XVII-wieczne 'dialogi' eurystyczne: Les Entretiens d'Ariste et d'Eugène Dominique'a Bouhoursa i Rozmowy Artaksesa i Ewandra Stanislawa Herakliusza Lubomirskiego

Entretiens, vastly popular in France in 17th century in France, are dialogs, "erudite, but devoid of pedantry”, derived from Platonian tradition, and having syncretic contents and a nimble form. They mirror a dire need for changes awaken by the new spirituality of the epoch: the religious and the secular ethics that, both in courts and in Jesuit Colleges, was expressed as a discourse combining good speech and a good behaviour. This necessity of revival concerns also Poland: Les Entretiens d'Ariste et d’Eugene by Dominique Bouhours, one of the well-known dialogues of this kind in Europe, became the formal model for Stanislaw Herakliusz Lubomirski's Dialogues of Artakses and Ewander – a text faithful to the well established tradition, but in many ways innovative. The search for the new political and ethical balance characteristic of the entire Central-Western Europe in 17 century was originally expressed in Lubomirski's work and simultaneously referred to the particular situation in Poland. It was affected, among others, by the recourse to a new literary medium: dialogue monologue in a light tone and in a rhetorical language apparently devoid of purpose, rich in erudite quotations and allusions, but revealing a deep emotional engagement.