(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_.