De Oudste Zoon

De Oudste Zoon ('the eldest son") is a Dutch play in two acts ascribed to a "P. van de Velde" (fl. 1860s?).

The original text

According to F.C.L. Bosman (1980) the play is an original "tragedy" by Van de Velde, which suggests the author may possibly have been a local writer and a member of Aurora II in the 1868.

However, Van de Velde is also mentioned by Bosman as the translator (from the French) of a piece called Het Testament, which does suggest that this De Oudste Zoon may also have been an early adaptation by Van de Velde of a French text, in this case Le Fils aîné de Veuve ("The eldest son of the widow")[1], a one-act French "drame-vaudeville" by Edmond-Frédéric Prieur Lubize (published by Jouhaud, 1836).

Another Dutch play - De Oudste Zoon des Huizes ("The eldest son of the house") by H.P. Dewald - also appears to have been a version of Lubize's French text. Published in 1886 it is referred to as a short Dutch play in 2 acts, written for the Rederijkers.

Translations and adaptations

Performance history in South Africa

1868: A reading of the De Oudste Zoon was done in the hall of the Germania Liedertafel, Cape Town by Aurora II on 6 August, along with a performance of Jan Sukkel by Wijnstok.