Poland's great Romantic poet, playwright and visionary philosopher. Born 1809 in Krzemieniec, died 1849 in Paris.

Słowacki spent his early years in Krzemieniec and Vilnius. Having become a widow, his mother, Salomea, to whom he was always strongly emotionally attached, married August Becu, a Vilnius University professor. The future poet thus gained access to the local intellectual community and got to know Adam Mickiewicz, Joachim Lelewel, Jan and Jedrzej Sniadecki. His law studies in 1825-28 were followed by employment at the Government Revenue and Treasury Commission. In 1831 Adam Jerzy Czartoryski offered him a job at the Diplomatic Office of the National Government. As a diplomatic courier of the Government, Slowacki left for Dresden and then for Paris, where he settled down. In 1832-6 he stayed in Geneva, where he was greatly affected by the Alpine scenery ("W Szwajcarii / In Switzerland"). While in Rome in 1836, he made friends with Zygmunt Krasinski, one of the few readers who immediately appreciated the value and innovativeness of his poetry. In 1836-37 he travelled to Greece, Egypt and Palestine, and in 1837-38 stayed in Florence. This exotic trip, the mystical experience of the Holy Land and the subsequent studies of Italian literature, painting and sculpture were reflected in Słowacki's poems and dramas of the period, most notably in "Hymn o zachodzie slonca / Hymn at sunset", "Podróż do Ziemi Świętej z Neapolu / Journey to The Holy Land from Naples", "Rozmowa z piramidami / Conversation with the Pyramids", "Poema Piasta Dantyszka herbu leliwa o piekle / Piast Dantyszek of Leliwa Coat of Arms' Poem on Hell" , "Beatrix Cenci").

In 1842, in Paris, Słowacki came to know Andrzej Towiański, and for a while associated himself with his Circle. He left it because of differences in outlook as well as his permanent conflict with Mickiewicz, the dominant Master. Yet it was largely to Towianski that Slowacki owed the final shape of his philosophical system. The poet's philosophical and social views inspired him to - largely unproductive - political activity which involved the setting up, with his few supporters (including Cyprian Norwid), of a Circle during the Krakow Uprising and the so-called Galicia Massacre. He wrote a few works which were political manifestos, most notably "Głos z wygnania do braci w kraju / Voice from Exile to Brothers in the Country" and "Do Emigracji O potrzebie idei / To the Emigration: On the Need for Ideas". During the Spring of Nations he published "Głos brata Juliusza Slowackiego do zgromadzonych i w klub chcących sie zwiazać Polakow / The Voice of brother Juliusz Slowacki to members and Prospective Members of The Polish Club" . When the Wielkopolskie Rising started, he set up a Confederation and, despite advanced tuberculosis, went to Paris to speak at a National Committee Meeting. Demanded by the police to leave Poznan, he returned to Paris and died there shortly. He was buried at the Montmartre Cemetery. In 1927 his ashes were transferred to Krakow and laid inside the Wawel Cathedral, next to those of Mickiewicz's.

Slowacki earned some acclaim for his patriotic poems published in the press during the November Uprising, his highly traumatic experience. These included "Hymn", "Kulig / Sleigh Ride" , "Oda do Wolności / The Ode to Liberty". His three volumes of early verse novels, poems, dramas and lyrics, published in Paris in 1832-33, went rather unnoticed by the Polish emigration, it being preoccupied with political arguments. Moreover, Mickiewicz, who was by then a recognized national poet, spoke unfavourably of them, calling Słowacki's poetry a beautiful church without God.

Only a part of Słowacki's work was published in his lifetime. He failed to win popularity, too, even though his poetry, with its extraordinary variety, rich phrasing, linguistic innovation and artistic sensitivity stood out even in the rich context of Romantic literature. His poems, such as "Rozlaczenie / Separation", "Hymn (Smutno mi Boze) / How Sad I Am, My God", "Testament moj / My Testament", "Do Ludwiki Bobrowny / To Ludwika Bobrowna", "Grób Agamemnona / Agamemnon's Tomb", "Ojciec zadzumionych / The Father of the Plague-Stricken" made it to the canon of literature for future generations of Poles, yet were so innovative that the poet's contemporaries struggled to understand them and few, most notably Zygmunt Krasiński, Cyprian Norwid and Kornel Ujejski, expressed appreciation.

