The Elizabethan Stage, Vol. 2

by E. K. Chambers

iii. ENGLISH PLAYERS ON THE CONTINENT

[Bibliographical Note.—The earliest comprehensive study of the foreign travels of English actors is that of A. Cohn, Shakespeare in Germany in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries (1865). Much material has been collected, mostly since Cohn wrote, in a number of local histories and special studies, of which the most important are: C. M. Plümicke, Entwurf einer Theatergeschichte von Berlin (1781); D. C. von Rommel, Geschichte von Hessen (1820–38); J. E. Schlager, Über das alte Wiener Hoftheater in Sitzungsberichte der phil.-hist. Classe der Kaiserlichen Akad. der Wissenschaften, vi (1851), 147; M. Fürstenau, Zur Geschichte der Musik und des Theaters am Hofe der Kurfürsten von Sachsen (1861); E. Mentzel, Geschichte der Schauspielkunst in Frankfurt am Main (1882); O. Teuber, Geschichte des Prager Theaters (1883); J. Meissner, in Shakespeare-Jahrbuch, xix. 113 (Austria), and Die englischen Comoedianten zur Zeit Shakespeares in Oesterreich (1884); K. Trautmann in Archiv für Litteraturgeschichte, xii. 319 (Munich, Augsburg); xiii. 34 (Suabia), 315 (Ulm); xiv. 113 (Nuremberg), 225 (Suabia); xv. 209 (Ulm, Stuttgart, Tübingen); in Zeitschrift für Vergleichende Litteraturgeschichte, vii (Rothenburg); and in Jahrbuch für Münchener Geschichte, iii. 259; J. Crüger in Archiv für Litteraturgeschichte, xv. 113 (Strassburg); Duncker, Landgraf Moritz von Hessen und die englischen Komödianten in Deutsche Rundschau, xlviii (1886), 260; A. Cohn in Shakespeare-Jahrbuch, xxi. 245 (Cologne); J. Bolte in Shakespeare-Jahrbuch, xxiii. 99 (Denmark and Sweden), and Das Danziger Theater im 16. und 17. Jahrhundert (1893); J. Wolter in Zeitschrift des Bergischen Geschichtsvereins, xxxii. 90 (Cologne); A. Wormstall in Zeitschrift für vaterländische Geschichte und Altertumskunde Westfalens, lvi (1898), 75 (Münster); G. Witkowzski in Euphorion, xv. 441 (Leipzig). A collection of records from the earlier of these and from more scattered sources is in K. Goedeke, Grundriss der deutschen Dichtung aus den Quellen² (1886), ii. 524, and valuable summaries are given in W. Creizenach, Schauspiele der englischen Komödianten (1889), and E. Herz, Englische Schauspieler und englisches Schauspiel zur Zeit Shakespeares in Deutschland (1903). The excursus of F. G. Fleay in Life and Work of Shakespeare (1886), 307, is misleading. Additional material, which has become available since Herz wrote, is recorded by C. F. Meyer in Shakespeare-Jahrbuch, xxxviii. 196 (Wolgast), and C. Grabau in Shakespeare-Jahrbuch, xlv. 311 (Leipzig). Useful special studies are by C. Harris, The English Comedians in Germany before the Thirty Years’ War: the Financial Side (Publ. of Modern Language Association, xxii. 446), A. Dessoff, Über englische, italienische und spanische Dramen in den Spielverzeichnissen deutscher Wandertruppen (1901, Studien für vergleichende Litteraturgeschichte, i), and on the problem of staging (cf. ch. xx) C. H. Kaulfuss-Diesch, Die Inszenierung des deutschen Dramas an der Wende des sechzehnten und siebzehnten Jahrhunderts (1905). A collection of plays and jigs, in German, but belonging to the repertory of an English company, appeared as Engelische Comedien und Tragedien (1620); some of the plays have been edited by J. Tittmann, Die Schauspiele der englischen Komödianten in Deutschland (1880), and the jigs by J. Bolte, Die Singspiele der englischen Komödianten und ihrer Nachfolger in Deutschland, Holland und Scandinavien (1893). German plays written under English influences are to be found in J. Tittmann, Die Schauspiele des Herzogs Heinrich Julius von Braunschweig (1880), and A. von Keller, Jacob Ayrers Dramen (1865). Cohn prints, with translations, Ayrer’s Sidea and Phaenicia, Julio and Hyppolita and Titus Andronicus from the 1620 volume, and early German versions of Hamlet (Der bestrafte Brudermord) and Romeo and Juliet from manuscripts. The literary records and remains of the English players are fully discussed by Creizenach and Herz, and their relation to Ayrer by W. Wodick, J. Ayrers Dramen in ihrem Verhältniss zur einheimischen Literatur und zum Schauspiel der englischen Komödianten (1912).

The material for the Netherlands, some of which was gathered by Cohn, may be studied in J. A. Worp, Geschiedenis van het Drama en van het Tooneel in Nederland (1904–8), who also deals with the Dutch versions of English dramas. The contemporary stage conditions in France are best treated by E. Rigal, Le Théâtre français avant la période classique (1901), and those in Spain by H. A. Rennert, The Spanish Stage in the Time of Lope de Vega (1909), who uses the results of recent researches by C. Pérez Pastor, which have added much to the information furnished by C. Pellicer, Tratado histórico sobre el origen y progresos de la Comedia y del Histrionismo en España (1804).]

