The Subversive Power of Father Matthias. The Poetry of Maciej Kazimierz Sarbiewski as Vehicle for Political Propaganda in England of the 17th Century

Abstract

Maciej Kazimierz Sarbiewski (1595–1640) was considered a pious Jesuit father, neo-Latin poet, equal if not better than Horace. However, when almost immediately after his death his poetry crossed the English channel, it gained an unexpected subversive power. It gained a new territory not so much for what it actually was but thanks to a new purpose for which it could be used. In Great Britain controlled by the forces of the Parliament acquaintance with the works of Sarbiewski became a telling sign for the Royalists. Consequently, several Royalist poets started to write and publish translations from Sarbiewski which departed from the originals in such ways which allowed the poets to express their true sentiments and bypass Parliamentary censorship. Others would quote excerpts from his poems in their original works for similar purposes. The present paper traces the way Sarbiewski’s poems were used—translated, adapted, quoted, emulated etc.—by such Metaphysical poets as Richard Lovelace, Henry Vaughan, Abraham Cowley, and Sir John Denham, to mention but a few. It also presents an analysis of the most important testimony to Sarbiewski’s popularity in the days of the War of Three Kingdoms and the Commonwealth period, a volume of translations by George Hils.