Friedrich Friese's dialect comedy of 1687: A taste of Altenburg school theatre

The little-known work of Friedrich Friese, pupil and then teacher at the sc hool in Altenburg during the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centurie s, displays an interest in the popular culture of his day which he united w ith pedagogic responsibilities. His interest in the customs of the peasant and artisan classes is reflected in his preference for the comic genre, whi ch traditionally focuses on behaviour and misbehaviour among the lower soci al levels. Frieses work offers insights into school theatre in Altenburg, w hich flourished in the seventeenth century but has as yet attracted little scholarly attention. The school not only put on hitherto unrecorded perform ances of plays by the well-known Christian Weise and Andreas Gryphius; betw een 1660 and 1703 it also presented independent dramas to mark the annual G regoriusfest. This civic school festival originated in ancient Rome and had many popular elements. Although it was widely celebrated in early modern G ermany, celebration in Altenburg was particularly highly developed. Friese prepared several comedies for performance in Gregoriusfeste as Nachspiele t o the main, more elevated dramatic pieces by the current Rector of the scho ol. The text of his dialect comedy of 1687 is reprinted at the end of this article as a sample of his work and of Altenburg school theatre.