“The Vain Theatre of Life” by Maciej Kazimierz Sarbiewski

Abstract

The author elaborates on Maciej Kazimierz Sarbiewskiʼs views on poetics and interprets his Ode IV. 12 (The vain theatre of life. To Jan Libiniusz. An excuse for my solitude) with references to works by Horace and Jan Kochanowski. Quoted are Jesuit Sarbiewski’s lyrical works and theoretical treaties as well as essays written about this ‘Polish Horace’ by Polish literary critics. The first part of the article deals with poetics as interpreted by Sarbiewski,  highlighting  the role of a poet and the hierarchy of arts as well as the function of allegorization and its relation to  the idea of fabulosa theologia. The second part takes up Ignatian themes in his lyrical works written after 1625. References to the doctrine of the Society of Jesus are strongly evident in Ode IV.12 and so are those to the concept of “theatrum mundi” and in particular to Horace’s literary works (especially Carmina III.1).  The author concludes that the ideas outlined in Sarbiewski’s theoretical treatises are consistent with his works in later years.