GRYPHIUS, ANDREAS (1616-1664), German lyric 'poet and dramatist, was born on Oct. II, 1616, at Grossglogau, 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. In 1634 he became tutor to the sons of the jurist Georg von Schonborn (1579-1637), imperial count-palatine (P f alzgra f) . Schonborn, 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. After Schonborn's death Gryphius went to 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 and Joost van den Vondel. After travelling in France, Italy and South Germany, Gryphius settled in 1647 at Fraustadt, where he began his dramatic work, and was syndic of Glogau from 165o until his death on July 16, 1664.
Gryphius was a man of 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 based on the episode of Pyramus and Thisbe in The Midsummer Night's Dream. Die geliebte Dornrose (166o), written in a Silesian dialect, is simple and graceful, and ranks high among the comparatively small number of German dramas of the 17th century. Horribilicribri f ax (1663) , founded on the Miles gloriosus of Plautus, is a rather laboured attack on pedantry. Besides these three comedies, Gryphius wrote five tragedies, modelled on Seneca and Vondel. They are Carolus Stuardus (1649), Leo Armenius (1646) , Katharina von Georgien (1657), Cardenio and Celinde (1657), the only bourgeois tragedy earlier than Lessing, 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.
A complete edition of Gryphius's dramas and lyric poetry was published by H. Palm in the Stuttgart Literarische Verein (3 vols., 1878, 1882, 1884) .
See O. Klopp, Andreas Gryphius als Dramatiker (1851) ; J. Her mann, fiber Andreas Gryphius (1851) ; T. Wissowa, Beitrage zur Kenntniss von Andreas Gryphius' Leben and Schriften (1876) ; J. Wysocki, Andreas Gryphius et la tragedie allemande au siecle; V. Mannheimer, Die Lyrik des Andreas Gryphius (19o4) ; and W. Flemming, Andreas Gryphius and die Biuhne (1921) .