Among the differences inherent only in the Szlachta culture, which, on the one hand, separated it in the XVI-XVIII centuries from the culture of other social strata, and on the other, had a persistent, and mainly negative impact on the further history of Poland, one of the main places is undoubtedly occupied by the customs of the szlachta. It has created a culture that is not only spatially dispersed and individualized, but above all rural. The fact is that the gentry lived in the countryside, in estates scattered over the territory of a huge state, and was not concentrated around the royal court, as was the case, for example, in France. The concept of a certain Polish Versailles, where dozens of minor planets would revolve around the "sun king", receiving their power, brilliance and prestige only from him, was extremely alien and hateful to the gentry masses (this does not mean, of course, that they did not see the benefits that would flow for a young nobleman from the opportunity to "cut his hair" at the same time). magnate's yard). In the seventeenth century, however, the szlachta did not follow the example of those representatives of the Polish Renaissance who also built their residences in cities.

The gentry almost ostentatiously emphasized their dislike of large cities, which they saw as, in modern parlance,"an accumulation of evil." This hostility also applied to the capital, Warsaw, in particular, because it was seen as a hotbed of political intrigues dangerous for the gentry's freedom. On the other hand, life in the countryside seemed to the gentry to conform to the traditions of republican Rome, to which they so readily turned, and where, as is well known, even dictators went straight from the plow to defend their threatened homeland. Such a life also gave her moral advantages over other strata of the population, "for vices and heresies are easily spread in cities, and knightly valor gives way to effeminacy." 1
The ideal of a nobleman-landowner was associated with hostility to cities, and - a phenomenon quite characteristic of Polish conditions - this ideal of a plowman was not connected with religion. We find the same or very similar ideal in the so-called manor literature, which flourished at the turn of the XVI-XVII centuries. It was created by adherents of various religious confessions (from Catholics to Arians) and representatives of different regions of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Their ideal was a village large enough to ensure the economic independence of its owner, and at the same time so small that he could personally direct the agricultural work and be free from the temptations that carry the land.

1 J. Michalski. "Warszawa" czyli о antystolecznych nastrojach w czasach Stanislawa Augusta. "Warszawa XVIII wieku". T. XII, z. I. Warszawa. 1972, str. 49.

page 159

with them wealth and idleness. Although the nobleman had to manage and supervise rather than take up the plow with his own hands, however, the image of the plowman also applied to him, which is so often found both in manor poetry and in the hagiographic literature of the XVII century. Isidora)2 . So, it was a rural ideal that saw the world through the prism of the village (although in general, and without understanding the beauty of nature).

An apology for moderation in many spheres was also associated with the praise of the rural life led by the nobleman, the owner of the folwark. Abstinence in acquiring estates and ranks was to be combined with moderation "in the inquisitiveness of the human mind." This was an expression of the tendencies towards stabilization in the gentry environment, an attempt to escape from the conflicts of the developing civilization, and created an opportunity to get out of the storms and discords of the era that came after the Council of Trent3 .

This noble idyll, a world full of harmony, in which there was no place for an evil neighbor, economic disasters, wars or fires, was a kind of utopia in miniature, a rural Arcadia, possible in the conditions of landowner life. The realization of the ideal of the landowner was supposed to give the nobleman unlimited personal independence, absolute freedom and freedom. His inner calmness stemmed not only from the folwark's economic isolation, but also from the fact that he did not pursue rank and limited his interests to agricultural issues.

The homestead poetry's praise of happiness in the quiet of home was probably the first Polish literary apology for mediocrity, modest needs, and at the same time a condemnation of careerism and the pursuit of good fortune. Just as the power of the magnate oligarchy finds almost no reflection in the political literature of that time, so in the ideals of the Polish gentry, there are no appeals to emulate those who have made their way into the magnate environment. While they were happy to praise (especially during wedding celebrations) the brilliant past of a family that boasted hetmans, marshals, or bishops, they tried, as a rule, not to remind anyone with whom exactly this nobility began. Under the feudal system, satirists, moralists, and preachers always stigmatized the Plebeians, who were eager to overcome class and social barriers. It is characteristic of Polish conditions, however, that even a nobleman who aspired to the "magnate's rank" was sharply censured.

