b> The Mickiewiczs had fights, inns and lawsuits to their credit. Two of them left this world under tragic circumstances. The glorious origin of the Polish national bard was unable to p
Let's start with the fact that in the middle of the 18th century there were five brothers:Jakub (the poet's grandfather), Adam, Józef, Stefan and Bazyli Mickiewicz. Apparently they couldn't read or write but they certainly could count. They were not liked in the Nowogródek area - not only were they new there, but also greedy. They were famous for their high interest loans (this meant 12% per annum with the standard 4–7%). Usually they looked for debtors who were losers or drunkards. It is known that there was no chance of recovering the money, so when the year went by, they seized their property.
Jacob female boxer
In 1770, the Mickiewiczs bought the Horbatowicze manor farm and quickly entered into friendship with the owners of the neighboring village. The village was called Saplica, and the neighbors were Soplicas (or Saplicas - researchers give both versions). And so Adam Mickiewicz (the poet's great-uncle) married Wiktoria Soplicówna in 1779, and their daughter was baptized by Aniela Soplicowa. On the other hand, Bazyli Mickiewicz became friends with Jan Soplica - they were both bastards in the style of Sienkiewicz's Deluge companions of Mr. Kmicic .
Ruthless usurer. Bazyli Mickiewicz was just such a person. Above, a painting by the Dutch painter Gabriel Metsu (17th century).
With time, the Mickiewiczs became the property of Zaoś. The earlier owners of the village were the Janowicz brothers. They got into debt with the Mickiewiczs plus they did not give them money back. There could be only one answer to such behavior, in the old Polish noble culture:an armed inn! The Janowicz family repulsed the creditors' attack, but this did not discourage the Mickiewicz brothers, who organized a second inn in 1784, this time successful.
Soplica is associated primarily with this gentleman ... (in the photo, a frame from the film "Pan Tadeusz")
Jakub Mickiewicz, the poet's grandfather, did not participate in the inn because he had died several or several years earlier. It should be noted that he was rather not a model of virtues ( there is information that he hit a girl in the head so hard that she lost consciousness for several hours ).
Basil's bitter moneylender
The biggest adventurer in the family was Bazyli Mickiewicz. On April 23, 1799, he met his old friend Jan Soplica. He had an argument with him over money and ... after thirteen days he died as a result of his injuries.
Soplica later claimed in court that he had kicked the pesky Bazyli out of the house. The latter, in turn, was in a good mood (I mean drunk), because his favorite mare was foal. He wanted to kiss her back leg. The horse was not delighted with this form of adoration, because it kicked Mr. Basil in the head. Witnesses said otherwise. Soplica beat Mickiewicz with a mace (or club), and then trodden his horse. The court tilted to this version and two years later he sentenced the killer to a prison sentence (one and 6 weeks), a fine and payment of court costs.
Knowing these facts, it's hard not to smile when looking at the biography of the national bard by Piotr Chmielowski, where we read:
… But for the real Jan Soplica, probably TAKA soplica was in the head.
In May of the same [1799], Bazyli Mickiewicz, Mikołaj's uncle, died. With economy and work, he came to own a tiny farm in Zaosie, about seven miles from Nowogródek located (Chmielowski, Mickiewicz , p. 18).
This biography was published in 1886, but later discoveries slightly revised the vision of "saving and working" by Bazyli Mickiewicz. Euzebiusz Łopaciński, researching the Vilnius archives in the interwar period, severely judges the poet's cousin:
Bazyli Mickiewicz was the absolute most negative type of all Mikołaj Mickiewicz's uncles ; ferocious and ruthless - lending money to various losers [...] at a high percentage [...] he often used intrigue when it was convenient for him. A few years before his death, he befriended and got along with the later murderer, Jan Saplica, and was accused with him of rapes and invasions - so his tragic death at the hands of the former comiliton is only the result of his actions (Łopaciński, Country on the Świtezią , p. 4).
Considering what family he had, it's hard to believe that no portrait of Mickiewicz with a decent facepalm has survived ...
Adam Mickiewicz a victim of the bloody murder
Three years after Bazyli, his brother Adam Mickiewicz moved to that world. In 1802, he died during a street brawl. In the past, military testimonies were believed that it was the drunken nobility that attacked soldiers from the Tatar-Lithuanian regiment stationed in Navahrudak. In fact, it was different. It was the military who perpetrated various abuses, culminating in the fatal beating of Adam Mickiewiecz.
Suffice it to say that the subsequent inspections revealed numerous abuses and crimes committed by the soldiers of this unit. In 1803 its commander was "put out of service" and put on trial, and the regiment itself was disbanded.
The return of Soplica
It was not the end of the misfortunes of the Mickiewicz family. They were represented before the courts mainly by Mikołaj Mickiewicz, son of Jakub, nephew of Bazyli and Adam, and the father of the later poet.
Not only could he read and write, he was an attorney. In 1802, he made an official complaint that Jan Soplica, the killer of Bazyli's uncle, was at large and was threatening his family. It had no effect.
What is worse, in the fall of 1805, Soplica moved to Nowogródek (that is, in the same city as Mikołaj) and "again he began to live shamefully after his old inclination". In the spring of the following year, the court promised to "catch this criminal." It ended with promises, because on August 3, 1806 Mikołaj Mickiewicz had to write another letter.
We learn from it that Soplica "to kill the entire Mickiewicz family and set fire to their houses". The bard's father complained that the killer "is waiting to kill me alone, or by taking revenge on setting fire to my house in the city of Navahrudak." After 1806, information about the dispute between Mickiewicz and Soplice disappears.
Manor house in Zaosie. The Mickiewiczs organized an inn for it, and according to one of the theories, Adam Mickiewicz was born here. Grandson of a female boxer and moneylender…
Jan Soplica knew that Mikołaj Mickiewicz had children, maybe he even met them on some occasion. However, he could not have foreseen that one of them, seven-year-old Adam (born 1798), would ensure the immortal fame of the name Soplica.
Complementary
- Chmielowski Piotr, Adam Mickiewicz. Biographical and literary outline , vol. 1, Warsaw - Krakow 1886, p. 18, on-line:
- Krzywicki Tomasz, On the trail of Adam Mickiewicz in Nowogródek, Vilnius and Kaunas. Guide , pub. 3, Pruszków 2006.