View source for Coelina, ou L'Enfant du Mystère

''[[Coelina, ou L'Enfant du Mystère]]'' ("Coelina, or The Child of Mystery") is a drama in three acts ("drame en 3 actes, en prose et  à grand spectacle") by René Charles Guilbert de Pixérécourt  (1773-1844)[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ren%C3%A9_Charles_Guilbert_de_Pix%C3%A9r%C3%A9court]. (Also written ''[[Cœlina, ou l’Enfant du Mystère]]'', ''[[Coelina, ou l'Enfant du Mystère]]'')

== The original text ==

This is a stage adaptation of ''[[Coelina, ou L'Enfant du Mystère]]'' , a novel in 5 volumes by François Guillaume Ducray-Duminil[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fran%C3%A7ois_Guillaume_Ducray-Duminil] (1761 - 1819). 

It was first produced in the French original at the Théâtre de l’Ambigue-Comique , Paris on 2 September, 1800; and published in Paris by J. N. Barba in the same year. The play was to be the playwright’s first great popular success.

==Translations and adaptations==

The original novel was translated into English as ''[[A Tale of Mystery, or Celina]]'' by Mrs. Mary Meeke and translated into [[Dutch]] by "S.B." as ''[[Celina, of Het Kind des Geheims]]'' and published in Amsterdam by J.C. van Kesteren in 1824.

The stage play by Pixérécourt was translated into English (without acknowledgement) by Thomas Holcroft (1745-1809) as '''''[[A Tale of Mystery]]''''' (or originally: "A Tale of Mystery, a melo-drame") and was first performed at the Theatre Royal, Covent Garden on 13 November 1802, published the same year in London by R. Phillips. It was  first play to bill itself as a [[Melodrama]] on the English stage.

The Pixérécourt play was translated into [[Dutch]] as  '''''[[Celina, of Het Kind des Geheims]]''''' by Martinus Gerardus Engelman (1772-1823)[http://resources.huygens.knaw.nl/retroboeken/nnbw/#source=4&page=291&accessor=accessor_index].  Published in Amsterdam by  Hendrik van Kesteren, 1809.

== Performance history in South Africa ==

1818: Performed in English (as ''[[The Tale of Mystery]]'') by the [[Gentlemen Amateurs]] ([[Garrison Players]]) with the help of [[Mr Cooke]] and his company of ladies, in the [[African Theatre]], Cape Town on 8 August, with the "Musical Farce " ''[[A House to be Sold]]'' (Cobb).

1823: Performed in [[Dutch]] as ''[[Celina, of Het Kind des Geheims]]'' by [[Honi Soit qui Mal y Pense]] in the [[African Theatre]] on 6 October, with ''[[De Dolzinnige, of De Gewaande Dolleman]]'' (Boniface) and a ''Ballet Pastoral'' composed and directed by ballet teacher [[J.L. Petersen]].

1823: Performed in [[Dutch]] as ''[[Celina, of Het Kind des Geheims]]'' by [[Honi Soit qui Mal y Pense]] in the [[African Theatre]] on 13 December, with the same ''Ballet Pastoral'' by [[J.L. Petersen]].

== Sources ==

Facsimile version of original French text, Gallica Bibliotèque Numérique, BNF[http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k133873r.r=.langFR]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fran%C3%A7ois_Guillaume_Ducray-Duminil

http://www.worldcat.org/title/celina-of-het-kind-des-geheims-tooneelspel/oclc/64827674

https://books.google.co.za/books/about/Celina_of_Het_kind_des_geheims.html?id=1NJOAAAAcAAJ&redir_esc=y

http://www.britannica.com/topic/Coelina-ou-lenfant-du-mystere

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ren%C3%A9_Charles_Guilbert_de_Pix%C3%A9r%C3%A9court

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Holcroft

https://archive.org/details/taleofmysterymel00holciala

Julianne Smith. 2006. Victorian Drama and Undergraduate Periodical Research (Victorian Periodicals Review - Volume 39, Number 4, Winter 2006: pp. 357-364) [https://muse.jhu.edu/journals/vpr/summary/v039/39.4smith.html]

[[F.C.L. Bosman]]. 1928. ''Drama en Toneel in Suid-Afrika'', Deel I: 1652-1855. Pretoria: [[J.H. de Bussy]]. [http://www.dbnl.org/tekst/bosm012dram01_01/]: pp. 154, 277-8,

Go to [[ESAT Bibliography]]

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