La Jeunesse de Henri V

A French prose comedy in three acts by Alexandre Duval (Alexandre-Vincent Pineux Duval, 1767-1842)[1].

The original play

Performed in the Théâtre Français, on 9 June, 1806 and at St Cloud before the royal family on 22 June. Published in Paris in 1806.

Translations and adaptations

Translated into Dutch by С. Vandevyver as De Jeugd van Hendrik den Vyfde. Performed on 2 March, 1819 in the "Schauwburg van Rhetorica" in Gand (=Ghent), Belgium.

Translated into English as The Two Galley Slaves, a "Melo-drama, in Two Acts" by John Howard Payne (1791-1852)[2]. The translation first performed at the Theatre Royal, Covent Garden 16 November, 1822, and the Park Theatre New York on October 27, 1823. Published by John Cumberland (no date given in the text, but it is clearly in 1822).

Performance history in South Africa

This play was apparently very popular in Cape Town during the mid-19th century.

1825: Produced in English by the Garrison Players in the African Theatre, Cape Town on 27 August, with as afterpiece the farce X.Y.Z. (Colman the Younger).

1829: Performed in English in Cape Town by the Cape Town Amateur Company on 20 June with The Liar (Foote) as afterpiece.

1830: Performed in English in Cape Town by All the World's a Stage on 19 June, as afterpiece to The Gambler's Fate, or A Lapse of Twenty Years (Thompson). Billed as a "Petite Comedy" on this occasion.

1831: Performed once more ("by special request") in Cape Town by All the World's a Stage on 11 June, as afterpiece to The School of Reform, or How to Rule a Husband (Th. Morton).

1831: Performed in Cape Town by All the World's a Stage on 12 November, as afterpiece to The Innkeeper of Abbeville, or The Ostler and the Robber (Fitzball) and Blue Devils (Colman the Younger).

1833: Performed in Dutch as De Jeugd van Hendrik den Vyfde on 10 August Door Yver Bloeit de Kunst in the African Theatre , with De Helleveeg (Loosjes).