Slowacki presented his attitude to the émigré circles and literary critics in his digressive poem "Beniowski" (1840-46). Cantos 1-5 came out in 1941; the remaining ones, their alternative versions and fragments were published posthumously. The reconstructed poem consists of ten cantos written in ottava rima. The plot is set in Podolia and Crimea at the time of the Confederation of Bar, and the protagonist is a Polish nobleman modelled on a Hungarian nobleman whose popular memoirs were published in 1791. The poem tells the story of a poor, carefree young man who travels across the country and meets different people, many of them patterned on historical persons: Aniela, Swentyna, Father Marek, Tadeusz Dzieduszycki. The story serves as a pretext for a multi-layer poetic game, the narrator, speaking with the poet's voice, its true protagonist. He comments on, changes and parodies the story, talks to the readers, speaks to the assumed critics. Słowacki plays with conventions; he is in turn epical, solemn, lyrical, ironical. He intersperses the story with sentimental recollections, thoughts and reflections on his art. "Beniowski" was interpreted as Słowacki's ideological and artistic creed, and brought him a little more recognition than his earlier works.

His earlier poem, "Anhelli", published in 1838, also conveyed an unfavourable image of the émigration as well as a covert polemic with Mickiewicz. Received unfavourably by the readers, it had been written in a Lebanese mountain monastery and influenced by the poet's religious experience of the Holy Land. Its language, like that of Mickiewicz's "Ksiegi narodu i pielgrzymstwa polskiego / The Books of the Polish Nation and the Polish Pilgrimage", was styled to resemble that of the Bible. Unlike Mickiewicz, however, Slowacki denies the redemptory value of émigré pilgrimage. Symbolically, the plot is set in Siberia. The exiles quarrel and fight with one another and are unable to come up with one idea; they degenerate morally and physically. Anhelli, a young man of pure heart, walks with a chaplain in a space suggestive of Dante's hell. He has been chosen for a sacrifice equal to that of Christ's, yet the sense of this sacrifice is unclear. He dies a lonely death and when a knight arrives to call for revolutionary action, angel Eloe does not allow to wake Anhelli up.

Vivid and linguistically beautiful, "Anhelli" abounds in symbols that yield themselves to a variety of interpretations. Some researchers were right in seeing it as a harbinger of the poet's maturing philosophy of Genesis from the Spirit, a metaphysical system which was the most original of Romantic messianisms. Like Mickiewicz and Krasinski, Slowacki understood history as a process of mankind's development in pursuit of the divine ideal, recognized the need for suffering, sacrifice and action in individual and collective lives, and ascribed a particular role to the Polish nation. Drawing inspiration from Towianski as well as from Neoplatonism and natural sciences, he effectively built a cosmogonic system from the start of the universe to its ultimate "angelisation". Slowacki's universe is an organism made up of individual spirits in the process of progressive biological and spiritual evolution. The change he introduced in the Biblical Book of Genesis is a manifestation of extreme Romantic individualism: the spirits which existed in God demanded to have shapes so as to develop their divinity. They emerged from the Absolute, creating time and space. However, a split occurred at the moment of emanation. Some spirits emerged through light, creating suns and stars, the world of angelic existence; others, through laziness and negligence, created the destructive element of fire, giving the start to the Earth. Slowacki interpreted the original sin in terms of the decline of spirit, which had lost the sense of its divinity, and its redemption through heroic effort of continuous self-development. Reincarnation allows the spirits to preserve their spiritual identity. Metempsychotic memory is, however, the privilege only of mystics, visionaries and poets. The internal imperative of development, i.e. rebirth in higher and higher forms, calls for destruction of all existing forms. The spiritual reality is hierarchical and the position within it depends solely on merit. This applies both to individual spirits as well as to "communities of related spirits", i.e. nations. The Polish nation has attained a spiritual seniority and so is at the top of the hierarchy of communities. The aim of progressive evolution is for individual spirits, owing their divinity to themselves, to achieve a superhuman state of "angelisation".

Slowacki's philosophy of Genesis is extremely individualistic and heroic. Glorifying activism, suffering, sacrifice, destruction and revolution, it makes do without the interference of Providence, tradition and Church. It provides a context explaining the poet's political and social views. Slowacki's philosophy of Genesis was laid down in "Genesis z Ducha / Genesis from the Spirit" and "Krol-Duch / King the Spirit", and got translated into the language of current politics in "Odpowiedzi na Psalmy Przyszlosci / Reply to the Psalms of the Future".

