Adam Mickiewicz – AMONG STRANGERS / Virtual exibition

THE FAMILY

It is the year 1832. Adam arrives in Paris. He feels lonely and rarely leaves the house. He reminisces about his failed romance with Konstancja, who was willing to divorce her husband for him.

In the autumn he is visited by an acquaintance who shares the news of passing of Adam’s old flame, Maria Szymanowska. Adam finds out that Maria’s daughter, Celina, whom he remembers as a little girl, has been abandoned by her fiancé. Celina is already on her way to Paris…

“Celina is the wife I have been looking for.” The marriage served as a remedy for the spleen the poet had been suffering from over the past several years. In September of the following year Celina gave birth to their first daughter, Maria (later called “plump Misia”). Julian Ursyn Niemcewicz was in awe of the baby girl, whom he held during the baptism ceremony. Four more children followed – Władysław, Helena, Aleksander, Jan and Józef – born at approximately two-year intervals.

POETRY AND NOTHING ELSE?

The author of Dziady was recognized in the literary milieu of Paris, beyond the émigré circles. He quickly acquainted the French Romantics. Chopin was also helpful by introducing Mickiewicz to George Sand. Not only did Ms Sand offer him to proofread his French works; she also wrote one of the definitive reviews of Dziady.

In 1834, Pan Tadeusz was published at the Pinard printing house. It was widely read – judging by the reaction it had provoked – but not understood. Mickiewicz was accused of altering the serious mood – after the story of Konrad, presenting the tragic Polish history as a national mission, he published a light story. Some people thought the poem was intended as a satire. Finally, the recurring refrain, valid until today, emerged – “why did he write ‘Lithuania, my Motherland”? Pan Tadeusz was the last epic poem by Adam Mickiewicz.

THE PROFESSOR

In 1840, the poet took up a post of the Slavic Literature Professor at the Collège de France in Paris. The émigré milieu hoped that Mickiewicz would lecture mostly on Polish literature, and that caused great concern for the French authorities due to its precarious relations with Russia. The poet, however, prepared lectures on subjects related to the broad Slavic field – in his letters at the time he repeatedly asks various acquaintances to lend him books.

THE BROTHER ADAM

Why was Mickiewicz so smitten with Andrzej Towiański? Was that because he sensed a spirit similar to his own in this “non-bookish” man (as he himself referred to Towiański)? Or perhaps the author of Pan Tadeusz simply awaited a sign heralding major changes and a new era? Perhaps, overwhelmed by his wife’s illness and depressed about the situation in his beloved country, Mickiewicz turned into a devout believer and gradually shifted towards a different kind of religiosity. What was the fluid about? And, finally, was Towiański a hypnotiser?

The émigré milieu was apprehensive not only about the fact that an outsider took “their own” Mickiewicz away but also about the hermetic, sectarian nature of the Circle of the Divine Cause.

THE DEED

In 1848 a series of revolutionary upheavals known as the Spring of Nations swept across the European continent. In Paris, Prince Czartoryski contemplated creating a Polish legion. Mickiewicz decided to act rather than deliberate. He managed to recruit a dozen people in Rome. All in all, the unit totalled approximately 200 soldiers and joined in the fight to liberate Italy. The poet returned to Paris, organized a group of associates and began publishing Trybuna Ludu (People’s Tribune) or, more precisely, La Tribune des Peuples.

Prince Czartoryski sent Mickiewicz east to meet with Michał Czajkowski, also known as Sadyk Pascha, who had been a leader of anti-Russian activities there since the 1840s and organised the life of Polish emigrants who had left the country after the November Uprising. Mickiewicz wanted to organise a Polish legion there, as he had done in Italy, and a Jewish legion as well.

ADAM MICKIEWICZ’S POSTHUMOUS LIFE

It is difficult to establish the exact circumstances of the poet’s death; ironically, this is not due to the fact that we lack accounts on those circumstances. Quite the opposite, there are too many reports on the last hours of Adam Mickiewicz’s life. As many as thirteen people had been in contact with the author of Pan Tadeusz within the space of his last hours. Each of those thirteen people remembered the events differently. That is why scholars have been reluctant to accept the hypothesis that Mickiewicz had died of cholera and have been regularly reverting to the theory of poisoning.

