Introduction

Biography

Andreas was the son of Paul­lus Gry­phi­us, a Lu­ther­an arch­dea­con of Glo­gau, and Paul­lus’ third wife, An­na Eb­er­har­din, and hus­band of Ro­si­na Deutsch­län­der.

He was edu­cat­ed at the School at Fraus­tadt, Si­le­sia [now Wscho­wa, Po­land], 1631–34, and the Gym­na­si­um at Dan­zig, 1634–36.

After be­ing for some time fa­mi­ly tu­tor in the house of Ba­ron Ge­org von Schön­born, near Frau­stadt (who crowned him as a po­et in 1637), he was forced by the Coun­ter Re­for­ma­tion in Si­le­sia to find re­fuge in Hol­land. He ma­tri­cu­lat­ed as a stu­dent at Ley­den in 1638, and was af­ter­wards till 1643 Uni­ver­si­ty Lec­tur­er.

Thereafter he ac­com­pan­ied the son of a rich Stet­tin [now Szcze­cin, Po­land] bur­gess and two Po­me­ra­ni­an no­ble­men in a tour through France, It­aly, Hol­land, and South Ger­ma­ny, and then, in the end of 1647, set­tled in Frau­stadt.

In 1650 he was ap­point­ed syn­di­cus of the prin­ci­pa­li­ty of Glo­gau, and while at­tend­ing one of the meet­ings of the di­et at Glo­gau, was struck by pa­ra­ly­sis and died in the as­sem­bly house, July 16, 1664.

Gryphius ranks as one of the prin­ci­pal po­ets of Si­le­sia. The troub­lous ev­ents of his life, how­ev­er, cast a gloom ov­er most that he wrote, and his hymns es­pe­cial­ly are sombre in char­ac­ter. He was the first writ­er of Ger­man tra­ge­dies (Leo the Ar­me­ni­an; The Mur­dered Ma­jes­ty; or, Charles Stu­art of Great Bri­tain, &c.) and one of the ear­li­est writ­ers of Ger­man co­me­dy (Herr Pe­ter Squenz; Hor­ri­bi­li­crib­ri­fax; Die ge­lieb­te Dom­rose, an ex­cel­lent lit­tle co­me­dy in Si­le­si­an dia­lect, &c).

Gryphius had be­gun writ­ing son­nets about 1637, and his Son-und Feyr­tage Son­nete were pub­lished at Ley­den, 1639…fol­lowed by his Son­ne­te, Ers­te Buch, 1643…The first (pi­rat­ed) edi­tion of his col­lect­ed po­ems ap­peared as his Teutsche Reim­ge­dich­te, Frank­furt am Main, 1650…and the first au­tho­rised edi­tion as his Teutsch­er Ge­dich­te, Ers­ter Theil, Bres­lau [now Wro­cław, Po­land], 1657.

Julian, p. 473