"Genesis z Ducha. Modlitwa / Genesis from the Spirit. A Prayer" (written in 1844-46, published posthumously) is a lecture on evolution from the creation of the universe to the emergence of man. Its form is that of a prayer to God as the witness of creation and development. Its narrator has a dual role: that of an individual spirit recollecting his past and that of a global spirit re-creating the evolution of species from the lowest ones to the human form. When the most deserving spirits achieved the human form, God "placed a seal of durability on the world of form". Further development is to take place in the social world.

"Król-Duch / King the Spirit", written in1845-49, survived in many versions; it owes its final shape to Slowacki's posthumous publishers. It is an interesting attempt to create a poetic myth of the origins of the nation. The poet now moves the evolution of Genesis to the world of history, the same rules applying: of activity, sacrifice, combat against the existing form and against one's laziness. The spirit at the top of the hierarchy embodies itself in the leader of the community: the commander, the politician, the visionary. The line of leaders of mankind's spiritual revolution starts from Er the Armenian, the figure from Plato's "Republic", and the successor of antique culture. Then come the first kings of Poland - Popiel, Mieszko and Boleslaw Śmiały (Boleslaus the Bold). They all represent different ideas of power, are credited with different contributions to the development of the nation and make different mistakes. Yet they all set the course of the history of the nation which is to attain "Christ's aims". Słowacki lends his vision of the history of philosophy an unusual breadth, setting the legend of the beginnings in the context of the universe and in a sacral space populated with myths and cultural symbols and using a suggestive, vivid and emotional language.

"Odpowiedź na Psalmy Przyszłości / Reply to the Psalms of the Future" (written in 1845, published anonymously in 1848) is a passionate polemic with Zygmunt Krasiński. True to his understanding of the Spirit as a perennial revolutionary who destroys the existing forms and develops through calamities and revolutions, Słowacki opposes the apotheosis of nobility and the call for national solidarity. He sees the people as the new agent of development, able to overthrow the petrified social structures. His poem uses conventions of various genres, including an invocative prayer, a dialogue and a pamphlet. It is truncated, visionary and vivid, and its quotations made it for long to the language of democratic circles.

Slowacki is also the author of a number of dramas representing various conventions: historical ("Maria Stuart / Mary Stuart", "Mazepa", "Horsztyński"), legendary and fairy-tale ("Lilla Weneda", "Balladyna"), symbolic and mystic ("Ksiadz Marek / Father Marek", "Samuel Zborowski"), and many others. His finest dramas include "Kordian" and "Balladyna".

Like Krasinski's "Nieboska komedia / The Un-Divine Comedy" and Mickiewicz's "Dziady / Forefathers' Eve", so is "Kordian" (published in 1833) a great metaphysical and political drama. Intended as a poetic challenge to Mickiewicz, it takes place both in historical world and the beyond, real protagonists appearing side by side with symbolic ones. The central theme is that of the failure of the November Uprising. In "Preparation" forces from hell create and send to the Earth leaders of the uprising. In Act I Kordian experiences an unhappy love. In Act II his travels make him disappointed with contemporary Europe. In the monologue which culminates Act II he transforms into a political activist, fighter for the national cause. Act III, taking place on the eve of the uprising, presents a discussion of various standpoints on crime for a cause and morality of bloodshed. Abandoned by other conspirators, Kordian intends to assassinate tsar Nicholas, just crowned the king of Poland. However, overcome by Fear and Imagination, he proves unable to commit this bloody act. Sentenced to death for an attempted coup, he is saved, probably through the intervention of Duke Constantine. It is not stated explicitly; however, for Slowacki planned a sequel, "Kordian" being the first part of an unfinished trilogy. The poet succeeded in creating a most interesting Romantic hero - an individualist disappointed with the world, a revolutionary implicated in a tragic conflict of values. Received unfavourably by the contemporaries, "Kordian" continues to feature in theatre repertoires despite the difficulties of staging.

"Balladyna" (published 1839) combines a number of conventions: of a legend, folk tale, historical drama, grotesque. It shows the influence of the Shakespearean drama ("King Lear", "The Midsummer Night's Dream", "Macbeth"), yet is one of the most original Romantic works. The plot is set at the time of Poland's legendary origins. There is King Popiel, deprived of power by a usurper; the noble prince Kirkor, aiming to restore King Popiel's rule; the queen of the Goplo Lake and the elves; and two beautiful sisters, one good, the other bad. Balladyna, greedy for power, gains it through a number of crimes, including the killing of her sister Alina, the contender to marry Kirkor. In the finale Balladyna dies, struck by divine justice. The variety of conventions, of language and of characters (passionate Balladyna, serene Goplana enamoured of a village simpleton, tragic mother of the two sisters, the village community) have been key to "Balladyna"'s lasting stage success and diverse interpretations.

