Le Testament

There are two French one-act plays by this name:

=Le Testament ("The will") by Bernard Le Bovier de Fontenelle =

Le Testament ("The will") is a one act comedy by Bernard Le Bovier de Fontenelle (1657-1757)

The original text
Published in Volume 8 of Oeuvres de Monsiour De Fontenelle by Bernard Brunet, Paris, in 1751.

Performance history in South Africa
To date there have been no records found of any translations or performances of the Fontenelle play done in South Africa.

=Le Testament ("The will") by J.B. Radet=

Le Testament, is a vaudeville style one act play ("comédie en un acte et en prose, mêlée de vaudevilles") by Jean-Baptiste Radet (1752-1830)

The original text
First performed at the Theatre de Vaudeville on 5 October, 1797 Published 1797

Judging from internal evidence, it may have been the source used by Scribe and Delavigne for their "comédie-vaudeville" L'Héritière ("The heir") of 1834 - a play which was translated into Dutch as Het Testament ("Blijspel, met sang") by an anonymous author, and first performed and published in Amsterdam by Westerman en Zoon and Van der Hulst in 1834. It is most probably the translation listed by F.C.L. Bosman (1980) as Het Testament ("The will") and described as a Dutch one act play adapted "from the French"  by P. van der Velde.

Performance history in South Africa
Though no records of performances of the Radet play have been found so far, there have been performances of the Scribe and Delavigne play (in Dutch translation) in 1870 and 1910. (See L'Héritière)

= Sources =

Facsimile version of the 1797 edition of Le Testament, Google E-book

Facsimile version of the original published text of L'Héritière, 1823, Internet Archive

Facsimile version of the 1834 Dutch text of Het Testament of, Google E-book

Gerd Aage Gillhoff. 2013. The Royal Dutch Theatre at the Hague 1804–1876. Springer, p. 176

Facsimile version of Le Testament in the Oeuvres de Monsiour De Fontenelle, Google E-book

Facsimile version of the 1797 edition of Le Testament, Google E-book

F.C.L. Bosman. 1980. Drama en Toneel in Suid-Afrika, Deel II, 1856-1912. Pretoria: J.L. van Schaik: pp. 465, 476.

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