is stylized after the Romantic, fashion: events in life are transcribed and bent into a pattern drawn from literature, but the biography itself—as Olizar clearly states —was shaped so as to be “poetic.” After 1831 Olizar considered the “heroic-romantic” epoch o f his youth closed. He settles down as a jovial noble storyteller, a good fellow and neighbour expending his life in the sm oothing out o f quarrels between his brother-nobles, in travel and in visiting fellow-neighbours.
As can be seen from Olizar's biography, the Polish Werther or Gustav rapidly turned into Konrad, the lover o f his country, conspirator and state prisoner; if he survived the afflications na tive to this kind o f “career,” the second, non-heroic part o f his biography awaited him. In the case o f Olizar the sole overspill from Romanticism into his further experience is a certain philanthro pic-liberal variety o f concern for the people, plus a tendency to com pose rhymes and poeticize his external person. The Rom antic gesture did not suit a state o f mellow stability, the landowner’s ideal o f the quiet life .11
Ibidem , p. 1 7 3 - 1 7 5 .
11 T h e diary o f the storyteller an d iro n ist, S ta n isla w M o ra w sk i, u n e x p e c te d ly p resen ts us w ith a sim ilar R o m a n tic sty liza tio n . In the belletristic a u to b io g r a p h ic a l sketch en titled U stron ie. F ragm en t (T h e R e tre a t. A F ragm en t), w h ich d e a ls w ith the p eriod o f d eclin e in the au th o r's life, he d ep icted h im se lf as herm it w h o se past is sh rou d ed in m ystery and w h o se life has been scarred by u n h a p p in ess, p lacin g
The S ick n ess o f the A g e 99
Werther as governor
This bipartite biography, with its division into a “high and cloudy” youth and “an age o f m anhood-of defeat” (the defeat is either the loss, or the betrayal, o f youthful ideals) is even more sharply pro nounced in the fortunes o f Waclaw o f Olesko. He and his biography are merely an example o f one o f the typical varieties o f Romantic life-style. This steward’s son enjoyed a meteoric career: from the lowest-ranking clerk to the governor o f Galicia. During his youth he dreamt o f medical studies (he could not afford to study in Vienna), later he considered
lea rn in g a trade, such a s turnery — n o th in g ever ca m e o f it. A b o o k o f scant sig n i fican ce, The L o ves o f N apoleon , exerted a p ow erfu l effect u p o n m e, [he w rites.] T h en I c o n c e iv e d the n o tio n o f en terin g the a r m y .12
Dreams o f success dreamt in the shadow o f N apoleon; fantasies o f an outstanding career. “ The Sorrows o f Young Werther cost me many a tear” — he confesses. He subsequently falls passionately in love, lucklessly, to distraction, a la Werther:
I w ep t for her, I sigh ed for her, m y heart a lm o st b rok e o n her a c c o u n t [ ...] H er hair in a lo ck et and a portrait o f N a p o le o n w ere m y r o o m ’s o n ly h o ly relics.
The role ascribed to love, its placing on one o f the highest echelons in his hierarchy o f values, determines the Romanticism o f this aspect o f the biography.
M y life w as w ild an d irregular [ ...] A fertile im a g in a tio n o verru led reason. S u b ject to m ela n ch o ly I a lw ays w andered sadly, d ream ily —n ot k n o w in g m y se lf w hat I so u g h t.
The author o f these words successfully embodied the Romantic
h im s e lf a g a in st the b a ck g ro u n d o f an A rcad ian la n d sca p e, o n an o a sis o f h a p p in ess c a lle d —sign ifican tly —the R etreat or “H e r m ita g e .” T h e lo n ely m an to w h o m it w as n o t gran ted to die y o u n g w as co n d e m n e d to “b itter p a n g s o f s o u l.” H ere w e e n c o u n te r a retro sp ectiv e sty liza tio n o f o n e ’s o w n fortu n es, w h ich , giv in g w ay to the p ressu re o f R o m a n tic n o tio n s, are en w rap p ed by the thread s o f b iograp h ical s e lf-m y th o lo g iz a tio n .
