Mickiewicz in Rome
Mickiewicz’s first stay in Rome took place from November 18, 1829, to April 20, 1831. Mickiewicz always had a special sentiment for Italy. As a romantic poet, he dreamed of Italy, feeling that he too should get to know the country that inspired Goethe and Byron. As a graduate of a classical high school, a graduate of classical philology, and a teacher of Latin and Greek in Kowno, he had longed from a young age to see the ruins of ancient Rome. Shortly before Christmas 1851, he confessed to his daughter Maria, who was staying in the capital of the Papal States:
“My dear Mary. I am glad that Rome has somewhat moved you /…/ Rome is still the greatest thing on earth. Few have managed to be in Rome; in my youth, I barely dreamed of it. In my time, it was as difficult (from Nowogródek) as it is today from the earth to the moon. You wouldn’t believe how we longed for it reading Livy, Suetonius, and Tacitus. Back then, we were still taught according to the prescriptions of the old Polish Commonwealth; we lived in it and in Rome. You came in different times, but Rome has remained the same, and nothing has replaced it on earth so far. /…/ I will write to you about Christian Rome later. /…/ France still imitates pagan Rome, but it cannot match it. You have seen Paris and see how small it is compared to Rome.”
Already in April 1828, he was making vague plans in Russia in a letter to Tomasz Zan:
“I have various projects for the summer: to the Caucasus or Crimea? Sometimes Orenburg amuses me, sometimes I dream of Italy. … All of this is still mixed up in my head and difficult to execute.”
The Apennine Peninsula was the goal of his journey from the moment it became probable and possible. He wrote to Odyńca from St. Petersburg on April 24, 1829:
“In a few weeks, for the sake of my health, I am going abroad, with the gracious and honorable consent of His Majesty, which is a source of pride for me. /…/ Oh, if only we could visit Italy together!”
The fact that this was the realization of dreams not only of his own but also of his close friends is evidenced by a mention in a letter from Maria Szymanowska, written after returning from the port of St. Petersburg, where she missed Mickiewicz departing:
“Farewell, be happy. I will be warmer when I hear that you are in Italy. Your well-being is ours, our hearts your property.”
From Berlin (June 12, 1829), he informed Tadeusz Bułharyn:
“I am hurrying to Italy.”
He wrote to Mikołaj Malinowski on June 23, 1829, from the same Prussian capital:
“Both my health and my own desire strongly amuse me with Italy.”
In mid-July, he wrote to Malewski:
“I am leaving Dresden for Munich, from where I will continue to Italy.”
He hurried to the idealized Alpine Arcadia impatiently.
From Zurich on September 19, he complained to Leonard Chodźko:
“I am hurrying to Rome late and in bad weather.”
Upon arrival at the turn of November and December, he admitted to Malewski:
“Rome has overwhelmed me, and the dome of St. Peter’s has covered all the Italian memories /…/. After Rome, the desire to see collections of statues and paintings will be gone forever, and what was once seen with enthusiasm is recalled with some shame.”
Truth be told, that first winter by the Tiber in an unheated room on Via dell’Orso 35 almost ended in asphyxiation. However, enthusiasm outweighed disappointment when, in early February 1830, worn out by bad weather, he consoled his friend and future brother-in-law – Malewski, who stayed in St. Petersburg:
“The current stay in Rome is not as enviable as it seemed. The climate torments us terribly. /…/ For two months I have been sitting wrapped in a jacket, dressing gown, and coat. Only when going out do I dress more lightly. /…/ The cold has demoralized me so much that the muse has fallen asleep, and I do not dare to stick my hand out from under the coat, and now, writing, I blow on my fingers.”
However, in late spring, after returning from Naples, in love and happy, he reported on June 23, 1830, to Domeyko:
“I am back in Rome. I barely greeted it more warmly than on the first arrival. Of all the foreign cities, Rome alone could keep me forever, because the city itself without people provides objects, entertainment, and education for many years. My position, in many respects, seems enviable. When smoking pipes, whether to spend the carnival in Naples or Rome, or to go to Paris or London for the winter – we could be placed on par with the numerous princely figures wandering here. I also have the happy talent of not thinking about tomorrow, and no one can convince me that I am not a great lord as long as I have napoleon gold coins in my pocket.”
In that same grand tone, waiting for the celebrations of Peter and Paul, four days later, he declared to Malewski:
“For a few days, I have been in beloved Rome, breathing with delight on the magnificent squares after the Neapolitan and Sicilian filth. I will stay to see the Pope’s blessing, the most magnificent ceremony on earth, and the fireworks of St. Angelo, then I will move on to Genoa and Milan to Switzerland, which I will explore on foot. From there, I will probably return to Rome, maybe go to Paris for the winter. It depends on circumstances, which I will write about later.”
In autumn, after returning from Switzerland, ten days before the outbreak of the uprising, he wrote to St. Petersburg:
“Through Parma, Ancona, Loreto, I am coming again to winter in Rome, if it can be called winter – the most beautiful spring continues so far. /…/ My life in Rome begins as it did last year, but now it is more domestic and quiet.”
The idealized image of Italy reached its peak in June 1830 in Naples in a paraphrase of Goethe’s Kennst du das Land. Recalling images of the Palatine, the Vatican, and Pozzuoli (though probably not Vesuvius), he did not hesitate to say:
There was my paradise, as long as you were with me! /…/
Here would be paradise if you were with me!
In the meantime, matrimonial illusions finally dissolved, deepening the spiritual crisis. In the first days of February, he went to confession after a long period. His friendship with Father Stanisław Chołoniewski strengthened, and his ties with the Jesuits, with Father Rajmund Brzozowski and Father Alojzy Landes from the Collegium Germanicum, grew stronger. Perhaps he truly felt a calling to the clerical state at that time. Still, on April 4, 1831, lonely and deeply affected by the situation in Poland, he sighed to his brother Franciszek:
“I spent the entire autumn in Rome, which I love like a second homeland, and it will be sad for me to leave.”
Leaving the Eternal City two weeks later – as he thought – forever, he confessed to Stattler:
“And yet I regret Rome; it is sad to think that perhaps I will never see it again.”
He left for Paris, then through Frankfurt, he reached the Poznań region. He did not join the uprising, and after its fall, he found himself in Dresden again. In March 1832, by the Elbe, he seriously thought about returning to the Tiber, as evidenced by a letter from Józefowa Bnińska from the Poznań region, who wrote to him with regret:
“Grabowski mentioned that you are only going to Dresden for a couple of weeks, that you are considering settling in Italy, may it not be forever.”
Unfortunately, the political situation both in Austria and on the Apennine Peninsula, the anti-papal Bolognese uprising led by Gen. Józef Grabiński, and especially the pressures of Russia on Gregory XVI Cappellari did not allow for such dreams. He wrote to Julia from the Grocholski family Rzewuska, wife of Count Henryk, already residing in Rome:
“I had a great desire for Italy, because other countries, especially France, have become very distasteful to me; but there are numerous and difficult obstacles to overcome. I thus live without a tomorrow.”
From now on, he would think of Italy with melancholy and growing longing, almost like his native Lithuania, with no less sentiment, though mixed with a different kind of respect.
Shortly before leaving for Lausanne (June 4, 1839), he sincerely declared to Pogodin and Szewyriow:
I would not want to live in Paris. Perhaps in Italy, there is still a place to create.”
Rome remained in his memory as a magnified Vilnius, a city of learning and faith, art, knowledge, and love.
Andrzej Litwornia
Information Bulletin “Polonia Włoska” number 3/98