Jan Andrzej Morsztyn and Votum z Seneki; or, A scorpion and his stings

The present paper investigates the relevance of structural and intertextual information for an interpretation of Votum z Seneki dla Jegomości Pana Chorążego Wielkiego Księstwa Litewskiego by Jan Andrzej Morsztyn. Placing both the structural and intertextual properties of the text against a wider context of the literary practices of the period, of the contemporaneous philosophical discussions and tendencies, as well as philological discussions of relevant hypotexts, allows one, it is argued, to uncover at least two distinct, although closely intertwined, layers of irony and scepticism in Morsztyn’s piece.