12 F ra g m en ts from P r ze g lą d d zie n n ik ó w m oich (A R e v ie w o f M y D ia rie s) by W . Z a lesk i, em b ra cin g the years 1819 — 1833; q u o ted after A . P i s k o r , R o m a n ty c z n y
g u b e rn a to r (T h e R o m a n tic G overn or), [in:] S ied em e k sc e le n c ji i je d n a d a m a (Seven E x c elle n c ie s a n d a S in gle L a d y), W arszaw a 1959, p. 196. (F o r the fragm ent q u o ted
role and played it with grat felicity. He stylizes his passing feelings, moods and experiences according to the pattern o f “the sickness o f the age,” accentuating torn unease, despairing thoughts, love’s “ecstasy and torment,” “nothing but contradictions” — as he himself depicts it:
I ca n be gay but a lso in to ler a b le to m y se lf and o th ers, as in the clu b s freq u en ted by Julia. M y diary c o n ta in s n o th in g but her. It is lik e a co lle c tio n o f letters by W erther or Siegw arth . A th o u sa n d id io cies o n her a cco u n t: risking m y h ealth, h a p p in ess and life. O n D ece m b er 17th I ca m e c lo se to p lu ngin g a d agger in to m y b r e a s t.13
But the Galician Werther restrains his suicidal instrument. The paroxysm o f the Romantic disease engulfed him for a certain time but did not altogether deprive him o f “healthy” impulses. Despite real torment and a “riotous” course o f life, Zaleski does not neglect his studies, works with fervour, passes his exames with distinction and scrupulously records the level o f his income. The situation o f the Galician Werther, forced independently to keep his head above the waters o f life, eliminated in advance certain irre gularities that accompanied this life o f consuming diversion; it fostered habits indispensable for his further career. The literary-inspired m o dels o f life-style and em otional culture were suggestive and easily assimilated, but Werther knew that he could not allow himself to be shown the door; thus he enhanced the model o f his conduct with everything that would ensure success. He was thus compelled to add —among other things —the nexus o f habits and duties that leads to the culture o f work. Without work it would be impossible to obtain a position from which to enter the attractive culture o f well-mannered society. Zaleski’s further fortunes are as follows: Werther became office-bound, then a governor. Indubitably Romantic elements, strongly pronounced in the period o f his youth (the lover’s agony, a pull towards folklore, the urge to write) became intertwined here with a modern, bourgeois, and —in fact —non-Romantic indu striousness, system, and clerkly scrupulosity, which were to pave this poor wretch’s way to the salons o f Vienna. It seems that it is *not one o f two trends (treated as contradictory) that is characteristic o f Romanticism but rather the very emergence o f that contradiction between two types o f conduct (o f which one exerted an attractive
The S ic k n e ss o f the A g e 101
appeal and the other was a necessity), that is: the emergence o f the contradiction and the necessity o f resolving it within the individual’s concrete social experience during that epoch.
The Rom antics’ careers
Nevertheless, a career crowned by success is not typical o f the Romantic generation in Poland. If one omits the landowning career, which was rather inherited than chosen (and thus resembled the position o f the aristocrat), the Romantic generation had the chance o f selecting a career o f the military type (soldier, conspirator, emis sary); the artistic career o f the poet, painter or musician; the career o f a clerk, private official, or teacher; or employment in one o f the learned professions, as a doctor, a lawyer, or a priest. The priest’s or teacher’s career chosen by people o f lower social origin offered neither perspectives o f greater success nor the attractions o f society. The post-Napoleonic modernization o f the state and a hope that the Kingdom would become self-sufficient persuaded young men to under take specialist studies with a career in the state apparatus in mind. The collapse o f illusions induced by the persons o f N apoleon, and, later, o f Alexander, together with the debacle o f the uprising, dislocated many human lives, creating situations o f conflict on a mass scale. Characteristic changes also made themselves felt in careers o f the mili tary kind. This variety o f career experienced its halcyon days during the Napoleonic era: the soldier in prince Józef Poniatowski’s army was surrounded by a halo o f light, fame and public adulation. When the epic’s twilight came, “weapons and hopes were laid aside and everyone in Lithuania and the Crown Lands reverted to the plough. Thoughts o f fame and freedom gave way to a struggle for one’s daily bread.” 14 After 1812 there were added the new disap pointments that accompanied the K ingdom ’s early years; after 1831, when the army forfeited its role as the guarantor o f freedom, an officer was admittedly still a fully-fledged member o f respectable society, but one whose loss o f laurels forced him to step down
14 G . P u z y n i n a (née G u n th er). W H'ilnie i dw orach litew sk ich . P am iętn ik
z la t 1815 — 1843 iln Vihia a n d the M anors of Lithuania. A. M e m o ir of the Years 1815 — 1843), ed. by A . C zartk ow sk i and H. M o ścick i, V ilna 1928.
from his pedestal. Once dismissed from the army, the officer-aristo- crat, possessing neither property nor a trade, was threatened with finding himself completely, and irrevocably, déclassé (see for instance the case o f Malczewski or the biographies o f scores o f participants in the uprising); dismissal became an additional source o f conflict with the social order. The careers that chiefly atracted the impover ished gentry lay in the learned professions —thus the artist became a positive hero in this period. But, after the partitions, political and public activities, by the very nature o f things, were mostly transferred to the field o f conspiracy. The epoch’s aspirations were compelled to concentrate themselves upon this type o f “career” and the modes o f activity and evaluation it involved, as people moulded their visions, mental habits, moral norms and social attitudes to meet the requirements o f the new socio-historical situation. Litera ture for its part helped tremendously in the assimilation o f the new and in the evolution o f novel patterns o f conduct to fit these situations.
