Table Of ContentTHE ROYAL DUTCH
THEATRE AT THE HAGUE
The
Royal Dutch Theatre
at
THE HAGUE
1804 - 1876
BY
GERD AAGE GILLHOFF
SPRINGER-SCIENCE+BUSINESS MEDIA, B.V.
ISBN 978-94-017-0014-6 ISBN 978-94-015-7539-3 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-94-015-7539-3
Copyright I938 by Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht
Originally published by Martinus Nijhoff, The Hague, Netherlands in 1938
All rights reserved, including the right to translate or to
reproduce this book or part thereof in any form
TABLE OF CONTENTS
FOREWORD .. VII
INTRODUCTION. . . . . . . . . . . . 1
FIRST CHAPTER: THE MANAGEMENT. 5
SECOND CHAPTER: THE REPERTORY
A. INTRODUCTION
1. General remarks . . . 28
2. Numerical information 31
3. The Translations. . 32
4. The Critics . . . . 33
B. THE FRENCH PLAYS • 38
1
C. THE GERMAN PLAYS • 54
D. THE DUTCH PLAYS. • • 70
E. THE ENGLISH PLAYS •• 86
THIRD CHAPTER: THE PERFORMANCES 89
FOURTH CHAPTER: THE PERFORMERS. 103
FIFTH CHAPTER: GUESTS. 133
CONCLUSION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145
BIBLIOGRAPHY. . . . . . . . . . . . . 147
APPENDIX. LIST OF PLAYS PRODUCED BY THE
REGULAR DUTCH COMPANY ATTHEHAAGSCHE
SCHOUWBURG, 1804-1876 • • . . . . . . . • •. 151
FOREWORD
The history of the Koninklijke Nederduitsche Schouwburg
(Royal Dutch Theatre) at The Hague begins in I804. although the
theatre did not bear that name until Willem I granted it an annual
subsidy a decade later. The present investigation covers the years from
I804 to I876 because the company of Royal Dutch Players which was
disbanded in the latter year had its origin in the group of actors that
gave the opening performance of the new theatre on the K-orte V oorhout
in the spring of I804. During the entire seventy-two years there were no
important changes of policy at the Royal Dutch Theatre; it was not
until I876 that a new period commenced in the theatrical life of the
court city and of Holland. Although the Dutch players made frequent
appearances in other towns and cities, particularly in Rotterdam and
Leiden, the author has limited himself as much as possible to a dis
cussion of their activities at The Hague.
There is an almost complete absence of newspaper criticism on
the Haagsche Schouwburg throughout the first three fourths of the
Nineteenth Century, but this lack would be far more serious if the
greater part of the period, at least from about I830 to I876, had not
been one of theatrical and dramatic poverty . We have enough sources
to know that the performances and plays were rarely better than me
diocre. The little newspaper criticism available is usually of such an
adulatory nature that it can hardly be called helpful.
As late as I874 a critic signing himself "Ecca" wrote, "We have
here (in The Hague) three newspapers, the Haagsche Nieuwsbode,
the Vaderland, and the Dagblad, and none of them seems to have a
regular editor or stall writer tor dramatic criticism as distinct trom
opera and concert reviewing. The local actors are so little accustomed
to serious comments that when the Vaderland recently expressed its
disapproval of the stage appearance made by a child ot Mr. Spoor (a
member of the company), who had been trained to play the title role in
Het welbewaakte kind, Mr. Spoor protested against this reprimand
x FOREWORD
in a manner and with a violence that disclosed a most unreasonable
irritability" 1).
The sources on which this study is chiefly based are a fairly com
plete collection of playbills issued by the successive directors of the
Haagsche Schouwburg from December 7, I8I9, to May 3I, I867,
the theatre advertisements in the leading newspaper of the court city,
the Haagsche Dagblad, and the three periodicals, De Tooneelkijker
(I8I6-I9), De Spectator (I842-S0), and Ret Nederlandsch Too
neelfrom I872 on. Because the files of the Haagsche Dagblad con
sulted by the author at the Municipal A rchives of The Hague are very
incomplete for the years from I804 to I8I9, itwas unfortunately not
possible to draw up a list of the entire repertory of the period. The
excellence of the reviews in De Tooneelkijker was probably not at
tained by any other group of writers on the Dutch theatre before the
close of the century. The periodical is devoted almost entirely to the
Amsterdamsche Schouwburg, and contains scant information about
the company of Ward Bingley at The Hague, but its discussions of
the plays produced in A msterdam proved very valuable since the
repertories of the two companies were almost identical during the
early decades of the period, if not later. The comments were written
by devoted and discerning students of the drama, they are witty and
caustic when they are not excessively moralizing and didactic. Both
De Spectator and Het Nederlandsch Tooneel contain a large num
ber of reviews of performances given at the Raagsche Schouwburg.
