''Mazeppa'' is a
narrative poem
Narrative poetry is a form of poetry that tells a story, often using the voices of both a narrator and characters; the entire story is usually written in metered verse. Narrative poems do not need rhyme. The poems that make up this genre may be s ...
written by the English
Romantic poet
Lord Byron
George Gordon Byron, 6th Baron Byron (22 January 1788 – 19 April 1824), known simply as Lord Byron, was an English romantic poet and Peerage of the United Kingdom, peer. He was one of the leading figures of the Romantic movement, and h ...
in 1819. It is based on a popular legend about the early life of
Ivan Mazepa
Ivan Stepanovych Mazepa (also spelled Mazeppa; uk, Іван Степанович Мазепа, pl, Jan Mazepa Kołodyński; ) was a Ukrainian military, political, and civic leader who served as the Hetman of Zaporizhian Host in 1687–1708. ...
(1639–1709), who later became
Hetman
( uk, гетьман, translit=het'man) is a political title from Central and Eastern Europe, historically assigned to military commanders.
Used by the Czechs in Bohemia since the 15th century. It was the title of the second-highest military co ...
(military leader) of
Ukraine
Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inv ...
.
[''Mazeppa'' is a historical spelling; in modern documents the historical figure is referred to as ''Ivan Mazepa''. However, reprints of Byron's poem keep the spelling ''Mazeppa''. This article uses the "Mazeppa" spelling when referring to the hero of the poem, and reserves "Mazepa" for references to the actual historical personage.] Byron's poem was immediately translated into French, where it inspired a series of works in various art forms. The
cultural legacy of ''Mazeppa'' was revitalised with the independence of Ukraine in 1991.
According to the poem, the young Mazeppa has a love affair with a Polish Countess, Theresa, while serving as a page at the Court of King
John II Casimir Vasa
John II Casimir ( pl, Jan II Kazimierz Waza; lt, Jonas Kazimieras Vaza; 22 March 1609 – 16 December 1672) was King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania from 1648 until his abdication in 1668 as well as titular King of Sweden from 1648 ...
. Countess Theresa was married to a much older Count. On discovering the affair, the Count punishes Mazeppa by tying him naked to a wild horse and setting the horse loose. The bulk of the poem describes the traumatic journey of the hero strapped to the horse. The poem has been praised for its "vigor of style and its sharp realization of the feelings of suffering and endurance".
Published within the same covers as ''Mazeppa'' was a short "
Fragment of a Novel
"Fragment of a Novel" is an unfinished 1819 vampire horror story written by Lord Byron. The story, also known as "A Fragment" and "The Burial: A Fragment", was one of the first in English to feature a vampire theme. The main character was Augustus ...
", one of the earliest
vampire
A vampire is a mythical creature that subsists by feeding on the Vitalism, vital essence (generally in the form of blood) of the living. In European folklore, vampires are undead, undead creatures that often visited loved ones and caused mi ...
stories in English, and the poem "Ode".
Overview
The poem opens with a
framing device
Framing may refer to:
* Framing (construction), common carpentry work
* Framing (law), providing false evidence or testimony to prove someone guilty of a crime
* Framing (social sciences)
* Framing (visual arts), a technique used to bring the focus ...
:
Ukrainian Hetman Mazeppa and the
Swedish King
This is a list of Swedish kings, queens, regents and viceroys of the Kalmar Union.
History
The earliest record of what is generally considered to be a Swedish king appears in Tacitus' work ''Germania'', c. 100 AD (the king of the Suiones). Howe ...
Charles XII
Charles XII, sometimes Carl XII ( sv, Karl XII) or Carolus Rex (17 June 1682 – 30 November 1718 O.S.), was King of Sweden (including current Finland) from 1697 to 1718. He belonged to the House of Palatinate-Zweibrücken, a branch line of t ...
, together with their armies, are retreating from the
Battle of Poltava
The Battle of Poltava; russian: Полта́вская би́тва; uk, Полта́вська би́тва (8 July 1709) was the decisive and largest battle of the Great Northern War. A Russian army under the command of Tsar Peter I defeate ...
, where they were defeated by the
Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War. ...