The Wallenrod’s plot.
Konrad as emigré and “servant o f G od ”
The childish confession o f an age reared in the region o f Ovruch, on the fringes o f the one-time Republic o f Poland, rings differently from M usset’s:
C o n f e s s io n .— In the n am e o f the F ather and the S on and the H o ly Spirit. A m e n .— In the fifth year o f m y life, m y paren ts, ch a m b e rla in s in the region o f O vruch, h aving eight children to su p p ort on a m eagre p rop erty, en trusted m e to c lo se and w ealth y relatives [ ...] w h o I ...] ensured m e an ed u c a tio n and a career far m ore lavish than an y I co u ld have received from m y p a r e n t s .15
The social situation briefly sketched here was the motive force behind the fortunes o f the subsequent “avenger o f the Fatherland,” but the consciousness that these fortunes were those o f a Romantic hero, the stylization o f one’s own portrait and history to match their prototypes, Wallenrod and K ordian— these came from literature and were profoundly entered into, internalized, assimilated and adopt ed as the most adequate means o f describing personal experience. Even Karol Baykowski’s self-portrait recalls literary models:
15 K. B a y k o w s k i , Z n a d grobu . I. S p o w ie d ź, II. W y ją tk i z listó w (F rom the
The S ic k n e ss o f the A g e 103
[ ...] in sofar a s on the o n e hand I p o sse sse d a spirit ap t to e x a lta tio n , it b eco m es e q u a lly hard to im a g in e h o w co n v ersely feeb le w as m y character. T he m ore d o g g ed I b eca m e in internal w restlin g [ ...] th e m ore [ ...] I w o u ld have preferred, it se e m s, to h ave p erished in in ternal stru g g les rather than ruffle th e su rroun d in g p ea ce.
One can apply these traits to Adolfe and René (dreaminess, reflectiveness, tendency to introspection, weakness o f character) or to Kordian and Konrad (internal splits, struggles and agonies, a love o f the people). The author’s entire youth constitutes an arduous battle with K onrad’s dilemma:
I am a C h ristia n , so I ou g h t to fulfil C h rist’s law to the letter —I am a P o le, s o I ou g h t to e m p lo y every m ea n s o f liftin g m y F a th erla n d ’s y o k e. B ut h o w can I reco n cile the fact that as a P o le I o u g h t to co n sp ire for the d o w n fa ll o f m y F a th erla n d ’s fo e s w ith C h rist’s in ju n ctio n to lo v e ou r e n em ies an d to d o g o o d to them th at h a te us?
On this occasion the central situation o f conflict takes shape on the national and patriotic plane, not in private life. This was no private moral drama visited upon Baykowski alone:
W hat I en d u red d u rin g these few terrible years, sad ly, has been en d u red and is b ein g suffered by a co n sid er a b le n u m b er o f u n h ap p y P o la n d ’s sons.
Previous patterns o f behaviour proved wanting. Under the pressure o f history there emerged new social and moral patterns, a new ethic was born — a« ethic o f struggle and revolt, o f heroism and sacrifice. Its most frequent origin lay in literature. The problems o f “Wallen- rodism” and “K onradism” presented themselves to the generation brought up in the post-partition era as problems o f personal choice. On hearing o f the disclosure o f K onarski’s plot and o f the subsequent sentence and execution, the sixteen-year-old Baykowski is shocked and decides to resolve his agonizing moral dilemma in a manner com m on to many o f our Romantics, and inherent in the following declaration:
“ In ou r ca se, such k n o ts c a n n o t be u n d o n e but m ust be cu t, after the fa sh io n o f A lex a n d er o f M a ced o n ia ; I am an a th e ist; d em o cra cy is su p erior to C h ristian ity, an d K o n a rsk i is greater than C h rist” , I scream ed as if dealt a m ortal b lo w , but the p o iso n e d dart lo d g ed in m y heart [ ...] 1 heard [ ...] w ith a kind o f slavish relish [ ...] that lo v e o f the Fatherland m ean s hatred and v en gean ce to w a rd s its to es, and the F a th e rla n d ’s freed o m and p ow er is th e freed o m and un iversal rule o f the p eop le.
