De Nieuwe Ridderorde of De Temperantisten

De Nieuwe Ridderorde of De Temperantisten (lit. "The New Knighthood/New Chivalric Order, or the 'Temperantists'/People of the Temperance Movement"), is a satirical play in four acts and 26 scenes by Charles Etienne Boniface (1787/8?-1853/4?). Sometimes referred to simply as De Temperantisten.

The original text

The work was for a long time considered the first recorded and certainly the first published play in Dutch-Afrikaans. It h ad been written to satirize the wave of English philanthropic puritanism which was sweeping the Cape at the time, a movement which was ultimately to lead to the founding of the Cape of Good Hope Temperance Society and the freeing of the slaves in 1834 and strong prohibitionist measures against alcohol abuse, and even the anti-theatrical movement. Many supporters of the supporters of these causes are satirized and appear as caricatures in the work. Though written in Dutch, it also contained some of the first Afrikaans on stage, set in the mouths Cape Dutch and drunken "Hottentot" characters, including one "Grietje Drilbouten". Although written in dramatic form as a polemical and satirical burlesque, it was never performed, but only for widely read - for indeed it may have been too virulous to perform. The work appears to be have been very successful, both commercially and polemically, and for a while established Boniface as an important writer.

In the published version of the play (P.A. Brand, Market Square, Cape Town, 1832) it appears on the title-page with the double title of De Nieuwe Ridderorde, with De Temperantisten as the alternative title.