But even this is not yet the end. It is hard to imagine that the existence in Polish culture of the author of Dziady could possibly be terminated with closing of the crypt. At the turn of the 20th century the poet revealed his true marketing colours – matches, soaps, sweets and even cigars and cigarettes were branded with a well-known portrait. They quickly became a sought after souvenir from, say, a trip to Krakow.

THE FAMILY

Previously:

It is the year 1832. Adam arrives in Paris. He feels lonely and rarely leaves the house. He reminisces about his failed romance with Konstancja, who was willing to divorce her husband for him. He also keeps receiving letters from the mother of Henrietta, for whom he fell head over heels during his sojourn in Rome. Adam wonders if he is being punished for abandoning Karolina, soon after she had managed to convince her parents to take to him. Luckily, the romance with Marcelina, Henrietta’s cousin, was not a serious affair. Adam worries about the health of his friend, Stefek Garczyński. He becomes close with Ignacy Domeyko, so much so that the two are planning to move in together to save money. So far, the money has not posed any problems. Adam does not stop writing. In the summer, while paying a visit to ailing Stefek, he himself gets a toothache and a cough. Stefek passes away. Adam returns to Paris and sets about finishing Pan Tadeusz. In the autumn he is visited by an acquaintance who shares the news of passing of Adam’s old flame, Maria Szymanowska. Adam finds out that Maria’s daughter, Celina, whom he remembers as a little girl, has been abandoned by her fiancé. He realises that he will have to address the news in a conversation, as his friend Odyniec writes that Celina is on her way to Paris…

She arrived in early July. Initially Mickiewicz intended to send her back, but she did stay in the end. “I could not bring myself to subject her to that much trouble. Anyway, I quite like her,” he wrote in a letter to a friend. Less than three weeks later – on Monday, 21 July 1834 – Ignacy Domejko received a letter in which Mickiewicz requested his presence the following day at their mutual friend’s house, elegantly dressed. They picked Celina up from her uncle’s house and headed for St. Louis d’Antin church where Adam walked her down the aisle. Two weeks later he told his brother: “Celina is the wife I have been looking for.” The marriage served as a remedy for the spleen the poet had been suffering from over the past several years. In September of the following year Celina gave birth to their first daughter, Maria (later called “plump Misia”). Julian Ursyn Niemcewicz was in awe of the baby girl, whom he held during the baptism ceremony. Four more children followed – Władysław, Helena, Aleksander, Jan and Józef – born at approximately two-year intervals. The Mickiewicz family were close to the Malewicz family – Helena, Celina’s older sister, and her husband Franciszek, Adam’s friend from the olden days. Zofia Szymanowska, Celina’s half-sister, was helping her rear the children.

The family problems began when Adam left for Switzerland, where he applied for a professorial post. He was soon summoned back home – Celina suffered mental breakdown, she was foretelling the future, claiming she was Holy Mary with the mission of redeeming the emigrants and the Jews. She ended up in a psychiatric hospital in Vanves near Paris. Mickiewicz had to look after the children by himself and did not manage to prepare the layout for a series of lectures he had applied for. When Celina returned home, they decided that as soon as she got well they would go to Lausanne together with their two children.

Mickiewicz took the post at the Latin literature department. He taught six classes per week, spending all evenings on preparation for the lectures. In the summer of 1841 Celina was once again hospitalized in Vanves. While there, she wrote a poem which she sent to her husband. He sent her his mother’s bracelet, which she often wore.

In the meantime, Andrzej Towiański arrived in Paris, all the way from Lithuania. The Master became an important presence at the Mickiewicz’ household and managed to cure Celina from her ailments. Towiański was soon followed by Ksawera Deybel, a petite lady of bad repute, known as the Israelite Princess. She embarked on a love affair with Mickiewicz which was to last for many years to come.

