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BOOK IX.

HISTORY OF SHAKSPEARE'S PLAYS IN GERMANY.

CHAPTER I.

FROM THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY TO THE DAYS OF LESSING.

THE points in which German enquiry and German criticism affected the history of Shakspeare's works in England have already been intimated. I shall add to these intimations a short sketch of the relations, the circumstances and events under the influence of which Shakspeare not only became known in Germany, but gradually became established and nationalised there, in fact, a German poet of the most far-famed reputation, of the most universal recognition.*

About the time when Shakspeare was becoming celebrated in London, that is, towards the year 1589, the fame of the excellence of the English stage had extended as far as Germany; this was more especially owing to the travels of men from the higher ranks of German society, for instance, Count Frederick of Mömpelgardt (afterwards Duke of Wirtemberg), who was in England in 1589; also

* In this sketch I have referred principally to the following works: A. Koberstein, Vermischte Aufsätze zur Literaturgeschichte und Aesthetik (Leipzig, 1858); W. Fürstenau, Zur Geschichte der Musik und des Theaters (Dresden, 1861); K. Elze, Die Englische Sprache und Literatur in Deutschland (Dresden, 1864); R. Köhler, Kunst über alle Künste ein bös Weib gut zu machen (a German adaptation of Shakspeare's Taming of the Shrew), Leipzig, 1864; A. Cohn, Shakespeare in Germany in the sixteenth and seventeenth century (London, 1865).

of Prince Louis of Anhalt, whc resided in London in 1593; of Paul Hentzner, a companion of a Baron von Rehdinger, who was there at the begining of the seventeenth century; and of Prince Otto of Hesse, who was likewise in London in 1611. However, it is the latter only who mentions that, among the entertainments provided for him at King James' Court, he saw two of Shakspeare's plays, 'The Tempest' and The Winter's Tale.' The enthusiastic praise bestowed upon these by Prince Otto, probably awakened in his countrymen the desire to become personally acquainted with the famous plays; and the actors also, partly for the sake of gain and partly from the old fondness of Englishmen for travelling, may have been glad to comply with the pressing invitations they received. It may, however, have been that the actors-being conscious of their skill-accidentally, and without any special request, tried their fortune on the continent; we know, at all events, that as early as 1585 the Earl of Leicester's players accompanied him on his journey to Holland. Whatever may have been the inducement that led them to undertake such journeys, this much is certain, that as early as 1603 English musicians and actors appeared before the Court at Stuttgart. And about the same time we hear of English "instrumentalists" at the Courts of Saxony and Brandenburg; these, however, as Cohn points out, were probably actors as well. At a later date (between 1615-1625) there came to Germany by way of Holland and Friesland, another, and, as it seems, a larger and more complete company of players provided with a French passport, which gives the names of the four principal members, and states that the object of their journey was to give performances in music, as well as all kinds of plays, comédies, tragédies, histoires. There can be no doubt that these English companies met with success, and that the acquaintance with the English drama even at that early date influenced the formation of the German theatre. This is proved not only from a humorous poem written by a Frankfurt versifier (quoted by Cohn), but also from the circumstance that the English companies in the course of time made longer sojourns, and, supported by German coadjutors, gradually made tours through the

whole country (the Rhine provinces, Brunswick, Hesse, Brandenburg, Saxony, East and West Prussia, Austria and Steiermark).

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These facts explain the relationship which manifestly existed between the English and the German drama at the end of the sixteenth century. Among the plays written by Duke Julius of Brunswick, which appeared in 1594, there are two which show unmistakable resemblance to Shakspeare's 'Much Ado About Nothing,' and The Merry Wives of Windsor,' but doubtless only because both poets drew their subjects from the same sources, and because the Duke wrote in the English style. For, as we have seen, it is next to impossible that The Merry Wives of Windsor' and 'Much Ado About Nothing,' could have been on the boards before 1594. More doubtful is the case of Jacob Ayrer, who died about 1618; he may have had Shakspeare's Much Ado About Nothing' before him while writing his Geschichte der schönen Phönicia and his Tragödie von Juliet und Hippolyta. I think, however, that even in these plays the resemblance arises from the sameness of the subjects which were taken from Italian novels; this is evidently the explanation of the case of Ayrer's comedy Von der schönen Sidea, the similarity between it and Shakspeare's Tempest,' being confined only to the general features of the story of Prospero. On the other hand, however, there can be no doubt that Andreas Gryphius (1616-64) in his Absurda Comica or Herr Peter Squenz not only had before him the scenes from 'A Midsummer Night's Dream' where the artisans appear, but that he copied them.* It was probably through companies of itinerant English players that Gryphius directly or indirectly, wholly or in part, became acquainted with Shakspeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream.' For it is now an established fact † that, in 1611— at the Court of the Administrator of the Bishopric of Magdeburg, at Halle-English actors played the Merchant of Venice,' and that, among the twenty-five different English pieces played in Dresden in 1626, they gave performances

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*As is proved by Halliwell in his Introduction to Shakespo tre's Midsummer Night's Dream, 1841.

