Boniface – Permission to stay

by Mansell G. Upham ©  

Cartoon depicting the ‘Paradise of Fools’ [James Gillray (1757-1815), End of the Irish Farce of Catholic Emancipation (17 May 1805) – Etching with hand colour. Graphic Arts Collection GAX 2013- in process]

“If Milton had lived in our times and had travelled a little, he would have located his Paradise of Fools not on the moon but in Africa, at 34˚ 35 ‘ [sic – error for 34˚ 55 ‘ being Cape Town’s actual position] south of the equator …

– Charles-Etiénne Boniface (1787-1853), “Relation du naufrage du navire franca̧is L’Eole, sur la côte de la Caffrerie, en Avril 1829”

[Note: In John Milton, “Paradise Lost Book” (1667) III, line 496, the ‘Paradise of Fools’ or ‘Limbo of Vanity’ is inhabited after death, by those who, in this life, sought to achieve heaven by pursuing riches]

And now St Peter at heav’n’s wicket seems
To wait them with his keys, & now at foot
Of heav’ns ascent they lift their feet: – when lo!
A violent cross-wind from either coast
Blows them transverse, ten thousand leagues awry
Into the devious Air: then might ye see
Cowls, hoods, & habits, with their wearers, tost,
And flutter’d into rags; then Reliques, Beads,
Indulgences, Dispenses, Pardons, Bulls,
The sport of winds! – All these upwhirled aloft
Fly o’er ye backside of the world far off
Into a Limbo large, & broad, since call’d
The Paradise of Fools!

Charles-Etiénne Boniface (1787-1853) aka « Le Mordant » (‘the Ascerbic One’)…

Author (as well as the personification) of « L’Enragé » (‘the Enraged One’) … humbug-hater par excellence, he arrives (10 February 1807) at the Cape of Good Hope via Mozambique from Mahé in the Seychelles on board the Portuguese ship (also slaver) General Isidro.

Soon thereafter, he joins the French-oriented theatrical troupe known as the Franse Gezelschap at the African Theatre on Hottentot Plein [now St Stephen`s Dutch Reformed Church on Heritage Square – previously known as Van Riebeeck Plein and prior to that as Boeren Plein.

Henry Clifford de Meillon (London, England c. 1800 – Port Elizabeth, Cape Colony 31 May 1858)

At Cape Town’s then only theatre, he becomes an associate of the vrijgeboren (‘free-born’) Bastaard Hottentot and musician:

• Hendrik Caesar

and his sensational protégée,

• Saartje Baartman (Cape of Good Hope c. 1789- Paris 29 December 1815) aka the Hottentot Venus.

We know about his arrival at the Cape from his letter (addressed to the Cape Governor), requesting permission to stay in the colony, and which I have transcribed from the original document now housed at the Cape Archives on the site of the old Roeland Street Gaol, Cape Town:

16 September 1807:           Memorial to Lord Caledon

Lord Caledon

                To His Excellency Dupré Earl of Caledon, Governor and Commander in Chief &a &a &a

                The Memorial of Charles Boniface

                Respectfully Sheweth

                That your Excellency’s Memorialist arrived here in the Portuguese ship General Isidro as a passenger on the 10^th of February last, that since that period he has taught the French and English languages; he therefore respectfully requests your Excellency’s, permission to remain in this Colony Memorialist being ready to comply with all such regulations and restrictions as your Excellency may please to prescribe.

                And your Excellency’s Memorialist as in duty bound shall ever pray

                [signed] C. Boniface

                Cae [sic] Good Hope September 16^th 1807

                No. 208

Charles-Etiénne Boniface (1787-1853) is born in Paris, France … a natif de France –

He is the son of the gaoler, revolutionary, terrorist and apprehended assassin (mistakenly thought by some to be an ‘aristocrat’ and ‘adjudant-general’), banished to the Seychelles:

• Antoine Boniface (dies 1805)

and his equally revolutionary, blood-letting wife

• Bénigne de Fleuret …

A man of many parts, he is inter alia the eccentric author and producer of original plays, pantomimes and ballets (in both French and the contemporary Cape Dutch patois / proto-Afrikaans) as well as adaptations, poems, songs, musical compositions, allegories, historical works and satires.

He also assumes the roles of editor, journalist, translator, interpreter, ‘lawyer’, actor, playwright, producer, impresario, teacher (languages, dancing and music), guitarist and fencing instructor at the Cape of Good Hope and later in the newly established colony of Natal …

This extremely mordant and vehemently anti-Napoleonic savant authors at the Cape, the play (now lost), entitled:

L’Enragé

With this play, he echoes ironically, also assuredly … Les Enragés (‘The Enraged Ones’) – a group of militant firebrands claiming to defend the French lower class notorious for their vitriolic rhetoric when demanding that the National Convention take more drastic measures to benefit the ‘Poor’ and screeching loudest, the dictates of the brutalized Sans-culottes, during the French Revolution.

