Charles Etienne Boniface

Charles Etienne Boniface (1787 – 1853) was an enormously talented, intelligent and abrasive dramatist, actor, theatre director, dancing instructor, linguist, language teacher, sworn translator, fencing teacher, composer and guitarist, music teacher.

Often referred to as C.E. Boniface or simply as Boniface, and in at least one instance as Ignace Boniface. Over the years he also worked under a number of pseudonyms, especially for his more polemical writing, or his efforts at gaining publicity and self-promotion for himself and his works. These include: "Vyfstar of Wraak" *** and (possibly) "Clavigo".

Biography

Born in Paris on 2 February 1787, the son of a prison warder, he grew up a precocious child who, at "the age of twelve had a grounding in French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Latin, Greek, had written short dramas in the style of Molière, played the guitar and had learned to dance" (Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia[1])

In 1798 Sir Sidney Smith, who had apparently been helped by Boniface's father to escape French imprisonment, assisted the Boniface family to resettle in the Seychelles, where Boniface enrolled in as a cadet in the Royal Navy. When the Cape Colony was annexed once more by the British, Boniface made his way to Cape Town via Mozambique on board a Portuguese slave ship, arriving on 10 February 1806.

In the period 1807 to 1840 he lived and worked in Cape Town, where - due to his amazing aptitude for languages - he managed to learn enough German, Dutch and English to work as a language and music teacher. He was the first person in the Cape Colony known to have noted down the local music. He would also play an enormous role in the development of journalism, theatre, and Dutch and Afrikaans theatre in particular, in Cape Town. For instance he started out his theatrical career by resurrecting the ailing French Amateur Company in 1809 and then became a leading figure in the French/Dutch/English company Honi Soit qui Mal y Pense from 18** till about 1840.

He married Maria Geertruida Heyneman in Cape Town, and had a number of children over the years. She died in 1835.

A key element in his make-up was the dangerous combination of a satiric bent, and a quick and unforgiving temper, which not only lent fire to much of his journalistic and theatrical output, but led to his uncompromising and vicious feuds with a number of Capetonians, most notably with his former friend and colleague J. Suasso de Lima.

In 1844 he fled to Pietermaritzburg, to help C. Moll start the first newspaper in Natal (De Natalier) and practise as an advocate at law, although it is not known of he was involved in theatre whilst resident there.

Never really financially successful, he died in Durban on 10 December 1853, having committed suicide by taking laudanum.

His contribution as journalist

He was a fiery journalist, who was the first writer to use Afrikaans for journalistic purposes when he co-founded and was the first editor of De Zuid-Afrikaan in Cape Town in 1830. He later also co-founded and was the first editor of De Natalier in Durban in 1844. He used the paper to attack various targets and raise many issues, an approach he also carried over into his theatrical work, much of which was published in the journals of the day. For a while his feud with De Lima played a cardinal role in firing up his satiric imagination in poetry, journalism and drama, while his societal targets included the many fanatical philanthropic movements of the time.

His contribution to South African theatre and performance

As a dramatist he wrote a number of plays in Dutch, Afrikaans and even English, many of them produced in Cape Town, as well as translating and adapting works from other languages. Being of a temperamental and somewhat choleric nature, and F.C.L. Bosman (1928, p. 118) claims that he was the first to really make the Cape theatre a site for political, social and personal vendettas.

He produced a number of "firsts" in the Cape theatre, including the first ballet in South Africa (Sappho), the first known South African play in English: Kockincoz, or The Pettifogging Lawyer's Plot (1843) and De Nieuwe Ridderorde of De Temperantisten (also known simply as De Nieuwe Ridderorde or De Temperantisten - 1832), said to be the first true play in Afrikaans-Dutch and possibly his best work.

Other works include poetry and the plays The Blamed Reputation, Het beleg en het nemen van Troyen, l’Enragé, Clasius stupidibus bavianus of Het proces om een komedielootjie (or simply Clasius -1834), the stories Bluettes franco-nataliennes and Le Latanier. He also translated and reworked plays by others, including Robert, Chef de Brigands , 'Dago (a ballet in 3 acts, 1819), De Burger Edelman (from Moliere), )

ALL THE PLAYS STILL TO BE EDITED

[TH, JH]

Sources

F.C.L. Bosman, 1928. Drama en Toneel in Suid-Afrika, Deel I: 1652-1855. Pretoria: J.H. de Bussy. [2]: pp. 5, 8, 44, 50-59, 84-92, 118-145, 163-179, 201, 233-4, 246-7, 257-267, 274-3339, 343-6, 351, 359-375, 392, 441, 452, 488-496, 510.

Mona de Beer, 1995

P.J. du Toit, 1988

Jill Fletcher, 1994;

J.C. Kannemeyer, 1978

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Etienne_Boniface

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