Kochanowski, Jan (1530–1584)

Polish poet whose work comprises mainly lyrics and elegies, both in Latin and Polish. Influenced by contemporary French classicism, his works include Treny (1580), a cycle of elegies on the death of his infant daughter, Urszula, who died in 1579.

A native of Sycyn, Kochanowski was educated at Cracow and Königsberg and visited Italy and then Paris, where he met the poet Pierre Ronsard. He returned to Poland in 1559 with an extensive knowledge of classical and Italian literature. His Foricoena, not published until 1584, dates from this period, as do his Latin lyrics and elegies.

He briefly attached himself to the court, attaining the position of royal secretary in 1567. In this period, Kochanowski began to write in Polish as well as Latin. His Szachy/Chess (1566) is based on the mock-heroic Scacchia Ludus by the Italian poet Marco Vida. In 1570 he retired from the court to settle on an estate at Czarnolas.

His later works include Fraszki/Trifles (1584), a collection of sparkling epigrams, and Pieśni/Songs (1586), verse much influenced by the odes of Horace, as are his lyrical renderings of the psalms. He also wrote one verse play, Odprawa posłów greckich/The Dismissal of the Greek Envoys (1578), based on an incident in the third book of Homer's Iliad and modelled on the lines of classical Greek tragedy.