Using modern terminology, it can be said that the standard of personality of this class, almost as a rule, was characterized by censure of the nomination, regardless of what step of the social ladder it was supposed to lead, whether it was a transition from an ordinary noble rank to a senatorial one, or an attempt to get into the ranks illegally ("from the back door"). This is what V. Necanda-Trepka lamented so much, who in the famous "Liber chamorum" (early 17th century) left a long list of plebeians who tried to get into the gentry 4 . It seems quite true that it was most difficult to get into the middle gentry group, and it was much easier to get promoted at the very top (to magnates) or at the very bottom (from plebeians to small gentry).

True, in the literature of the seventeenth century we find praise for the brave knights of fortune who moved east in search of new lands and riches.-

2 See J. Tazbir. Kult sw. Izydora (J. Tazbir. Arianie i katolicy. Warszawa. 1971, str. 203 nn.).

3 Cz. Hernas. Barok. Warszawa. 1973, str. 70 - 73.

4 W Nekanda-Trepka. Liber generationis plebeanorurn ("Liber charnorum"), cz. I-II. Wroclaw. 1963.

page 160

That is, a type that on Polish soil was partly the equivalent of the Conquistadors. And at the time when Vladislav IV Vaza was planning a war against Turkey, the image of a brave knight who, thanks to his courage, would liberate the Balkans from the yoke of the High Port was widely used in literature. If, however, we were to count these votes, we should find that they are a small minority in comparison with the voices of praise for a quiet, inactive, and not very ambitious life.

The rural life of the szlachta was also associated with its specific attitude to time, which in some periods of the year was in abundance, which, along with an abundance of products, was the basis of Polish hospitality, so celebrated by foreigners. It was a contrast to the cold reception given to foreigners in the Netherlands, England, or France. Already Ya Lin partially clarified this riddle, pointing out that time was not particularly considered, there was plenty of food, and a guest from distant countries was interesting, as it broke the monotony of rural life. 5 After all, in any era, hospitality not only indicates the attitude towards foreigners, but also to a certain extent is a function of living conditions. So long as food and time were not yet values for sale, and entertainment was limited to social contacts, the Frenchman, the Englishman, the Italian, and even the German found a warm welcome in the estates, where they were seen as a sure remedy for boredom and a kind of living newspaper. A guest in Poland of the Baroque era could only burden due to the lack of advantages in this particular area. Therefore, the satire of that time only stigmatizes guests as tedious and annoying, and not those who take up valuable time or eat up the host.

Foreigners traveling in Poland were surprised not only by the splendor of the feasts, but also by their duration; noisy feasts sometimes lasted for five or seven hours. There were half-hour breaks between meals, used for making toasts. They were a kind of" verbal panegyrics": the powerful of this world were glorified not only by printed works, but also by long, noisy and flowery speeches, often pronounced in a very indistinct voice. Drunkenness was also closely linked to the development of social life (the glasses that were constantly passed around served as an antidote to the sharp and burning seasonings that were not spared for food). The conversation that accompanied the feast was about people and political events, and very rarely read books.

Along with the consumerist attitude to life, an essential feature of the gentry's morals were unusually complex rules of good taste, which included, in fact, everything: from the ability to properly tie a Slutsky belt to the ability to conduct a conversation in society and appropriately greet higher-ranking persons. However, not only the clothes or table manners required, but also the phraseology used in conversations was constantly changing. Especially in the Baroque period, Latin phrases (as well as later French ones) become something of a language inlay. After all, they decorated speech in the same way as the Slutsk belt-clothes or imitations (most often unsuccessful) of marble and alabaster-altars. Macaronisms largely served to emphasize the difference between the educated (or at least considered themselves such) stratum and the rest of the inhabitants of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. There is nothing surprising, therefore, in the fact that V. Nekanda is a Thrashing

5 J. Bystron. Dzieje obyczajow w dawnej Polsce. Wiek XVI-XVIII. T. 2. Warszawa. 1960/str. 159 - 161.

page 161

he describes with satisfaction how the Plebeians who pretended to be nobles were almost immediately exposed to this very ignorance of secular rules and behavior in society.

