Grillparzer, Franz (1791–1872), Austrian dramatist, the major figure of the Romantic period, whose first play
Die Ahnfrau (
The Ancestress, 1817) was followed by two plays on classical themes,
Sappho (1818) and
Das goldene Vliess (1820). A historical play in the style of Schiller,
König Ottokars Glück und Ende, was banned by the censor for two years because of the resemblance between the career of its hero and that of Napoleon. Finally produced in 1825, it became one of the acknowledged masterpieces of the German-speaking theatre. Of Grillparzer's other plays, which include
Ein treuer Diener seines Herrn (
His Master's Faithful Servant, 1826) and
Des Meeres und der Liebe Wellen (1829), on the story of Hero and Leander, the most important is his adaptation of
La vida es sueño by
Calderón as
Der Traum ein Leben (
Life is a Dream, 1834). Grillparzer's only comedy,
Weh' dem, der lügt (
Thou Shalt Not Lie, 1838), failed on its first production at the Burgtheater, with the result that Grillparzer turned from the theatre and wrote only for his own amusement.
Ein Bruderzwist in Habsburg,
Die Jüdin von Toledo, and
Libussa were published posthumously, being produced in 1872, 1888, and 1874 respectively.