Hatred of, and vengeance on, the foe: the pattern is Konrad’s. Konarski and Christ —two figures o f suffering and love. Konarski
opposed to Christ: the love is blasphemous, love of the fatherland rebelling against G od; again, the pattern is Konrad’s. Baykowski’s conversion from Christianity to “K onarskism ” echoes K onrad’s gesture. In formulating his patriotic credo he frames it in categories o f hatred and revenge borrowed from Konrad Wallenrod. In Baykow ski’s notebook one can observe the ethic o f conspiracy and revolt
in statu nascendi.
The conflicts accompanying the birth o f the ethic o f struggle and revolt, o f conspiracy and revolution, recur in scores o f documents from this epoch. The notions o f honour, faithfulness, falsehood, treachery and, above all, the notion o f patriotism, are subjected to rethinking and revaluation.
The choice fell on the Wallenrodic version o f the patriotic ideal.
T his ideal a lso en ta iled a read in ess for sacrifice on b e h a lf o f the lib era tio n o f the fa th e r la n d , or shall w e say rather, in order to w reak reven ge u p o n its op p ressors —n ot o n ly the sacrifice o f life, fa m ily , p o sse ssio n s, p erso n a l career, e tc.; not on ly that o f h o n o u r and sta n d in g in the o p in io n o f the w orld , but a lso sacrifice o f o n e's very so u l's sa lv a tio n .
The problem o f Wallenrodism is here not merely a literary one and does not merely manifest itself in the details o f interior bio graphy, but also alters the outward course o f life. During his stu dies, the diary's author devoted him self to “schooling [himself] in the character o f a conspirator,” and he was haunted by plans to assassinate the Czar. On com pleting his studies he applied —with favourable results —to be accepted into the ranks o f the Russian army stationed in Warsaw, seeing in this the most suitable field for Wallenrodic activity. His choice o f course may have been influen ced by his being a son o f a “political criminal” o f 1831 and the brother o f a participant in K onarski’s conspiracy. The choice o f role, costume and mask was dictated by literature, which in addition provided: a moral sanction for his choice in life; categories whereby circumstances could be ordered; and evaluative norms and prototypes o f action. The thought o f revenge soon led Baykowski to the Polish “suicide clubs.” For Poland, too, possessed suicide clubs, which, although with other assumptions, ends and modes o f action than the French clubs, also often enacted their own rituals, statutes and oaths. During a secret gathering in Baykowski's house, five youths reached the conclusion that:
The S ick n ess o f the A g e 105
[ ...] in ou r p resent p o sitio n all up risin gs and co n sp ira c ie s o n a large scale are fo r e d o o m e d to a b so lu te u n lik e lih o o d , and o n ly o n e th in g is fea sib le, n a m ely the a cco m p lish m e n t o f an act o f revenge or, as w e d u b b ed it, “a d eed o f n a tio n a l ju s tic e ,” the plan o f w h ich w as sp eed ily laid by the five o f us. W e sw ore to it u nder th e fo llo w in g tw o c o n d itio n s : that n o o n e sh o u ld b e a d m itted to ou r secret to the sligh test d eg ree, a n d , se co n d ly , that each o f us, o n c o m p le tin g the stage o f the p lo t to w h ich he had pledged h im self, im m ed ia tely take his o w n life.
The intention was that
[ ...] he w h o c o n d e m n s h im se lf u n c o n d itio n a lly to d ea th , w h o w alk s u p o n this earth as if a dead m an, w o u ld have all the m o re c o u ra g e to ex ecu te his p led ge. W hen ev ery th in g o u r p lan required w as a lm o st ready, an d w hen o n ly three or fo u r d ays lay b etw een us an d the d a te o f e x ecu tio n , three o f the five o f us w ithd rew [ ...] I fell in to greater d esp air than ever, for I d o u b ted everyth in g, even the future o f the F ath erlan d [ ...] I w as p ursued by the n o tio n o f su icid e; 1 a lw a y s carried tw o lo a d ed p isto ls a b o u t m y p erson, for even then I did n o t w ish to die w ith ou t ex a ctin g r e v e n g e .16
With this episode, the heroic part o f Baykowski’s biography com es to an end. Kordian, shattered by his own powerlessness, flees into exile. The deed o f vengeance is confined to the embezzle ment o f 699 roubles and 50 kopecks from Paskiewicz’s chancery till. In exile Baykowski becomes an ardent Towianist: he learns to love his enemies “as himself,” in the Christian fashion, and arrives at a position a hair’s-breadth short o f renegading. Thus yet again a biography is in internal disharmony with itself: during the first half en ethic o f rebellion and revenge is devised, and attempts to realize it in actuality meet with defeat; the second half represents a search for a means o f transcending defeat through humility and saintliness. This type o f Wallenrodic, Kordianic attitude can be consi dered representative o f a large cross-section o f the Romantic genera tion.