Although in principle the same code of conduct was obligatory for people in their own circle, it was not without its own inner connotations - from the sometimes obsequious subservience to magnates to the contemptuous treatment of small and poor gentry. Otherwise it was necessary to behave in relation to persons who did not belong to the same, from the point of view of social and secular, circle. This does not mean, of course, that a well-bred nobleman was impolite towards servants, but they interpreted it quite differently from their brothers, endowed with coats of arms and gentility.

The nobility, and the Polish nobility at that, was considered by this stratum to be of the highest value; the nobility paid to foreigners no longer had such a price, and German or French members of the privileged class could not equal the Polish gentry. According to her, the only way to get a coat of arms is only valor shown on the battlefield, and not any other services to the motherland (Szymonowitz, who was elevated to the nobility at the end of the XVI century for his literary activity, is an exception in this case, confirming the rule). Therefore, from the end of the XVI century to the last days of the existence of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, the nobility was granted to no more than 1 thousand people (including foreigners also granted by the nobility), while in France only in the XVIII century the number of persons who were granted the title of nobility reaches 15 thousand. There, however, the desired coat of arms led to the position performed and the possession received in the fief, whereas in Poland the position was a consequence of the existing nobility dignity, hence the well - known proverb that a nobleman without a position is like a greyhound without a tail. Treating the nobility as a mystical value based on a special, biologically better origin, they tried to reproduce the breed from this point of view, believing in the heredity of the virtues of the body, mind and character.

In the eyes of the gentry opinion, not only the fact of being born without a coat of arms was compromised, but also the profession they were engaged in. Of the so-called liberal professions, only the specialty of a lawyer met with recognition in the eyes of members of this class: perhaps because it was associated with the functioning of the gentry state (just like the profession of an official, although the secretary of the royal chancery was separated from the scribe of the tribunal by a whole abyss). Doctors (who, however, in practice were not very different from barbers and barbers) were decidedly despised, artists were neglected, and finally actors were treated insultingly. Ethnic composition could also play a role here: the bar consisted almost exclusively of Poles, barbers were mostly Jews, Italians and French performed on the stage, immigrants from Italy and Germany also quite often built palaces and churches and painted pictures. However, as art historians rightly point out, these foreign artists created, in fact, Polish art based on local samples and traditions.

The gentry especially disliked foreign and domestic artisans, and even more so merchants, seeing in them swindlers who enriched themselves at the expense of gullible landowners. Contrary to the proverb of our day -" No work is a disgrace" - in the perception of the gentry, some professions have degraded in the social sense. Back in the first half of the XIX century. in order to certify the right to the coat of arms, it was sometimes enough, along with the witnesses bought for money, to have well-groomed hands, to confirm the right to the coat of arms.-

page 162

waiting for their owner not to be a "shoemaker or tanner" 6 . In the XVI - XVII centuries, they despised the artisan who "lives by obscene work, not befitting a decent person", they also wrote that "trading is a sin and a shame", and finally, they neglected intensive mental work. If, considering physical labor a disgraceful occupation, suitable only for the lower classes, the gentry made an exception for agriculture, it mainly took into account the fact that it was this occupation that whole villages of the shabby gentry lived in. Agriculture was considered the main source of well-being, and the sale of timber or grain was permissible as " goods befitting the gentry class." However, these goods did not always come from the estate of the nobleman who sold them .7
Physical labor was considered shameful almost on a par with dishonorable behavior, but here the situation was much more complicated. It was customary among the gentry that each of its representatives should be a man of honor by himself. The concept of honor, which is inextricably linked with the coat of arms, was formed, undoubtedly, under the influence of chivalrous morality, to which M. Ossovskaya devoted a remarkable book 8 . This word is very often found in the memoirs of the gentry (especially in the Apiary), and verbum nobile was discussed long before the production of the famous opera by S. Monyushko. It is easy to find foreign parallels to the legend of Pan Twardowski (Polish Faust, as foreign researchers call him), but the motif of the szlachta word of honor, which cannot be violated, is originally Polish.

