Resztka liryczna
A lyrical scrap

Author(s): Zbigniew Majchrowski
Subject(s): Cultural history, Studies of Literature, Polish Literature, Philology, Theory of Literature
Published by: Wydawnictwa Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego
Keywords: Dziady; kiss stanza; kiss; Holly Communion; Stanisław Wyspiański; Jerzy Grotowski; Grotowski’s concepts of theatre work; Wyspiański's plays
Summary/Abstract: The article comments on the issues of editorial and philological nature but predominantly semantic and philosophical ones with regard to "Dziady" [Forefathers’Eve] Part IV by Mickiewicz. The ‘lyrical scrap’ in question refers to an eighteenth-century verse referred to as the ‘kiss stanza’ (the term ‘strofa pocałunkowa’ was coined by Mickiewicz himself) which compares an experience of a first truly exalted kiss to Holly Communion. Due to censor’s decision this particular passage had not been included in the original copy of Forefathers’ Eve in 1832. And with years this decision had been sustained in canonical editions of collective works such as National Edition elaborated by S. Pigoń or Anniversary Edition elaborated by Z. Stefanowska and by almost all editors. An exception makes the edition elaborated by J. Kallenbach in 1920 and an earlier edition of a theatre script used by Wyspiański in his stage production in 1901. The author of this paper suggests to introduce the ‘kiss stanza’ into contemporary editions of Forefathers’ Eve Part IV and his proposal has been based not only on philological grounds. Two of the equally important arguments to support it. The first is that of dramatic perception of Forefathers’ Eve in the plays staged by Wyspiański (1901), K. Swinarski (1973) and J. Kreczmar (1978) and the other one is that of J. Grotowski’s concepts of theatre work. By means of these arguments the author unveils the interpretative consequences of restoring the missing passage into the main body of the text of Forefathers’ Eve.

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