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POETRY AND NOTHING ELSE?

“The poetry bubble burst over Mickiewicz” in Dresden – in 1832, he completed third part of the poetic drama Dziady (The Forefathers’ Eve) and arrived in Paris as an established author. The emigrants residing in a dépôt in Besançon, graduates of the Vilna University, welcomed the poet offering him a ring with a lyre. Dziady was published by Księgarnia i Drukarnia Polska. Towards the end of the year, Mickiewicz finished writing Księgi narodu polskiego i pielgrzymstwa polskiego (The Books of the Polish People and of the Polish Pilgrimage), which were almost immediately translated into French by Lemaître and published in Belgian and French press. Simultaneously, the poem was translated by Charles Montalambert, a friend of Mickiewicz. The poem, written in biblical prose, was also a journalistic declamation – referring to the ‘here and now’ of the émigré reality and to the project of grand moral and religious restoration which was part of the divine plan, it heralded the beginning of a new era.

Mickiewicz perceived the exile and wanderings of Poles as a pilgrimage of sorts – a journey of the selected few towards a defined, divine destination. The author of Dziady was now recognized in the literary milieu of Paris, beyond the émigré circles. He quickly acquainted the French Romantics. Chopin was also helpful by introducing Mickiewicz to George Sand. Not only did Ms Sand offer him to proofread his French works; she also wrote one of the definitive reviews of Dziady. In her “Essay fantastic drama. Goethe – Byron – Mickiewicz”, she analysed the poem next to Faust and Manfred, as the three most important drama pieces of the era.

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THE PROFESSOR

In 1840, the poet quit his job in Lausanne and took up a post of the Slavic Literature Professor at the Collège de France in Paris. The post had been negotiated for a long period of time – the department of Slavic Literature had to be established. The émigré milieu hoped that Mickiewicz would lecture mostly on Polish literature, and that caused great concern for the French authorities due to its precarious relations with Russia. The poet, however, prepared lectures on subjects related to the broad Slavic field – in his letters at the time he repeatedly asks various acquaintances to lend him books. The first lecture, advertised in the press, took place on Tuesday, 22 December 1840, at 1.45 p.m. It was well received; Jules Michelet, a renowned French historian, also a lecturer at Collège de France, sent Mickiewicz a letter on the following day requesting that Mickiewicz elaborated on some detail.

In the second and third academic year the number of listeners slightly decreased; now Poles constituted the majority of the audience. Having delivered lectures on Russian literature, Mickiewicz was denounced as a traitor and a spy. Democrats ridiculed his gushiness, monarchists deplored his interpretation of history. The lectures were shorthand-typed and translated into Polish (Mickiewicz lectured in French).

In January 1844 Mickiewicz declared that from that point on “he is no longer a professor. He is an organ of the Cause, the organ of the Circle.” It was undoubtedly the Circle of the Divine Cause – a religious group led by Towiański. In his lectures, Mickiewicz continued to attack the Catholic Church which in turn tried to – with the help of Resurrectionists – dissect the Circle, deemed as a menacing sect. Mickiewicz was increasingly criticised; his friends tried to convince him to quit the lecturer’s job. On top of that, peculiar things would happen during the lectures – the audience reacted in a very emotional way, a woman stood up, all of a sudden, and started delivering a speech; someone fainted. Mickiewicz, unimpressed, began to devote his lectures to the topic of Poland’s spiritual guidance.

During his ultimate lecture on 28 May Mickiewicz distributed lithographs of Napoleon among his listeners and raised a glass to Biesiady by Towiański.

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THE BROTHER ADAM

It is worth noting that whatever influence the meeting with Towiański exerted on Mickiewicz’s system of beliefs, it did not trigger a radical change in it. The existence of a spiritual realm, the idea of betterment through suffering and sacrifice for the sake of majority – all these constitute the Church doctrine and can also be traced in the early works by Mickiewicz. This way of perceiving a human being is in line with the general viewpoint of the Romantics.

