Stanisław Egbert Koźmian

Stanisław Egbert Koźmian (1811-1885) was a Polish writer. He is now best known as a translator of Shakespeare. [ [http://internetshakespeare.uvic.ca/Library/Criticism/shakespearein/poland12.html Shakespeare in Poland: Translations ] ]

Life

Together with his brother Jan Koźmian, he took part in the Polish insurrection of 1831, and subsequently lived for a period in exile. Stanisław settled in England.

He set to translating Shakespeare, a work which occupied him for thirty years, and was not complete at his death; he also translated poems by Lord Byron, John Moore, Robert Southey, Percy Shelley, Cowper, and passages of Campbell on Poland. He was secretary to the Society of Friends of Poland, and in close relation with Lord Dudley Stuart.

Returning to Posen (now Poznań), he became president of the Poznań Society of Friends of Learning.

Works

Of his original work, the poem best known in his days was entitled "To the Masters of the Word", addressed to Mickiewicz, Krasinski, and Zaleski in 1846. He especially was a follower of Krasinski, two of whose books ("The Day of To-Day" and "The Last One") first appeared as Koźmian's, as the author would not otherwise have published them. Their success put Kolźian in a very false and painful position, which he described in one of his poems—an imitation of Dante's "Inferno".

His prose consists mainly of essays, many of which were published together in two volumes under the title "England and Poland". The first volume is descriptive: what the English thought, what they knew of Poland, how far their friendly feeling went, why the majority of the nation were indifferent to what might befall Poland, and so on. The second gave particulars of English institutions, life, politics, and literature.

He wrote numerous short articles, particularly on literature. As a journalist he took an unpopular Catholic line, and was comparatively unknown in his lifetime.

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