The gentry's sensitivity to questions of honor gave rise to numerous scandals, especially if it was fueled by alcohol. Foreigners traveling in Poland often complained about the aggressiveness of the drunken nobles, who constantly suspected everyone else of offensive intentions and intentions. In their notes, they also warned their fellow tribesmen not to travel on Saturdays, because that is when crowds of drunken peasants come out on the roads and accost people passing by. In the absence of a strong executive power, the saber replaced the police, served for the execution of a court sentence, revenge on a hated neighbor. The Polish gentry administered their own justice, as opposed to Spain, England, or the Netherlands, where these matters were within the jurisdiction of the authorities. In France, the consequences of insulting a royal official who came in the name of the court were very serious; in Poland, the unpleasant adventures of court officials who came to deliver a summons were commonplace. According to the unanimous opinion of Western European memoirists, Poland was "one of the most turbulent and most characteristic countries in Europe in terms of fights." 9
However, these phenomena were observed only in certain periods of Polish history, while in large cities of Western Europe almost every morning the corpses of dead passers-by were found on the street, and the night silence was very often broken by the screams of the robbed. As for traveling in Poland, with the exception of mountainous and wooded areas where bandits ruled, as well as the outskirts that were subject to Tatar raids, travel, as foreigners unanimously emphasize, was relatively safe. Fights also quite rarely ended in the death of their participants; V. Dvozhachek drew attention to the fact that the judicial examinations immortalized in the Greater Poland Grodno acts,

6 R. Sikorski. Lyki i koltuny. Krakow, b. g., str. 128.

7 Cp. "Historia kultury materialnej Polski w zarysie". T. II, z. I (od 1500 do 1650 г.). Warszawa. 1974, str. 23 - 24.

8 M. Ossowska. Ethos rycerski i jego odmiany. Warszawa. 1973.

9 J. Tazbir. Rzeczpospolita i swiat. Studia z dziejow kultury polskiej XVII wieku. Wroclaw. 1971, str. 186 - 187.

page 163

they indicate a significant preponderance of bruises over chopped wounds, which proves that the skirmishes were not so bloody .10 They were preceded by verbal quibbles based precisely on an insult to honor. There were, however, many opportunities for this, since the very concept of honor had very stretched and indefinite boundaries. In principle, however, they agreed that for a nobleman, courage and chivalry (as a symbol of the superiority of the group), courage (compromises cowardice, and not robbery or cruelty), the rule of non-aggression against an unarmed enemy are mandatory. So, there were well-known "rules of the game", which, at least in theory, had to be conducted according to the principles of fair play (not to mention the fact that flight from the battlefield entailed political and legal consequences in the form of dishonor and confiscation of property). This was due to a highly developed sense of self-esteem, apparently stronger than in other countries. A special place was occupied in it by gallantry and respect for women.

The presence of honor was also characteristic of other strata of society, not excluding peasants. But only among the gentry did this honor represent a certain system of ethical obligations arising from the possession of a coat of arms. The szlachta, on the other hand, had the greatest influence on the formation of this concept and its roots in the old Polish society, but this, however, does not mean that it itself realized the lofty ideals of chivalrous morality in practice and on a daily basis. During the raids organized by the gentry, the unarmed were also attacked, and the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (militia) often cowardly left the battlefield! Legends should also include the rule not to raise a hand against a woman; judicial acts are full of examples of exactly the opposite behavior. And, finally, ethical dualism obliged: some moral requirements and criteria were imposed on the gentry, and others on the Plebeians. The sense of dignity was intertwined more than once with the very obscene features of the then gentry. However, it is impossible not to notice that they still influenced the formation of such spiritual categories, without which the joint life of people can become unbearable: such as honor, personal dignity, the ability to keep secrets, generosity to the vanquished, aversion to vindictiveness.

