Count Napoleon Stanisław Adam Feliks Zygmunt Krasiński (Polish: [ˈzɨɡmunt kraˈɕij̃skʲi]; 19 February 1812 – 23 February 1859) was a Polish poet traditionally ranked after Adam Mickiewicz and Juliusz Słowacki as one of Poland's Three Bards – the Romantic poets who influenced national consciousness in the period of Partitions of Poland.
Krasiński was the most famous member of the noble Krasiński family. He was born in Paris to Count Wincenty Krasiński and Princess Maria Urszula Radziwiłł, a member of the aristocratic Radziwiłł family, and became the close companion of his father after his mother's early death from tuberculosis. He was educated by tutors prior to attending the Warsaw Lyceum, where he graduated in 1827. He then started to study law and administration at the Royal University of Warsaw, but was expelled from the university in 1829.
In 1829 Krasiński left Poland to study in Geneva. He met Mickiewicz, who dazzled the young writer and played an important part in shaping his literary techniques. In Rome, Krasiński received news about the November Uprising and broke off his trip with the intention of returning to Poland to fight, but in the end, did not participate. In 1833 he travelled from Saint Petersburg to Italy, where he would stay until April 1834. This period saw the creation of probably his most famous work, the tragic drama Nie-Boska komedia (The Undivine Comedy). By 1850 his health had worsened, but that did not stop his constant travels around Europe. Through letters and audiences with European figures, including Napoleon III of France, he sought to gain support for the Polish cause. To avoid political repercussions, he published his works anonymously, which led to him being known as the Anonymous Poet of Poland.
Krasiński's early works were influenced by Walter Scott and Lord Byron and extolled medieval chivalry. In 1845 he published Psalmy przyszłości (Psalms of the Future). He is best known for The Undivine Comedy as well as for the large body of well-received letters. His writings explore conservatism, Christianity, the necessity of sacrifice and suffering to moral progress, and providentialism. The Undivine Comedy and another major work, Irydion (1834), explore the concept of class struggle, contemplating social revolution, and predicting the destruction of the nobility. His later writings showed his opposition to romantic militant ventures. He wrote letters, poetry, and "treatises in the philosophy of history", such as Psalms of the Future and Przedświt (Predawn). The Undivine Comedy is perhaps the most important Polish drama of the Romantic period.
Napoleon Stanisław Adam Feliks Zygmunt Krasiński was born in Paris on 19 February 1812 to Count Wincenty Krasiński, a Polish aristocrat and military commander, and Countess Maria Urszula Radziwiłł, a member of the House of Radziwill, a Polish-Lithuanian noble family. He spent his first years in Chantilly, where Napoleon Bonaparte's Imperial Guard Regiment was stationed, and the Emperor attended his baptism. In 1814 his parents moved to Warsaw, then part of the Duchy of Warsaw, ruled by Frederick Augustus I of Saxony, as a client state of the First French Empire. Krasiński's cultivated and doting father employed prominent tutors, including Baroness Helena de la Haye, Józef Korzeniowski, and Piotr Chlebowski, to educate Zygmunt.
Following the stabilization brought by the end of the Napoleonic Wars, which saw the end of the Duchy of Warsaw and the creation of Congress Poland, the Krasiński family spent most summer holidays on their estates in Podole and Opinogóra. On 12 April 1822 Zygmunt's mother died of tuberculosis, and the 10-year-old boy became a precocious close companion to the family head, who instilled in Zygmunt a reverence for chivalry and honor. Zygmunt's fascination with his father's personality, and their mutual hopes for a free Poland, led to an excessive, onerous mutual idealization. Over the years, their "intimate and difficult" relationship would be very influential on Zygmunt, whom Victor Erlich described as "weak and hypersensitive", compared to his "affectionate but domineering" father.
In September 1826 Zygmunt entered the Warsaw Lyceum (a secondary school which Chopin had attended in 1823–1826), graduating in autumn 1827. He began studies in law and administration at the Imperial University of Warsaw. On 9 March 1829 an incident occurred, stemming from Krasiński's attendance at classes instead of at a patriotic demonstration during the funeral of Marshal Piotr Bieliński. Krasiński had boycotted the funeral at the urging of his father, who the previous year had clashed politically with Bieliński, who was widely seen as a national hero. Krasiński was one of only two students to remain in class. On 14 March 1829 he was publicly criticized by a fellow student, Leon Łubieński; this led to an altercation serious enough to involve the university administration and to eventuate in Krasiński's expulsion.
From late May to mid-June 1829 Krasiński, accompanying his father, took his first journey abroad, visiting Vienna, capital of the Austrian Empire. In October 1829 he left Poland again, this time to study abroad. Travelling through Prague, Plzeň, Regensburg, Zürich, and Bern, 17-year-old Krasiński arrived on 3 November 1829 in Geneva.
Much of Krasiński's time in Geneva was divided between attendance at university lectures, being tutored, and his social life. He soon became fluent in French.
His Geneva stay helped shape his personality. Soon after arrival in Geneva, at the beginning of November 1829, Krasiński met Henry Reeve, a physician's son who was in Switzerland to study philosophy and literature. The talented young Englishman, who composed overwrought romantic poetry, greatly inspired young Krasiński. They became fast friends and exchanged letters discussing their love of classical and romantic literature.
At the beginning of 1830, Krasiński developed romantic feelings for Henrietta Willan, the daughter of a wealthy English merchant and tradesman. This relationship inspired future works by Krasiński. On 11 August 1830 Krasiński met Adam Mickiewicz, a principal figure in Polish Romanticism, and Poland's greatest poet. Krasiński's wide-ranging conversations with Mickiewicz, who dazzled Krasiński with the breadth of his knowledge, were vital in inspiring Krasiński's to improve his literary techniques. From 14 August to 1 September 1830 they traveled together to the High Alps; Krasiński described this in his diary; being a prolific writer of letters, he wrote about this trip as well in a letter to his father, which was dated 5 September 1830.
Around early November 1830 Krasiński left Geneva and traveled to Italy, visiting Milan, Florence, and Rome. In Rome, receiving news about the outbreak of the November Uprising in Poland, he broke off his trip and returned to Geneva. He had been finishing a historical novel, Agaj-Han, recounting the story of Tsaritsa and warlord Marina Mniszech, considered his most significant work of that period. On the advice of his father, who opposed rebellion against the Russian Empire (he had become a Russian general), he did not go to Poland to participate in the Uprising – to his later everlasting regret. In May 1832 he set out for Poland, on the way again visiting Italy (Milan, Verona, Vicenza, Padua, Venice), then Innsbruck and Vienna, finally by mid-August 1832 arriving in Warsaw. During that trip, in Venice, he consulted with ophthalmologist Friedrich Jäger regarding his surfacing eye disease, which would continue over the years to come, becoming one of the reasons for his growing introspection.
Having reunited with his father shortly afterward, they traveled together to Saint Petersburg, where in October he received an audience with the Russian Tsar Nicholas I. The elder Krasiński tried to arrange a diplomatic career for his son with the Russian Empire, but Zygmunt was not interested and was content to travel abroad again. In March 1833 he left Saint Petersburg and, visiting Warsaw and Kraków, traveled once more to Italy, where he would stay until 19 April 1834. This period saw the creation of what is likely his most famous work, the drama The Undivine Comedy (Nie-Boska komedia), written probably between summer and fall 1834.