Very helpful also were the issues of the Noord- en Zuid Nederland
sche Tooneel-Almanak, 1875-79.
The collection of playbills mentioned above was purchased in I9IO
from Martinus Nijhoff, the Dutch publisher and antiquarian, by the
Acquisition Division of the New York Public Library. The attention
of the interested public was first drawn to it by Professor Adriaan J.
Barnouw of Columbia University in the January I934 issue of the
Monthly Letter published by the Netherland-America Foundation.
The playbills are bound together in eleven stout volumes and con
stitute a valuable record of dramatic production in Holland over a
period of almost fifty years. The collection is the more valuable be
cause it is by far the completest in existence. From notes, corrections
of misprints, and changes in the cast and selection of plays scribbled
1) Het Nederlandsch Tooneel. III. p. 283.
FOREWORD XI
on many of the programs it is apparent that they were collected and
filed for reference by the successive directors of the company. Through
out the period the bills were frequently phrased in the form of a letter,
which was probably mailed to the subscribers a few days in advance
of the performance. "Mijnheer," say Messrs. Hoedt and Bingley at
the top of the bill, lIon Monday next we shall have the pleasure of
presenting .... " and they conclude the announcement with the for
mula, "In the hope that this representation may be honored with your
presence, we have the pleasure of calling ourselves respectfully yours
H oedt and Bingley."
Research for this investigation was done in the following libraries:
the New York Public Library, the Columbia University Library, the
Royal Library and the Municipal Archives at The Hague, and the
Bavarian State Library at Munich. Especial acknowledgment is due
the Columbia University Library, which acquired a large number of
the sources essential to the completion of this study.
J.
The author owes a great debt to Professor Adriaan Barnouw
who suggested the subject and under whose guidance the study was
written. He is deeply grateful to Professor Robert Herndon Fife of
Columbia University, who gave unsparingly of his time and counsel.
Very helPful also were the suggestions of Professors Hugh W. Puckett
and H. H. L. Schulze.
INTRODUCTION
During the greater part of the Nineteenth Century the Dutch
theatre presents a desolate aspect. The plays and perfonnances
given at the three theatrical centers of Holland, Amsterdam, Rot
terdam, and The Hague, were rarely more than mediocre. This
was particularly true of the period from about 1820, when the
great tragedienne Johanna Wattier was no longer active in the
theatre and when Ward Bingley was dead, to the beginning of the
last quarter of the century. These years were, to be sure, not
totally devoid of gifted players. During the greater part of the
'Twenties, Andries Snoek and Geertruyda Jacoba Grevelink-Hil
verdink were still playing at the Amsterdamsche Schouwburg, and
later Holland had such talented perfonners as Anton Peters, Jaco
ba Maria Naret Koning-Majofski, and Suze Sablairolles. But the
period as a whole is uninteresting. The majority of the players
were poorly equipped for their career, the foreign plays given were
worthless. and the Dutch dramatic muse was silent.
There are those who would explain this barrenness by simply
voicing the trite opinion that the Dutch people have no talent for
the theatre and the drama, for music and dancing. This erroneous
belief completely ignores the Seventeenth Century, when few
countries had a richer national drama than Holland and when
Dutch acting was highly regarded beyond her borders. During the
late Seventeenth and early Eighteenth Centuries Dutch companies
made several tours through parts of Gennany and the Scandina
vian countries where they were wannly received and in some cases
officially honored. These tours affected the development of the
theatre and drama of the countries visited. One has but to mention
the name of Andreas Gryphius to realize the debt which the
Gennan Baroque drama owes to Holland.
