Tekla Teresa Łubieńska


Tekla Teresa Łubieńska – was a Polish playwright, poet and translator.

Biography

She was the daughter of Polish nobles, Franciszek Bieliński,, Court writer and senator for Czersk and his wife, Krystyna Justyna Sanguszko. She was taught at home. At age of 11 in 1778 she lost her mother. From then on, she was in the care of the duchess, Barbara Sanguszko, her maternal grandmother who gave her a French education. She later married, as his second wife, Feliks Łubieński, a future Minister of Justice in Congress Poland. They had ten children, among them, Tomasz and Henryk. While Tekla's husband was involved in the turbulent politics of the Targowica Confederation, she left pregnant for Prague with her children. On her return to Poland in 1785, she settled in the family estate in Guzów and devoted herself to family life, child-bearing and her writing. She died suddenly at the early age of just 43, in Kraków in August 1810. She is an ancestor of British actor, Rula Lenska.

Writings

At the time of the Four-Year Sejm she wrote patriotic verse. Initially, she devoted herself to writing chiefly comedies, including dramatic diversions for children. She later produced historical dramas such as: Wanda, queen of Poland, Charlemagne and Wedekind, a two-act drama in verse. She translated works by Jean Racine and Voltaire.

Notable works

According to Skimborowicz: Polish theatre owes several translations of Voltaire's plays, but he fails to mention which ones. An extract of a translated poem by Frenchman, A. Deshoulières is acknowledged as Tekla's by the Warsaw Illustrated weekly in 1863.

Letters