Brunswick-Luneburg[276] (1564-1613) 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
contemporary playwrights, there reappears no small part of what we may
conclude to have been the "English comedians'" _repertoire_.[277] (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[278] from such a source). But, though
welcome to both princes and people, the exertions 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 plays were
deluged, partly to the buffoonery with which they seasoned, and the
various tricks and feats with which they diversified, their
performances. 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. Nor were the aids
of other arts neglected,--to this day in Germany professors of the
"equestrian drama" are known by the popular appellation of "English
riders." From these true descendants 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 Pudding)--of whose name Luther disavowed the invention, 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 stage, with its grossness and ribaldry, seemed likely to become
permanently estranged from the tastes and sympathies of the educated
classes, the fault was by no 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
ha