Testament ducha
Testament of the Spirit

“The Remembrance of Madame de St. Marcel nee Chau[mont]”

Author(s): Olaf Krysowski
Subject(s): Studies of Literature, Polish Literature, Philology
Published by: Wydawnictwa Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego
Keywords: Remembrance of Madame de St. Marcel nee Chau[mont]; reminiscence; testament; afterimages; veto; Parcae
Summary/Abstract: The article is an interpretation of the lyric "Wspomnienie pani de St. Marcel z domu Chau[mont]" (“The Remembrance of Madame de St. Marcel nee Chau[mont]”) by Juliusz Słowacki. In the poetic reminiscence of the deceased woman, life is intertwined with death, space with time, the real with misty afterimages. It can be noticed that Słowacki’s poem does not tell about the shape of the remembered past, but rather goes towards the present where the act of remembering occurs. The words “remember the broken parliaments”, addressed to the heroine of the poem, seem to be a testamentary message, containing a hint on how to fight for salvation or how individual spirits should lead to salvation. In the poem, veto can be a synonym of opposition to stagnation – according to the ideas of progress and freedom, which this measure of individual objection was to serve in the parliamentary system of former Poland, and at the same time in spite of the infamous tradition of using it to stop social or political reforms.

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