De morte Bolezlaui carmina

De morte Bolezlaui carmina ( poem on Boleslaw's death ) is a mourning poem that is added to the 16th chapter of the first book of the Chronicle of Gallus Anonymus , written in Middle Latin , and deals with the death of Bolesław I. It is the first poetic planctus in Polish literature .

construction

The poem is introduced in the 16th chapter as carmen lugubre and consists of 30 verses in 10 stanzas, each with the same ending rhyme . Each verse consists of 15 syllables with a caesura after the eighth syllable. Thus the verse corresponds to other poems in the chronicle, such as Deo vero laus et honor ...

swell

The model for the poem was the Carmen de morte Lanfranci elegiacium by an anonymous author, in which the death of the Archbishop of Canterbury Lanfrank is mourned. The verse structure of this poem corresponds and shows many parallels in terms of content. In the Carmen de morte Lanfranci elegiacium all peoples are said to mourn the death of the bishop and in the poem De morte Bolezlaui carmina all people regardless of age, gender and status.

The lamentations of Jeremiah , in which the personified Jerusalem laments , may have served as a further source of inspiration . Accordingly, the personified Poland in the poem De morte Bolezlaui carmina mourns .

content

The mourning poem is designed as a lyrical monologue of Poland personified as a widow. Right at the beginning of the first verse, the mourner turns to people of all ages, sexes and classes ("Omnis etas, omnis sexus, omnis ordo") and asks them to mourn with her about the death of the ruler and to mourn her at the same time support (“sustentate me cadentem”). Again and again she calls the dead Bolesław directly with lamentations and calls on different groups of people to mourn. Finally, in the last stanza the reader is directly apostrophized ("Et tu lector") and admonished to mourn the death of the king with it.

expenditure

• Kazimierz Liman (ed.): Antologia poezji łacińskiej w Polsce . Średniowiecze. Wydawnictwo UAM, Posen 2004, p. 239-241 .
• Karol Maleczyński (Ed.): Galli Anonymi cronicae et gesta ducum sive principum Polonorum (=  Monumenta Poloniae Historica. Nova Series . Volume II ). Polska Akademia Umiejętności, Krakau 1952, p. 38-39 .

literature

• Ryszard Gansiniec : Liryka Galla Anonima . In: Pamiętnik Litearcki . Czasopismo kwartalne poświęcone historii i krytyce literatury polskiej. No. 49/4 , 1958, pp. 374-387 .
• Teresa Michałowska: Średniowiecze (=  Wielka Historia Literatury Polskiej . Volume 1 ). Wydawnictwo Naukowe PWN, Warsaw 2002, ISBN 978-83-01-12851-7 , p. 124-127 (first edition: 1995).
• Teresa Michałowska: De morte Bolezlavi carmina…, Anonim Gall . In: Literatura Polskiego Średniowiecza . Leksykon. Wydawnictwo Naukowe PWN, Warsaw 2011, ISBN 978-83-01-16675-5 , p. 173 .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Josef Bujnoch (ed.): Poland's beginnings . Gallus Anonymus: Chronicles and Deeds of the Dukes and Princes of Poland. Verlag Styria, Graz et al. 1978, ISBN 3-222-10554-5 , p. 77 .
2. ^ Teresa Michałowska: De morte Bolezlavi carmina ..., Anonim Gall . In: Literatura Polskiego Średniowiecza . Leksykon. Wydawnictwo Naukowe PWN, Warsaw 2011, ISBN 978-83-01-16675-5 , p. 173 .
3. ↑ Teresa Michałowska: Średniowiecze (=  Wielka Historia Literatury Polskiej . Volume 1 ). Wydawnictwo Naukowe PWN, Warsaw 2002, ISBN 978-83-01-12851-7 , p. 125 (first edition: 1995).