Limaçon de Dichter

Limaçon de Dichter ("Snail the poet") is a Dutch one-act satirical comedy by Charles Etienne Boniface.

The original text

Basically a slight localised adaptation of De Intrigue aan het Venster, the Dutch version of Das Lustspiel am Fenster by August von Kotzebue, it was written as an attack on the author's former friend and colleague, the poet and playwright J. Suasso de Lima - the "snail" ("Limaçon") of the title.

First published in this form in Cape Town in 1825 and became part of a bitter feud between Boniface and Da Lima, which resulted in a series of biting satirical monologues and duologues by both men, including Zamenspraak tusschen Limançon een Dichter en een Prozaisch Gaskonjer (De Lima), De Twee Slakken, of Limaçon, Sen. en Limaçon, Jun. (Boniface)

1825: First performed by Honi Soit qui Mal y Pense in the African Theatre, Cape Town, on 20 August 1825 followed by De Vrouw met Twee Mannen (De Pixérécourt).