Abstrakt: | The aim of the paper is to show that Jan Kochanowski’s Proporzec albo
Hołd Pruski, a work of literature considered for a long time to be poor in artistic
terms, refers to the convention of a triumphant song of victory, namely the epinikion.
It is a literary form with ancient roots. The poet of Czarnolas, in his original way,
combined the convention of epinikion with verse-driven canvassing speech (on the
border between genus deliberativum and genus demonstrativum), using a number
of arguments in favour of implementing the resolutions of the Sejm (Parliament
Assembly) of Lublin of 1569. The work consistently develops one thread – the struggle
with the Teutonic Knights, which is connected with the selective presentation
of the historical images of the Polish rulers’ military campaigns for Pomerania and
Duchy of Prussia. The consistency of the presented historical descriptions with
the ideological content, expressive “speech decorations” and faithfulness to the
conventions of the sixteenth-century political poetry make the literary artistry of
Proporzec… impressive and standing out with its artistry against the background
of occasional Old Polish poems. |