Metempsychosis was the element of Towiański’s creed which was contrary to the Catholic Church doctrine. Supposedly, Mickiewicz was able to – similarly to Towiański – “foretell” future lives. Nothing has been preserved, however, to prove that he indeed believed or even declared to believe in reincarnation.

The émigré milieu was apprehensive not only about the fact that an outsider took “their own” Mickiewicz away but also about the hermetic, sectarian nature of the Circle of the Divine Cause. Despite being fuelled by notorious gossip, the Polish milieu in Paris functioned in a somewhat forced transparency – it was difficult to conceal anything in such a small community. Meanwhile, the members of the Towiański’s milieu did not share what had gone on during their meetings. The text of Biesiada (The Revel), the Circle’s foundation act, had never been made public. The group fostered its peculiar rituals, such as distributing medals accompanied by embracing the Master’s knees (following Towiański’s deportation, “Brother Adam” became the group’s leader). The relics of Napoleon were ceremoniously distributed as well – items such as bullets, leaves, pieces of wood from the tree under which Napoleon had rested or against which he had leaned were delivered specially from Waterloo.

Around 1845 the relations within the Circle started to deteriorate. The power struggle was on – the role of Mickiewicz was diminished while private interests and personal conflicts came to the fore. Towiański was striving – to no avail – to win over influential figures; he solicited Czartoryski and sent a letter to Tsar Nicholas. One year later Mickiewicz, against his wife’s will, broke up his relations with Towiański (as it later turned out – only temporarily) and set up his own Circle. He grew impatient with the passivity of his brethren and sisters and set off to Italy to perform a deed.

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ADAM MICKIEWICZ’S POSTHUMOUS LIFE

It is difficult to establish the exact circumstances of the poet’s death; ironically, this is not due to the fact that we lack accounts on those circumstances. Quite the opposite, there are too many reports on the last hours of Adam Mickiewicz’s life. As many as thirteen people had been in contact with the author of Pan Tadeusz within the space of his last hours (amongst them Armand Levy and Henryk Służalski, his companions on the trip to Constantinople). Each of those thirteen people remembered the events differently. That is why scholars have been reluctant to accept the hypothesis that Mickiewicz had died of cholera and have been regularly reverting to the theory of poisoning.

Mickiewicz’s body was photographed – without the posthumous mask – and then embalmed and placed in three sealed coffins. The argument over his burial followed. Everybody agreed that the poet should have been buried in his home country; however, since this was not feasible, the location of temporary burial had to be selected. Eventually, the cemetery in Montmorency, a suburb of Paris, was chosen. On 30 December Mickiewicz set out on his penultimate journey, from Constantinople to Marseille on a steam ship, and from there to Paris. The funeral took place on 21 January 1856.

This is by no means the end. We must remember that, in his poem Coś ty Atenom zrobił Sokratesie… (What Did You Do to Athens, Socrates…), Norwid poses a question: “What did you do to the people, Mickiewicz? (Coś ty uczynił ludziom, Mickiewiczu?) and leaves two subsequent verses void of text, awaiting to be filled with content.

On 28 June 1890 a ceremonious exhumation took place. Mickiewicz’s remains were transported by railway from Montmorency to Krakow. His last funeral, organised with much panache and resembling a great national demonstration, was held on the Wawel hill on 14 July 1890.

But even this is not yet the end. It is hard to imagine that the existence in Polish culture of the author of Dziady could possibly be terminated with closing of the crypt. Indeed, Dziady present an excellent proof of that – it is thoroughly scrutinized by both students and teachers each academic year and it barely leaves theatre stages. It does seem to exert a profound influence from the stage – the most blatant example being Kazimierz Dejmek’s staging of the poetic drama on 30 January 1968. At the turn of the 20th century the poet revealed his true marketing colours – matches, soaps, sweets and even cigars and cigarettes were branded with a well-known portrait. They quickly became a sought after souvenir from, say, a trip to Krakow. Mickiewicz, interpreted in manifold ways, remains truly interesting not only to scholars.

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