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Pan Tadeusz was not the result of a momentary inspiration, but

grew gradually under the author's hand. On December 8, 1832, he

wrote to a friend: "I am now at work on a poem of life among the

gentry, in the style of Hermann and Dorothea. I have already

jotted down a thousand verses." He had evidently planned a

village idyl of no great length, probably based on the love of

Thaddeus and Zosia. In a draft of the first book that is still

preserved, Thaddeus sees on the wall a picture of Joseph

Poniatowski at the battle of Leipzig (October 19, 1813), "riding

a mettled steed" but "stricken with a mortal wound." Thus the

action of the poem could not have taken place earlier than 1814.

Later, Mickiewicz threw back the time of his action to the autumn

of 1811 and the spring of 1812; thus, by giving his poem a

political background in the invasion of Russia by Napoleon, he

transformed his village idyl into a national epic.