„Teraz, Mistrzu, sam sie lécz”. O znaczeniu „Trenu XIX” dla cyklu „Trenów” Jana Kochanowskiego
“Teraz, Mistrzu, sam sie lécz [Now, Master, You Will Have to Heal Yourself]”. On the Significance of “Tren XIX” (“Lament 19”) for Jan Kochanowski’s Cycle of “Treny” (“Laments”)

Summary/Abstract: In the article, I analyse the significance of the motto (“Tales sunt hominum mentes, quali pater ipse / Iuppiter auctiferas lustravit lumine terras”—a fragment of Odysseus’s reflections from the 18th book of the “Odyssey,” verses 136–137, quoted by Jan Kochanowski in the Latin translation of Cicero from “De fato”) for the worldview and rhetorical structure of “The Laments” (“Treny”). Through multiple references to the motto within this poetic cycle, the Ciceronian consolatory tradition is reinterpreted, as are, more broadly, the values of the Renaissance humanism and the traditions of Stoic anthropology. These issues refer to the role of the “true,” “prophetic” dream—its meaning in “Lament 19, or: A Dream.” The experience of Jan’s “true” dream reflects a pattern of beliefs accepted by the author and his contemporaries. “Lament 19” resolves earlier lines of thought, returns to images and expressions from the preceding “Laments,” renews them in a different form, and provides answers to questions posed in the earlier poems. On a metapoetic level, the author demonstrates that self-referentiality of “Laments” consists in their foreshadowing within the mother’s visio in “Lament 19,” they come into being as Kochanowski’s fulfilment of his mother’s command: “Now, master, you will have to heal yourself.” In essence, the cycle “begins” with “Lament 19.” Through it, the mechanism of recapitulation is revealed, leading to a radical transformation in the subject’s attitude toward God and the death of his daughter, Urszula.

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