C.D. Warner, et al., comp.
The Library of the World’s Best Literature. An Anthology in Thirty Volumes. 1917.
Jan Kochanowski (1530–1584)
Kochanowski, Jan (koċh-ä-nof’skē). A Polish poet; born at Sycyna, 1530; died at Lublin, Aug. 22, 1584. He was the most important Polish poet of the sixteenth century; and has been called the Polish Pindar. He wrote epics, panegyrics, political satires, ethical discussions, and a drama, ‘The Dismissal of the Greek Ambassadors’ (1578), which took high rank. His best poem was ‘Lamentations,’ written at the death of his daughter,—whom he called the Slavonic Sappho, and to whom he hoped his genius would be transmitted,—and breathing bereavement and prayer.