Napis (Aug 2022)
Resident bards. The court poet in light of memoirs from the Polish Eastern Borderlands in the first half of the 19th century
Abstract
The article discusses a specific social phenomenon, which was the functioning of the first half of the nineteenth century in the rich magnate or noble courts of the Borderlands of a group of residents – usually single men without a permanent profession, often leading a wandering lifestyle and serving their employers with their skills. In this group, court poets stood out (‘resident bards’ as Julian Tuwim defined them), for whom residency was a form of patronage, creating small occasional, panegyric, entertaining and love pieces, usually in a sentimental convention. The output of these poems in minorum gentium is usually devoid of artistic value, but due to its great popularity it gives a credible testimony to the tastes of the epoch.
