Waclaw Potocki

Potocki, Wacław 

Born 1621, in Wola Łuzanska; died July 9, 1696, in Łużna. Polish poet. Son of a nobleman.

Potocki was an adherent of Arianism, the radical wing of the Reformation, but he converted to Catholicism when threatened with exile. Although he left behind many manuscripts, his best works have been published only since the 18th century. Potocki is known for his verse adaptations of foreign novels and the Gospels and for his narrative poem The War of Chocim (1670, published 1850). As a satirist and moralist he condemned the vices and abuses of the upper classes and sympathized with the lower classes. Potocki excelled in the lyrical genres—elegies, panegyrics, and epigrams, gathered in the collections A Garden of Trifles (1672–94, complete edition, 1907) and Moralia (1688–96, published 1915–18).

WORKS

Pisma wybrane, vols. 1–2, Warsaw, 1953.
In Russian translation:
Poi’skaia poeziia, vol. 1. Moscow, 1963, Pages 83–90.