In Old Polish literature, the statements referring to the erotic sphere, that can be called with the name direct, unplayful, serious, and devoid of shame, are rare. The paper blushed more than the people, who according to historians, usually preferred to address these issues with no excess of words. References scattered on diary pages and in correspondence, therefore addressed to a limited group of readers, were rather exceptional. The way of conveying information on an embarrassing subject by Stanisław Niemojewski, in his memories from the visit to the Duchy of Moscow in 1606-1608 is meaningful. He mentioned the sexual practices of an orthodox priest, the father of twelve children, who admitted to natural contraception. The cleric explained to his interlocutor: “Well, there would be more of them [children], but in order to prevent it, for the past few years I only do what can be described with most obscene words – not like I used to do it with my previous wife” The quotation of the priest concerning the “sodomite sin” - as the author called the anal intercourse, was replaced by defining the character of the statement, which was to denote the difference between an orthodox priest, treated as a barbarian, and the civilized man, as Niemojewski thought of him. But this utterance defines the degree of a nobleman's shame, assuming that by all chances the text was to published for wide audience, some subjects should not be displayed directly. Also the behaviour of Mikołaj Oleśnicki, who told Niemojewski about this incident, can be considered quite characteristic. The Chancellor of Małogoszcz ordered to have the improper priest kept away from him, as he did not even want to stand next to him. The accepted and obligatory norm had a censoring influence on the behaviour of the person in the anecdote, and on the way it was reflected in the work intended to be published.
The quoted example is specific, as it concerns the behaviour perceived at the time as deadly sin against the nature, which also influenced such characteristic way of presenting the situation, natural sex life is mentioned on diaries' pages with no more openness and courage. The best known exception is matrimonial correspondence of Jan Sobieski, who used a very direct language to name his erotic expectations, which resulted from the intimate character of communication, but also assuming the role of a romance suitor, in his letters.
The official culture accepted by most partakers (often in spite the moralists' reprimands), tolerated eroticism expressed in an affirmative way only in specific cases. One such example could was the wedding tradition, which allowed for frivolous songs during wedding ceremonies. In Renaissance and Baroque they were sometimes called with a Latin name Fescenina, and were performed at the time when the bride was walked to her bedroom. The songs, which were the relic of old pagan wedding traditions, were to assure the young couple fertility, by brave allusions to procreative acts. This courage was tolerated in the noble society, and even more characteristic, as it also addressed the fair sex, who were under strong pressure of requirements, approving the natural female shyness.
Similar openness was also characteristic in carnival works. The erotic expression recorded in the written form was not a true reflection of the sexual promiscuity of the period, but served a different paradigm of behaviour. In the Renaissance Judgement of Paris, the play designed to be staged during the time of Lent, and contains an intermedium, whose characters are old women and young gentlemen, one of them says:
I, mistress Piszczakowa, an old hag
Am young among lads ready to grab
An old lady to dance like a mad
I only wish I could be by a lad
Hey, you, the hags of old stance
We’ll dance you now but only once
To harvest well the spring of tease
And later on we’ll eat the cheese
One can hardly fail to notice in this conversation, the clear, accompanied and underlined by the gesture on the stage, allusions to intercourse. The grotesque dance serves here as a prelude. The intermedium is an example of carnival inversion, accepted only within the temporary moment, not accepted on daily basis. Both the fescenina and intermedia of the carnival, associated the erotic theme with laughter, which gave a licence for occasional breach of the social taboo.
Humour was also an excuse for the bravery of erotic work, deprived of its motives. The domain of such inventiveness was mainly erotic song, and more or less flippant epigram. The former developed on the margin of the mainstream culture, in its popular mainstream. This mainstream was popular in the Middle Ages, mainly owing to the activity of Goliards, and in later centuries, thanks to their successors, who delivered material to performers acting for less refined audience. (In XVII century, these poems were published in anonymous market song books, which delivered entertainment during feasts with alcohol).
