The Encomium of Polish Noblewomen in Jakub Sobieski’s Secular Funeral Speeches (the First Half of the 17th Century)

Abstract

The aim of the article is to present the distinctive features of Jakub Sobieski’s funeral speeches and thus to fill the gap in the research on secular funeral speeches. The latter constitute a large section of old Polish oratory; a section only a few years ago recognised clearly in literary and historical research as distinct from the general funeral oratory and literary “output production,” comprising separate and specific types of text. Jakub Sobieski, one of the most eminent speakers of the first half of the 17^th century, delivered twenty-seven funeral speeches, five of those dedicated to women. In these speeches, following the rhetorical rules, he expressed the praises of the deceased noblewomen; these encomia envisaged defined role models of wives, mothers, and widows. Thus far, the aspects of female role models have almost exclusively been analysed using examples of funeral sermons, this study is the first to approach the issue from the perspective of nobles’ speeches. The crucial point here is to recognise not the personal model, for it turns out to be basically invariable regardless of the oratory genre, but the manners of amplifying the topoi of women’s praise. On the basis of the conducted analyses, it was discovered that Sobieski, in most cases (among the exceptions are the funeral speeches of Regina Żółkiewska and Anna Ostrogska) prefers to name and enumerate women’s virtues without factual exemplification. This stands in stark contrast to both his speeches in praise of men, which abound in detailed descriptions of the merits and achievements of the deceased and to the homiletic practice of the era.