IRA ALDRIDGE

                                     Ira Aldridge

Ira Aldridge - a black New Yorker - was one of nineteenth-century greatest actors. Joost Groeneboer followed the famous, but forgotten actor during his travel in The Netherlands in 1855.

Joost Groeneboer

With one exception, Othello has always been played in the Netherlands by Dutch actors who were white. Their makeup ranged from light brown to dark black according to their conception of the role.

The first Dutch black actor, Otto Sterman (1919-1997) from Curaçao, was very upset with this. That there was supposed to be no black talent in the Netherlands was, for him, no excuse. Personally he had sworn to master the difficult role. At the invitation choreographer Yvonne Georgi, Sterman played Othello in a ballet by Erika Hanka that was presented in the Landestheater in Hannover, Germany, in 1956. The emphasis clearly was on acting, because dancing was not Sterman’s strong point. To give his role form, he performed as if he were part of a wheel; he was the middle point and all the dancers revolved around him. It was a successful formula. He was personally disappointed when attempts to take the ballet to the Netherlands ultimately failed.
Sterman began acting in 1935 as a West Indian servant in a dramatic interpretation of Hildebrand’s novel Camera Obscura. In Groningen, a reviewer praised the use of living theater props: “A real dog, a real parrot, and an authentic servant from Surinam.”[1] Thereafter he played a fakir, a Turkish masseur and a leader of a jazz band. After twenty years of acting, playing bar keepers and taxi cab drivers, Sterman had had enough of performing stereotypical roles. He wanted a chance to stand before his own people as Othello. He admired the African American actor Paul Robeson, who on the other side of the Atlantic interpreted Shakespeare to great acclaim.[2] Did Sterman know that in the middle of the nineteenth century another accomplished black actor had preceded Robeson? Beginning in 1855, Ira Aldridge was the talk of the Netherlands. Aldridge played not only Othello but also a few white roles such as Shylock and Macbeth. His interpretation of Shakespeare was new, and his arrival on stage breathed new life into the discussion of slavery.

            Around 1800, slavery was a popular theme in West European literature, especially in drama. August von Kotzebue’s De Negers (The Negroes) and De Amerikanen in Peru, of De Dood van Rolla (The Americans in Peru, or the Death of Rolla) were performed repeatedly in the Netherlands. Earlier still, in 1774 Nicolaas Simon van Winter had written the tragedy, Monzongo, of de Koningklyke slaaf (Monzongo, or the Royal Slave). Ninety years before the end of slavery in the Dutch colonies, de Winter tried to present the situation of slavery to his countrymen. In the preface to his play, de Winter wrote, “I tried to show them the impropriety of slavery; I tried to let them hear the voice of humanity and of simple nature, and awaken their sympathies.”[3]

            It was not only the theme of slavery that enticed audiences to the theater. The exotic character of the presentations also was an important factor. Two years earlier--in March 1853--at the premiere of De Negerhut van Oom Tom (Uncle Tom’s Cabin), large crowds gathered at the Amsterdam City Theater (Stadsschouwburg van Amsterdam). The newspaper De Telegrafist declared, “Everyone took wild delight in the faces of the negro men and women.”[4] Critics of the day also chimed in, identifying problems in the drama, but also writing extensively about the makeup of the lead actors. For example the makeup of Johannes Tjasink was said to be too dark to suggest mulatto; with his blond curls he was an unusual case. Interestingly, the use of makeup also caused a slight incident when, after embracing one of the other actors, Mathilde Kiehl suddenly had a black moustache.[5]

            That whites portrayed black characters on stage was then completely normal, for there simply were no black actors. In the United States, however, the situation was quite different. There, the black population was not even allowed in the theater--neither in the audience nor on stage. For this reason a number of black actors organized their own theater troupe and established an African Theatre in New York City in 1821. It is thought that Ira Aldridge débuted with this company.

            Ira Aldridge was born in New York as the son of preacher Daniel Aldridge. Daniel hoped his son would follow in his footsteps, but young Ira had other plans because he preferred to become an actor. In Chatham Garden Theater Ira found a job as assistant to Henry Wallack, an English actor. After the demise of the African Theatre in 1823, he no longer had a stage available to him. Since his chances of acting in a white theater in America were zero, Ira decided to emigrate to England in search of professional opportunities to perform.

            His timing was perfect. At that time, abolition of the slave trade was a frequent topic of discussion, and Aldridge represented living evidence that a freed slave (although that was not what he was), with proper guidance, could climb to the top of the social ladder. Initially, he found it difficult to secure regular employment, but after the popular Edmund Kean acknowledged his talent, his fortunes improved and he went on to become one of England’s greatest interpreters of Shakespeare. Eventually, with white make up, Aldridge played Shylock, Macbeth, Richard III and King Lear. Of course, he also played Othello, the role for which in 1833 he brought the audience at Covent Garden Theatre to their feet. That same year the slave trade was ended in the British colonies.