The “career” o f the conspirator — the emissary, the state prisoner — — appears in at least two versions: a heroic-messianic one, culmi n ating—as in the example discussed —in emigration and expectation o f the Messiah; and a heroic-martyrological one, ending in Siberia, or in the cells o f Schlusselberg, Kufstein or Spielberg. The second variety o f experience was the chief source o f the martyrological
ethic o f suffering which validated the meaningfulness o f sacrifices
endured and found its expression in the February uprising of 1863.17 The axis around which this variety o f fate revolved is, once again, the Romantic conflict with the world, transferred to the plane o f patriotic revolt, o f a struggle that gives birth to heroic deeds o f arms or conspirational action. The defeat o f the deed led to an acceptance o f the ethic o f sacrificial suffering or to a conception o f moral perfection and “holiness” as a means o f transcending defeat and resolving situational conflicts.
Konrad’s settling o f accounts with the past
The problem o f Romanticism’s influence on the fortunes o f the individual or the collectivity emerged with especial clarity in the aftermath o f the February uprising, which was to have implemented Romanticism's political testament. Its participants, leaders and driv ing forces were faced with with the problem o f responsibility for the realization o f the Romantic system o f values. Grown wiser through his new historical experiences, Konrad once again took up —this time in his life rather than in literature —the moral questions of: revolt; guilt; punishment; and responsibility. The memoirs o f Bro nislaw Szwarc, an activist o f the pre-February period, contain an account o f his spell o f imprisonment in Schliisselberg and affords a particular variant o f Konrad’s m onologue that —yet again —d o cuments personal experiences:
A n d the sick prisoner, in his ph ysical and m en tal torm en t, sto o d before the a g e-o ld q u estio n : “O Lord, m y L ord, w h y ? ” A q u estio n from a cro ss the ages —from J o b ’s lam ent [ ...] to K o n ra d 's p a ssio n a te in d ictm en t:
C zuję ca łeg o cierp ien ia n a r o d u . . . C ierp ię, szaleję. — A T y m ądrze i w e so ło
Z aw sze rządzisz. Z aw sze sąd zisz
I m ów ią, że T y nie b łą d zisz!
|l live t h r o u g h th e w h o l e n a t i o n ' s s u ff e r in g
1 s uff er a n d 1 r a v e . — A n d Y o u a b o v e in j o y a n d w i s d o m
17 D u rin g this period , and esp e c ia lly d u rin g the year o f nation al m o u r n in g (1861). the m ost w ide-spread sy m b o ls o f p a tr io tic feelin g b ecam e the cross an d the crow n o f thorns: these sy m b o ls w ere o ften w o rk ed in to c o stu m e s, ap p lied to interior d esign and d e c o r a tio n , an d u sed in the illu stra tio n o f b o o k s and even in com m ercial ad vertisin g.
The S ick n ess o f the A g e 107
Ever govern.
B ri ng to j u d g e m e n t .
A n d . they say. are N ever-erring]
to K o n a r sk i's b la sp h em y : 1 d on 't w ant H eaven , I spit on your H ea v en ! j ...] N o t fo r o n e m o m e n t did I co n sid er reb ellin g, hurling b la sp h em ies at H eaven , n ot for o n e se co n d w as 1 m inded to surrender [ ...]
But in m y ca se to o that q u estio n — W hy? — w as a difficult and m en acin g on e. W herein la y m y crim e, m y sin ? I ...] w as 1 guilty —o f the failu re? If so , the guilt w o u ld a lw ays be sm aller than a grain o f sand in co m p a r iso n w ith the real ca u se o f d efeat. T h ey su m m o n e d three great p o w ers, sold their o w n co u n try in to the h a n d s o f C zars, b o w ed d o w n b efore the partition ers through the ages, betrayed their o w n n a tio n for a hundred years —and he w h o c o m m itted n o n e o f these crim es is “g u ilty ” sim p ly b ecau se he co u ld n o t extirp ate the a g e-o ld betrayal w ith o n e b lo w [ ...] W h oever sp eak s o f our u n sp o tted m artyrdom b la sp h em es [ ...] w e are d o in g p en a n ce for our sins and the sin s o f ou r fathers [ ...] But n o! the entire n a tio n is n ot like that, and we w ho fo u g h t set right at least part o f our fathers' errors and a d v a n ced by o n e step the ca u se o f our r e d e m p tio n .18
The questions are Konrad’s, but the answers are borrowed from Słowacki. This new monologue by Konrad in the cell he was placed in in Forefathers illustrates the extent to which the manner o f solving moral dilemmas among the generation o f activists bred on Roman ticism was determined by the horizons o f Romantic literature.
