Revenge, Schubert and Bees: Gloss toIrydionby Zygmunt Krasiński Cover Image

Zemsta, Schubert i pszczoły. Glosa do „Irydiona" Zygmunta Krasińskiego
Revenge, Schubert and Bees: Gloss toIrydionby Zygmunt Krasiński

Author(s): Wojciech Mazurek
Subject(s): Language and Literature Studies, Studies of Literature, Polish Literature
Published by: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu w Białymstoku
Keywords: Zygmunt Krasiński; bees; millennialism; chiliasm; Gotthilf Heinrich von Schubert

Summary/Abstract: This article attempts a new interpretation in the context of ZygmuntKrasiński’s work Irydion(1836) as a whole of the words: “Revenge, then, and forward where the bees buzz”, spoken by Irydion to Simeon of Corinth.Previous interpretative proposals (Schneider, Sinko, Kubacki, Stefanowska) have clarified much, but have not met with full acceptance. The new critical edition of Collected Worksof the author of Irydion, reproduces the errors of previous scholars in explaining this exclamation. The newreading introduces the context of – probably known to Krasiński – Gotthilf Heinrich Schubert’s reflections on the bees from Symbolik des Traumes.The German philosopher believed that bees – the depositories of the memory of the “golden age of harmony and concord” – were the revelators of the “gospel of the new law”, and that the Latin root of these insects contains the hope of “burying” the present order. The final section of thearticle shows how Iridion manipulates these imaginaries – in Schubert’s view, characteristic of Christian communities – in order to persuade Simeon of Corinth and his chiliastic supporters to participate in a revolution of revenge against Rome.

  • Issue Year: 2022
  • Issue No: 21
  • Page Range: 231-243
  • Page Count: 13
  • Language: Polish