In many respects Heinrich Julius, Duke of Brunswick, epitomized the role of a late-Renaissance German prince. A patron of the arts known for his support of the painter Hans von Aachen and the composer Michael Praetorius, Heinrich Julius was himself a talented amateur who dabbled in literature, music, and painting. A determined, ambitious, and often unprincipled ruler, he was a formidable legal scholar, a resolute friend, and an implacable foe. Literary historians know him best for the eleven dramas he composed in the early 1590s, the period during which his Wolfenbüttel court led the rest of Germany in hosting the newly arrived English comedians; the duke's literary efforts clearly reflect the influence of these foreign actors. The final years of his life also made him somewhat of a celebrity on the central European political stage. Between 1607 and his death in 1613 he was to rise to the...