Page 17 sur 788

Echoes of the poet's personal emotion are heard in Jacek's tale

of his passion for Eva; and an ardent love of country permeates

the poem and breaks out again and again with lyric force. On the

other hand the book is faithful to reality in its picture of

Lithuanian manners and customs; the great romantic poet is at the

same time the first realistic novelist of Poland. Minor details

beyond number are introduced from the writer's personal

recollections; "even the Jew's playing of the dulcimer the poet

had heard in St. Petersburg from the famous Silbermann."(6)

Through the whole book runs a humour not often found elsewhere in

Mickiewicz; the reports of the debates in Jankiel's tavern and in

Dobrzyn hamlet are masterly in their blending of kindly

pleasantry with photographic fidelity to truth. The poet sees the

ludicrous side of the Warden, the Chamberlain, the Seneschal, and

the other Don Quixotes who fill his pages, and yet he loves them

with the most tender affection.