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Steve, A note of correction and some information, which I hope is of some help. Neither Hanswurst nor Pickelhaering turn up until the late sixteenth century and really not often until the seventeenth in German and Austrian comic literature. There are many fools in the shrovetide plays--a tradition which found its end by the end of the sixteenth century--but none of them bear these names. Both Hanswurst and Pickelhaering do turn up in the seventeenth century, however, in popular comic entertainments. Hanswurst appears in a lot of Nachspiele performed in this period and into the 18th century (until Gottsched campaigned for the abandonement of this tradition). Pickelhaering seems less common. There is an interesting confluence of the traditions of travelling English comedians and commedia dell'arte in German comic theater of this time, and Hanswurst and Pickehaering are at the center of it. Check out Andreas Gryphius' "Peter Squentz oder Absurda Comica" for the an interesting use of Pickelhaering as well as a spoof of these traditions. If you're interested, you might also check Goethe's Hanswurst scene in Act 1 of Faust 2 (Kaiserliche Pfalz). Goethe also wrote a short piece entitled Hanswurst's Hochzeit (or something like that). And Reclam, I believe, has an edition of Hanswurstiaden out, though I'm not sure of the editor or exact title. If I come across it, I'll post it. Best of Luck James Erb