m 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 ("fuer ihre gehabte Muehe eins
fuer 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
Blaetter_, 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 Englaender die in den englischen Handelscompagnien in den Niederlanden
ein Unterkommen gefunden.")--From the _Navorscher_.

J. M.

* * * * *

A GENTLEMAN EXECUTED FOR WHIPPING A SLAVE TO DEATH.

(Vol. vii., p. 107.)

The occurrence noticed by W. W. is, I believe, the only instance on record
in the West Indies of the _actual_ execution of a gentleman for the murder,
by shipping or otherwise, of a slave. Nor is this strange. In the days of
slavery every owner of slaves was regarded in the light of a gentleman, and
his "right to do what he liked with his own" was seldom called in question
by judges or juries, who were themselves among the principal shareholders.
The case of Hodge was, however, of an aggravated character. For the trivial
offence of stealing a mango, he had caused one of his slaves to be whipped
to death; and this was, perhaps, the least shocking of the repeated acts of
cruelty which he was known to have commi