Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, "Groups, Theory of" to "Gwyniad": Volume 12, Slice 6Various
Science
Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, "Groups, Theory of" to "Gwyniad": Volume 12, Slice 6
Various
Encyclopedias and dictionaries
See Bayle's _Dictionnaire_; W. T. Streuber in Hauck's
_Realencyklopadie_ (1899); and for bibliography, Streuber's _S.
Grynaei epistolae_ (1847). (A. Go.*)
GRYPHIUS, ANDREAS (1616-1664), German lyric poet and dramatist, was born
on the 11th of October 1616, at 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 Fraustadt, where he
enjoyed an excellent classical education. In 1634 he became tutor to the
sons of the eminent jurist Georg von Schonborn (1579-1637), 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 (_Pfalzgraf_). 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. A month later, on the 23rd of
December 1637, Schonborn died; and next year Gryphius 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 Cornelissen Hooft (1581-1647) and Joost van den
Vondel (1587-1679), who largely determined the character of his later
dramatic works. 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 on the 16th of July 1664. A short time previously he had been
admitted under the title of "The Immortal" into the _Fruchtbringende
Gesellschaft_, a literary society, founded in 1617 by Ludwig, prince of
Anhalt-Kothen on the model of the Italian academies.
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