Les Folies Amoureuses

Les Folies Amoureuses ("The follies of love") is a French comedy in verse and in three acts by Jean François Regnard (1655 –1709)

The original text
According to one source, the play was first played on 15 February, 1701, though most other sources have 15 January 1704 as the date for the first performance. It was first published in 1704.

Translations and adaptations
Translated into Dutch as De Geveinsde Zotheid door Liefde ("The pretended follies of love") by an anonymous author, and performed under the motto "Constantia et Labore" and published for the first time in Amsterdam by the heirs of  J. Lescailje, 1710. This version probably written for performance by a member (or members) of a society working under that motto.

Another, totally new version entitled De Geveinsde Zotheid door Liefde by Geertruide Jacoba Grevelink-Hilverdink, possibly a shortened, one-act adaptation, was published in 1815 by J.G. Rohloff. This is probably the version used in South Africa.

Translated and adapted into English as The Follies of Love by Frank J. Morlock (c)1987.

Performance history in South Africa
1851: Performed in Dutch as De Geveinsde Zotheid door Liefde by Tot Oefening en Vermaak on 13 November  in the Garrison Theatre in Cape Town, as afterpiece to De Toveres Sidonia  (Zschokke). This was a charity performance in aid of those affected by the border war of 1851 (called the "Kaffir War" at the time).

1877: Performed in Dutch as Geveinsde Sotheid door Liefde  in December by Door Yver Bloeit de Kunst in the Oddfellows Hall, Cape Town, with Hariadan Barbarossa, Groot Admiraal Van Soliman II (Saint-Victor and  Corsse) and a "Kinderballet" ("children's ballet") by Jno Combrink as  interlude.

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