Published: 2026-08-26

Jeszcze o Ucieczce Mickiewicza. (Nie)prostoduszne pytanie o „worek do roboty”

Małgorzata Burta Profil ORCID autora Małgorzata Burta

Abstract

The article concerns Adam Mickiewicz’s ballad entitled The Escape (Ucieczka). In the introduction, it recalls the details regarding the genesis and first publication of the work in the volume The Poetry by Adam Mickiewicz. Five volumes in one with the author's portrait. New enlarged and reworked edition (the first volume of the „New Polish Parnas" series), Warsaw-Poznań 1832. This edition includes a reprint of five volumes of historical novels and sonnets, as well as—at the very end of the Appendix—the first edition of the ballad The Escape. The article engages with the existing literature on the ballad and focuses primarily on a previously overlooked detail from the dialogue between the ghostly lover and the Maiden in line 83: “Is that a work bag?” (“Czy to worek do roboty?”). The author interprets this detail in light of the Maiden’s response (line 84: “No, it is a little golden Altar” / “Nie, to jest Ołtarzyk złoty”) and through the lens of legamentology (the study of bookbindings), identifying it as a girdle book binding (pouch binding) of a prayer book.

Keywords:

Adam Mickiewicz, The Escape, ballad, ghost, tegumentology (bookbinding)

Download files

Citation rules

Burta, M. (2026). Jeszcze o Ucieczce Mickiewicza. (Nie)prostoduszne pytanie o „worek do roboty”. Colloquia Litteraria, 38(1/2025). Retrieved from https://czasopisma.uksw.edu.pl/cl/article/view/17008

Cited by / Share

This website uses cookies for proper operation, in order to use the portal fully you must accept cookies.