+ Through Cohn's investigations.

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of ' Hamlet,'' Romeo and Juliet,' 'King Lear,' and ‘Julius Cæsar' (?). It is also extremely probable that the unknown authors of the Sehr lamentablen Geschichte von Tito Andronico and of the Unschuldig beschuldigt Innocentia,* made use of Shakspeare's Titus Andronicus' and his 'Cymbeline.' It is also obvious that Der bestrafte Brudermord, oder Prinz Hamlet, is merely a free adaptation of Shakspeare's Hamlet;' it is indeed not printed in the Olla Podrida till 1779, but, according to Cohn, was brought upon the stage by Veltheim's company in 1665. It is equally obvious that the Kunst über alle Künste ein bös Weib gut zu machen † (belonging to the year 1672) is founded upon Shakspeare's Taming of the Shrew.' A third example of this kind of introduction which Shakspeare experienced in Germany is a version of 'Romeo and Juliet,' of which A. Cohn gives a careful reprint.

It can, in fact, scarcely be said that the German public became acquainted with Shakspeare through this species of imitation. The above-mentioned plays, and more especially the two tragedies are stripped of all the poetical fragrance which belongs to the subject in Shakspeare; the representation is intolerably diffuse; the many moralising remarks interwoven, deaden the interest in the dramatic personages as well as in the action itself; the delineation of the characters is insipid and vague; the diction almost invariably prosaic in the extreme, and the expression and versification already give evidence of French influence;-in short the adaptations stand much in the same relation to their originals as a caricature to a portrait.

No wonder, therefore, that Shakspeare's name—which moreover, was not even mentioned by those who had made use of his plays-was almost unknown in Germany during the seventeenth century. Morhof, it is true, mentions Shakspeare in his 'Instructions in the German Language,' but confesses never to have seen anything of

*The first is printed in a work entitled Englische Komödien und Tragödien, published in 1630; the latter in an edition of the same collection published in 1670.

† See Köhler's work referred to above.

Unterricht von der Deutschen Sprache, first edition, 1682.

his or of Beaumont and Fletcher's, but, on the other hand, was acquainted with Ben Jonson's works. Bentham also, in his State of the English Schools and Church,'t which appeared a few years later, speaks of Shakspeare as one of England's 'scholars,' but has nothing more to say of him than that he was born at Stratford in Warwickshire, that his learning was very bad, and that it was, therefore, all the more astonishing to find him an excellent poet; that he possessed great talent, was full of humour and so successful in tragedy as well as in comedy that, he could have moved an Heraclitus to laughter and a Democritus to tears.' However, Berthold Feind (1678-1723), a native of Hamburg -- who, in consequence of his travels had acquired a more refined culture than was usually met with in those days--seems really to have been acquainted with the famous English tragicus,' and has many a thing to say in his favour; but probably it was only when travelling in England that Feind became acquainted with Shakspeare's works.

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Matters remained in this state till towards the middle of the eighteenth century. Even Bodmer-who, in two of his critical treatises (1740-41) mentions the author of 'A Midsummer Night's Dream '-speaks of him in the one by the name of 'Saspar,' and in the second as 'Sasper.' And although this corruption of the name may not-as K. Elze† endeavours to prove-be the result of ignorance, but of an unsuccessful attempt to put the name into a German form, still the substance of the two treatises shows pretty clearly that Bodmer knew Shakspeare only as the author of A Midsummer Night's Dream.' Jöcher, also, seems not to have known much more about Shakspeare than what had been said of him by Morhof and Bentham. In an article in his Dictionary of Learned Men,' he says of Shakspeare only that he had been badly educated, that he knew but little Latin, and yet was very successful in poetry, and then adds, he had a playful mind, but could also be very serious, excelled in tragedy, and had many ingenious and subtle controversies with *Englischer Schul- und Kirchen-Strat.

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† Jahrbuch d. Deutschen Shakesp. Gesellschaft, i. 338.
Gelehrten-lexicon (175( f.).

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