In het Nederlands:

'Huid, haar, hartstocht en Othello', 

Trouw, 22 april 1993


Othello

In 1852 Aldridge traveled to the continent to try his luck. In Belgium he appeared as Othello, and from there he journeyed to Germany, Prussia, Austria, Hungary, Croatia, Switzerland, and parts of Europe known today as Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovakia. Wherever he went, Aldridge drew large crowds. Slowly his fame also grew in the Netherlands, and the prominent Dutch periodical, Onze Tijd, published his life history.[6] After Pierre Boas, the dramatic actor, saw Aldridge in Germany, he offered him a contract as a visiting actor in a new theater company in Amsterdam.[7]

            On 15 February 1855 the Neues Hochdeutches Theater (New High German Theater, now the Kleine Komedie) at Erwtenmarkt (Peas Market) was completely full. That evening the famous “African Tragedian” Ira Aldridge, known as “the Black Actor,” gave his first performance. On the program wasOthello, the Moor of Venice. The public had already seen a black person before, at a circus or in a variety show, but a black actor who played Shakespeare, that truly was something special! 




Some viewers feared Aldridge’s manner of acting. The Dutch public had had bad experiences with the English acting style, which differed significantly from that of Dutch performers. British actors quite frequently advanced the pace of the play, and the Dutch audience had a difficult time adjusting to their sudden outbursts. A second difficulty was that the drama was presented in two languages. Aldridge spoke in English, while the other actors spoke in German. To deal with this problem, the directors of the theater produced a summary in Dutch.[8]

            As soon as Aldridge stepped on stage, the entire audience held their breath. Othello had never been played this way! In the past Othello had been portrayed as a wild madman who killed his beloved out of pure anger. Just two months earlier, the well-known Dutch actor Anton Peters had appeared as Othello, and that performance was still fresh in their memory. Anton’s Othello had produced horror and fear, but little understanding. But with Aldridge’s performance, Othello ceased to be a stereotype. In the thirty years that Aldridge had performed that role, he had added various nuances. The family periodical Lectuur voor de Huiskamer wrote: “Othello, through his birth, upbringing, change of residence, through the position given him, through the clash of his jealousy with his love for Desdemona, is a person in whom qualities of an entirely different nature unite. Aldridge shaped all these different, almost contradictory characteristics of Othello into an admirable whole.”[9] Aldridge played a “heartwarming and radiant Othello.”[10] According to the Amsterdamsche Courant, Aldridge evoked a deep sympathy for the Moor: “Never have we seen a more moving drama of one man’s suffering soul for the sake of a woman.”[11] Another newspaper, the ’s Gravenhaagsche Nieuwsbode, wrote, “When the deed finally is done, as we shudder before the atrocity, with his heart-rending cries over the loss of his wife, still convinced she is guilty, Othello evokes our pity , and the words he speaks, ‘my wife, what wife, I have no wife,’ unsettle everyone in the audience; the way he spoke those words is impossible to convey; Mr. Aldridge spoke from heart to heart….The threefold repetition of the word: ‘Misery,’ was understood by everyone, felt by everyone, and was answered with thunderous applause and requests to come back on stage.”[12]

            Aldridge’s interpretation of Shakespeare was praised unanimously in the press, and many asked themselves if the role of Othello was not written for him? “Jealousy and angry outbursts were the passionate African and natural man’s own,” said Het Algemeen Handelsblad.[13] Just one week later Aldridge’s reputation as a tragedian was further established when he played with equal success Macbeth. That same evening he gave evidence of his talent as a comic actor in a one-act play The Padlock by Isaac Bickerstaff, in which he, with the German actress Fraulein Wendt, sang the song “Dear Heart, What a Terrible Life am I Led.”

Shylock

After six productions of Othello, two of The Padlock, and one of Macbeth, Aldridge continued his tour in Haarlem, Rotterdam, The Hague, Leiden and Utrecht. In all these places he played Othello, but also in some of them he performed a piece that, possibly for anti-Semitic reasons, had not been produced in Amsterdam.[14] Audiences in The Hague, Rotterdam and Leiden were treated to a production of Shylock, the Merchant of Venice. This Shakespearean play had been performed in the Netherlands before, but never with Shylock as the central figure. The press was amazed, even at the very title: the “merchant” of Venice was Antonio, not Shylock! This was hardly a role through which Aldridge could win the sympathy and support of the audience. Previously actors who played the Jew were usually hooted out of the theater. Why then this role? Like Othello, Shylock also represented a minority in Venice, and that point certainly fascinated Aldridge. Additionally, perhaps Aldridge identified with Shylock’s bitterness about the neglect of his people and the injustices done to him personally.
 
