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SMOTRYC'KYJ'S THRENOS OF 1610 469I bore children and raised them, and they repudiated me; and they became unto me alaughing stock and a mockery.... I bore children and raised them, and they repudiatedme, and they became my demise. 19Finally, the contrast between former and present-day sons is emphasizedthrough the use of the "ubi sunt..." topos:Where now are those times in which I bore martyrs? Where those years in which Isheltered the righteous and the pious in my house? Where are those blessed Doctorsand Apostles of the entire world? Where are their unerring followers, the pastorsand teachers? 20This catalogue of topoi could be continued throughout chapter 1 ofThrenos. It seems likely that in writing his work, Smotryc'kyj drew onsome of the devices, images, and formulations found in other laments spokenby personifications of the Republic or Religion and adapted them to thesituation facing the Eastern church. Smotryc'kyj's readership would havebeen able to place Threnos within the tradition of Latin and Polish complaintsdealing with political and religious issues; and given the types ofproblems Smotryc'kyj wished to discuss, the choice of a querela to conveyhis message would have seemed a natural one. What is perhaps unusual inSmotryc'kyj's case is the fact that he made his complaint the first chapter ofa long polemical tract in prose.IIIn recent years more and more attention has been given to the importance ofLatin rhetorical models for an understanding of Polish polemical and politicalliterature of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. 21 Many authors, ithas been noted, emphasized the oratorical qualities of their works by19Smotryc'kyj, Threnos, p. lv [18]: "Dziatkim rodzila y wychowata, a te sie mie wyrzekly:y zstaty mi sie nasmiewiskiem y vr^ganiem. . .. Dziatkim rodziia y wychowala, a one sie miewyrzekly, y zstaty mi sie ku vpadku."20Smotryc'kyj, Threnos, pp. 3v-4r [20]: "Gdzie teraz one czasy, w ktorym meczennikirodziia? Gdzie te lata, w ktorem sprawiedliwe y poboine w domu moim chowala? Gdzieblogoslawieni oni wszystkiego swiata Doktorowie, Apostotowie? Gdzie ich nieobtudninasladowce, Pasterze y nauczyciele?" For a survey of this topos, see Stefania Skwarczyriska,"Z dziejow inkarnacji poetyckich toposu 'ubi sunt. . .?'," Prace polonistyczne 32(1976):29-51.21See Edmund Kotarski, "Publicystyka polityczna polskiego Odrodzenia: Wprowadzenie doproblematyki," in Problemy literatury staropolskiej', ser. 2, ed. Janusz Pelc (Wroclaw, 1973),pp. 280-301, 320-23; Edmund Kotarski, "Polska polityczna proza publicystyczna XVI iXVII wieku wobec tradycji retorycznej," in Retoryka a literatura, ed. Barbara Otwinowska(Wroclaw, 1984), pp. 57-76; Wieslaw Stec, "Funkcja retoryki w tekscie polemicznym (naprzykladzie Gratisa Jana Brozka)," in Retoryka a literatura, pp. 137 - 51.