SOURCE: "Polish Romantic Literature: The Romantic Theatre," in A History of Polish Literature, translated by Doris Ronowicz, PWN-Polish Scientific Publishers, 1978, pp. 307-18.

In the following excerpt from a work originally published in Polish in 1972, Krzyż anowski discusses Fredro and Korzeniowski as pioneers of Polish Romantic drama.

The leading representatives of Polish Romanticism—Mickiewicz, Słowacki, Krasiński and Norwid—all endeavoured to create modern Polish drama. The tragic historical events enacted in their times meant that none of them were destined to see their dramatic visions presented on the stage, that they were writing for the "grandson to come", for audiences of some undefined future time. But what was the actual situation as regards theatre repertoire in those times? The answer to this question is given by the names of two writers, almost of the same age, but representing radically differing stages in the development of European drama...