The chief cause for the decline of the Dutch theatre and drama
in the Eighteenth and the greater part of the Nineteenth Centuries
Gillhoff, Theatre
2 INTRODUCTION
must be sought in Holland's dependence on French culture
during this time. The influence of German on Dutch literature
was almost negligible. As a nation the Dutch are far less closely
allied to the Germans than, for instance, the German Swiss; they
are as distinct from them as the Danes, Swedes, and Nornegians.
They, too, jealously, guard themselves from any sign of depend
ence upon the Germans; they turn away anxiously and deliberate
ly, preferring to look to the English and, above all, to the
French. The Eighteenth Century saw a few imitators of Klopstock,
Wieland, Ewald von Kleist, and Burger among the Dutch poets.
Only the early Goethe was a literary influence in Holland. There
were a number of Ritterdramen, as, for example, Ida van Falken
stein and A. Cramer's Ret geraamte, 01 de Leeuwenridders (1812),
which might never have been written without Goethe's G6tz von
Berlichingen, and R. Feith composed a few novels in the Werther
manner; but the Dutch much preferred the sentimentality of
Rousseau to that of Werther. Schiller succeeded merely in causing
the worshippers of French classicism to cry out in horror, although
later a few of his plays, notably Don Carlos, had some influence on
the Dutch drama. The German Romantic School was completely
ignored in Holland, whereas the French and English Romanticists
soon found their ardent admirers, especially Sir Walter Scott,
Lord Byron, Victor Hugo, and Alfred de l\fusset. During the early
Nineteenth Century English prose and poetry made a deep
inlpression in Holland, but in the drama the French continued to
be the only ones who supplied models considered worthy of study
and imitation. The serious Dutch dramatists wrote tragedies in
the manner of Corneille, Racine, and Voltaire, and the lesser
playwrights aped the French vaudevillists and melodramatists.
For a period of more than two hundred years, at least from the
latter part of the Seventeenth to the end of the Nineteenth
Century, the upper classes in Holland, who had perfect command
of the French language, much preferred French to Dutch thea
trical performances. The belief was generally accepted that the
French drama and theatre had no equal anywhere. This was
especially true of The Hague, where the stadtholders and later
the kings were liberal patrons of French companies. Since the
Court patronized the French players, the middle classes considered
it fashionable to do the same, and even the kitchen-maids of well-
INTRODUCTION 3
to-do families and the grocers serving the Court considered it
beneath their dignity to honor a Dutch performance with their
presence. The Dutch theatres were attended by the lower classes,
but even here the French influence was strong, for the manage
ment often hastened to present in Dutch a play that had been
successfully staged by a French company in the same town or city.
Those persons who did not understand spoken French were
frequently eager to see a popular French play in translation so
that they, too, might be "in the know". Gradually more and more
native plays disappeared from the Dutch repertories, and they
were almost always replaced by French pieces. During the years
of French military occupation at the end of the Eighteenth and
the beginning of the Nineteenth Century the Dutch stages were
inundated with French vaudevilles, comedies and melodramas,
and there was hardly any reaction against this when Holland had
regained her freedom. The Dutch theatres did not then turn to the
English or German drama; they continued to present more and
more French plays.
Men of letters in Holland were themselves too great admirers of
French classicism to be able to remedy this situation. They
continued to decry the barbarism of Shakespeare and Schiller and
to hold up classical models to those aspiring to write for the stage.
No wonder, then, that they exercised little influence, that they
were voices crying in the wilderness. It is true that some library
dramatists attempted to meet the changing literary taste half
way, but their lucubrations, which were neither classical nor
romantic, created little stir and received as few performances as
the creations of their duller classical predecessors. It was not until
the 'Forties that a real dramatic genius appeared in Holland - H.
J. Schimmel, whose early verse dramas have some of the glow and
ardor of Victor Hugo's works. But it can hardly be said that the
Dutch have had a romantic drama of their own. Even Schimmel
soon adopted a sort of poetic realism.
Dutch literary genius, like Dutch graphic art, finds its most
felicitous expression in the faithful portrayal of Dutch life and
landscape. It tries to reproduce what it sees truthfully and
sincerely, without flattery or posturing for effect. It represents
reality, proclaiming the sensuous delights of earthly life and
resting upon the contemplation of joys that ravish the eye. This is