The Romantics found it difficult to accept Słowacki's works; to them they were too mystical and too revolutionary. They were even more unacceptable to Positivists, running counter to their rationalism and organic work. Paradoxically, however, it was in the age of Positivism that Slowacki's works started to get published and commented on. "Pisma" [Writings], including mostly works published in his lifetime, came out in Leipzig in 1860. In 1866 Antoni Malecki published three volumes of "Pisma pośmiertne" [Posthumous Writings] and a two-volume monograph.

The poet's birth centenary in 1909 was marked by the publication of the first scholarly edition of "Works", vol. 1-10, edited by Bronislaw Gubrynowicz and Wiktor Hahn. The celebrations coincided with the height of Słowacki's popularity, Positivism giving way to the Young Poland cultural movement which considered Słowacki its forerunner. 1901 saw the publication of Ignacy Matuszewski's "Słowacki i nowa sztuka / Słowacki and The New Art", a book which showed a close philosophical and artistic kinship between the romanticism of Slowacki's and the neoromanticism of Young Poland's. The movement particularly cherished the poet's philosophy of Genesis and the works written in his mystic period, its iconic hero being King the Spirit interpreted as a lonely poet-visionary, a Self searching for the truth of its divine element, an outstanding individual fighting against biological and social determinism, a romantic version of Nietzsche's Superman. Słowacki was an inspiration for Stanislaw Przybyszewski, Stanisław Wyspiański, Włodzimierz Tetmajer, Tadeusz Miciński, Stanisław Brzozowski, and Jerzy Żuławski. The poet's philosophy of Genesis was invoked by Wincenty Lutosławski, the world-renowned student of Plato and the last philosopher to include messianic ideas in a metaphysical insight system. Słowacki's thinking provided Lutoslawski with concepts of fundamental significance for his philosophy, such as the understanding of the world as a spiritual reality, the belief in reincarnation, the conception of evolution as self-development. The poet's works were hallmarks of the institutions of national revival which Lutoslawski founded: the Eleusis Society [Zwiazek Elsów from latin: Eccelsia Lex Suprema] and the Schools of National Education.

Słowacki's works were also invoked by artists grouped around the Poznan bi-weekly "Zdroj" (they called their programme "the Polish expressionism") and provided inspiration for illustrators and painters such as Ferdynand Ruszczyc, Jan Matejko, Michał Elwiro Andriolli, Wojciech Gerson, Jacek Malczewski, and Artur Grottger. "Balladyna" inspired Władysław Żeleński to compose his opera "Goplana" (to libretto by Ludomil German), and Ludomir Różycki based a symphonic poem on "Anhelli".

The Young Poland's fascination with Slowacki gone, other recognized writers and poets, most notably Jan Lechoń, Władysław Broniewski, Julian Przyboś, Krzysztof Kamil Baczyński, Stanisław Grochowiak, Ernest Bryll, and Teodor Parnicki, continued to admit to spiritual kinship with his poetry.

The theatre career of Slowacki's dramas started at the turn of the 19th century and has continued until today, his works featuring strongly in the standard repertoires of both professional, experimental, and amateur groups. Józef Kotarbiński directed "Kordian" and "Ksiądz Marek" in Krakow in 1899 and 1901, respectively. The anniversary year 1909 was marked by a festival of Slowacki's ten dramas and the stage at Św. Ducha Square was named after him. In the 1920s Leon Schiller directed monumental performances of Slowacki's dramas in various Polish towns. In 1941 Mieczysław Kotlarczyk staged "Krol-Duch / King The Spirit" at the Tajny Teatr Slowa (later called the Rhapsodic Theatre - the stage where Karol Wojtyla had his acting debut). Among the most interesting post-war stagings of Slowacki's works were the convention-breaking performances directed by Adam Hanuszkiewicz at the Warsaw National Theatre.

Słowacki's works have been translated in full or in part into more than a dozen languages.

Major editions: "Dzieła wszystkie" [Collected Works] vol. 1-17, Wroclaw 1952-76, ed. of vols.1-11 Juliusz Kleiner, ed. of vols.12-17 Wladyslaw Floryan; "Korespondencja" [Letters], ed. Eugeniusz Sawrymowicz, vol. 1-2, Wroclaw 1962-63.

Author: Halina Floryńska-Lalewicz

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