Egzemplum z pieśni Mikołaja Reja "Podobieństwo żywota człowieka krześcijańskiego" alias "Ku temuż to krześcijańskiemu rycerzowi napominanie"
Exemplum from the Song by Mikołaj Rej "The Likeness of a Christian Man’s Life" ["Podobieństwo życia chrześcijańskiego człowieka"] alias "The Exhortation Addressed to This Christian Knight" ["Ku temuż to krześcijańskiemu rycerzowi napominanie"]

From Parable Text to Allegorical Engraving

Author(s): Radosław Grześkowiak
Subject(s): Cultural history, 16th Century, 17th Century, 18th Century, History of Art
Published by: Wydawnictwa Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego
Keywords: parable of the young man on the precipice; Mikołaj Rej; Benedykt Herbest; Stanisław Kołakowski
Summary/Abstract: The full text of the song by Mikołaj Rej with the incipit: “What do you want to do, my dear man” [“Cóż chcesz czynić, mój miły człowiecze”] had as many as nine editions in the years 1556–1600, all of which are briefly discussed here. The article contains a critical edition of the song (the three existing contemporary editions do not meet the criteria for a critical edition) and a discussion, but it focuses primarily on the exemplum presented in the initial part of the poem. This exemplum tells the story of a young man who was chased by a lion to the edge of a precipice and saved himself from the fall by grabbing a branch of a tree growing out of the rock wall. Ignoring the lion above him, the dragon at the bottom of the precipice, and the mice that were gnawing on the branch, the young man focused his attention on apples growing on the branch. The parable is meant to illustrate the stupidity of people who are hunted by death (the lion), lurked by the devil (the dragon), whose time passes quickly (the white and black mice symbolising day and night represent the passage of time), and who, oblivious to the dangers, focus on worldly goods. The article points to the Old Indian source of this parable, discusses the way it reached Europe, and mentions the editors Rej may have used. It also shows the reception of the parable from Rej’s song in the sixteenth century, both textual (Benedykt Herbest, 1566) and visual (Stanisław Kołakowski, 1584).

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