POLISH RENAISSANCE LITERATURE AN ANTHOLOGY POLISH RENAISSANCE LITERATURE AN ANTHOLOGY MICHAEL J. Ml KOŚ Slavica Publishers, Inc. Slavics publishes a wide variety of scholarly books and textbooks on the languages, peoples, literatures, cultures, history, etc. of the former USSR and Eastern Europe. For a complete catalog of books and journals from Slavica, with prices and ordering information, write to: Slavica Publishers, Inc. PO Box 14388 Columbus, Ohio 43214 ISBN: 0-89357-257-8. Copyright © 1995 by Michael J. Mikoś. All rights reserved. All statements of fact or opinion are those of the authors and do not necessarily agree with those of the publisher, which takes no responsibility for them. Printed in the United States of America. TABLE OF CONTENTS List of Illustrations 10 Foreword 12 Introduction 16 Select Bibliography 41 Andrzej Krzycki Four-line Poem on Queen Barbara 57 On the Armory of King Zygmunt 57 On the Picture of Life at Court 58 On Jan Zambocki 58 How a Girl Answered a Priest 58 On a Girl Lidia 59 Mikołaj Hussowski A Poem on Bison 60 Klemens Janiciusz Amo 62 Andrzej Krzycki, a Pole 62 Elegy VII. About Myself to Posterity 63 Biemat of Lublin A Short Description of Aesop's Life 69 Fables He Who Holds the Sword Has Peace 71 He Who Loves Books Is Not Bored 71 He Who Is Diligent Won't Go Wrong 72 Marcin Bielski A Chronicle of the Whole World Death and Funeral of Zygmunt the Old 74 Parliament of Women 77 6 Table of Contents Anonymous Owlgass, Facetious and Amusing 79 Jan of Kijany Wolves 83 Hares 83 Nicholas Copernicus On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres To His Holiness Pope Paul III 86 Marcin Kromer Polonia 92 Andrzej Frycz Modrzewski On the Reform of the Commonwealth How to Care About Good Upbringing of Children and Youth 98 On Guardians of the Poor 103 Stanislaw Orzechowski Chimera or on the Shameful Heresy in the Kingdom of Poland 108 Łukasz Górnicki The Polish Courtier On Language 112 Wawrzyniec Goślicki The Accomplished Senator 118 Piotr Skarga Powęski Sermons to the Diet Eighth Sermon 123 Mikołaj Rej A Short Conversation 139 Life of an Honest Man What Children's Clothes Should Be Like 143 Table of Contents 7 When the Summer Comes 144 Reading—a Great Pleasure 145 The Bestiary Mikołaj Rej of Nagłowice 147 Jan Kochanowski 147 Martin Luther, the Doctor 147 The Republic or the General Sejm 148 Trifles or Pranks Old Woman Who Cried During the Passion of Christ 148 On an Uncertain Conciliation 149 A Parson Buried a Dog at a Graveyard 149 The Blacksmith Who Lived Beside the Merchant 149 Jan Kochanowski The Mountain of Beautiful Calliope 151 Latin Epigrams On Petrarch's Writings 153 To Łukasz Górnicki 153 On Homer 154 Latin Elegies Book II Elegy VI 154 The Muse 155 Trifles Book I 3. On Human Life 156 21. On a Pious Woman 157 53. On a Mathematician 157 57. On Drunkards 157 79. On a Spanish Doctor 157 82. On Youth 158 83. On Old Age 158 87. On Trifles 158 8 Table of Contents 97. To His Lady 158 98. On Love 159 101. On Human Life 159 Book II 6. On thè Linden Tree 160 19. On a Chaplain 160 37. To Sleep 160 66. To Hanna 161 87. To a Doctor 161 Book III 1. To the Mountains and Forests 161 17. On My Poems 163 37. On My House at Czarnolas 163 38. To the Lord 163 50. To a Guest 164 54. On Health 164 72. Prayer for Rain 164 82. To a Maid 165 Songs Book I Song II 165 Song VII 166 Song IX 167 Song XXIV 168 Book II Song VII 170 Song VIII 170 Song XXIV 171 Saint John's Eve Song 173 First Maiden 173 Second Maiden 174 Twelfth Maiden 175 Song m David's Psalter Psalm 91 178 Table of Contents 9 Laments I-XIX 180 The Dismissal of the Greek Envoys 212 A Treatise on Virtue 239 Mikołaj Sęp-Szarzyński Sonnets I-V 242 On the Picture of Stefan Batory, Polish King 248 On Katie and Annie 249 Sebastian Grabowiecki A Hundred Spiritual Rhymes Book I VII 250 XI 251 LXXXII 251 Book II CXII Octonarius 252 Sebastian Klonowie Lament V 253 Sailing, That Is Navigating Boats on the Vistula 255 Judas's Bag 259 Szymon Szymonowie The Reapers 262 Szymon Zimorowic Roxolans Cycerina 27 0 Kasper Miaskowski The Elegy of Penitence to the Holiest Virgin and Mother 273 On a Painted Glass Goblet 274 On Harvest 275 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS I. Zygmunt's Chapel in Cracow, 1519-1533 (Photograph by M. Moraczewska, courtesy of Instytut Sztuki PAN in Warsaw), p. 25. II. Baranów palace courtyard, 1579-1602 (Photograph by M. Moraczewska, courtesy of Instytut Sztuki PAN in Warsaw), p. 26. III. Title page of Mikołaj Gomölka's Melodies for the Polish Psalter, Cracow, 1580 (Photograph by St. Turski, courtesy of Biblioteka Narodowa in Warsaw), p. 29. IV. Title page of the Wujek Bible, Cracow, 1599 (Photograph by Krzysztof Konopka, courtesy of Biblioteka Narodowa in Warsaw), p. 30. V. Title page of Biemat's A Short Description of Aesop's Life, Cracow, 1578 ((Photograph by Andrzej Szypowski, cour­ tesy of Biblioteka Kórnicka PAN), p. 70. VI. King Zygmunt August, engraved portrait from Kromer's De origine et rebus gestis Polonorum, Basilea, 1555 (Photograph by J. Jaworski, courtesy of Instytut Sztuki Pol­ skiej Akademii Nauk in Warsaw), p. 76. VII. Nicholas Copernicus, portrait from Frombork Museum (Photograph by Ewa Kozlowska-Tomczyk, courtesy of Instytut Sztuki PAN in Warsaw), p. 85. VIII. Title page of Andrzej Frycz Modrzewski's Com- mentariorum de Republica emendanda, Basilea, 1554 (Photograph by St. Turski, courtesy of Biblioteka Narodowa in Warsaw), p. 97. IX. Mikołaj Rej, engraved portrait, Cracow, 1568 (Photograph by Krzysztof Konopka, courtesy of Biblioteka Narodowa in Warsaw), p. 137.