Twardowski, Samuel

▪ Polish author

born c. 1600, Lutynia, Poland

died 1661, Zalesie Wielkie, near Krotoszyn

      Polish poet, diarist, and essayist who was very popular in his time.

      An impoverished Polish nobleman, Twardowski was a hanger-on at various magnates' courts. While traveling as secretary with one of his patrons on a diplomatic mission to Turkey, he wrote a diary of the journey in verse: Przeważna legacja J.O. Książęcia Krzysztofa Zbaraskiego (1633; “The Important Mission of His Grace Duke Krzysztof Zbaraski”). He also wrote about many historical events, as in Wojna domowa z Kozaki i Tatary (1681; “A Civil War with the Cossacks and Tatars”), an account of the Zaporozhian Cossacks' revolt, under the leadership of Bohdan Khmelnytsky (Khmelnytsky, Bohdan), against Polish domination in the mid-17th century. Twardowski also wrote Baroque pastoral romances such as Nadobna Paskwalina (1655; “Fair Pasqualina”) and Dafnis w drzewo bobkowe przemienieła się (1638; “Daphne Transformed into a Laurel Tree”).

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