The career o f the Romantic seer
The epidemic increase in the number o f people taking up writing during the first half o f the nineteenth century can be explained as due to shifts in social structure or as springing from the resultant transformation o f the forms and conditions o f literary life during this epoch. The motives for undertaking literary com position were usually threefold. One o f the forms o f the artistic career was the dilettantism derived from the social life o f the salons, which I pass over here; I similarly dispense with a characterization o f the conduct o f close-knit literary and artistic groups, which is intimately bound in with the specificity o f the epoch’s literary life —for certain mani fest forms o f conduct were characteristic only o f exclusive groups and appear marginal within a wider social perspective. The other
,s B. S z w a r c . S ied em la t u S z/yselh u rgti o p i s a ł ... i Seven Years in Schliiselherg R eco u n ted b y . . . ) . L vov 1893. p. 132 — 135, 138 — 139.
two motives influenced the choice o f artistic activity, be it as a pro fessional means o f acquiring earnings (the unavoidability o f work), or —in the second case —as the most effective form o f social action available to an individual convinced o f his own talent and calling (the creative imperative). One can thus speak o f the coexistence o f two motives: a sociological one, and one dictated by a world-view, the latter being the most fully developed in the Romantics’ cor respondence. In the majority o f cases, however, and irrespective o f motive, the manner in which the w riter’s or p o e t’s role was bodied
forth had as its prototype the Romantic seer. In characterizing the
various types o f seer, researchers usually propose three primarily significant versions: the poet as revelator; the poet as creator; and the poet as leader. The first o f these patterns contained by implication a religious ethic o f moral perfection, humility and sacrifice; the second — — an ethos o f creativity and expression; and the third—an ethic
o f the deed. Depending upon which variant served the artistic
biography as a model, one or the other o f these values extruded itself as the dominant one. The connection between the patterns and ethical postulates as formulated above, and the stylization o f life and autobiographical legend in accord with them, appears exceptionally glaringly in a multitude o f the Romantic poets' lives and correspond ences; this is the result o f the fact that we are dealing at one and the same time with the actors in, and the authors of. Romantic cultural reality. The facility with which — for instance — the poets biographies arrange themselves in line with literary schemes stems from the Rom antics’ striving to invest their lives with aesthetic and artistic unity, from their pursuit o f concord between life and work, art and action. “Y ou ’re making up a drama” — the sceptical Pankra- cy's words to the Romantic Count Henryk in Krasinski s drama
Nie-Boska komedia (The Undivine Comedy) — these words could, with
full justice, be applied to all the generations o f Romantic poetry. This urge found one mode o f expression in the customs o f Bohemia, which nevertheless constituted a transitory, ephemeral phase, for the Bohemian too easily slid into the skin o f the philistine he attacked. A further example can be found in the circles o f enthusiast(e)s, who sought to realize in actuality the patterns o f conduct posited by their own creations. Out o f a number o f artistic biographies I have selected only one example o f the co-ordination o f the creative im
The S ick n ess o f the A ge 109
perative with the injunctions o f the ethic o f patriotic and revo lutionary action —an example representative o f young Varsovian wri- terly circles: the biography o f Karol Baliński.
Baliński summarized the romance o f his own life in the following abbreviated account o f ten o f its years:
O rp h an age —p riso n —and p rison ag a in —and exile several tim es —an d the jo y o f return p o iso n e d by pain , and p rison again —and then an o th er sh ort sp ell o f M u sc o v ite fr e e d o m —an d , again , h o m e le ssn e ss sw eetened [ ...] by c o m ra d esh ip —and exile again —and h o m e le ssn e ss o n c e m o r e .19
Thus the poet’s conflict with the world, present in all his work (on a level at once patriotic and social) articulates itself in the realia o f his biography.
T h e c h ie f g o o d o f the 1831 u p risin g w as that I ...] it taugh t us to lo o k neither to o u rse lv es nor to a career (as the w orld term s it) but to the F atherland.
In the light o f post-uprising knowledge, individualism and crea- tionism, the mainstays o f all models o f the artist’s life up to the year 1830, underwent considerable modification; there arose a con ception o f poetry and artistic creation as a moral and patriotic
deed, together with an independent reading o f Romantic aesthetics that
postulated a com plete correspondence between poetic modes o f ac tivity and the remaining parts o f the artist’s life and activity. Two demands flowed from this aesthetic and philosophy o f art: a require ment that the work itself serve life and constitute an act in itself, be not just signification but rather an active intervention in life; and a requirement that the artist’s life be in com plete harmony with his words and deeds. Since the work was required to endow life with meaning and form, the poet’s life became in itself a work o f art, a model to be imitated.
