Early life Born in
Caracal, his parents were George (or Gheorghe) Lecca and his wife Zoe (
née Mănăstireanu or Mănăstiriceanu); his grandfather was the painter and journalist
Constantin Lecca. The family belonged to
boyar nobility, and, according to family legend, was established in Ancient Rome by
Publius Porcius Laeca; their roots may also lead back to
Byzantine Bulgaria and the
Barony of Gritzena. In
Wallachia, the family patriarch was allegedly the
Aga Leca Racotă,
aide-de-camp of
Prince Michael the Brave, and possibly also Michael's brother-in-law. His direct male descendant,
Armaș Radu Lecca, emigrated to
Corona (Brașov) in 1730; it was there that his grandson, the painter and
Paharnic, was born. Haralamb's uncles, settled in
Oltenia, were Constantin Lecca Jr, a clerk and member of the
Assembly of Deputies, and Grigore, a career soldier; he was also very distantly related to
Dimitrie Lecca, who held major offices in the
United Principalities and the
Kingdom of Romania. His aunt Cleopatra was married to Colonel Grigore Poenaru, nephew of the polymath
Petrache Poenaru. She was also a maternal cousin of the dramatist
Ion Luca Caragiale, and, for a while, the love interest of poet
Mihai Eminescu. Haralamb's father, George Lecca, a cavalryman, had fought with distinction in
Romania's war of independence—the setting of at least one poem by his son. From a later marriage, he had a much younger son, the magistrate Octav George Lecca, later locally famous as a genealogist, heraldist, and anthropologist, and a daughter, Elvira Yga Lecca. Haralamb Lecca was an Oltenian by birth, his work sometimes included in regionalist anthologies. However, as noted by Oltenian scholar C. D. Fortunescu, this was a stretch. Lecca, he argues, "do[es] not owe anything to this region, [...] only the happenstance of [his] birth here, or a short period in [his] childhood, has ever put [him] into contact with us." but later finished primary school in his native town, attended the
Cantemir High School in Bucharest, and completed high school in
Craiova. A reserve
Sub-lieutenant in the 6th Artillery Regiment, he may also have had a stint clerking in the
Ministry of Finance. In 1897, he studied medicine at the
University of Paris (inspiring him to write poems about
dissection), but returned to matriculate at the
University of Bucharest, where he studied law. However, in January 1901, he was reportedly studying letters at the
Free University of Brussels. He graduated from the law faculty in Bucharest, but only after along hiatus, and reportedly held both a
Medical Doctor degree and a
doctorate in letters.
Symbolist debut and Hasdeu circle While he was still in Paris,
Bogdan Petriceicu Hasdeu's
Revista Nouă published Lecca's first poem,
În cimitir ("In the Graveyard"), and awarded Lecca its annual literary prize. According to
Nicolae Iorga, Lecca's "poetic fecundity" soon took over, turning that magazine into a literary tribune rather than the scientific organ designed by Hasdeu. Following this, Lecca, an occasional literary columnist at
Adevărul, became was one of the main contributors to
Ioan Slavici's
Vatra from 1894 and, from 1899, to
Aurel Popovici's daily,
Minerva, his work also appearing in
N. Petrașcu and
D. C. Ascanio's
Literatură și Artă Română. At the time, Lecca was translating from
Tennyson's
Enoch Arden, from a French version. He printed this in 1896, followed a while after by selected verses from Romania's German-speaking queen,
Carmen Sylva. His collections of poetry, generally known by numbered titles, began in 1896 with
Prima, prefaced by Hasdeu. Like the following installments (
Cinci poeme, 1897;
Secunda, 1898;
Sexta, 1901;
Octava, 1904;
A noua, 1904), it showed strong influences from French writers, in particular
François Coppée and other
Symbolists. Per
George Călinescu, these works featured verses that were "odiously interpreted" from French models, and with numerous "trivialities". Philosopher Mihail Iorgulescu, "the only man to have wept for [Lecca]", also finds that in his
lyrical poetry, Lecca remained epic and melodramatic, which made his poetic work dated, "once the setting that contained it fell apart." Similarly,
Henric Sanielevici asserts that he had "all the qualities that one might pick up working in cabinets". However, journalist Mihail Mora defended Lecca against accusations that he had no poetic soul, suggesting that his lyrical "objectivity" and precision were studied, and alternated with "sentimental outbursts." Lecca attained superior technical quality when it came to
meter ("impeccable", according to Mora), Lecca was appreciated by critics in his 1890s context, winning the
Romanian Academy's V. Adamachi Prize in 1898, While
Ilarie Chendi protested against Lecca's "deranged inspiration", he qualified his verdict by insisting that it was nonetheless the inspiration of a "refined artist". Lecca's poems were held in high regard by Hasdeu. Although he initially rejected Lecca as a mere "imitator", he welcomed him at his
Editura Socec salon, where Lecca met
Radu D. Rosetti,
Cincinat Pavelescu,
