SOURCE: Spahr, Blake Lee. “The Tragedies.” In Andreas Gryphius: A Modern Perspective, pp. 68-113. Columbia, S.C.: Camden House, Inc., 1993.

In the following essay, Spahr provides a detailed examination of Gryphius's five tragedies with the goal of appreciating the works as did Gryphius's seventeenth-century contemporaries by considering the intent and scope of German drama in the 16th century.

Today we have the tendency to admit that Gryphius was a better lyric poet than he was a dramatist. As well we might, for it is true. However, we assert it for all the wrong reasons. Again and again we read the discussions of critics concerning the defects (or the good points) of the dramas “from the standpoint of today.” [Szyrocki 1964, 79], for the critics have never resolved the hermeneutic dilemma already mentioned in the Introduction. What should the present-day reader look for while reading the German drama of the Seventeenth...