Of these Enragés, the most vitriolic of this revolutionary following, are:

• Jacques Roux (1752-1794)

Detail of an anonymous print depicting Jacques Roux in the process of writing up an account of the execution of Louis XVI

• Jean Varlet (1764-1837)

• Théophile Leclerc [Jean Théophile Victor Leclerc, aka Jean-Theophilus Leclerc & Theophilus Leclerc d’Oze] (1771-1820) &

• Claire Lacombe (1765-?)

being the most strident critics of the National Convention for failing to carry out the promises of the French Revolution, playing an active role in the Paris Uprisings (31 May 31–2 June 1793) that expel the Girondins from the National Convention ensuring that Robespierre’s thugs, the Montagnards, usurp control, thereby unleashing the Reign of Terror …

Boniface is also the author of the extant play:

«De Nieuwe Ridderorde of De Temperantisten » (‘The New Knighthood / New Chivalric Order, or the ‘Temperantists’ / People of the Temperance Movement’)

– a satirical play in 4 acts and 26 scenes …

In the play, he ridicules and caricatures – not undeservedly – prominent hypocritical, bigoted and mega-paternalistic members of the newly-formed local Temperance Society and their irredeemable protectees, from:

• Dominé Humbug Philipumpkin (Dr. John Philip of the London Missionary Society)

Dr John Philip (14 April 1775 – 27 August 1851) of the London Missionary Society

• De Kozak Barbarubra [Dr James William Fairbridge (1792-1845)]

Dr James William Fairbridge (1792-1845)

to the aboriginal Khoi characters:

Water-colour by Charles Bell

• Manus Kalfachter,

• Klaas Galgevogel,

Water-colour by Charles Bell

• Piet Dronkelap &

• Griet Drilbouten …

Water-colour by Charles Bell

The Cape of Good Hope Temperance Society is founded at a meeting in Cape Town (28 January 1832), with a provincial management as a movement by concerned Methodists, inspired by, and responding to, the international Temperance Movement, to fight alcohol abuse and general licentiousness (including Theatre-going!), accompanying it.

The 1st provincial executive of the Society consists of:

• Rev. Dr. John Philip (1775-1851)
• Dr James William Fairbridge (1792-1845) – surgeon & accoucheur (male midwife or obstetrician)
• Dr. S. Bailey [Dr. Samuel Silverthorne Bailey (1778-1846) – founder of the Somerset Hospital, Cape Town
• Rev. Dr.  J. Pears – Presbyterian pastor at Glen Lynden, Eastern Cape & thereafter (1840) at the Dutch Reformed congregation, Grahamstown
• Rev. Dr.  James Adamson – pastor of St Andrew’s Scottish Church, Cape Town (1828-1841) which also serves as Cape Town’s 1^st slave church
• Joseph Dixie (1792-1864) – broker from London
• Mr Hutchison &
• John Fairbairn (9 April 1794-5 October 1864) – newspaper proprietor, educator, financier & politician

and the secretaries:

• H.E. Rutherford &
• W. Buchanan

In Cape Town the reactions against this movement (as well as the concurrent international Abolitionist Movement) is vehement – particularly from the Cape Dutch community. Many anti-Temperance writings follow, including one of the more significant early plays to be written and published in the country – Boniface’s satirical play in 4 acts and 26 scenes.

The play, Boniface dedicates as follows:

Toewyding.

AAN EEN GRUWELYK GEHOOND EN GELASTERD VOLK, DAT NOGTANS AAN DE STICHTERS ZELVEN VAN DE ‘TEMPERANCE SOCIETY’ HET VOORBEELD VAN ‘MATIGHEID’ EN VAN NOG EENIGE ANDERE CHRISTELYKE DEUGDEN ZOU KUNNEN GEVEN; – AAN DE ZUID-AFRIKAANSCHE KOLONISTEN, WORDT DIT KLUCHTSPEL (OORSPRONKELYK IN HUNNE MOEDERTAAL GESCHREVEN WELKE DE AUTEUR ONDER HEN HEEFT GELEERD) MET EERBIED OPGEDRAGEN.

Kaapstad, Kaap de Goede Hoop, den 1sten Juny 1832.

Dedication.

Unto an abominably derided and maligned people, that even still to the founders of the ‘Temperance Society’ will be able to give the example of ‘moderation’ and of even more other Christian virtues; – Unto the South African Colonists, this farce (originally written in their mother tongue which the author learned from them) has honourably been dedicated.
Cape Town, Cape of Good Hope, the 1st June 1832.

Aged 66, worn-out and defeated, Boniface commits suicide (2 December 1853) at Durban, Natal by taking an overdose of laudanum …

« D’ailleurs il m’eût été si doux,
Ce repos qui me fuit sans cesse »

[‘Besides, so sweet it would have been,
This ever-evasive rest’]