's forces. Exhausted and war-weary, the two men set up camp for the night (Stanzas 1–2). The King admires Mazeppa's horsemanship, and Mazeppa offers to tell him how he learnt this skill (Stanza 4). The poem then switches to the first person. Mazeppa describes his youth and his service as a page to
King John II Casimir in Poland (Stanza 4). He becomes acquainted with Theresa, a beautiful
Orientalized woman who "had the Asiatic eye" (l. 208). She is married to a Count who is thirty years her senior (l. 155). Mazeppa falls passionately in love with her (l. 266–7), is unable to control his passions (l. 290–295), and they meet at night and consummate their love (l. 298–300).
However, the Count's men catch them together (l. 325–6) and bring him to the Count. The Count orders an unusually cruel punishment: Mazeppa is to be tied naked to a steed, which is then to be taunted and set loose (Stanza 9). Stanzas 10 to 18 recount the steed's flight across Eastern Europe, emphasising the pain, suffering and confusion that Mazeppa feels. However, the horse has seemingly limitless energy. Mazeppa nearly dies twice. In Stanza 13, he describes himself "full in death's face" (l. 557), but is restored when the horse swims through a river. Stanza 18 concludes with a description of "an icy sickness" and his vision of a raven flying overheard, ready to feast on his corpse. However, in Stanza 19, Mazeppa awakes to find himself in bed, with his wounds being tended by a "Cossack Maid" (l. 817). In the final stanza, Mazeppa's narrative ends. The poet-narrator describes Mazeppa preparing his bed for the evening. The King "had been an hour asleep" (l. 867–880).
Sources and inspiration
There are historical sources which verify that Ivan Mazepa served in the Polish Court to John II Casimir. However, it is unclear why he left Poland in 1663 and returned to his homeland Ukraine. There is no historical evidence to support that Mazepa was exiled from Poland because of a love affair, or that he was punished by being strapped to a wild horse.
However, this colorful legend was in circulation before Byron published his poem.
Voltaire
François-Marie Arouet (; 21 November 169430 May 1778) was a French Age of Enlightenment, Enlightenment writer, historian, and philosopher. Known by his ''Pen name, nom de plume'' M. de Voltaire (; also ; ), he was famous for his wit, and his ...
repeats it in ''History of Charles XII, King of Sweden'' (1731). This appears to have been Byron's main source for his poem: his "Advertisement" to the poem includes three long quotations from this work. Several critics have also speculated that Byron was familiar with the ''Mémoires d'Azéma'' (1764) by the French writer
André Guillaume Contant Dorville
André — sometimes transliterated as Andre — is the French and Portuguese form of the name Andrew, and is now also used in the English-speaking world. It used in France, Quebec, Canada and other French-speaking countries. It is a variation o ...
, as there are significant similarities between the plot of that novel and of Byron's poem.
Byron's references to Mazepa's participation in the
Great Northern War
The Great Northern War (1700–1721) was a conflict in which a coalition led by the Tsardom of Russia successfully contested the supremacy of the Swedish Empire in Northern, Central and Eastern Europe. The initial leaders of the anti-Swedi ...
alongside Charles XII, and their eventual defeat, are historically accurate.
Analysis
![Louis boulanger louis--death of the horse of mazeppa--1839](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c6/Louis_boulanger_louis--death_of_the_horse_of_mazeppa--1839.jpg)
Many critics see ''Mazeppa'' as a transitional work in Byron's ''œuvre''. Its dates of composition (1818–1819) place it between the earlier Eastern tales such as ''
The Prisoner of Chillon
''The Prisoner of Chillon'' is a 392-line narrative poem by Lord Byron. Written in 1816, it chronicles the imprisonment of a Genevois monk, François Bonivard, from 1532 to 1536.
Writing and publication
On 22 June 1816, Lord Byron and his c ...
'' (1817), which describe agonised, maudlin Byronic heroes and the later satirical, ironic ''
Don Juan
Don Juan (), also known as Don Giovanni (Italian), is a legendary, fictional Spanish libertine who devotes his life to seducing women. Famous versions of the story include a 17th-century play, '' El burlador de Sevilla y convidado de piedra'' ...
'' (1818–19). Leslie Marchand argues that ''Mazeppa'' is a partly unsuccessful work, as it is torn between high emotion and lighter irony.
