ephew Peter, with more talent and success, the great epics
of Tasso and Ariosto.

Rybinski maintains, as a lyric poet, in the opinion of several
critics, the same rank with John Kochanowski; like him he wrote Polish
and Latin verses, and was created poet laureate. Simon Szymonowicz,
called Simonides, ob. 1629, obtained likewise the poetical crown from
the pope Clement VIII; indeed his Latin odes secured him a lasting
fame throughout all Europe, and procured him the appellation of the
Latin Pindar. In Polish he wrote mostly idylls, after the model of
Theocritus, Bion, and Moschus; but these, as their chief merit
consists in the sweetness and delicacy of the language, only natives
are able fully to appreciate.[29] The productions of his friend and
contemporary Zimorowicz have the same general character, but are of
less value in respect to diction. Other lyrical poets of merit may be
named; e.g. the archbishop of Lemberg, Grochowski, a very productive
writer; Czahrowski, Klonowicz, called also Acernus, and others.[30] As
poets of a religious character we name here together, without
reference to the denomination to which they belonged,--since most of
the Polish poetical productions of this age were of a higher character
than to suffer the intrusion of polemics,--Dambrowski, Bartoszewski,
Miaskowski, whoso hymns are considered as the finest of that period,
Sudrovius, Turnowski, and others. The age was also rich in satires and
epigrams, Polish as well as Latin. Productions of this class by the
two Zbylitowskis, Pudlowski, Kraiewski, and a great many others, are
still extant.

The facility of rhyme in a language so rich in rhymes as the Polish,
seduced several writers to use verse as a vehicle for the most trivial
thoughts, or for subjects the very nature of which is opposed to
poetry. Thus Paprocki of Glogol, who is esteemed as a diligent
historian and accurate investigator of the past, wrote his numerous
works on genealogy and heraldry mostly in rhyme.[31] Other historical
poems were also written, which perhaps would not have been utterly
deficient in merit, had they been transferred into prose.

Eloquence, so nearly related to poetry, and which, nevertheless,
perhaps on that very account, should be distinguished from it by the
most definite limits, is a gift, the cultivation of which may be
expected above all in a republic. The Poles possess indeed all the
necessary qualities for public orators; and eminent talents not o