W sprawie wiedzy historycznej Słowackiego. Wyniki prac porównawczych ("Mazepa", "Jan Kazimierz", "Złota Czaszka")

The text attempts to reconstruct Juliusz Słowacki’s historical knowledge in the period of his work on 17th century historical dramas (Mazepa, Jan Kazimierz, Złota Czaszka). The comparative analysis allows to conclude that the poet was well aware of the history of the reign of Jan Kazimierz, which resulted from numerous readings on this subject, both source materials (diaries, historical studies) and contemporary literature. Moreover, the comparative analysis allows to notice what methods the artist used in presentation of the historical past. Symbolically, without the ambition to classify, they can be defined with notions known from the literature of the subject: a method of historical detail, transposition of larger diary frag-ments into literary language and “writing anew” other writers’ works. Juliusz Słowacki ap-pears against the background of the epoch as an independent and original commentator of the Polish history.