Ludovic Dauș, and the more senior . Lecca was also an amateur draftsman, who contributed 89 vignettes to his own
Octava, 18 of which were copied from other artists. He and Hasdeu shared this preoccupation, as well as a passion for the occult,
spiritism, and
mediumship, with Lecca going into trances, attempting to draw for Hasdeu the "
real face of Christ". During such
séances, attended by the poet, Hasdeu was inspired to build
his folly castle in
Câmpina, where he later displayed a group photograph of Lecca, Rosetti and
Ovid Densusianu. In January 1899, when Hasdeu created his "Society of the Press", a pioneering writers' syndicate, Lecca, Ascanio and Chendi were among the founding members. Being heavily indebted to
Hermann Sudermann, Lecca published his first work in drama,
Bianca, which showed moral dilemmas leading to a
mariticide. It saw print in Ascanio's magazine (1896), being followed in 1897 by a five-act play,
Pentru o femeie ("For a Woman", 1897), presented for review to the
National Theatre Bucharest (1897). He was also interested in translating foreign drama, and printed in
Convorbiri Literare his version of
William Shakespeare's
Taming of the Shrew, followed by
Victor Hugo's
Hernani, which was used by the National Theater in the 1898 repertoire. Also then, he adapted
The Pillars of Society.
Rise to fame Lecca became a staff
dramaturge for the National Theater by 1900, and, according to actor
Petre I. Sturdza, was superlative as a translator of
verse drama, though "not so much of a poet". In May 1900, the satirical poet Vasile Dumbrăveanu referred to him as a "loser", noting that he was driving the National Theater into debt. In the same magazine,
Dumitru Evolceanu published in 1896 an essay which gave appreciation to Lecca as a poet, but his verdicts were ridiculed by fellow
Junimist Duiliu Zamfirescu. Eventually, Lecca remained with the ideologically incompatible
Literatură și Artă Română, as its "playwright par excellence", then with its partial successor,
Revista Idealistă. "The most productive auteur of the time", he produced a long string of plays:
Tertia. Casta diva ("Tertia. Chaste Goddess", 1899);
Quarta. Jucătoriĭ de cărțĭ ("Quarta. Card Players", 1900);
Quinta. Suprema forță ("Quinta. The Force Supreme", 1901);
Septima. Câiniĭ ("Septima. The Dogs", 1902);
Cancer la inimă ("Cancer of the Heart", 1903). Another work, published in 1904 (and again in 1905), and features his "spiteful address to mankind". According to literary historian Mircea Popa, the series contains little of artistic value, featuring characters with unclear psychological states and plots not always sufficiently endowed with motive. Upon rediscovering the play in 1933, critic
Barbu Lăzăreanu upheld Lecca as the "master of incisiveness"—
Quartas second act is almost entirely constructed from quick exchanges around the
poker table. Similarly, the impresario M. Faust-Mohr reminisces that
Quarta and
Quinta were commercial hits on their first staging. The latter, contrasting a cynical seducer to an idealistic lady, won Lecca another Adamachi award, in 1901. Hoping for international success since at least 1900, Many of the plays veered from social into political commentary, progressively influenced by the schools of
naturalism and social theater. Livescu also notes that Lecca's preferred method included "savaging our social forms and flagellating our lack of character [...] within a melancholy atmosphere, sometimes depressing, sometimes carried by discreet poetry". In 1902, he contributed such criticism in an unprecedented form, at a National Theater recital given by Romanescu and
Constantin Nottara: he added to
Heliade's classic poem,
Zburătorul, lyrics of his own, with political hints. Already by
Quinta, Lecca, who directed his own plays (with "taste and mastery of scenography", according to Livescu), had stabilized his preferred team of actors, which included Demetriade, Livescu, Romanescu, and Nottara. Another actor, Velimir Maximilan, worked with Romanescu and Lecca ca. 1907, recalling that the latter was "treasured for his techniques in drama". Iorga found his a literature about "
parasitism" and "disgusting gentlemen", with little relevancy for people living in later times. The settings were "vague and false", evoking the worst of
Liviu Rebreanu. However, Iorga also notes Lecca stood out in this family of dramatists in the "French fashion" for his "savvy web of movements and dialogues". The same was also noted by novelist
Felix Aderca, who saw Lecca as an industrious and "profoundly different from his peers", but noted that he nonetheless failed at his main project: dramatizing the rise of an industrial, urbanized, Romanian aristocracy. Although she recognizes his skill, Florea cautions that his success was conditioned by him having this prestigious troupe at his disposal, as well as by an "emptiness" in Romanian drama of the
fin de siècle. As Faust-Mohr notes, "some theater reviewers and some in the public were disappointed by the resolution of [
Quarta]: a father killing his son, who had been driven astray by gambling addiction."
