HARVARD UKRAINIAN STUDIES - See also - Harvard University

470 DAVID A. FRICKcharacterizing them, often in the title, as an oratia, mowa, wotum, ordyszkurs, and by frequent use of expressions such as mdwie, jakom powiedzial,etc. Moreover, certain well-marked expressions could be employedto indicate an emphasis on one of the three genera dicendi: the genusdemonstrativum or epideictic oratory, the purpose of which was to praiseand blame; the genus deliberativum or deliberative oratory, the purpose ofwhich was to persuade and dissuade; and the genus iudicale or judicial oratory,the purpose of which was to accuse and defend. 22While it is possible to place Smotryc'kyj's Threnos within a tradition ofPolish complaints and laments, doing so does not tell us to what rules hewas adhering in composing his work. Indeed, the querela seems to havebeen not so much a genre as a device that could be used in a variety ofgenres, ranging from the elegy to polemical prose pamphlets. What is commonto many of these works, however, both verse and prose, is an adherence,in varying degrees, to the rules governing the construction of a judicialspeech. 23An important key to understanding chapter 1 of Threnos, that is, thelament proper, lies precisely in the close ties between the genus iudicaleand the querela. One can easily imagine that the set of stock phrases,images, and types of argumentation elaborated for prosecution and defensewould be useful in this type of complaint. Smotryc'kyj, I believe, alertedhis readers to this aspect of his work in the subtitle to chapter 1: hedescribes the work as a "Lament, or a Complaint of the Eastern Churchagainst Her Degenerate Sons." Throughout the chapter, the Mother-Church speaks as the plaintiff in the court of the Christian Republic, chargingher sons with a variety of crimes before the judge, who is God. Indeed,a careful reading of chapter 1 of Threnos reveals that Smotryc'kyj adheredhere more closely than was usual in a polemical work to the rules governingjudicial oratory.We do not know precisely what handbooks of rhetoric Smotryc'kyjmight have consulted. It is sufficient, however, to note that Ciceronian rhetoriccontinued to be a fundamental part of education in the late sixteenthand early seventeenth centuries, and that the major sources had long beeneasily available: the Rhetorica ad Herennium, Cicero's own De inventione,Topica, De oratore, Brutus, and Orator, and Quintilian's Institutio oratoria.22For one influential definition of the three genera and their functions, see the Pseudo-Ciceronian Rhetorica ad Herennium (I ii 2). For the ancient lestimonia, I have used the textsavailable in the Loeb Classical Library.23Kotarski has noted the importance of forensic rhetoric in his examination of the verse querimoniaeof Jan Solikowski (Publicystyka Jana Dymitra Solikowskiego, pp. 72-73). See also,Kotarski, "Polska polityczna proza," pp. 67-68.