Piotr Baryka

Piotr Baryka (1600–1675) was a seventeenth-century Polish soldier and writer, most probably of burgher origin, of whom very little is known. He is listed as one of the authors present at the coronation of Władysław IV.

History

From 1625 to 1629 he took part in military expeditions for Hetman Stanislaw Koniecpolski. Then he settled at the court of Sieradz as a wealthy citizen (perhaps he was Albert Lubienski-Makovetski Sieradzki). Between 1629 and 1633,[1] Baryka wrote a Carnival comedy about a peasant who was turned into king (Z chłopa król). It was first staged as it was in 1633,[2] and finally printed in 1637.[1]

Piotr Baryka is one of the few of these playwrights whose names have come to us. The Peasant King, as its title indicates, carries a motif made popular in the introduction to Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew — the seeming bestowal of noble rank upon a person of lowly birth. Several examples of this type of comedy have survived, and they include realistic depictions of all the popular customs and grotesquely humorous situations that parody in many cases the lofty themes of the "official" literature.[3]

References

  1. 1 2 John Gassner,, Edward Quinn (2002). The Reader's Encyclopedia of World Drama. Dover Publications. p. 665. ISBN 0-486-42064-7.
  2. ↑ Rossel, Sven Hakon (1994). Ludvig Holberg – a European writer: a study in influence and reception. Editions Rodopi. p. 194. ISBN 90-5183-809-3.
  3. ↑ Britannica. "Polish Literature". The Baroque period. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Retrieved 18 August 2011.
Attribution
  • This article is based on the translation of the corresponding article on the Swedish Wikipedia. A list of contributors can be found there in the History section.


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