The Rhetoricians’ stage

The rhetoricians were societies of amateur poets and actors, called Chambers and more or less organised like the guilds. They dominated the theatre in the Netherlands (at the time still including Flanders) from the end of the fifteenth to the seventeenth century. They carried names often derived from plants (Violieren, Eglantier, Olijftack, Wit lavendel, etcetera) and had a weapon and a maxim. Language was an important part of the performance, and the plays of the Chamber were always written by the factor of the chamber. They performed serious plays (moralities) as well as comic plays ‘esbattementen) and tableaux vivants. They performed mostly in the open air on booth stages that were more or less elaborate depending on the available means of a Chamber. The rhetoricians organised their own performances but they also contributed to local fairs and festivities, and to important civic events such as Entries. Moreover, they organised their own contests (in many places called ‘Landjuwelen’) between the Chambers. One Chamber organised the contest, invited the other chambers and laid down the rules for the plays that were to be performed. The Chamber who won, took home the prize. Some of the contests are well documented. The play texts or songs published provide valuable information on what was performed and how it was done, especially when the texts are accompanied by illustrations. This is the case, for instance, with an early publication of the plays performed at a rhetoricians’ contest in the city of Gent (Ghent) in 1539. This publication contains illustrations of the stage and provides some additional information on the organisation of the contest. The contests were organised around a theme or question to which the performed plays were supposed to be an answer; in the case of Gent the participating Chambers had to answer the question as to ‘what would comfort most a dying man’ (‘Welc den mensche stervende meesten troost es’). The length of the plays was restricted to 500 verses and the central theme had to be elaborated with both text and show (Hummelen in Erenstein, 1996, 98-99).

Other information comes from the Entries to which the Chambers contributed. From all these descriptions and illustrations documenting those Entries, we can gather an idea about what the rhetoricians’ stages may have looked like.

The rhetoricians played on a stage platform with a playhouse probably made of wood and curtains (or in some cases a screen with openings). Illustrations of those stages, especially when used to stage tableaux at Entries, are preserved. Ramakers (1993, 187-8) believes most Chambers performed relatively simple stages, not with screens but with curtains, such as the one used for the contest in Haarlem (1606) of which an engraving exists. The booth stages used at Entries were probably more elaborate because the city magistrates supported the Chambers with some extra financial (or other) means, in order to allow the Chamber to add some decorations and/or extensions to the stage. Some of these stages have more than one compartment, so several tableaux could be shown simultaneously, and more different locations would be possible. The above mentioned engraving of the Gent stage of 1539 seems to show seven compartments and an additional three in the upper middle part (Hummelen in Erenstein, 1996, 103). This particular stage had to accommodate the plays of all the participating Chambers.

For those attempting to reconstruct the rhetoricians’ stage in some detail, the problem with engravings such as the one of the Haarlem stage, is that any indication of size and measure is missing. Hummelen (1998) developed the hypothesis that most of the Chambers used their own stages for the Entries. Therefore, one can use information from the Entries to reconstruct the rhetoricians’ stage. Ramakers (1993, 187-8) believes most Chambers performed relatively simple stages, not with screens but with curtains, similar to the one used for the contest in Haarlem (1606) of which an engraving exists. The booth stages used at Entries were probably more elaborate, because the city magistrates supported the Chambers with some extra financial (or other) means, in order to allow the Chamber to add some decorations and/or extensions to the stage. Some of these stages have more than one compartment, so several tableaux could be shown simultaneously, and more different locations would be possible.

The stage upon which the Chamber called ‘de Olijftack’ performed a biblical scene on the occasion of the Entry of Philip II in Antwerp (1556) is preserved in two engravings (hs valenciennes and hs Wenen), and the one from Wenen does provides dimensions. From these data, Hummelen (1998) reconstructs the dimensions of this stage. He arrives at a total width of ca. 7.75 metres, a total height of ca. 11.30 metres and a platform height of ca. 2.50 metres. Peter Eversmann used the conclusions from Hummelen to attempt to reconstruct the Haarlem stage of 1606. First of all, the analysis of Hummelen and the engravings seem to suggest that the stage was made of modular, wooden volumes, that could be arranged at will in order to create any number of compartments needed. The backside of the booth stage for the ‘Mariacransken’ (1594) seems to support this thesis, as do some of the paintings of country fairs depicting a simple booth stage (see text on the fairground booth in Dutch paintings). Nevertheless, many questions remain. For instance, if the columns of the Haarlem picture were real three dimensional objects or merely painted to the background. As to the playhouse façade, it is not clear if it was made of wooden screens, curtains, or any other material? The evidence from the paintings seems to suggest that it mostly curtains have been used. If there are compartments, where they enclosed with a roof? However, there is no way to achieve certainty for every single stage that has survived in illustrations. Because, and that is what the images show us, although there are some important basics common to all of them (elevated stage platform, playhouse), the booth stages varied widely when it comes to size and shape (number of compartments, side stage or not, decoration of stage façade, …).