Englische Komödianten

Englische Komödianten, any of the troupes of English actors who toured the German-speaking states during the late 16th and the 17th centuries, exerting an important influence on the embryonic German drama and bringing with them many versions of popular Elizabethan and Jacobean plays that are of particular interest to modern scholars.

One of the earliest English troupes to visit Europe was that led by Robert Brown, formerly a member of Worcester’s Men. Brown’s actors performed at Leiden in 1591 and by the following year had attracted the patronage of the playwright-duke Heinrich Julius of Brunswick. Several of the duke’s subsequent dramas are thought to contain plot elements from some of the plays of William Shakespeare, including Richard III and The Merry Wives of Windsor. Other groups of English actors quickly followed Brown, touring throughout central Europe.

The English professionals, with their elaborate costumes, properties, and full repertories of new plays, were immediately successful with German audiences. The English clowns were especially popular, and one of them, Robert Reynolds (fl. 1610–40), was such a favourite that his comic character, called Pickelherring, became a stock figure in German farces. The actors overcame the language barrier with the aid of an interpreter and by much use of mime and crude slapstick, violent action, and extravagant emotion. Later actors learned German and joined with German writers in clumsy and macaronic translations of their plays.

Except for the period of the Thirty Years’ War (1618–48), the English companies flourished during the 17th century. They gradually augmented themselves with native actors and actresses, training many of the German professionals who eventually succeeded them.