The Wedding (1901 play)

"Wesele" redirects here. For other uses, see Wesele (disambiguation).

Wesele by Włodzimierz Tetmajer

The Wedding (Polish: Wesele) is a leading Polish drama written in 1901 by the modernist Young Poland playwright, painter, and poet Stanisław Wyspiański. The play limns the vicissitudes of Polish aspirations for national self-determination in the aftermath of two disastrous uprisings against one of Poland's three partitioning powers, the Russian Empire, which began in November 1830 and January 1863.

The play's action takes place at the wedding of a member of the Kraków intelligentsia (the Bridegroom) and his peasant Bride. Their crossclass union follows a then fashionable trend of chłopomania ("peasant-mania") among some Polish intelligentsia, who were often scions of the historic Polish szlachta (nobility).[1][2]

Wyspiański's play was inspired by a real-life event: the wedding of the poet and playwright Lucjan Rydel at St. Mary's Basilica in Kraków, followed by their wedding reception at the village of Bronowice, now a district of Kraków.[3]

  1. ^ "Stanisław Wyspiański, "Wesele"". Retrieved 17 April 2020.
  2. ^ "Stanisław Wyspiański". Retrieved 17 April 2020.
  3. ^ ""Wesele" Wyspiańskiego z pogranicza snu i jawy". Retrieved 17 April 2020.