espearomanie' (Stuttgart, 1873,
8vo), proved of no effect. In studies of the text and metre Nikolaus
Delius (1813-1888) should, among recent German writers, be accorded the
first place; in studies of the biography and stage history Friedrich Karl
Elze (1821-1889); in aesthetic studies Friedrich Alexander Theodor
Kreyssig (1818-1879), author of 'Vorlesungen uber Shakespeare' (Berlin,
1858 and 1874), and 'Shakespeare-Fragen' (Leipzig, 1871). Ulrici's
'Shakespeare's Dramatic Art' (first published at Halle in 1839) and
Gervinus's Commentaries (first published at Leipzig in 1848-9), both of
which are familiar in English translations, are suggestive but
unconvincing aesthetic interpretations. The German Shakespeare Society,
which was founded at Weimar in 1865, has published thirty-four year-books
(edited successively by von Bodenstedt, Delius, Elze, and F. A. Leo);
each contains useful contributions to Shakespearean study.

On the German stage.

Shakespeare has been no less effectually nationalised on the German
stage. The three great actors--Frederick Ulrich Ludwig Schroeder
(1744-1816) of Hamburg, Ludwig Devrient (1784-1832), and his nephew
Gustav Emil Devrient (1803-1872)--largely derived their fame from their
successful assumptions of Shakespearean characters. Another of Ludwig
Devrient's nephews, Eduard (1801-1877), also an actor, prepared, with his
son Otto, an acting German edition (Leipzig, 1873 and following years).
An acting edition by Wilhelm Oechelhaeuser appeared previously at Berlin
in 1871. Twenty-eight of the thirty-seven plays assigned to Shakespeare
are now on recognised lists of German acting plays, including all the
histories. {346a} In 1895 as many as 706 performances of twenty-five of
Shakespeare's plays were given in German theatres. {346b} In 1896 no
fewer than 910 performances were given of twenty-three plays. In 1897
performances of twenty-four plays reached a total of 930--an average of
nearly three Shakespearean representations a day in the German-speaking
districts of Europe. {347} It is not only in capitals like Berlin and
Vienna that the representations are frequent and popular. In towns like
Altona, Breslau, Frankfort-on-the-Maine, Hamburg, Magdeburg, and Rostock,
Shakespeare is acted constantly and the greater number of his dramas is
regularly kept in rehearsal. 'Othello,' 'Hamlet,' 'Romeo and Juliet,'
and 'The Taming of the Shrew' usually prove most attractive. Of the many