ENGLISH COMEDIANS IN GERMANY.
(Vol. ii., pp. 184. 459.; Vol. iii., p. 21.; Vol. vii., pp. 114. 360.)
In 1605 the English comedians first appeared in Prussia. In October they performed before the Duchess Maria Eleonora at Koningsberg, for which they were well paid; they then proceeded to Elbing, whence they were dismissed with twenty thalers, since they produced scandalous things ("weil sie schandbare Dinge fürgebracht"). In 1607, they were again sent away, after they had performed the preceding year at Rostock. Some time after, the Elector of Brandenburg, Joh. Sigismund, employed a certain noble, Hans von Stockfisch, to obtain a theatrical company from England and the Netherlands. A troop of nineteen comedians, under the direction of John Spencer, came with sixteen musicians to add lustre to the electoral feasts. In 1611, they received 720 marks, as well as many hundred ells of various stuffs for costumes and decorations; of which great quantities were used in 1612. Many a time was it necessary to ransom them at great cost from inns and lodging-houses; so that the prince, in 1613, resolved to rid himself of these dear guests, and gave them a recommendation to the Elector of Saxony. In 1616 we find them in Dantzic, where they gave eight representations; and two years later, the Electress of Brandenburg, through Hans von Stockfisch, procured eighteen comedians, who performed at Elbing, Koningsberg, and other places, and were paid for their trouble ("für ihre gehabte Mühe eins für alles") 200 Polish guilders.
In 1639, English comedians are again found in Koningsberg; and, for the last time, in 1650, at Vienna, where William Roe, John Waide, Gideon, Gellius, and Robert Casse, obtained a license from Ferdinand I.
In 1620 appeared a volume of Englische Comedien und Tragedien, &c. (2nd edit., 1624), which was followed by a second; and in 1670 by a third: in which last, however, the English element is not so prominent.
These statements of Dr. Hagen are confirmed by numerous quotations from original documents, published by him in the Neue Preuss. Provincial Blätter, Koningsb., 1850, vol. x.; vid. et Gesch. der Deuts. Schauspielk., by E. Devrient, Leipzic, 1848. Professor Hagen maintains, that in the beginning of the seventeenth century, the English comedies were performed in Dutch; and that, in Germany, the same persons were called indifferently English or Dutch comedians. They were Englishmen who had found shelter under the English trading companies in the Netherlands ("Es waren Engländer die in den englischen Handelscompagnien in den Niederlanden ein Unterkommen gefunden.")—From the Navorscher.
J. M.