Krystyna Płachcińska
ORATIONS FROM “DISMISSAL OF THE GRECIAN ENVOYS” IN THE LIGHT OF THE SEYM SPEECHES OF JAN KOCHANOWSKI’S TIME
In his Dismissal of the Grecian Envoys Kochanowski put five speeches, after hearing of which the Council decides upon the outbreak of the war. A rhetorical analysis of those speeches and the comparison of the model of proceedings made up by Kochanowski with a real picture of the Polish Seym orations points at many similarities. They made the then receivers notice dangerous analogies. As a result, Dismissal [...] became a warning against a destructive state of affairs for the nation, which, when exposed to demagogy, could not be prevented by the democratic system. Nevertheless, the Trojan proceedings were devoid of some – in the eyes of the nobility – key rules of the Polish Seym. They were: the importance of the constituted laws, the responsibility of the representatives before the nation, and a relatively high position of the king. Thus, the warning became a postulate on the special concern on our anchors of the political system that lacked in Troy.