Ballet De La Paix: Staging a Seventeenth-Century Theatre Performance
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
CHAPTER FOURTEEN BALLET DE LA PAIX: STAGING A SEVENTEENTH-CENTURY THEATRE PERFORMANCE Imre Bésanger Introduction On 7 February 1668 there was much ado at the Buitenhof in The Hague. Noblemen, foreign diplomats and Dutch regents arrived in coaches or on foot at the stables of the Prince of Orange, which had been transformed temporarily into a theatre. All the walls were covered in costly green car- pets. The stables were floored with wooden planks. Everywhere one saw the flickering of wax torches which lit the hall. It was the opening night of the Ballet de la Paix (Ballet of Peace).1 The Grand Duke of Tuscany Cosimo III de’ Medici (1642–1723) had extended his visit to the Dutch Republic just to see the court ballet of the young William III of Orange (1650–1702). At the door, Cosimo was wel- comed by William’s governor, the Dutch nobleman Johan van Gent, who accompanied him to his seat. To De’ Medici’s great disappointment he was seated between two elderly noblemen, Johan Maurits of Nassau and the Count of Hoorn. He was saved when after the ballet he was able to con- verse with young Dutch ladies.2 The ‘saviour’ was none other than the Grand Pensionary of Holland Johan de Witt, who also attended the perfor- mance and had the wit to introduce the Grand Duke to more interesting company. The First Stadtholderless Period, 1650–1672, saw the rise to power of the Grand Pensionary of Holland Johan de Witt (1625–1672) who effectively reigned, with the States General, instead of a stadtholder, normally a prince of Orange. In 1668 the Grand Pensionary’s power, and that of the States General, was at its peak. Since the death of William II in 1650, the States of Holland had successfully banned the Prince of Orange from 1 This chapter is partly based on my (unpublished) Master’s Thesis ‘Al hadt hy geen ampt, heeft den Haeg verheugt’: Willem III en het Ballet de la Paix (2006). 2 Hollandtsche Mercurius, p. 3. See also Corsini, ‘Willem III treedt op in ballet’, p. 220. 334 imre bésanger political life. William III had been born ten days after the death of his father. William II had caused great difficulties in the Dutch Republic by organising a coup d’état in which he tried to get full control of the political scene. This created much resentment with the republican regents. When he unexpectedly died of smallpox at the age of twenty-four, they took advantage of the absence of princely power and regained control over Dutch politics. No new stadtholder was appointed by the States. In 1652, Johan de Witt, who became the leader of the anti-Orangist movement, was elected Grand Pensionary of Holland. All this considered, it might seem strange that De Witt was among the guests at a court ballet of his political opponent. However, the world of the Orangist and Republican regents was much more intertwined than later generations of historians have made us believe.3 The Ballet de la Paix was officially staged to glorify the Peace Treaty of Breda, which had put an end to the Second Anglo-Dutch War. This war had been won by the Dutch in 1667 under the leadership of De Witt. William took this event as an excuse to launch his own political campaign, which was aimed at reviving the office of Stadtholder and the central position of the Princely House of Orange in Dutch politics. The Ballet de la Paix thus appears to have been a political programme for the Prince, rather than a celebration of the Peace Treaty of Breda. When one looks at the contents of the libretto, it becomes clear that the ballet was not actually staged in honour of the States, who brokered this Peace, but to bring attention to the young Prince of Orange.4 The performance started at eight o’clock in the evening.5 ‘The violins, by means of a pleasant concert, will herald the opening of the Theatre’ (‘Les violons par un agreable concert feront l’ouverture du Theatre’), as was stated in the ‘Argument ou Sujet du Ballet’.6 This ‘Argument’ was printed in a programme that was handed out to the audience when they entered the theatre. The text was in French, the language of the court and of diplo- macy in the seventeenth century. The ‘Argument’ explained the Prince’s motives in creating and performing the ballet, ‘to give pleasing marks of the part he played in giving public satisfaction, something he always pre- ferred above everything else’ (‘pour donner des marques agreables de la part qu’il prend a la satifaction publique, et qu’il prefera tousjours à toute 3 Israel, The Dutch Republic, pp. 700–13; 726–38; Groenveld, Evidente factiën in den staet, p. 46. Troost, Stadhouder-koning: Een politieke biografie, pp. 17–18. 4 Bésanger, ‘Al hadt hy geen ampt, heeft den Haeg verheugt’, pp. 69–71. 5 Hollandtsche Mercurius, p. 3. 6 Knuttel 9621, Ballet de la Paix (The Hague 1668), p. 1..