O ur n ation lo v e s its p o e ts —for it the p o et is a m an w h o lo v es, suffers, rages or p erishes for the F ath erlan d (n o t K o n ra d is in q u e stio n here but his creator), w hich b eliev es in his so n g a s it d o e s in his im p r iso n m e n t, torture or d e a t h — M ick iew icz a n d K o n a rsk i are, for i t —o n e an d the sam e! A n d w o e to him w h o dares to give his fe e lin g s the lie b efo re the n a tio n —w o e to him w h o se life c o n tr a dicts his song.
Thus the Romantic poets had to “make a drama” o f their lives, they —they and all other Romantics —had to love, suffer, rage or
perish for the fatherland: that was what life required o f poetry and literature o f life. A consequent characteristic o f the Romantic era was an evident growth o f interest in the artist’s personal bio graphy, o f testing o f the poet’s life to discern the degree o f its unanimity with his work, and an increasing accumulation o f bio graphical legends about him which —arising from literature and nouri shed by it —themselves then became patterns for imitation. William Blake stylized him self in the role o f a prophet, Byron reiterated (at least, according to the biographical legend) the pathos-laden gestures o f his great tragic heroes; Mickiewicz —condemned so harshly for his absence from the rebel ranks during the uprising —reasserted his moral authority when his deeds testified in full to the veracity o f his work. Just how powerful an effect was exerted by the age’s pattern o f the Romantic artist’s biography is shown by the very phenomenon o f the “antagonism o f the seers,” where two divergent models o f the artist’s role came into collision, as well as by the re proaches levelled against Mickiewicz, Słowacki and Norwid whenever their contemporaries considered that these poets were failing to meet the requirements o f the “role” o f national seer, or whenever the poets themselves demolished the legends whose exfoliations enshrou ded their lives. The legends woven around the lives o f the R o mantic seers imposed a specific canon o f behaviour: not only upon future generations o f poets, but also upon all who aspired to transcend the role and fate o f a com m on — in Slowacki’s words — “eater o f bread.”
Let us co n sid er all ou r truly P o lish so c ieties — w rote B a liń s k i—their base, pillar and lever is p o etry ! there all are p o ets, if n ot in w ord, then in d eed — — there all live by p o e t r y — lo v e —b r o th e r h o o d — and H ea v en a b o v e ! —A n d th ey go p eacefu lly to death or ex ile, for they k n o w that they are w ed to H eaven .
A solution to the antinomy present in countless documents (Po le — Christian - or artist ?) is achieved here through “the ideal's betroth al to H eaven.” through a grafting o f the religious element onto the patriotic and aesthetic one —o f art onto religion and love o f the Fatherland —through a sacralization o f both the Fatherland and art. The ethic o f the deed was identified in this case with the service o f any one o f these ideals. The deed need not be a soldierly or knightly one: “the knight o f the present day” is armed not with steel but with virtue, not with a sword but a poetic lyre; it is not effective force that distinguishes him but em otional strength and spiritual power:
The S ick n ess o f the A ge 111
K to ch ce w a lczy ć sercem szczerem , Z kijem b ęd zie b o h a terem !
[W hoe'er th e fight with pure heart seeks W ill be a hero w ith a s tic k ]20
But here the ideal o f the poetic (moral) spiritual deed begins to lead one astray, especially when Romantic knights burning with Polish ardor marched forth against regular armies, equipped with ropes fit only for washing-lines, with ammunition whose calibre differed from that o f the muskets and pistols they had unearthed from their attics, or simply with phials o f poison. The literary cult o f the gallows, apart from its positive effects, could also have consequences fatal to life (exem plum : the desperate attitudes o f some o f the organizers of, and participants in, the January uprising).
Within the framework o f the Romantic poetic and extra-poetic conception o f action, the category o f the deed had at least two values: the deed was a means to an end and at the same time an opportunity to manifest heroism or some other exceptional stance. Within the ethics o f the deed there existed an additional hierarchy: most formidable and most valued o f all was the deed o f arms, a patriotic act; the artistic and moral act was subordinate. This hie rarchy determines the pattern o f Byron’s biography when he forsakes poetry for G reece21 as well as M ickiewicz’s when he passes from the exercise o f his profession to the recruiting o f a legion.
Let us now examine whether in actuality —as Baliński writes — “all are poets, in deed if not in word.”
The Galician journeyman,
or the diary o f a déclassé aristocrat
The yellow carriage with its four horses, the servants in livery, the stately residence and gracious way o f life: by the memoirist’s
20 Ib id e m . p. V II, III, V III, 153 (verse en titled D z is ie jsz y r y c e r z — The M odern
Knight).
