GRYPHIUS, grifti-us, Ger. pron. grelfe-us, ANDREAS ( 1616-64). A German dramatic poet, whose real name was Greif. He was born at Grossglogau. He studied at Leyden, traveled in France and Italy, and was appointed Syndic of Glogau. The struggles of his youth and the envy of later years, as well as physical weakness, made his lyrics sombre and his epigrams sharp. But his dramatic work, which is far more important, suf fers little from his own experience of the tragedy of life; and the plays Leo Armeenius (1646), hatharina von Georgien (1647), Cardenio and Celinde, and Papinianus, though marred by imita tions of Seneca and of Vondel, show consider able power. His comedies are even better. Peter Squentz, or Absurda Cornice (c.1650), is based on the main episodes of the Midsummer Night's Dream; Horribilicribrif ax, of about the same date, has much the same motive as Plautus's Miles Gloriosus, save that it adds a pedantic scholar, besides a. braggart captain; and Das verlibte
Gespenste (1660), and Die gelibte Dornrose, written in the dialect of Silesia, are full of humor. Several of his plays and lyrics have been reprinted in recent times. Gryphius also translated many Dutch, Italian, and French plays; wrote an epic in Latin, and was considered a marvel of learning, as he knew eleven languages and lectured on logic, anatomy, geography, his tory, mathematics, astronomy, and Roman an tiquities. A fairly complete edition of his works is that published at Breslau (1657-63). Consult: Hermann, Ueber Andreas Gryphius (Leipzig, 1851) ; Klopp, Andreas Gryphius als Dramati ker (Osnabriick, 1852) ; and Wysocki, Andreas Gryphius et la tragedie allemande au XVIleme siecle (Paris, 1893).