Stanisław Egbert Koźmian

Stanisław Egbert Koźmian (Polish: [staˈɲiswaf ɛɡbɛrt 'koźmJian] ^ⓘ) (21 April 1811 – 23 April 1885) was a Polish writer, poet and translator. He is now best known for translating the works of William Shakespeare into Polish.

Koźmian was born in Wronów, near Lublin, to wealthy parents. After attending the Warsaw Lyceum, he studied law at the University of Warsaw from 1828 to 1830, where his friends included the poet Zygmunt Krasiński and the writer and translator Konstanty Gaszyński. He participated as a junior officer in the Polish insurrection of 1831 and was forced to live abroad after the rebellion was crushed. He settled in England, where he lived as an exile for 12 years.

In England, Koźmian helped to raise funds for Polish emigrants and lobbied Parliamentarians about the plight of his homeland. After being allowed to return home to the Duchy of Posen, he and his brother Jan Koźmian worked as joint editors of their pro-Catholic periodical Poznań Review (Przegląd Poznański). His translations of seven of the works of William Shakespeare were included in the publication of Drama Works by William Shakespeare (Dzieła dramatyczne Williama Shakespeare'a) in 1875, the first translation into Polish of all of Shakespeare's plays. Koźmian became a member of the Poznań Society of Friends of Learning in 1857, and was elected as president. He died in Poznań on 23 April 1885.