Thomas Heywood records, about 1608, that ‘the King of Denmarke, father to him that now reigneth, entertained into his service a company of English comedians, commended unto him by the honourable the Earl of Leicester’.[751] This King of Denmark was Frederick II (1559–88), father of Christian IV (1588–1648), and of Queen Anne of England. English ‘instrumentister’, Johann Krafftt, Johann Personn, Johann Kirck or Kirckmann, and Thomas Bull, were at the Danish Court as early as 1579–80, and in 1585 certain unnamed English played (lechte) in the courtyard of the town-hall at Elsinore, when the press of folk was such that the wall broke down. These may be the same men who played and vaulted at Leipzig on 19 July 1585, and are the earliest English players yet traced in Germany.[752] But the particular comedians referred to by Heywood were probably another company who had accompanied Leicester to Holland, when he took the command of the English forces in 1585, and had given a show, half dramatic, half acrobatic, of The Forces of Hercules at Utrecht on 23 April 1586. Certainly Leicester had in his train one Will, a ‘jesting plaier’, who is now usually identified with William Kempe, and in August and September 1586 the Household Accounts of the Danish Court record the presence of ‘Wilhelm Kempe instrumentist’, and of his boy Daniell Jonns. It is not clear what were the precise relations between Kempe and five other ‘instrumentister och springere’, Thomas Stiwens, Jurgenn Brienn, Thomas Koning, Thomas Pape, and Robert Persj, who were at Court from 17 June to 18 September 1586, and for whom the same accounts record a payment to Thomas Stiuens of six thalers a month apiece, at the end of that period. If he had, as is probable, been their fellow up to that point, he did not accompany them in their further peregrinations.[753] These took them to the Court of Frederick’s nephew, Christian I, Elector of Saxony (1586–91), as a result of correspondence, still extant, between the sovereigns, in which the offer of salaries at the annual rate of 100 thalers overcame the reluctance of the Englishmen to face the perils of an unknown tongue. They started with an interpreter on 25 September, and shortly after their arrival at Waidenhain on 16 October received instructions from Christian to follow him with mourning clothes to Berlin, where he was then sojourning. Christian’s own capital was Dresden, and here they held a formal appointment in his service, under which they were bound to follow him in his travels, and to entertain him with performances after his banquets, and with music and ‘Springkunst’, and were entitled, beyond their pay, to board, livery, and travelling expenses, and a lodging allowance of forty thalers each. The Dresden archives give their names as Tomas Konigk, Tomas Stephan or Stephans, George Beyzandt, Tomas Papst, and Rupert Persten. Their departure from Court is recorded on 17 July 1587.[754] In all these notices music and acrobatic feats are to the fore, but that the men were actors there can be no doubt, for two of them, Thomas Pope and George Bryan, reappear amongst Strange’s men, and thereafter as fellows of Shakespeare in the Chamberlain’s company. Of Stevens, King, and Percy no more is known. Kempe was abroad again, in Italy and Germany, during 1601, and returned to England on 2 September. It is not certain whether he took a company with him, or went as a solitary morris dancer. But it is noteworthy that on the following 26 November an English company, under one Johann Kemp, reached Münster, after a tour which had taken them to Amsterdam, Cologne, Redberg, and Steinfurt. They played in English, and had a clown who pattered in German between the acts.[755]

The man, however, who did most to acclimatize the English actors in Germany was Robert Browne, who paid several visits to the country, and spent considerable periods there between 1590 and 1620. With him he took relays of actors, some of whom split off into independent associations, and account for most, although not all, of the groups of ‘Engländer’ who became familiar figures at the Frankfort spring and autumn fairs and even in out-of-the-way corners of northern Europe. Of some of these groups the wanderings can be traced in outline, although the frequent failure of the archives to record individual names is responsible for many lacunae, which the conjectural ingenuity of literary historians has done its best to fill. Many of these anonymous performances I must pass over in silence.

Robert Browne first appears as one of Worcester’s men, with Edward Alleyn, in 1583, and in 1589 these two, probably as Admiral’s men, still held a common stock of apparel with John Alleyn and Richard Jones.[756] His career abroad begins with a visit to Leyden in October 1590.[757] This was perhaps only tentative, for in February 1592 he was preparing to cross the seas again, and to this end obtained for himself, John Bradstreet, Thomas Sackville, and Richard Jones, the following passport to the States-General of the Netherlands from the Lord Admiral:

Messieurs, comme les présents porteurs, Robert Browne, Jehan Bradstriet, Thomas Saxfield, Richard Jones, ont deliberé de faire ung voyage en Allemagne, avec intention de passer par le païs de Zelande, Hollande et Frise, et allantz en leur dict voyage d’exercer leurs qualitez en faict de musique, agilitez et joeux de commedies, tragedies et histoires, pour s’entretenir et fournir à leurs despenses en leur dict voyage. Cestes sont partant vous requerir monstrer et prester toute faveur en voz païs et jurisdictions, et leur octroyer en ma faveur vostre ample passeport soubz le seel des Estatz, afin que les Bourgmestres des villes estantz soubs voz jurisdictions ne les empeschent en passant d’exercer leurs dictes qualitez par tout. Enquoy faisant, je vous demeureray à tous obligé, et me treuverez très appareillé à me revencher de vostre courtoisie en plus grand cas. De ma chambre à la court d’Angleterre ce x^me jour de Febvrier 1591.

Vostre tres affecsionné à vous fayre plaisir et sarvis,

C. Howard.[758]

Presumably the Lord Admiral gave this passport in his official capacity, as responsible for the high seas, and it is not necessary to infer that the travellers were in 1592 his servants.[759]