110 CHILDREN OF THE CHAPEL AT BLACKFRIARS 
know how long it was maintained. But judging from the infor- 
mation at hand, it seems different from any other English troop 
in Germany, as a brief notice may suffice to show.* 
The first English company of actors came to Germany under 
Robert Brown? in 1592. This organization developed by segre- 
gations and accretions into other companies. 
In 1594 one of these player-troops received the patronage of 
Landgraf Moritz von Hessen-Cassel. Another, possibly about 
the same time, was patronized by Herzog Heinrich Julius von 
Braunschweig, who himself through influence of English actors 
was stirred to write ten dramas. In 1604 another company was 
patronized by Markegraf Christian von Brandenburg. These com- 
panies for several years and their offsprings for three-quarters 
of a century wandered over Germany presenting English plays 
or plays modeled after them, on the market square, in the town 
hall, or other temporary place, and laid the foundations for the 
modern German theatre and drama.* 
*Conclusions on the English act- 
ors in Germany in the paragraphs 
here, and later under the Children 
of the Queen's Revels at White- 
friars, are based upon an examina- 
tion of the original documents as 
published in the following :— 
-—-Albert Cohn, Shakespeare in 
Germany (1865).—Karl Goedeke, 
Grundriss sur Geschichte der 
Deutschen Dichtung (2 Auflage, 
i886), II, 524-42 (Materials assem- 
bled in chronological order ).—Archiv 
fiir Litteraturgeschichte, XIII-XV 
(Trautmann;  Criiger).—Jahrbuch 
der Deutschen Shakespeare Gesell- 
schaft, XVIII (Menzel); XIX 
(Meissner); XXI (Cohn); XXIII 
(Bolte); XXXVIII (Meyer).—E. 
Menzel, Geschichte der Schauspiel- 
kunst in Frankfurt (1882).—Jo- 
hannes Meissner, Die Englischen 
Komédianten sur Zeit Shakespeares 
in Oesterreich (Diss. Wien, 1884). 
—W. Creizenach, Die Schauspiele 
der Englischen Komédianten. FEin- 
leitung. (J. Kiirschner’s Deutsche 
National-Litteratur, XXIII, 1889). 
—Zeitschrift fir Vergleichende 
Litteraturgeschichte und  Renats- 
_Litzmann’s 
sance Litteratur (Neue Folge. Ber- 
lin.), I, (K6nneke); VII, (Traut- 
mann).—Emil Herz, Englische 
Schauspiele und Englisches Schau- 
Spiel sur Zeit Shakespeares in 
Deutschland (Teil I, Diss. Bonn, 
1901. Vollstangige Arbeit in 
Theatergeschichtliche 
Forschungen, Heft XVIII, 1903). 
*As Brown, Kingman, Jones, and 
Reeve, who have much to do with 
these beginnings of the modern 
German theatre, were later active 
in London in establishing the Chil- 
dren of the Queen’s Revels at 
Whitefriars (1610), they are no- 
ticed sufficiently in that connection. 
—See complete work, vols. I, II. 
*See further in complete work, 
vol. I, on German imitations of 
“English comedians” after ca. 1660, 
when the Davenant-Killigrew the- 
atrical monopoly of London throt- 
tled competition and aspiration in 
the art of acting in England, and 
so made the organization of addi- 
tional English companies at home 
or abroad from that time on im- 
possible. 
224 
