Cologne.[1] Subsequently they waited upon Francis, Duke of Stettin and by him were recommended to the new Elector of Brandenburg, John Sigismund, who passed them on once more to the Elector of Saxony on 14 July 1609.[2] Being in need of comedians for his brother's wedding in the same year, he applied, as has been noted, for a loan of those of Maurice of Hesse.[3] Dresden remained the head-quarters of Spencer's men again during the next two years, but in 1611 they were back in John Sigismund's service. Christian II of Saxony died in this year. In July and August they visited Danzig and Königsberg, and in October and November they attended the Elector to Ortelsburg and Königsberg for the ceremonies in connexion with the acknowledgement of him as heir to his father-in-law, Duke Albert Frederick of Prussia. On this occasion Spencer was at the head of not less than nineteen actors and sixteen musicians, and produced an elaborate Turkish 'Triumph-comedy'.[4] In April 1613 Spencer left Berlin on a tour which was to take him to Dresden once more.[5] The company were at Nuremberg in June, still using the name of the Elector of Brandenburg and playing Philole and Mariana, Celinde and Sedea, The Fall of Troy, The Fall of Constantinople, and The Turk.[6] In July and August they were at Augsburg, and in September they returned to Nuremberg, now describing themselves as the Elector of Saxony's company.[7] This Elector was John George I (1611-56), the third of his house to entertain an English company. In October they played The Fall of Constantinople at the Reichstag held by the Emperor Mathias at Regensburg. Spencer was their leader, but they no longer claimed any courtly status.[8] After an unsuccessful attempt to pay a third visit for the year to Nuremberg, they went to Rothenburg, and so to Heidelberg, whither the Elector Palatine Frederick V had just brought his English bride. Here they spent the winter, and left to attend the Frankfort fair of Easter 1614.[9] In May their service with the Elector of Brandenburg, although
- ↑ Wolter, 93.
- ↑ L. Schneider, Geschichte der Oper in Berlin, Beilage, lxx. 25; Fürstenau, i. 77.
- ↑ Cf. p. 283.
- ↑ Cohn, lxxxiv.
- ↑ Ibid. lxxxvii.
- ↑ Archiv, xiv. 128. Philole and Mariana may be Lewis Machin's The Dumb Knight, and The Turk Mason's play of that name. Celinde and Sedea had formed part of a repertory at Rothenburg in 1604 apparently related to those of Green; cf. p. 284. Spencer is not recorded to have played any other piece found in Green's repertories.
- ↑ Archiv, xii. 320; xiv. 128.
- ↑ Schlager, 168; Elze in Sh.-Jahrbuch, xiv. 362; Meissner, 53, and in Sh.-Jahrbuch, xix. 120.
- ↑ Archiv, xiv. 129; Zeitschrift für vergl. Litt. vii. 64; Mentzel, 58.