Septima was a topic of controversy "with the crudeness one finds in some of its scenes." It "showed the adulating intriguer sponging off a politician, and wasting no time in denouncing him once his star has waned." His own literary work had diversified, and came to be hosted in such venues as
Flacăra,
Noua Revistă Română,
Viața Romînească,
Viața Literară, and
Falanga, From 1903, he joined Livescu as a contributor to
Revista Theatrelor, a magazine published for the community of stage actors and theatergoers, later followed by similar contributions in
Rampa and
Scena. whose editor,
Ovid Densusianu, called Haralamb "the most artistic of the younger poets". Lecca, however, kept away from the literary clubs, and especially the coffeehouses, His staunchest defenders include Apostolescu, who analyzed Lecca in studies of comparative literature, and dramatist
Victor Anestin, who proclaimed (controversially so) that Lecca stood above
Ion Luca Caragiale. In 1902, the Symbolist doyen
Alexandru Macedonski reported that Caragiale saw his cousin as culturally irrelevant, deeming his plays as "attempts, but not literature." According to Florea: "A strange figure, interesting for its epoch, regarded as an arbiter of elegance, 'the man of extremities and extremes', [...] Haralamb Lecca [was] either indignantly repelled or eulogized, with sympathies and antipathies bearing the same seal of disproportionate partiality." and, for a while in 1905, was stage director of the
National Theater Craiova. While there, he reportedly got into a brawl with a troupe member,
Petre Locusteanu, whom he even provoked to a duel. As a protégé of the influential politician
Vasile Morțun, he was simultaneously stage director of the
Iași National Theater, producing his own
Quinta. According to philologist Remus Zăstroiu, his role there was "not at all negligible", but rather contributed to an interval of "artistic fulfillment." As "one of the most competent men of the stage", Lecca undertook "to modernize the program and reform acting techniques." The same was also noted by actress
Maria Filotti (discovered and employed by Lecca), who summarized his tenure as "short [but] productive". However, he was also ruthless and "almost brutally sincere" with his employees and, as noted by Sturdza, who toured with the company, "pointlessly insulted [my] comrades." He also exaggerated in his
method acting requirements, which notoriously included disposing of
prompts, being ultimately forced to resign in December 1906. Immediately after, Velimir Maximilian employed Lecca at the Grigoriu Association, an independent troupe. In February 1907, he toured the country alongside Romanescu, reaching his native Caracal. Lecca's rendition from
Franz Grillparzer's
Hero and Leander, appearing in Issue 270 of
Biblioteca pentru toți (1907), Other such contributions followed, with works by: Shakespeare (
Romeo and Juliet, 1907),
Théodore de Banville (
The Kiss, 1907),
Jean Racine (
Athalie, 1907),
Pierre Beaumarchais (
Barber of Seville, 1908),
Pierre Corneille (
Horace, 1912), and
Molière (
Tartuffe, 1913). Reprinted throughout the 1910s, these works earned accolades from Albert Honigman of
Universul Literar, who believed that Lecca, an "intelligent poet", had "outstanding talent in translation arts"; Aderca found them "mediocre", Having obtained a government position as deputy director of theaters, then also inspector general of theaters, Lecca was highly unpopular. During Easter 1908, with an article in
Ordinea, he asked his readers "what they would do if
Christ returned";
"Coco" Ranetti, a satirist at
Furnica, responded for them: "I'd urgently get you sacked from the theaters". He was finally relieved of his position when disgruntled actors, who knew him since his days at Iași Theater, expressed their opposition. In 1908, his translation of
La Femme de Claude, by the same Dumas, was modified by the managers, and, after his public protest, was pulled out of rehearsal.
Marginalization and return Lecca's threat to Eliade, that he would no longer allow his own work to be performed in Bucharest, was taken seriously by its recipient, who effectively banned him from setting foot the National Theater. However he was again employed in December, when he prepared a stage version of
Arthur Conan Doyle's
Final Problem, published as a book in 1915. Over the following months, Lecca also pursued engagements abroad, his
Quinta taken up by
Italia Vitaliani's troupe in
Florence (March 1909). Although Lecca and the Romanian press claimed it was a hit, critic
Mario Ferrigni called it "useless and absurd torture", concluding that Lecca was "one giant prankster". At around that time,
Septima was performed at the
National Theater Sofia,
Kingdom of Bulgaria, opening to poor reviews in
Savremenik magazine. The same year, he joined the
Romanian Writers' Society, then under the presidency of
Mihail Sadoveanu. He also put out his translation of
Boule de Suif, much criticized by
Mihai Codreanu for failing to render Maupassant's meanings and turns of phrase, a "perseverance in bad translation." At around that time, Lecca married Natalia Botezat, with whom he lived for a while in
Bârlad. That year, Lecca rendered into Romanian
Jules Verne's
Around the World in Eighty Days, while his earlier work inspired
Zicu Araia, who adapted his Romanian
Enoch Arden into
Aromanian. Returning the same year with the retrospective
Poezii ("Poems"), he was described by
Viața Romînească as having "some skill", as opposed to his generation colleague, Rosetti, who was "untalented". They both were prominently featured by
Luceafărul, which, the chronicler noted, was "exaggerated" for poets of such status.