On such background, the obscene epigrammatic creativity, seems a separate phenomenon, especially if we consider its origin, shape, artistic aims and circulation. The Antique origin of the obscene epigram – recommended by such authors as Katallus or Marcialis – created and impuls for the new-Latin poets of the Restoration.(Latin Obscene by Andrzej Krzycki is one example). The shift of the language from Latin to vernacular, caused crossing of the humanist circuit, and popularizing the flippant epigram, although it does not have to mean depriving this type of creativity of deeper assumptions. The obscene epigrams of the Renaissance refer to wider tendencies shaping the character of the epoch. On the one hand it acknowledges the bodily sensuality of human, on the other hand it aimed for entertainment, as the feature differentiating the human from other creatures. In epigrammatic books, often designed as a reflection of versatility of the human world, the panorama of human issues was depicted. Thus the defence of legitimacy of indecent contents in epigrammatic universe, directed against the attacks of all kinds of scrupulous critics: editors, censors, and moralists. Their interference and reprimands caused decisive retorts of the authors of trifles, who can’t be suspected of promiscuity, as they defended the autonomy of the genre, and allowing the epigram a little more, than commonly accepted social norm. Words of Jan of Czarnolas from his letter to Januszowski are well known, He opposed the violation of integrity of his trifles, when the publisher wanted to skip the excessively brave ones. In one of them (I 26) the poet wrote:
If in my books you find something bad
Not to be read to a girl or a lad
Dear Mikołaj, forgive my dirty rhymes
The poet must be decent, not the verse, at times
In spite of the poet's will, in the posthumous edition from 1585, Januszowski included more flippant trifles at the end of the collection (one poem On the Priest was completely removed) describing them with an appetizing heading: For Good Companions. There are following poems here: On Jędrzej (I 28) On A Housewife (I 55) To Marcin (I 59), On a Boy (I 61), On Proportion (II 42), On A Guest (II 43), on A Goose (II 82) and On a Boatman (III 86)
Shifting the obscene contents to the last pages, excused the author to some extent, as loose papers were usually bought and then bound on the buyers own accord. The more prude buyers, could then leave half the page containing poems violating the sense of decency, or it could be easily torn away, (there are issues with the last pages torn off) if another user of the book did not like them. Still it is interesting, why Januszowski removed the aforementioned trifles, and left others, just as indecent, like for example: To Petrył (II 11), On an Old Man (II 42), On a Maid (III 82), or Marcin's Story (III 85) The publisher removed less than half the poems which were created by the inspiration of the almighty Cupid, and he was not led by the degree of obscenity, but rather the presence of the epigrams which evoked doubts of ethical character in the book.
The “castration” of trifles did not only result from the moral scruples of the editor, but also the desire to ease the scrupulous critics, who could be misled by removing one epigram and inventive appendix solution. The appendix did not however change the character of the collection.. whose varietas, also after the intervention, included the theme of alcove and anatomy, but to a lesser extent.
Kochanowski's choice of sexual contents, filled the pages of the collection with evidently low topics. Including indecent contents, creates the panorama surrounding the human universum. It is not about the full depiction, but rather representation of various aspects of the human world: from serious to unimportant matters, from grand ideas and testimonies of virtues, to sensual carnality. Including in the collection the poem of erotic subject, Kochanowski violated the norm approved in elegant literature. Crossing the line on the body map, which divided the ”low” from the “high”, engaging rich symbolism of 'high-low' and quoting the division of decent and indecent phenomena, could evoke not only social resistance, but also aesthetic dissonance, even more evident as it collides with the aims of contemporary poetry. The topic of sexuality was presented by the poet in an approving way. (not satirical or moralising), with the intention to entertain.
One can assume that such grand artist as the author of the Laments did not defend the indecent trifles in the name of contrariness, or particular taste for flippant concepts. Laughing at human sexuality completes the image of humanitas contained in the collection, but at the same time it dismantles the corporeality of human nature, creating a distance to it, and underlining the multidimensional nature of man as microcosm, in the anthropological vision constructed by the poet in the trifles.