Of great importance for distinguishing the gentry from the rest of the population was undoubtedly its appearance: it is known that it wore clothes different from other social strata, which, of course, changed depending on the wealth of its owner. Rich people showered these garments with jewels; in general, in terms of finery, men were immeasurably superior to women during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. After all, it was the men who managed the property, they traveled around the world, while the women sat in the estates. "Wearing a gentleman's dress" often served as a prologue to the efforts to get the nobility, which the gentry understood well, and this especially annoyed them (just like the wearing of sabers by philistines). Her indignation is easy to understand if you remember that at that time clothes were "encoded" not only by marital status, age or profession, but above all by the social status and political views of its owner. A nobleman in Zhupan and Kuntush was considered a supporter of" golden liberty", while a courtier dressed in French costume was suspected of thinking about eliminating the institution of electivity of the king.

A serious role in identifying the gentry as the creator of a certain direction of culture was also played, without a doubt, by the visual arts and architecture. According to M. Gembarovich, the gentry satisfied their aesthetic needs more by direct contact with nature than by communicating with works of art.-

10 "Tradycje szlacheckie w kulturze polskiej". Warszawa. 1976, str. 321.

page 164

va 11 . She considered painting from the point of view of utilitarian needs - as a means of conveying a certain content, and not as one of the art forms. Hence the predominance of portraiture and religious painting.

A special type was a tombstone portrait, based on the principle of transmitting the most essential features of the mind and character of the deceased. This portrait was so characteristic of the szlachta that, for example, the area of its distribution to the west of the then state border of Poland (Western Pomerania, Lubusz Land) also marked the border of influence of Polish culture. The burghers commissioned such portraits only in rare cases, while the peasants never did. Elaborate and expensive funeral ceremonies were known in various countries, but in Poland the gentry, trying to match the magnates, arranged them especially lavishly. They were often a poorer version of the royal-magnate funeral, and were based on the liturgy, combined with echoes of paganism and antiquity. The gentry created not only a special costume or etiquette, but also their own type of residential architecture, which was their estates. However, in the XVI-XVII centuries in different regions of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth there were local variants of this type of development. The manor, which is familiar from numerous oleographic reproductions, appears only in the second half of the XVIII century.

It has long been known that the gentry culture had a strong influence on the culture of other strata of society, since at all times and under all geographical latitudes, the customs, behavior and fashion of the ruling stratum served as an example. This applied to the interior decoration of residential premises; suffice it to recall that the famous painted chests, which at the turn of the XIX-XX centuries were considered one of the typical works of folk art, were part of the furniture of a gentry manor until almost the middle of the XVIII century. The same thing, but with even greater justice, can be said about the rites that accompanied baptisms, weddings or funerals. After all, all the "toasts" and "speeches" proclaimed at peasant and petty-bourgeois weddings were descended from the magnate, and then from the gentry culture. It also largely influenced the formation of folk literature, especially when it comes to folk songs, ditties ("frashki") and legends about saints. The role of intermediary was played here by the gentry folklore, based, like the peasant folklore, on the anonymity of the work and distributed largely by oral transmission.

Just as many works of fiction that were initially addressed to adult readers ended up on the shelves of books for school reading, so many literary works written for the enlightened stratum of people later found their way to the countryside. At the same time, there was a constant penetration of folk folklore into the gentry culture, that is, a phenomenon that is the opposite of the above, although, of course, not as widespread as the influence of the estate on the village, its customs and clothing. However, there was nothing to be done about more or less conscious imitation, given the close proximity of the estate and the village and the fact that, as F. Buyak noted, there was often very little between the small-land gentry and the peasants, "since the basis of differences in culture among people of the same profession is property inequality"12 . The lifestyle of the landowner and the serf, with all the main differences, was influenced, however, by some factors:

11 M. Ggbarowicz. Szkice z historii sztuki XVII w. Torun. 1966, str. 199.

12 F. Bujak. Istota kultury ze szczegolnym uwzglgdnieniem kultury wiejskiej w Polsce. "Kultura wsi". Warszawa. 1930, str. 83.

page 165

and the same calendars: church (the need to celebrate holidays, especially Christmas and Easter) and agricultural (due to the progress of agricultural work).

