ABSTRACT
Gryphius was one of several authors of the seventeenth century (including Martin Opitz, the author of the first vernacular poetical treatise, Buch von der Deutschen Poeterey 1624, and poets of the First and Second Schlesische Dichterschulen such as Friederich Logau and Christian Hofmann von Hoffmanns-Waldau) who made Silesia the centre of German literature and thus added lustre to the prestige of ECG as the form of language in which to write. Gryphius had a broad range which included Latin epics, lyric (he has a reputation as the ‘master of the sonnet form’), prose, tragedy and comedy. The text from which our passage is taken (Das Verlibte Gespenst [VG] and its interlude play Die gelibte Dornrose [GD]) falls into the latter category. As with most literature of the period, it was a commissioned piece – ‘Diese Literatur hatte einen starken Anteil poetischer Kleinkunstwerke aus festlichen Anlässen oder im Auftrag von höfischen oder städischen Mäzenen’ (v. Polenz 1994: 301) – in this instance, written in the summer and autumn of 1660 to celebrate the marriage of the widowed local ruler Herzog Georg III to Pfalzgräfin Elizabeth Maria Charlotte. The play was performed as part of the town celebrations of Glogau put on to welcome the new ‘first lady’ as she made her ceremonial way across Silesia for the wedding ceremony.
