DRAMA
Subtitle: a sad play in five acts
SOURCE: The author's manuscript of the text is preserved in the archives of the Dramatic Society, which is part of the library collection of the Slovenian Theatre Institute. The size of the manuscript or volume, which has 104 numbered pages, is 24×17 cm.
HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
The author sent his text to the Dramatic Society competition under the pseudonym Jože Klenič. The competition was intended to encourage original Slovenian dramatic literature. Prizes were announced for tragedy, drama, opera and libretto, and the Carniolan Provincial Committee provided the cash prizes. The subject matter was also prescribed: Slovenian or Slavic history and drama from contemporary Slovenian or wider Slavic life. The evaluators, among whom were the most prominent literary and cultural figures (Josip Stritar, Fran Levstik...), were not satisfied with the dramatic works and did not award the first prize, but wrote:
Based on the criticism expressed by the board of the Slovenian Dramatic Society and at its own discretion, the regional board could not award any of the submitted plays with a premium, partly due to their complete inability to compete, partly due to major essential shortcomings, but allowed Jože Klenič, writer of the play Zeta carja Lazarja ali Bitva na Kosovom polji, 80 gld., Ivan Vesel, writer of the play Drog 60 gld., Tone Turkuš, writer of the play Veronika Desenička and Miroslav Vilhar, writer of the play Danila, 30 gld. each, as an incentive for further work. (SN 1974, No. 231).
Among the writers who responded to the call, we find three very young authors who were around twenty years old at the time of the Dramatic Society's call and wrote the submitted plays as teenagers. In addition to Klemenčič and Ivan Turkuš, who later became a professor of French and English, Ivan Hribar also participated in the call, who was the youngest participant. Turkuš's text Veronika Desenička not preserved, Hribar's manuscript King Matthias is part of the collection of the Slovenian Theatre Institute:
Link to Ivan Hribar's manuscript King Matjaž.
In 1868, Klemenčič graduated from high school and went to Vienna to study classical philology. According to his testimony, he was motivated to participate in the competition by financial hardship. He otherwise considered his work to be rudimentary and doubted his literary talent. The manuscript we have in our possession has the date 21. 6. 1871 and the number 3288 written on the back page. The title page also contains a four-line inscription:
Whoever serves passion is blind, destructive,
He walks the path of crime without fear,
Let him not rejoice too soon, Punish
He will not withdraw all-encompassing.
Professor of classical languages Josip Klemenčič (1848-?) spent his childhood in Kovorje near Tržič, which at least somewhat prepared him for the harsh Russian winters that were destined for him. While studying in Vienna, he became a scholarship holder at the Slavic Teachers' Institute in St. Petersburg. After graduating, he went to Russia and taught at the Second St. Petersburg Gymnasium, and occasionally, at the instigation of his friend Josip Jurčič, published articles in To the Slovenian nationIn 1881, he wrote a textbook on translating from Russian into Latin, but later data have not yet been researched by literary historians, so we do not know the place or year of his death.
France Koblar (Slovenian Drama I, 1972, pp. 75-84 and article Josip Klemencic in SR 5-7. 1954, p. 281-288):
Link to Slavic Review: Journal of Linguistics and Literary Studies, Volume 5/7, Issue 1
The author was informed of the award upon his arrival in St. Petersburg. He asked Josip Jurčič to give half of the money to the Dramatic Society and half to his younger brother Janez, who was attending high school at the time.
He wrote about his literary attempts as a student that he destroyed them during his student years. Two of his poems, which he apparently wanted to publish in Stritar's legacy, have been preserved. To the bell, in Jurčič's legacy there are three of his letters from Russia, and in the Slovenian Theatre Institute there is a manuscript of the tragedy Tsar Lazar's son-in-law.
RUSSIAN SCHOLARSHIP STUDENTS AND DRAMATIC SOCIETY
In addition to Josip Klemenčič, at least two other important Slovenian intellectuals collaborated with the Dramatic Society among the Slovenian students who received scholarships from the Slavic Teachers' Institute. The elder, the writer and literary critic Fran Celestin (1843–1895), went to St. Petersburg in the year in which he was included in the collection Slovenian Italy (Volume 11, 1869) his romantic comedy was published Pink:
Link to the comedy by Fran Celestino Pink.
After several years of teaching in Vladimir and Kharkov, Celestin returned first to Vienna and then settled in Zagreb. Davorin Hostnik (1853–1929) went to Russia in 1879 and stayed there. During his studies, this talented linguist and translator, in addition to prose, also translated plays for the Ljubljana theatre, mostly from French. He made his mark in history primarily as the author of the Russian-Slovenian and Slovenian-Russian dictionaries and the grammar of the Russian language, which were published from 1897 to 1910. He translated Slovenian literature into Russian, for the newspaper Reports and wrote articles about Slovenia. Of the Slovenian intellectuals who received an institute scholarship, Jernej Brezovar was most closely associated with Hostnik. Hostnik lived in Rilsk, and Brezovar in Kursk, so that – by Russian standards – they were almost neighbors. In addition to Josip Klemenčič, the circle of compatriots who maintained contacts in St. Petersburg included Štefan Širok, Jurčič's classmate Ivan Kos, and scholarship holders who later taught in Kaluga, Božidar Štiftar and Davorin Bole.
Klemenčič dramatized in verse the betrayal of the son-in-law of the Serbian Tsar Lazar, Vuk Branković, who had entered into an alliance with the Turks and accused Lazar's other son-in-law, Miloš Obilić, of the vile act. When Miloš, who wanted to clear himself of false instigation, carried out a suicide assassination attempt on Sultan Murat, Tsar Lazar, saddened by Miloš's death and emboldened by Murat's, set out for a fateful battle. The Serbs were initially victorious, but in the end, due to Branković's repeated betrayal, they were defeated and Lazar lost his life on the Kosovo Field. Vuk Branković's plans also failed after the battle, so he judged himself.