The master's example always appealed, especially when you consider that he was seen every day in close proximity. It is already known from the research of Y. Bystronyak that the manor was quite often an unquestionable authority in matters of fashion, which was transferred to the village by domestic servants, as well as small gentry. While teaching peasant girls to embroider, weave, or weave lace, certain samples were distributed in this way, sometimes brought in from very distant places. The chances of being equal to the gentry, however, depended mainly on financial resources, so it is clear that in the field of construction, interior decoration, clothing or food, the peasants, even if they knew how, could not compete with the gentry. Dancing, drinking, playing cards (or dice) both in farmsteads and in rural taverns, and the fact that they drank vodka here, and there honey or malvasia, did not indicate a significant difference. It consisted primarily of feasts and sumptuous banquets, in luxuries on holidays and on weekdays that were not restricted by law. The gentry competed with each other in the splendor of their dresses, the number of servants, balls and orchestras. They organized solemn processions, illuminations and fireworks, traveled by sleigh trains, which were not dreamed of by peasants and even more so by philistines, and finally hunted. In all this, the Plebeians could take part only as servants; the nobleman who hunted was called a hunter, the peasant a poacher, since the ownership of the forests belonged exclusively to the feudal lords.
Therefore, it is not surprising that the bourgeoisie tried to imitate the colorful, striking gentry culture as much as possible. Urban settlements that were falling into disrepair could not contrast its rural character with anything quite attractive. This was closely related to the desire to achieve a noble coat of arms; elevation to the nobility was the limit of every philistine's dreams. As a result of economic, social, and political weakness, the bourgeoisie not only failed to create its own enticing cultural program that would be able to influence other strata, but also found itself under the influence of the gentry, starting with the method of building houses (the rural possessions of the bourgeoisie often represented an exact copy of small and large gentry estates) and ending with wedding parties. and funeral rites. However, only modern researchers have noticed this comparison of the petty-bourgeois culture to the gentry in old Poland. In their opinion, the Polish bourgeoisie, like the gentry, was characterized by a consumer attitude to life. Following her example, they furnished their homes with furniture, decorated them with wallpaper, wall carpets, weapons collections, or held lavish receptions.

A careful reading of Nekanda-Trepka's "Liber chamorum" proves that the Plebeians, who ingratiated themselves with the gentry class, adopted first of all the style of his life. After all, this style - namely, luxury and consumption-primarily testified to the position of a person in feudal society. So, for example, the servants and horses had to be kept by everyone - both the biggest misers, who trembled over every penny (let us recall Moliere's Harpagon, who stole oats from neighbors), and the beggars of the gentry, who lived on the mercy of their neighbors (V. Potocki describes how a nobleman came to him, begging from the estates, but with a hajduk in a silver-embroidered livery), in short, everyone who wanted to be considered in society. It is not surprising that the Plebeians of a hundred-

13 J. Eystron. Kultura ludowa. Warszawa. 1947, str. 215 nn.

page 166

they tried not only to dress brightly and luxuriously, but also to keep a lot of servants, arrange lavish receptions and hunting, in short, to live like a master. Here, of course, the law of mimicry applied: caution required not to differ from the environment in which you wanted to enter forever. A certain role was played here by the desire to attract the environment to your side, a lavish life was necessary if you wanted to have influential friends. The most important motive was undoubtedly that the gentry's customs were attractive. The ultimate dream was to go to the layer that T. Veblen so beautifully depicted.14 If the latter is replaced by hunting in the four occupations that he named that are worthy of this group (military service, participation in government, church service, and sports), then you will get a fairly correct image of a Polish nobleman. The gentry mores, which were formed in rural conditions and exist in the form of numerous remnants even today, turned out to be not only unsuitable, but also in many cases harmful in the era of industrialization of the country because of their disregard for time, excessive individualism, contempt for the systematic performance of duties, dislike for the idea of economy and deprivation. Developed in its main features at a time when Poland either refused to catch up with the rest of Europe, or, preoccupied with other problems, could not compete with it, these mores became a hindrance at times when everything was being feverishly done to eliminate the difference between Poland and the rest of Europe. It is not by chance that the Szlachta lifestyle or its remnants met with a particularly hostile attitude in those epochs of Polish history whose slogan was the desire to match the development of the advanced countries of our continent; we are referring here to the periods of Enlightenment, positivism and people's Poland.

14 T. Veblen. Teoria klasy prozniaczej. Warszawa. 1971,

page 167

Permanent link to this publication: