GRILLPARZER, FRANZ

Austrian dramatist; b. Vienna, Jan. 15, 1791; d. there, Jan. 21, 1872. Grillparzer studied law at the University of Vienna, and during that time he wrote his first drama, Blanka von Kastilien (1807–09). He entered civil service (1813), advanced to the directorship of the imperial archives (1832), and was pensioned in 1856. Although many circumstances in Grillparzer's life (official displeasure over his historical plays, for example) gave reason for his persistent melancholy, much of Grillparzer's suffering was self-caused by his hypochondria and fear of involvement in life. Die Ahnfrau (1817), a fate tragedy, made Grillparzer famous, but his first great drama was Sappho (1818). Written in classical Goethean style, it states clearly the thesis that the poet must be "un-committed." Even in such "thesis" plays, however, Grillparzer was fascinated by psychological nuances. If this interest weakened his thesis, it helped shape him into a very modern poet; his plays mark the beginning of the psychological drama in Austria and fully support his reputation as one of the greatest of the Austrian playwrights.

Das goldene Vliess (1821), a powerful trilogy, treats a theme of which Grillparzer never tired—that man upsets not only his own inner equilibrium but that of his environment when he aspires to a status that is not his due. This anti-Faust, quietistic attitude is portrayed quite clearly in Der Traum ein Leben (1834). Two tragedies, König Ottokars Glück und Ende (1826) and Ein treuer Diener seines Herrn (1826), based on Austrian history, provoked governmental censorship. In Des Meeres und der Liebe Wellen (1831), a dramatization of the Hero and Leander love tragedy, Grillparzer's dramatic style reached its high point. Weh dem, der lügt (1838) was Grillparzer's only comedy. Its failure when produced caused him to withdraw from play-writing.

After his death, his three greatest works were found among his papers: Libussa, Ein Bruderzwist in Habsburg, and Die Jüdin von Toledo. Bruderzwist is a historical drama; in it Rudolf II (1552–1612) attempts to preserve

the Habsburg Empire through highly conservative politics, a policy of inaction. The effect of his failure, telescoped magnificently in the fifth act, is the chaos of the Thirty Years' War. Grillparzer's best prose piece is Der arme Spielmann (1847).

Bibliography: Historisch-kritische Gesamtausgabe, ed. a. sauer et al. (Vienna 1909–), 43 v. to date; Sämtliche Werke: Ausgewählte Briefe, Gespräche, Berichte, ed. p. frank and c. pÖrnbacher, 4 v. (Munich 1960). Trans. a. burkhard of Medea (3d ed. Yarmouth Port, Mass. 1956); King Ottocar: His Rise and Fall (1962); and Hero and Leander (1962). j. nadler, Franz Grillparzer (Vaduz 1948). a. burkhard, Franz Grillparzer in England and America (pa. New York 1961). c. d. bernd, ed., Franz Grillparzer's "Der arme spielmann" (Camden East 1988). c. h. munschen, Franz Grillparzer (Regensburg 1960). w. c. reeve, The Federfuchser and Penpusher from Lessing to Grillparzer: A Study Focused on Grillparzer's "Ein Bruderzwist in Habsburg" (Montreal 1995). i. f. roe, Franz Grillparzer: A Century of Criticism (Camden East 1995). e. wagner, An Analysis of Franz Grillparzer's Dramas: Fate, Guilt, and Tragedy (Lewiston 1992).

[c. b. giordano]