Mark Phillipson also sees ''Mazeppa'' as a transitional work of a "mongrel genre, the historical verse-romance". He argues that the poem is characterised by "moral ambivalence", and it remains unclear whether Mazeppa is a sympathetic hero or not.
The question of whether the audience is expected to sympathise with Mazeppa has long been a subject for critical discussion. W. H. Marshall (1961) argues that Mazeppa is entirely unsympathetic: a "garrulous and egoistic old man" who never atones for his crime and whose hackneyed description of his passion for Teresa "becomes tedious at once". Jerome McGann (1968) takes the opposite view, arguing that Mazeppa's "wild ride" acts as an initiation process which makes him into a mature hero who is able to restrain his passions, unlike King Charles. He compares Mazeppa to Meursault, the
existentialist
Existentialism ( ) is a form of philosophical inquiry that explores the problem of human existence and centers on human thinking, feeling, and acting. Existentialist thinkers frequently explore issues related to the meaning, purpose, and value ...
hero of
Albert Camus
Albert Camus ( , ; ; 7 November 1913 – 4 January 1960) was a French philosopher, author, dramatist, and journalist. He was awarded the 1957 Nobel Prize in Literature at the age of 44, the second-youngest recipient in history. His work ...
' novel ''
The Stranger'' (1942).
Hubert Babinski (1974) also offers a sympathetic reading of the character Mazeppa, pointing out his kindness to Charles and the horses in the opening and closing chapter. Babinski suggests that the hero Mazeppa is "one of Byron's most realistic creations, heroic within the bounds of human potential" and that he is a "fine specimen of a man". He further argues that Mazeppa's death-in-life experiences during his "wild ride" are central to the poem's meaning and symbolic of the possibilities of human transformation and rebirth. He argues that the French painters who took up the Mazeppa theme further developed this idea.
More recent interpretations have attempted to apply the insights of
critical theory
A critical theory is any approach to social philosophy that focuses on society and culture to reveal, critique and challenge power structures. With roots in sociology and literary criticism, it argues that social problems stem more from soci ...
to the poem.
Zbigniew Bialas
Zbigniew () is a Polish masculine given name, originally Zbygniew . This West Slavic name is derived from the Polish elements ''Zby-'' (from ''zbyć, zbyć się, or pozbyć się'', meaning "to dispel", "to get rid of") and ''gniew'', meaning "ange ...
(1999) offers a
Saidian postcolonial
Postcolonialism is the critical academic study of the cultural, political and economic legacy of colonialism and imperialism, focusing on the impact of human control and exploitation of colonized people and their lands. More specifically, it is a ...
reading, suggesting that Byron orientalises Eastern Europe and attempts to stamp an identity on Mazeppa, who nonetheless evades fixed national and political identities. Meanwhile, Jane Stabler (2004) reads the poem through the prism of
postmodern theory
Brian Duignan writes on the ''Encyclopædia Britannica'' that Postmodern philosophy is a philosophical movement that arose in the second half of the 20th century as a critical response to assumptions allegedly present in modernist philosophical i ...
, suggesting that uses Byron's ''Mazeppa'' as an example of a poem which "draws attention to the fictive contours of history". More recently, Thomas McLean (2012) considers ''Mazeppa'' "Byron's Polish poem" in light of the British fascination with
Tadeusz Kościuszko
Andrzej Tadeusz Bonawentura Kościuszko ( be, Andréj Tadévuš Banavientúra Kasciúška, en, Andrew Thaddeus Bonaventure Kosciuszko; 4 or 12 February 174615 October 1817) was a Polish Military engineering, military engineer, statesman, an ...
and sees Mazeppa as an empowering figure for Europe's other smaller nations.
Literary significance and reception
![Vernet, Horace - Mazeppa and the Wolves - 1826](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/43/Vernet%2C_Horace_-_Mazeppa_and_the_Wolves_-_1826.jpg)
Babinski points out that although ''Mazeppa'' received a flurry of reviews upon publication, later critics of Byron have rarely addressed the poem. Certainly there is less scholarship on ''Mazeppa'' than on many of Byron's other
narrative poem
Narrative poetry is a form of poetry that tells a story, often using the voices of both a narrator and characters; the entire story is usually written in metered verse. Narrative poems do not need rhyme. The poems that make up this genre may be s ...
s, and ''Mazeppa'' does not appear in Byron texts such as the 1978
Norton Norton may refer to:
Places
Norton, meaning 'north settlement' in Old English, is a common place name. Places named Norton include: Canada
*Rural Municipality of Norton No. 69, Saskatchewan
*Norton Parish, New Brunswick
**Norton, New Brunswick, a ...
critical edition.
