ЛИК КРАЉА МИЛАНА ОБРЕНОВИЋА У ПЕСНИШТВУ ВОЈИСЛАВА ИЛИЋА
KING MILAN’S FIGURE IN VOJISLAV ILIĆ’S POETRY

Summary/Abstract: This study shall analyse the Sovereign’s character in political-satirical poems written by Vojislav Ilić (1860–1894). An important stimulus for starting this study was the fact that his famous poem Maskenbal na Rudniku was for the first time published exactly 135 years ago. Although this anthological, very representative poem Maskenbal na Rudniku (1887) represents the most important socially-engaged allegorical poem written by 129 Vojislav Ilić, scandalous events from every day of life of the then Serbian King Milan Obrenović (1854–1901) had inspired the revolted poet much earlier, in the beginning of the eighties of the XIX century. More precisely, numerous unpopular decisions of the Serbian ruler served as topical inspiration for writing an entire series of anti-dynastic philippics, the criticism of which could not have been hidden even by the poet’s “innocent“ allusions to the events from private life of the Serbian King Ubu. Our comparative analysis of literary-historical relevance and metric structure of Vojislav Ilić’s satirical poetry should eliminate any doubts regarding the aesthetic value of his poems about the Sovereign whose heart was allegedly more inclined to hedonistic indulgence in vice than to ruling the kingdom

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