Published: 2018-08-081

Modest and Diligent. Selected Topics of the Writing of Kazimierz Sarnecki, a Resident of Karol Stanisław Radziwiłł at the Court of King Jan III Sobieski

Tomasz Ślęczka

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to discuss the methods which Kazimierz Sarnecki employed to convince his principal, Karol Stanisław Radziwił, of his suitability as a resident at the court of King Jan III Sobieski. In the collection of Sarnecki’s writing strategies, aimed at winning the principal’s goodwill, we find affected modesty, numerous acknowledgements and praises directed to the recipient of his accounts, and an array of procedures calculated to create the effect of extreme diligence; in order to show it, our author will theatrically accentuate his own zeal in the service (which I call affected modesty), multiply the details and anecdotes, emphasise his certainty resulting from the acquired messages and situations being eye-witnessed, point to the wide circle of the court informants from different spheres, and point out what difficulties he encountered in his principal’s service. These procedures have proven to be effective.

Keywords:

diary, affected modesty, Jan III Sobieski, Kazimierz Sarnecki, Karol Stanisław Radziwiłł, 17th-century Polish literature

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Citation rules

Ślęczka, T. (2018). Modest and Diligent. Selected Topics of the Writing of Kazimierz Sarnecki, a Resident of Karol Stanisław Radziwiłł at the Court of King Jan III Sobieski. Prace Literaturoznawcze, (5). Retrieved from https://czasopisma.uwm.edu.pl/index.php/pl/article/view/311

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