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Andreas Gryphius (October 11, 1616 as Andreas Greif - July 16, 1664) was a German lyric poet and dramatist.
Gryphius was born in Głogów (Großglogau) in Silesia, where his father was a clergyman. The family name was Greif, latinized, according to the prevailing fashion, as Gryphius. Left early an orphan and driven from his native town by the troubles of the Thirty Years' War, he received his schooling in various places, but notably at Wschowa (Fraustadt) where he enjoyed an excellent classical education.
In 1634 he went to Danzig (Gdansk), Poland, where he met professors Peter Crüger and Johann Mochinger at the Danzig Gymnasium, who introduced Gryphius to the new German language poetry. Crüger had for years close contacts to Martin Opitz, also in Danzig, who became known as 'father of German poetry'. Greatly influenced by Crüger, he is the only one Gryphius dedicated poems to. In Danzig, Gryphius added to writing Latin language poetry also German poems and wrote a number of Sonetten. The same year that Gryphius reached the Hanse city, the printer Andreas Hünefeld published Martin Opitz's Buch von der deutschen Poeterey (Book of German Poetry) at Danzig, The same publisher printed Opitz's translation Tetrastichen des Pibrac, Antigone. Among Gryphius' benefactors at Danzig was the city-state's secretary Michael Borck, who wrote a German version of the life of Christ. Borck's illustrated book is still at the Danzig library. Coming from war riddled Silesia, taking refuge at the big international harbor city of Danzig greatly stimulated Gryphius. In 1635 he published his second Herodesepos Dei Vindicis Impetus et Herodis Interitus at Danzig. He dedicated this to the Danzig city state council.
While still in Danzig he published the Parnassus Renovatus in praise of Georg Schönborner (from Schönborn). In 1636 he went to Wschowa, then Schönborn on request of Georg Schönborner. There he became tutor to the sons of the eminent jurist Georg Schönborner (1579-1637), a man of wide culture and considerable wealth, who, after filling various administrative posts and writing many erudite volumes on law, had been rewarded by the emperor Ferdinand II with the title and office of imperial count-palatine (Hofpfalzgraf). Schönborner, who recognized Gryphius's genius, crowned him poeta laureatus, gave him the diploma of master of philosophy, and bestowed on him a patent of nobility, though Gryphius never used the title. A month later, on the December 23, 1637, Schönborner died.
In 1637 Gryphius published at Wigand Funck in Leszno a German and some Latin poetry collection and named it after the town Lissaer Sonetten. While at Leszno he witnessed the burning of Freystadt and as always he eternalized the event by poetry Fewrige Freystadt. Also in 1637 he went to continue his studies at Leiden, where he remained six years, both hearing and delivering lectures. Here he fell under the influence of the great Dutch dramatists, Pieter Cornelissen Hooft (1581-1647) and Joost van den Vondel (1587-1679), who largely determined the character of his later dramatic works.
In 1635 with the Prager Frieden (Peace of Prague), the Habsburgs took over in Silesia again and persecuted Protestants and closed their churches. In 1638 Paul Gryphius, the brother of Andreas, received a position as Superindendant at Krosno (Krossen), Brandenburg from the Elector Georg Wilhelm. Paul was for several years banned from Silesia because of being a Protestant and Andreas dedicated and sent him several poems for the start of his new position.
After travelling in France, Italy and South Germany, Gryphius settled in 1647 at Fraustadt, where he began his dramatic work, and in 1650 was appointed syndic of Glogau, a post he held until his death. A short time previously he had been admitted under the title of The Immortal into the Fruchtbringende Gesellschaft ("Fruitbearing Society"), a literary society, founded in 1617 by Ludwig, prince of Anhalt-Köthen on the model of the Italian academies.
Gryphius was a man , who grew up during the Thirty Years War and the great destruction of Germany lasting for centuries. Not yet an adult himself, he saw a benefactors (Crüger)'s child die and prepared another (Schönborner) for his approaching death. It is therefore not surprising that some morbid disposition, and his melancholy temperament, fostered by the misfortunes of his childhood is largely reflected in his lyrics, of which the most famous are the Kirchhofsgedanken (1656). His best works are his comedies, one of which, Absurda Comica, oder Herr Peter Squentz (1663), is evidently based on the comic episode of Pyramus and Thisbe in A Midsummer Night's Dream. Die geliebte Dornrose (1660), which is written in a Silesian dialect, contains many touches of natural simplicity and grace, and ranks high among the comparatively small number of German dramas of the 17th century. Horribilicribrifax (1663), founded on the Miles Gloriosus of Plautus, is a rather labored attack on pedantry. Besides these three comedies, Gryphius wrote five tragedies. In all of them the tendency is to become wild and bombastic, but he had the merit of at least attempting to work out artistically conceived plans, and there are occasional flashes both of passion and of imagination. His models seem to have been Seneca and Vondel. He had the courage, in Carolus Stuardus (1649) to deal with events of his own day (namely the death of King Charles I of England); his other tragedies are Leo Armenius (1646); Catharina von Georgien (1657), Cardenio und Celinde (1657) and Papinianus (1663). No German dramatic writer before him had risen to so high a level, nor had he worthy successors until about the middle of the 18th century.
Reference: Parts of Danzig, Schönborn times based on Marian Szyrocki Andreas Gryphyus, Sein Leben und Werk.
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This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. {{cite encyclopedia}}: Missing or empty|title=(help)
