FRISCHLIN, Nicodemus (1547-1590), scholar and poet, was born on the 22d of September 1547, at Balingen, Wurtemberg, where his father was parish minister. He was educated at Tübingen, and in 1568 was promoted to the chair of poetry and history. In 1575 for his comedy of Rebecca, which he read at Ratisbon before the emperor Maxmilian II., he was rewarded with the laureateship and with the honour of knighthood. Some time afterwards he was made a comes palatinus. In 1582 his unguarded language and his reckless life had made it necessary that he should leave Tübingen; he accordingly accepted a quiet mastership at Laibach in Carniola, which he held for about two years. Shortly after his return to the university in 1584, he was threatened with a criminal prosecution on a charge of immoral conduct, to which, it was alleged, he had exposed himself some years previously, and the threat led to his withdrawal to Frankfort in 1587. Of the remaining four years of his life little is recorded. For eighteen months he taught in the Brunswick Gymnasium, and he appears also to have resided occasionally at Strasburg, Marburg, and Mainz. From the last-named city he wrote certain libellous letters, which led to his being arrested in March 1590 at the instance of the authorities of Würtemberg. He was imprisoned in the fortress of Hohenurach, near Reutlingen, where, on the night of the 29th of November 1590, he was killed by a fall in attempting to let himself down from the window of his cell. His prolific and versatile genius produced a great variety of works, which entitle him to some rank both among poets and among scholars. In his Latin verse he has often successfully imitated the classical models; his comedies are not without freshness and vivacity; and some of his versions and ...