Andreas Gryphius

Andreas Gryphius
Born	Andreas Greif 11 October 1616(1616-10-11) Głogów (Großglogau), Silesia
Died	16 July 1664 (aged 47)
Occupation	Lyric poet • Dramatist
Nationality	German
Writing period	Baroque

Andreas Gryphius (11 October 1616 - 16 July 1664) was a German lyric poet and dramatist.

Life and career

Gryphius was born as "Andreas Greif" 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 (Gdańsk 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, who became known as 'father of German poetry'. Greatly influenced by Crüger, he is the only one Gryphius dedicated poems to. Gryphius wrote Latin language poetry as well as German poems and a number of Sonetten.

The same year that Gryphius arrived, the printer Andreas Hünefeld published Martin Opitz's Buch von der deutschen Poeterey (Book of German Poetry) , The same publisher printed Opitz's translation Tetrastichen des Pibrac and Antigone. Among Gryphius' benefactors was the city's secretary Michael Borck, who wrote a German version of the life of Jesus Christ. Borck's illustrated book is still at the Biblioteka Gdańska PAN . Coming from war riddled Silesia, taking refuge at the big international harbor and Polish city greatly stimulated Gryphius. In 1635 he published his second epos of Herodes Dei Vindicis Impetus et Herodis Interitus . He dedicated this to the city state council.

While still in Danzig he published the Parnassus Renovatus in praise of the eminent jurist Georg Schönborner (1579-1637, from the town of Schönborn). In 1636 he went to Wschowa, then to Schönborn, in order to became tutor of the sons of Georg Schönborner, 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 23 December 1637, Schönborner died.

In 1637 Gryphius published at Wigand Funck in Leszno (German: Lissa) a poetry collection in German and some Latin, named Lissaer Sonetten after the town.

In 1632, he had witnessed the pillaging and burning of the Bavarian town Freystadt by Swedish troops, and eternalized the event by the poem 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 Corneliszoon Hooftand Joost van den Vondel, who largely determined the character of his later dramatic works.

In 1635 with the Prager Frieden (Peace of Prague), the Habsburgs took control 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 Crossen an der Oder (Krosno) in Brandenburg from the Elector Georg Wilhelm of Brandenburg. Paul was for several years banned from Silesia for 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 grew up during the Thirty Years War and witnessed the destruction of large parts of Germany, which had lasting effects for centuries. Not yet an adult himself, he saw the child of a benefactor (Crüger) 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 ("Cemetery thoughts", 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), 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. In Carolus Stuardus (1657) he dramatised events of his own day, namely the death of King Charles I of England; his other tragedies are Leo Armenius (1650); Catharina von Georgien (1657), Cardenio und Celinde (1657) and Papinianus (1659). 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.

Works

Drama

• Cardenio and Celinde (1647) - tragedy
• Leo Armenius (1650) - historical tragedy
• Carolus Stuardus (1657 - first version; 1663 - second version) - historical tragedy
• Catharina von Georgien (1657) - historical tragedy
• Papinianus (1659) - historical tragedy
• The Beloved Rose with a Thorn (1661) - comedy
• Horribilicribrifax (1663) - comedy

References

• Banham, Martin, ed. 1998. The Cambridge Guide to Theatre. Cambridge: Cambridge UP. ISBN 0521434378.
• Gillespie, Gerald, ed. 1992. German Theater Before 1750. The German Library 8. New York: Continuum. ISBN 082640703X.
• Szyrocki, Marian. Andreas Gryphyus, Sein Leben und Werk. 

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Andreas Gryphius

• Map of 1600 Germania showing Glogau in Silesia etc
• Andreas Gryphius: Saemtliche Gedichte

This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica, Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.