Andreas Gryphius | |
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| Born | Andreas Greif (1616-10-02)2 October 1616 |
| Died | 16 July 1664(1664-07-16) (aged 47) Glogau,Silesia |
| Education | Fraustadt |
| Alma mater | Academic Gymnasium Danzig |
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| Era | Baroque-era Germany |
| Movement | German Baroque |
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Andreas Gryphius (German:Andreas Greif; 2 October 1616 – 16 July 1664) was a German poet and playwright. With his eloquentsonnets, which contains "The Suffering, Frailty of Life and the World", he is considered one of the most importantBaroque poets of theGermanosphere. He was one of the first improvers of theGerman language andGerman poetry.
Gryphius was born and raised in Glogau (Głogów),Duchy of Głogów,Silesia. At the age of 33, he married Rosina Deutschländer, with whom he had six children, Christian, Constantin, Anna Rosine, Theodor, Maria Elisabeth, and Daniel.
Andreas Gryphius was the son of Paullus Gryphius, a respectedclergyman and a Lutheran archdeacon of Glogau, originally fromUthleben and Paullus' third wife,[1] Anna (née Eberhardin),[2] who was 32 years younger than her husband, the daughter of a businessman fromFraustadt, the councilor Jonas Deutschländer the Elder (died in 1661) and Anna Sachse.[3] He was born in Großglogau (Głogów). The family name was originally "Greif" and had beenLatinised to "Gryphius" by Andreas' paternal great-grandfather (Peter Greif von Heringen).[4] Left early an orphan and driven from his native town by the troubles of theThirty Years' War, he received his schooling in various places, but notably at Freistadt (Polish:Wschowa), where he enjoyed an excellentclassical education.[5]
In 1634 he went toDanzig (Polish:Gdańsk) where he met professorsPeter Crüger andJohann Mochinger at the Danzig Gymnasium, who introduced Gryphius to the new German language poetry. Crüger had for years close contacts toMartin Opitz, who became known as the 'father of German poetry'. Greatly influenced by Crüger, he is the only one Gryphius dedicated poems to. Gryphius wrote Latin language poetry, German poems and sonnets.
The same year that Gryphius arrived, the printerAndreas Hünefeld publishedMartin Opitz'sBuch von der deutschen Poeterey (Book of German Poetry). The same publisher printed Opitz's translationTetrastichen des Pibrac (Tetrasticha of Pibrac, or four verse) andAntigone. Among Gryphius' benefactors was the city's secretaryMichael Borck, who wrote a German version of the life of Jesus Christ. Borck's illustrated book is still at theGdańsk library. Coming from war riddled Silesia, taking refuge at the big international harbor and aPolish city, greatly stimulated Gryphius. In 1635 he published his second epos ofHerodes,Dei Vindicis Impetus et Herodis Interitus. He dedicated this to the city state council.
In 1636, while still in Danzig, he published theParnassus renovatus in praise of his mentor and patron, the eminentjuristGeorg Schönborner (1579–1637).[6] Later the same year Gryphius became the tutor of Schönborner's two sons, on Schönborner's estate near Freystadt, in Silesia (today,Kożuchów, Poland).[7] A highly educated scholar, Schönborner held various government administrative posts and by that time had been honored byEmperor Ferdinand II with the title ofImperial Count Palatine (Hofpfalzgraf).[8] On 30 November 1637, Schönborner recognized Gryphius's poetic talent by bestowing upon him the title ofpoeta laureatus and master ofphilosophy, as well as apatent of nobility (of which Gryphius, however, never made use).[8][9] Schönborner died less than a month later, on 23 December 1637.[10]
While staying with Schönborner, Gryphius completed his first collection of poems,Sonnete ("Sonnets"), which was published in 1637 by Wigand Funck in Lissa (todayLeszno, Poland), and is also known as theLissaer Sonettbuch, after the town.[11] The collection of 31sonnets includes some of his best known poems, such as "Vanitas vanitatum, et omnia vanitas", later titled "Es ist alles eitel" (All isvanity), about the effects of war and the transitoriness of human life; "Menschliches Elende" (Human misery); and "Trawrklage des verwüsteten Deutschlandes" (Lament of devastated Germany).[12]
In 1632, he had witnessed the pillaging and burning of the Silesian town ofFreystadt by Swedish troops, and immortalized the event in his poemFewrige Freystadt.[citation needed] Also in 1637 he went to continue his studies atLeiden, where he remained for six years, both hearing and delivering lectures. Here he fell under the influence of the great Dutch dramatists,Pieter Corneliszoon Hooft andJoost van den Vondel, who largely determined the character of his later dramatic works.[5]
In 1635 with thePrager Frieden (Peace of Prague), theHabsburgs 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 atCrossen an der Oder (Krosno Odrzańskie) inBrandenburg from the ElectorGeorg 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 inFrance,Italy and SouthGermany, Gryphius settled in 1647 atFraustadt, where he began his dramatic work, and in 1650 was appointed syndic ofGlogau, a post he held until his death. A short time previously he had been admitted under the title ofThe Immortal into theFruchtbringende Gesellschaft ("Fruitbearing Society"), a literary society, founded in 1617 by Ludwig, prince ofAnhalt-Köthen on the model of the Italian academies.[5]
Gryphius grew up during theThirty 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.[citation needed] 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 theKirchhofsgedanken ("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 ofPyramus andThisbe inA Midsummer Night's Dream.Die geliebte Dornrose (1660), written inSilesian 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 theMiles Gloriosus ofPlautus, 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 beenSeneca andVondel. InCarolus Stuardus (1657) he dramatised events of his own day, namely the death of KingCharles I of England; his other tragedies areLeo Armenius (1650);Katharina von Georgien (1657),Cardenio und Celinde (1657) andPapinianus (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.[5]
One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Gryphius, Andreas".Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 12 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 642–643.
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