THE GROWTH OF THE MODERN NATION 17indistinguishable from the language. In Julian Tuwim's memorable phrase, it
was 'Ojczyzna-Polszczyzna' (The Fatherland of the Polish tongue).^16
The Polish language provided the gateway to unofficial literature and to inde-
pendent interpretations of History. In the Romantic period, both these activities
found ample support from the prevailing intellectual fashions of the day. In the
hands of Adam Mickiewicz (1798-1855), Juliusz Stowacki (1809-49), and
Zygmunt Krasinski (1812-59), Polish poetry and drama flourished as never
before. These authors applied the usual Romantic obsessions with agony, hor-
ror, separation, and death to specifically national subjects. To the foreign
reader, their brand of Messianism sometimes seems ridiculous, or even
'immorally proud'. Yet as exiles their feelings were genuine enough; their know-
ledge of their audience was exact; and their mastery of words supreme.
Moreover, their work was by no means confined to messianic outbursts. The
poems of Mickiewicz contain as many classical elements as romantic ones,
whilst his epic masterpiece Pan Tadeusz (1834) is filled with a lyrical serenity of
truly universal appeal. These men, the pioneers of modern Polish letters,
ensured that nineteenth-century Polish literature rapidly acquired traditions as
strong, and a treasure-house as vast and as varied, as the better-known
cultures of Germany and Russia, not to say of Western Europe. Henceforth,
Polish Literature could always supply the nation's needs whenever Polish
politics was found wanting.^17
Polish History enjoyed its greatest success in artistic and imaginative forms.
In the world of literature, Julian Ursyn Niemcewicz, already an established
author before the Third Partition, paid great attention to historical subjects
after his return from America in 1807. His Spiewy historyczne (Historical
Ballads), first published in 1816 with words, music, and illustrations, became
one of the most popular books of the century. He also launched the vogue for
historical novels in the style of Walter Scott. His novel Dwaj panowie
Sieciecbowie (The Two Mr Sieciechows, 1815) is notable for its sympathetic
treatment of the problem of the generations in the life of the nobility; Lejbe i
Siora (1821) for its satirical descriptions of Chassidic Jewry and its appeal for
Polish - Jewish assimilation; and Jan z Teczyna (1825) for its vivid portrayal of
the Court of Zygmunt-August. In the hands of Jozef Ignacy Kraszewski
(1812-87), the historical novel assumed the proportions of a mass industry. In a
lifetime of unparalleled productivity, Kraszewski wrote over five hundred
works, which touched on every conceivable aspect of Poland's past. He made
heroes of the peasants, no less than of nobles and soldiers, and in his middle age,
was fascinated by the contemporary problems of insurrection and subterfuge as
suggested by the January Rising. In the last decade of his life, he composed a
cycle of seventy-six volumes forming a chronological survey of events from pre-
historic times - in Stara bain (An Old Tale, 1876) - to the eighteenth century -
in Saskie ostatki (Saxon Remnants, 1890). He completed this extra-ordinary
achievement undeterred by his arrest in Berlin in 1883 on a charge of treason,
and his imprisonment in Magdeburg Castle. His death in Switzerland coincided