Les Folies Amoureuses

("The follies of love") A French comedy in verse and in three acts by Jean François Regnard (1655 –1709)

The original text

According to one source[1], the play was first played on 15 February, 1701, though most other sources have 15 January 1704 as the date for the first performance. It was first published in 1704.

Translations and adaptations

Translated into Dutch as De Geveinsde Zotheid door Liefde ("The pretended follies of love") by an anonymous author, and performed under the motto "Constantia et Labore" and published for the first time in Amsterdam by the heirs of J. Lescailje, 1710. This version probably written for performance by a member (or members) of a society working under that motto.

Another, totally new version entitled De Geveinsde Zotheid door Liefde by Geertruide Jacoba Grevelink-Hilverdink, possibly a shortened, one-act adaptation, was published in 1815 by J.G. Rohloff. This is probably the version used in South Africa.

Performance history in South Africa

1851: Performed in Dutch as De Geveinsde Zotheid door Liefde by Tot Oefening en Vermaak on 13 November in the Garrison Theatre in Cape Town, as afterpiece to De Toveres Sidonia (Zschokke). This was a charity performance in aid of those affected by the "Kaffir War" of 1851.

1877: Performed in Dutch as Geveinsde Sotheid door Liefde in December by Door Yver Bloeit de Kunst in the Oddfellows Hall, Cape Town, with Hariadan Barbarossa, Groot Admiraal Van Soliman II (Saint-Victor and Corsse) and a "Kinderballet" ("children's ballet") by Jno Combrink as interlude.