Historyja żałosna… Bartłomieja Paprockiego – u progu polskiej epiki historycznej

Abstract

The subject of considerations in the present article is the work by Bartłomiej Paprocki: Historyja żałosna o prędkości i okrutności tatarskiej […], which appeared in 1575. What can be noticed in the said work is the process of intersecting of generic features of current-novelties song (Polish pieśń nowiniarska) and the epic features, the latter being particularly those that characterise historical narrative poems, such as: verismo, events chronology, using information from contemporaneous sources, recording places and persons who participate in depicted events, moderation when it comes to utilising stylistic devises. At the same time, mainly in the dedicatory letter addressed to Anzelm Gostomski, an endeavour may be noticed to overcome the poetics of current-novelties songs – not least by creating the image of poet as a soothsayer. To the author’s mind, the work by Paprocki appeared at the dawn of Polish heroicum. The narrative poem in question came a few years prior to the poetical renderings from the times of war campaigns of Stephen Báthory, which are considered by this subject’s scholars as first attempts at creating new poetical quality – the historical narrative poem.