Changes

If you graduated from a Polish high school, then you are no doubt familiar with the poem. But if not, then let me give you a brief synopsis before we dive into the world of Old Polish food and drink. The epic is set in Soplicowo (pronounced ''sawp-leet-<small>SAW</small>-vaw''), a fictional manor located in what is now Belarus, at the time of Napoleonic wars. Ostensibly, the main plot is a litigation over the ruins of an old castle. The story begins with the titular 20-year-old Pan (Lord) Tadeusz (Thaddeus) Soplica (pronounced ''tah-<small>DEH</small>-woosh sawp-<small>LEET</small>-sah'') arriving at the house of his uncle, Judge Soplica, only to find it filled with the Judge's old lawyer friends who have all arrived for the dispute. The Judge, mind you, is not going to be a judge in this case; he's one of the litigants. Don't expect a courtroom drama, though; both sides of the dispute quickly resort to the tactics of ''faits accomplis'', culminating in an all-out battle later in the storyline. Before it comes to this, however, TadeuszThaddeus, his uncle, the lawyers and even the Count – who is the other claimant – spend most of their time together on their favourite activities – hunting and gathering, eating and drinking.

[[File:Jan Czesław Moniuszko - Opowieść Tadeusza Soplicy 1899.jpg|thumb|350px|Tadeusz Thaddeus Soplica's Tale as painted by Jan Czesław Moniuszko]]

This is why it matters when exactly the plot of ''Pan Tadeusz'' takes place. The poem is divided into twelve books, or chapters. The plot of books I to X runs over the course of five days in the late summer of 1811 – from TadeuszThaddeus's arrival on Friday evening to (spoiler alert!) Father Worm's death on Tuesday night. We know the days of the week because on the third day, "after mass at the chapel, it was the Lord's Day, they [peasants] proceeded to Yankel's to drink and to play".<ref>Mickiewicz, ''op. cit.'', Book IV, verses 221–222; unless indicated otherwise, all quotations from ''Pan Tadeusz'' are from Marcel Weyland's translation.</ref> Knowing that, on Monday night, "glow and glisten bright handfuls of moon-given gold",<ref>Mickiewicz, ''op. cit.'', Book VIII, verse 608</ref> we can check the phases of the moon in 1811 and calculate the exact dates: 30 August to 3 September. These dates also agree with the period when "a new guest, which not long [had been] perceived in the skies: {{...}} a mighty comet of first magnitude",<ref>Mickiewicz, ''op. cit.'', Book VIII, verses 108–109</ref> or the comet C/1811 F1, began to be easily visible from Earth. The plot then skips a few months and resumes in the spring of 1812. The last two books cover two days, the latter being "the most solemn day of Our Lady of Flowers",<ref>Mickiewicz, ''op. cit.'', Book XI, verses 154–155</ref> that is, the feast of Annunciation, which in 1812 fell on Saturday, 25 March.

The are enough references to alimentary customs in ''Pan Tadeusz'' for several blog posts; in this one, we're going to focus on breakfasts. A typical late-summer day in Soplicowo, especially if there were visitors, began with a hunt – a hare hunt, most often, and occasionally for some bigger game. The hunters were all men, who had to rise quite early in the morning for the occasion. The Sunday bear hunt began at 4:30 a.m., although this was probably exceptionally early; a bear hunt required more preparation than chasing hares, plus a holy mass had to be squeezed in before the hunt began. In any case, both Tadeusz Thaddeus and the Count liked to sleep in and were habitually late for the party.