The Undivine Comedy

The Undivine Comedy or The Un-divine Comedy ( or ), is a play written by Polish Romantic poet Zygmunt Krasiński in 1833, published anonymously in 1835. Its main theme is sociopolitical conflict – in Krasiński's words, "[between] aristocracy and democracy". It is Krasiński's best-known work and is regarded as one of the most important works of Polish Romantic literature. History Krasiński began work on The Undivine Comedy in June 1833 in Vienna, and finished it in autumn the following year in Venice. It was published in Paris in 1835 anonymously, likely to protect the author's family from any repercussions in the Russian Empire, of which they were subjects. Krasiński's writings often contained thinly veiled references to current politics. Krasiński would later work on another drama related to The Undivine Comedy. He considered composing a trilogy, of which the Undivine Comedy would likely have been the middle part, but he never finished the project (the draft of the first part would eventually be published in 1852 as Sen. Pieśń z „Niedokończonego poematu”, wyjęta z pozostałych rękopisów po świętej pamięci J. S., and more extensively, posthumously as Niedokończony poemat – The Unfinished Poem in 1860). The entire trilogy was to have featured the same protagonist, Count Henry, called "The Youth" in the unfinished prequel, and "The Husband" in The Undivine Comedy. The play has been translated into more than a dozen languages. Within a few years it received a French translation by . Based on the French translation, in 1868 Robert Lytton published a drama titled Orval, or the Fool of Time which has been inspired by Krasiński's work to the point it has been discussed in scholarly literature as an example of a "rough translation", paraphrase or even plagiarism.The Undivine Comedy was first translated to English in 1864 by Marthy Walker Cook (although she based it on earlier French and German translations), again in 1924 (by Harriette E. Kennedy and Zofia Umińska, with a preface by G. K. Chesterton), for the third time in 1977 (By Harold B. Segel) and most recently in 1999 (by Charles S. Kraszewski).