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SMOTRYC'KYJ'S THRENOS OF 1610 467The use of the querela did not diminish in the decade immediatelypreceding the appearance of Smotryc'kyj's Threnos. It was especiallypopular in the verse and prose polemical literature that grew out of theZebrzydowski rebellion of 1606-1608. Among the versified polemicaltreatises published by Jan Czubek as volume one of his collection of politicalliterature from the time of the Rebellion, I find at least six works thatcontain laments, elegies, or admonitions spoken by a personification of thePolish Crown or Republic. 12It was at about this time that the devices associated with the querelabegan to gain currency in prose literature; Czubek's collection of documentscontains two such works. 13 The "Lamentatious Oration of the PolishRepublic near Koprzywnica to the Assembled Knighthood in the Year1606" contains, in language and images familiar to any reader ofSmotryc'kyj, what had become the traditional complaint of the motheragainst the treachery of her present-day sons and her cry for the faithfulsons of by-gone times:The children are no more. Even my own, whom I raised, enriched, established inpositions and high stations, even they desert me, treat me falsely and treacherously,secretly scheme against me, make negotiations, break my freedoms for many yearsnow, sell me into slavery. ... O unhappy mother, who, having given birth to somany sons, have no one who will acknowledge you, in whom your good deeds willawaken a love for you to save you, and give aid in a bad cause. ... Where now isthat virtuous son, Sarius, who for so many years practically carried me in his arms? 1412See the following works in Jan Czubek, Pisma polityczne z czasow Rokoszu Zebrzydowskiego,1606-1608, vol. 1: Poezya rokoszowa (Cracow, 1916): "Elegia Korony Polskiej1606," pp. 34-37; Jan Daniecki, "Zalosne narzekanie Korony Polskiej," pp. 131 -47; B. S.,"Korona Polska barzo smutna prosby serdeczne czyni," pp. 223-33; Wawrzyniec Chlebowski,"Lament zatosny Korony Polskiey," pp. 256-70; Kasper Miaskowski, "Tren Rzeczypospolitejw nieszczesne woyny domowe," pp. 310-14; and "Upomnienie Korony Polskiej,"pp. 322-28.13See Czubek, Pisma polityczne z czasow Rokoszu Zebrzydowskiego, 1606-1608, vol. 2:Proza (Cracow, 1918): "Zatosna mowa Rzpltej polskiej pod Koprzywnicq do zgromadzonegorycerstwa roku 1606," pp. 96-102; "Rozmowa syndw z matka^" pp. 136-48.14Czubek, Pisma, 2:96-97: "Niemasz dzieci; me wlasne, ktorem wychowata, ubogacila, nastotkach i godnosciach posadzila, i te mie opuszczaj^, falszem i zdradq sie ze mna. obchodz^,praktyki o mnie po cichu zwodz^, targi czynia, wolnosci moje juz od dawnych lat tomi^, wniewola^ mie zaprzedaja... . . O nieszczesna matko, tak wiele synow zrodziwszy, niemasz, ktobysie do ciebie przyznat, w kimby mitosc ku tobie dobrodzieystwa twe do ratowania ciewzbudziiy i pomoc w zlej radzie daly. . . . Gdzie teraz on syn cnotliwy Saryusz, ktory mie odtak wielu lat prawie na reku swych nosit?. . ." (According to Czubek, Saryusz refers to HetmanJan Zamoyski.)