THE CONDUCT OF POLISH SERVANTS IN CONTACT WITH ALCOHOL ACROSS THE CENTURIES IN APPLIED LITERATURE

In modern times in Poland the issue of alcoholic indulgence in the context of cultural heritage seems to be shunned by most scholars dealing with culture in its broad sense. However, similarly to other nations, excessive consumption of alcohol constituted, and still does, a vital, perhaps inseparable, part of Polish society with its wide-ranging social repercussions. Whereas historical and literary records throw some light on the drinking behaviours of the Polish nobility, those of their servants, who were as if in the shadow of their masters, are tackled to a much lesser degree. The main interest of the ensuing article thereupon lies in examining the conduct and propensities of the household help in this respect in Poland across the centuries in applied literature. Due to the fact that the servant (particularly domestics) and the master were strictly bound together, a sketch of the alcoholic inclinations of the latter stratum of society, including a selection of monarchs, has found its place in the study as well.