However, Byron's poem was both popular and influential in the
Romantic period
Romanticism (also known as the Romantic movement or Romantic era) was an artistic, literary, musical, and intellectual movement that originated in Europe towards the end of the 18th century, and in most areas was at its peak in the approximate ...
. It was immediately translated into French, and was a source for French Romantic painters. Plays, equestrian circus performances, musical works, novels, more poems, various visual representations, and eventually films followed, some drawing directly on Byron's work, others via intermediary works by for example
Hugo
Hugo or HUGO may refer to:
Arts and entertainment
* ''Hugo'' (film), a 2011 film directed by Martin Scorsese
* Hugo Award, a science fiction and fantasy award named after Hugo Gernsback
* Hugo (franchise), a children's media franchise based on a ...
or
Pushkin
Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin (; rus, links=no, Александр Сергеевич ПушкинIn pre-Revolutionary script, his name was written ., r=Aleksandr Sergeyevich Pushkin, p=ɐlʲɪkˈsandr sʲɪrˈɡʲe(j)ɪvʲɪtɕ ˈpuʂkʲɪn, ...
.
Publication history
![Mazeppa - Byron](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1b/Mazeppa_-_Byron.png)
Byron began writing ''Mazeppa'' on 2 April 1817 and completed it on 26 September 1818. It was first published by
John Murray on 28 June 1819, alongside Byron's "
Ode to Venice" as "Ode" and a short prose fragment, "
A Fragment", one of the earliest vampire tales in English literature.
[Full publication history is available in ]
"A Fragment" was a product of the ghost story contest that took place in Geneva on 17 June 1816, when Byron stayed at the
Villa Diodati
The Villa Diodati is a mansion in the village of Cologny near Lake Geneva in Switzerland, notable because Lord Byron rented it and stayed there with John Polidori in the summer of 1816. Mary Shelley and Percy Bysshe Shelley, who had rented a house ...
with author and physician
John William Polidori
John William Polidori (7 September 1795 – 24 August 1821) was a British writer and physician. He is known for his associations with the Romantic movement and credited by some as the creator of the vampire genre of fantasy
Fantasy is a ...
. Their guests were
Percy Bysshe Shelley
Percy Bysshe Shelley ( ; 4 August 17928 July 1822) was one of the major English Romantic poets. A radical in his poetry as well as in his political and social views, Shelley did not achieve fame during his lifetime, but recognition of his achie ...
, Mary Godwin (later
Mary Shelley
Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley (; ; 30 August 1797 – 1 February 1851) was an English novelist who wrote the Gothic fiction, Gothic novel ''Frankenstein, Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus'' (1818), which is considered an History of scie ...
), and
Claire Clairmont
Clara Mary Jane Clairmont (27 April 1798 – 19 March 1879), or Claire Clairmont as she was commonly known, was the stepsister of the writer Mary Shelley and the mother of Lord Byron's daughter Allegra. She is thought to be the subject of a poe ...
. Mary recalled the contest and the publication of the story in the 1831 introduction to her novel ''
Frankenstein
''Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus'' is an 1818 novel written by English author Mary Shelley. ''Frankenstein'' tells the story of Victor Frankenstein, a young scientist who creates a sapient creature in an unorthodox scientific ex ...
'':
'We will each write a ghost story,' said Lord Byron; and his proposition was acceded to. There were four of us. The noble author began a tale, a fragment of which he printed at the end of his poem of Mazeppa.
Notes
References
Further reading
*Includes discussions of both various historians, and also Byron, Zaleski, Victor Hugo, Ryleev, Pushkin, and other poets, as well as artists like Géricault, Vernet and Delacroix.
External links
Online version of 1819 collection ''Mazeppa'' with "Ode to Venice" and the short story "A Fragment".
{{Authority control
Poetry by Lord Byron
1819 poems
John Murray (publishing house) books
Cultural depictions of Charles XII of Sweden
Cultural depictions of Ivan Mazepa
Narrative poems