21 Even i f —a s so m e researchers have su ggested —B y r o n 's departure for G reece h ad other m o tiv e s than th o se en sh rin ed in the b io g ra p h ica l legen d , this very fact w o u ld illu strate even m ore grap h ically the effective p ow er o f a literary pattern that w as ca p a b le o f su b o rd in a tin g real p e o p le an d their fo rtu n es to its o w n in terp retative vision .
early childhood all these had become merely memories, constituents o f a family saga, and the young nobleman who knew him self to be the grandson o f king Staś (Stanislas August), when holding an acolyte’s candle by the altar, stood in bare feet. His first experience o f life demonstrates to him that the notions o f noble equality and brotherhood and o f the sanctity o f familial bonds, acquired at home, are really fictitious misnomers. His glittering connections do not rescue him from penury —he is handed over to study gardening in Medyka like a com mon peasant. His ruthless exclusion from the social realm to which he was born, his relegation to the lowest rung o f the social ladder, his initiation into a novel social situation: all these combined to create the conditions for a new variety o f social sensibility, new mental horizons, new aptitudes, habits and aspirations. In the eyes o f the lordling turned farm-boy the world was manifest in all its unfalsified immediacy and painfully revealed the hierarchy o f its gradations —not only was it divided into heirs and disinherited, but even the garden attendents formed “five societies mutually at war,” and degree was strictly observed even among lackeys and valets. For Łusakowski, however, people soon cease to be classified according to gentility or com m onness o f birth and begin to divide themselves up into good and bad employers, into the industrious and the idle. At first the author identified him self with the social class to which he was born. But as conflicts multiplied and humilations and rejections by his relatives became ever more frequent, the old familial and environmental ties collapsed. At the same time, he felt no solidarity with the group to which his material situation and way o f life allocated him. A state o f isolation and a sense o f rootlessness arise —the situation o f con flict typical o f the Romantic biography. One o f the pivotal matters in this biography is the moment o f the author’s realization that only work can extricate him from the slide into decline. The noble descendent's consciousness arrives at a new value —work —as a means to a success envisaged at first in very modest terms: “ I will become a gardener.” From this moment on the climb up the social ladder recommences. “Thus I passed four years in this terrible em ploym ent— without holidays [...] wages, family, succour or friend ship.” 22 “Poverty, work, hum ilation” — the exact opposite o f the con
— S. Ł u s a k o w s k i . P a m iętn ik zd e k la so w a n e g o szla ch cica ( The M e m o irs o f a D é
The S ick n ess o f the A ge 113 ditions that once characterized life among the nobility. It is signi ficant that work here assumes a particular meaning and value: for all its concreteness and closeness to the bone (it is arduous, grimy physical labour) it contains an element that is humanizing and even divine. It is com pounded o f solitude, renunciation, heroism, sacrifice, a moral sense and an aesthetic sense (“Beauty”), and these com ponents lend it a certain Romantic coloration. Numerous passages in the memoirs prove that in Lusakowski’s eyes the garden became a realm o f exotic wonder, an oasis o f longed-for beauty in a world o f ugly meanness, an expression o f the divine mystery and nature’s creative miracles. But these are merely signs o f the formation o f a new way o f perceiving the world. Were it not for the theatre and —yet again —“murderous b ooks” Lusakowski would probably have remained to the end o f his life a model gardener in the orangeries o f the Archduke Ferdinand d’Este. These books fostered a new awareness, new modalities o f social self-definition, diminished the feeling o f rootlessness: “the theatre began to awake within me thoughts passing my own com prehension” ; “the reading o f books inflamed my ambition, and I set m yself to perform some variety o f great deed.” And the time for great deeds arrived. Drawn into conspiratorial activity by people connected with Dem bowski, in 1846 Eusakowski was changed back from a gardener into a farm-boy and agitator among the people, after which, in 1848, he became a member o f the National Guard in Lvov and a partisan in the area o f Sanok. The affair fell through, but it engendered new criteria for evaluating persons (patriot— non-patriot; oppressor— “father to the peasants”), and a new opportunity to identify socially with the aristocratic intelligentsia —in the author’s opinion, the most valuable section o f the community. This social identification brought in its wake an idealization o f the petty, impoverished nobility. Apart from this basic current o f instruction in patriotism and citizenship, inspired to an equal degree by history and Romantic literature, this autobiography presents further aspects o f “rom anticization” in herent—for instance —in the very decision to take up the pen and transcribe one’s recollections, and visible also on the level o f the style of the memoirs, in the choice o f heroes and events, and in the stylization o f one’s own life and those o f one’s dearest in accordance with Romantic stereotypes. Lusakowski continually applies the ca tegories o f “sacrifice,” “homelessness” and “martyrdom” to his
