Zemsta, Schubert i pszczoły. Glosa do Irydiona Zygmunta Krasińskiego

Abstract

This article attempts a new interpretation in the context of Zygmunt Krasiński’s work Irydion(1836) as a whole of the words: “Revenge, then, and forward where the bees buzz”, spoken by Irydion to Simeon of Corinth. Previous interpretative proposals (Schneider, Sinko, Kubacki, Stefanowska) have clarified much, but have not met with full acceptance. The new critical edition of Collected Works of the author of Irydion, reproduces the errors of previous scholars in explaining this exclamation. The new reading introduces the context of – probably known to Krasiński – Gotthilf Heinrich Schubert’s reflections on the bees from Symbolik des Traumes. The German philosopher believed that bees – the depositories of the memory of the “golden age of harmony and concord” – were the revelatorsof the “gospel of the new law”, and that the Latin root of these insects contains the hope of “burying” the present order. The final section of thearticle shows how Iridion manipulates these imaginaries – in Schubert’s view, characteristic of Christian communities – in order to persuade Simeonof Corinth and his chiliastic supporters to participate in a revolution of revenge against Rome.