Od Les Fâcheux do Natrętów

The premiere of Natręci by Józef Bielawski took place on 19 November 1765 at the Saxon Operalnia in Warsaw. The night on which the Actors of His Majesty’s Polish Comedies performed the comedy for the first time made history as marking the beginning of the National Theatre’s operation. The author of the article draws our attention to the fact that, contrary to widespread opinion, Natręci is not an adaptation of Les Fâcheux by Molière, even though the French playwright’s comedy served Bielawski as a source of inspiration. The second important finding is that Bielawski’s comedy is not a piece championing the Enlightenment. A thorough analysis reveals that Natręci is a satire on both the Sarmatians and the cosmopolitans. Yet the playwright’s sympathies are with the former. It may be assumed that the playwright added the paratexts referring to the Enlightenment programme of reforms on King Stanislaw August’s request. The article discusses in detail other pieces by Bielawski (including his second comedy, Dziwak), makes reference to the key French contexts (the oeuvres by Molière and Destouches), as well as to the history of the National Theatre and its repertories at the onset of its operation, and, finally, recounts the subsequent history of Les Fâcheux and Natręci on the Polish stages, including Piękna Lucynda by Marian Hemar (as a twentieth-century adaptation of Natręci).