Facla, the more left-wing Symbolist review, was more categorical, describing Lecca as "overreaching and trite". Lecca also contributed the political essays and conferences in
Noi, Românii ("Us Romanians"), where he attacked the mores and psychology of his era. Lecca pined for what he saw as better days, referring to the cultural work of Hasdeu, George Ionescu-Gion, and psychologist
Nicolae Vaschide, whose work he introduced for the public. In part written as a satire,
Noi, Românii attacked particular social groups:
Transylvanian immigrants, for "posing as martyrs" and "bit by bit [...] form[ing] their own state within the state"; state employees, for being "somnolent" and interested in social gatherings more than actual work; and amateur actors, for "dishonor[ing] the work" of professionals. Such fragmentary memoirs, admired by Florea for their "moving portrayal of Hasdeu", were nevertheless dismissed in 1913 by chronicler
Spiru Hasnaș, who found them "monotonous". As noted by Florea, they are
prose poems and, in this, inferior to his regular poetry, "without any literary interest other than—to a certain degree—a stylistic interest." Under contract with
Alexandru Davila, who managed a private company of actors, he acted in his versions of
La Femme de Claude, He also began working with actress and manager , translating for her 's
On the Eve. In October 1912, Lecca appeared in
Romain Coolus'
Cœur à cœur, though, according to reviewer Al. Cobuz, he only provoked unintentional laughter: "his voice was coarse and not modulated, his gesturing abrupt and rough." and the collaboration between them did not last long, with Davila becoming one of Lecca's "violent critics".
Wartime, illness, and death (drawing by H. C. Seppings-Wright,
The Illustrated London News) Ahead of the
Balkan Wars, Lecca was recalled into active service at
Bucharest Arsenal, Titled
Dincolo ("Beyond"), it was dismissed with a pun by
Opinia: "Sure enough, talent is beyond the scope of Mr Lecca's work." By then, interested in the emerging
Romanian school of cinema, had also been working on a screenplay the "peasant drama"
Răzbunarea ("Revenge"). The eponymous film, produced by
Leon Popescu and starring Voiculescu, premiered upon Lecca's return to Bucharest, in June 1913. A scandal ensued, when
Mihail Sorbul of
Seara noticed that Lecca had plagiarized from his recently deceased uncle, Caragiale, rehashing
Năpasta with only minor changes of names and settings. Together, Lecca and Voiculescu wrote a film version of
Fédora, first shown in a private screening around the same time as
Răzbunarea—postponed by Popescu's furious withdrawal from the project, its release came in 1915. In 1914, Lecca published versions of
Père Goriot by
Honoré de Balzac and
Jack by
Alphonse Daudet, as well as working on
Giovanni Boccaccio's
Decameron (published after his death, in 1926). Around 1915, he released another work in drama,
Zece monologuri ("Ten Monologues"). while also working on staging and adapting
Ilderim, by
Carmen Sylva and
Victor Eftimiu (premiered March 1916). In July 1916, shortly before
Romania's declaration of war, he ran for the presidency of the Writers' Union, but lost to his old
Junimea rival,
Duiliu Zamfirescu. Subsequently, during
the campaigns of World War I, Lecca was a Captain of the Ammunition Department in the 22nd Division, While recovering at
Podu Iloaiei in winter 1916, Lecca showed signs of a debilitating illness (sometimes described as a war injury), confessing to
Ludovic Dauș that he was slowly dying, but still hoping to find a miracle cure. Decommissioned in summer 1917, he was living in
Iași, with Natalia Lecca as his nurse. While a noted influence on comedies by
A. de Herz, Lecca was, according to Florea, "forgotten even before he stopped writing"—this, "even though the history of Romanian drama at that particular moment cannot abstract him. [...] Lecca's writing for the stage opened the way for urban-themed drama." He was buried at
Bellu Cemetery, in Plot 92b, By the 1930s, his tomb was untended, the marble plaque on it having cracked. ==Legacy==