Abstract
Jan Kochanowski was probably the key figure in Polish Literary humanism. His lifetime spanned the ‘golden years’ of the Polish Renaissance and almost everything he wrote was a ‘first’ in Polish literature. Upon his retirement from the royal court to his hereditary estate, Kochanowski wrote Treny, a lament for his dead daughter. This moving and complex sequence of poems can be seen as reflecting and summarizing the achievements and limitations of humanism in Poland. Kochanowski’s writing and his career as a courtier provide us with an insight into the Polish nobility and the Polish state at the height of their power and wealth. This article is not aimed at the specialist in Polish literature or Slavonic studies, but seeks to introduce Kochanowski to English readers.
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