Polish Count, author of countless comedies, poems and fables. Born 1793, died 1876.
An officer in the armies of Napoleon, Fredro lived peacefully after the wars on his family estate in Austrian-occupied Poland. His entertaining comedies, including Maidens' Vows (1832), Mister Jowialski (1832, also known as Mister Joviality) and The Vengeance (1833), were initially inspired by the works of Molière and Goldoni, but he soon developed a characteristic style of his own. Today, his comedies form part of the common repertoire of Polish theater.
Fredro's comedies are psychological character studies, which poke fun at nobility and bourgeoisie alike, with little influence from the national-romantic trends of his time.