The directory «Plots»

Niemcewicz Julian Ursyn
(1757—1841)

Julian Ursyn Niemcewicz was a Polish scholar, playwright, poet, patriot and statesman. His family coat-of-arms was Rawicz. Niemcewicz served as adjutant to Tadeusz Kościuszko during the Kościuszko Uprising, was taken prisoner with him at the Battle of Maciejowice (1794), and shared his captivity at St. Petersburg. On release, they went together to the United States, where Niemcewicz married. Niemcewicz was disconsolate when Kościuszko subsequently decamped for Europe without giving him any notice.

After the Congress of Vienna, Niemcewicz was secretary of state and president of the constitutional committee in Poland, but in 1830-1831 he was again driven into exile. He died in 1841 in Paris.

As a writer, Niemcewicz tried many styles of composition. His political comedy, The Return of the Deputy (1790), enjoyed great acclaim; and his novel, John of Tenczyn (1825), written in the style of Sir Walter Scott, gives a vigorous picture of old Poland. He also wrote a History of the Reign of Sigismund III (3 vols., 1819), and a collection of memoirs for ancient Polish history (6 vols., 1822-1823). But he is now best remembered for his Historical Songs of the Poles (Warsaw, 1816), a series of lyrical compositions whose main heroes hark back to the Golden Age of Sigismund I and to the reigns of Stefan Batory and Jan III Sobieski.

Poland, 1973, Sniadetcki, Kollataj and Julian Niemcewicz