Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 7.djvu/460

440 DRAMA [GEKMAN. The history of the GERMAN drama differs widely from that of our own, though a close contact is observable between them at an early point, and again at relatively recent points, in their annals. The dramatic literature of Germany, though in its beginnings intimately connected with the great national movement of the Reformation, soon devoted its efforts to a sterile imitation of foreign models ; while the popular stage, persistently suiting itself to a robust but gross taste, likewise largely due to the influence of foreign examples, seemed destined to a hope less decay. The literary and the acted drama were thus estranged from one another during a period of extraordinary length ; nor was it till the middle of the 1 8th century that, with the opening of a more hopeful era for the life and literature of the nation, the reunion of dramatic literature and the stage began to accomplish itself. Before the end of the same century the progress of the German drama in its turn began to influence that of other nations, and by the widely comprehensive character of its literature, as well as by the activity of its stage, to invite a steadily increasing interest. Towards the close of the Middle Ages, as has been seen, dramatic performances had in Germany as in England largely fallen into the hands of the civic guilds, and the composition of plays was more especially cultivated by the master-singers of Nuremberg and other towns. Thus, while the scholars of the German Renaissance, who so largely became the agents of the Reformation, eagerly dramatized, both in the Latin and the native tongue, the narratives of the Bible, and sought to suit the scholastic drama to the demands of the times (P. Rebhun, 1 a protegee of Luther, standing foremost among those religious dramatists), it was under the influence of the Reformation also, and of the impulse given by Luther and others to the use of High German as the popular literary tongue, that Hans Sachs, the immortal shoemaker of Nuremberg, seemed destined to become the father of the popular German drama. In his plays, &quot; spiritual,&quot; secular,&quot; and Fastnaclitsspiele alike, the interest indeed lies in the dialogue rather than in the action, nor do they display any attempt at development of character. In their subjects, whether derived from Scripture, or from popular legend and fiction, 2 there is no novelty, and in their treatment no originality. But the healthy vigour and fresh humour of this marvellously fertile author, and his innate sympathy with the views and sentiments of the burgher class to which he belonged, were elements of genuine promise a promise which the event was signally to disappoint. Though the manner of Hans Sachs found a few followers, and is recognizable in the German popular drama even of the beginning of the 17th century, the literature of the Reformation, of which his works may claim to form part, was soou absorbed in labours of a very different kind. The stage, after admit ting novelties introduced from Italy or (under Jesuit supervision) from Spain, was subjected to another and enduring influence. Among the foreign actors of various nations who flitted through the innumerable courts of the empire, or found a temporary home there, special pro minence was acquired, towards the close of the IGth and in the early years of the 17th century, by the &quot; English comedians,&quot; who appeared at Cassel, Wolfenbiittel, Berlin, Dresden, Cologne, ttc. Through these players a number of early English dramas found their way into Germany, where they were performed in more or less imperfect versions, and called forth imitations by native authors. Duke Henry Julius of Brunswick-Liineburg 3 (15G4-1613) 1 Susanna (Geistliches Spiel) (1536), &c. 2 Siegfried; Eulenspiegel, &c. 3 Susanna; Vincentius Ladislaus, &c. and Jacob Ayrer (a citizen of Nuremberg, where he died, 1605) represent the endeavours of the early German drama to suit its still uncouth forms to themes suggested by English examples ; and in their works, and in those of con temporary playwrights, reappears no small part of what we may conclude to have been the &quot; English comedians ;; repertoire.* (The converse influence of German themes brought home with them by the English actors, or set in motion by their strolling ubiquity, cannot have been equal in extent, though Shakespeare himself may have derived the idea of one of his plots 5 from such a source.) But though welcome to both princes and people, the exer tions of these foreign comedians, and of the native imitators who soon arose in the earliest professional companies of actors known in Germany, instead of bringing about a union between the stage and literature, led to a directly opposite result. The popularity of these strollers was owing partly to the (very real) blood and other horrors with which their performances were deluged, partly to the buffoonery with which they seasoned, and the various tricks and feats with which they diversified them. The representatives of the English clowns had learnt much on their way from their brethren in the Netherlands, where in this period the art of grotesque acting greatly flourished. Xor were the aids of other arts neglected, to this day in Germany professors of the &quot; equestrian drama &quot; are known by the popular appellation of &quot; English riders.&quot; From these true descend ants of the mimes, then, the professional actors in Germany inherited a variety of tricks and traditions; and soon the favourite figures of the popular comic stage became conventional, and were stereotyped by the use of masks. Among these, an acknowledged supremacy was acquired by the native Hans Wurst (Jack Pud ding) of whose name Luther disavowed the inven tion, and who is known already to Hans Sachs the privileged buffoon, and for a long series of generations the real lord and master, of the German stage. If that Separati&amp;lt; stage, with its grossness and ribaldry, seemed likely to t&amp;gt; etwe - !1 become permanently estranged from the tastes and^- st; sympathies of the educated classes, the fault was by no nteratun means entirely its own and that of its patron the populace. The times were evil times for a national effort of any kind ; and poetic literature was in all its branches passing into the hands of scholars who were often pedants, and whose language was a jargon of learned affectations. Thus things continued, till the awful visitation of the Thirty Years War cast a general blight upon the nation, and the tradi tions of the popular theatre were left to the guardianship of the marionettes (Puppenspiele) When, in the midst of that war, German poets once more The began to essay the dramatic form, the national drama was literary left outside their range of vision. M. Opitz (1 597-1 G39), J^ 1 who holds an honoured place in the history of the German century. language and literature, in this branch of his labours con tented himself with translations of classical dramas and of Italian pastorals among the latter one of Rinuecini s Daphne, with which the history of the opera in Germany begins, A. Gryphius (1G1G-1664), though as a comic dramatist lacking neither vigour nor variety, and acquainted with Shakespearian as well as Latin and Italian examples, chiefly devoted himself to the imitation of Latin, earlier French, and Dutch tragedy, the rhetorical dialogue of which he effectively reproduced in the Alexandrine metre. Neither the turgid dramas of D. C. von Lohen- steiu (1G65-1G84), for whose Cleopatra the honour of having been the first German tragedy has been 4 Mahomet; Edward III.; Hamlet; Romeo and Juliet, &c. 5 The Tempest (Ayrer, Comedia v. d. Schunen Sidea). 6 Ilerr Peter Squeni (Pyraimis and Thisbc); Uorribilicribrifax (Pistol ?).