           Aldridge’s interpretation again was well received. “Shylock doesn’t appear so hateful anymore; the natural acting style of the artist elucidates his character and provides motives for the sharp traits.”[15] The Dutch press did not make a point of it, but it was well known that when Aldridge played Shylock, he left his hands black. In this way he emphasized the universal character of his role: “Aldridge shows how each person, regardless of color, insulted and teased in this manner, unlucky and seeking revenge, can be driven to an extreme.”[16] 
In the Netherlands Louis Bouwmeester made famous Shylock’s memorable words “Hath not a Jew eyes? Hath not a Jew hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions?” From 1878 he played the role more than a thousand times. Was Bouwmeester aware of the work of his predecessor? Perhaps. It is also possible that he had seen Aldridge play Shylock in 1855. When he was thirteen, Louis lived in Rotterdam where he acted with his father’s drama company.

            Aldridge traveled through Europe as an ambassador of his people. In each city he closed the performance with a farewell address he had written, in which he pleaded the rights of all people regardless of their skin color. For his efforts he was rewarded several times; in Austria and Germany he was recognized by royalty. But in the Netherlands Aldridge wasn’t rewarded at all. The royal family attended his performance in The Hague in complete silence. Due to a period of court mourning there wasn’t a hint of their visit given.[17] Also, the abolition of slavery was still a sensitive issue.

            Aldridge gladly accepted invitations for readings, for example in Leiden, where twice he spoke to students at the university. Balthasar Breedé and Daan van Ollefen Sr., actors and directors of the Royal Theater (Koninklijke Schouwburg) at The Hague, were present and offered Aldridge signed portraits of the ten best known Dutch dramatic actors.[18] Who the top ten actually were was not stated, but undoubtedly the names Breedé and van Ollefen were high on the list.

            The German periodicalAllgemeine Theater-Chronikannounced on 23 March 1855 that Aldridge had received great applause in Amsterdam but had nevertheless left empty coffers behind.[19] This is difficult to believe. With his arrival in a town, theater owners doubled their prices, half of which went to Aldridge. And in Utrecht and Haarlem, additional shows had been organized. In their biography of Aldridge, authors Marshall and Stock describe the actor as an able businessman who took care of his own publicity and knew how to gain the best terms from theater directors.[20] With the money he received, he also cared for others. A portion of his earnings went to support the black community in his homeland. And when the Netherlands was flooded in March 1855, Aldridge contributed financially to help those whose lives had been disrupted.[21]

            The demands of travel and frequent performance took their toll. The repetition of such demands was especially heavy at times. In each venue the repertoire had to be reviewed and rehearsed, and time always was in short supply. With the actors of the Neues Hochdeutsches Theater Aldridge prepared Othello in less than two weeks. One week later a performance of Macbeth was scheduled, and three weeks after that Shylock. Aldridge knew his roles well enough, but the short practice periods were evident in the performances of the other actors.

            Upon his arrival in Leiden Aldridge was visibly fatigued. A couple of waiting students took him directly to his hotel. Student and dramatist Adriaan van der Hoop, Jr. reported that, “Having entered the port at Rhineburg, Ira Aldridge apologized for not being able to dedicate the hours before the performance of Othello to us; he felt it was necessary, as exhausted as he was from all the travel and repeated performances, to spend a few hours in quiet isolation.”[22]

            In April 1855 Aldridge returned to England. From there the 48-year-old actor tried to arrange a tour in France. Samuel Kapper, one of the two directors of the Neues Hochdeutsches Theater, was asked to assist Aldridge. It was Kapper who arranged for the black actor’s biography to be translated into French, and he sent a letter of recommendation along with Dutch reviews of his performances. But it was not to be. “I am very sick,” he wrote back to Kapper.[23] Aldridge was told to get plenty of undisturbed rest, and the trip to France was postponed indefinitely. This postponement disappointed Ernestine Schneider, his High German Desdemona, who clearly had wanted to tour with Aldridge a second time.[24]

            Both letters have been included in the biography of Aldridge by Marshall and Stock. The authors believe that these letters very likely were written to the German theater director, Dr. Victor Koelbel of Leipzig. They apparently did not know that a High German theater in Amsterdam also existed. Other names in the letters include Schneider and Magfuhrt, actors on the High German company with whom Aldridge had performed. The name “Madam Belinfante” probably refers to the wife or the daughter of the publisher, A. Belinfante, who published Aldridge’s life story.[25] Finally, “Mad. Toussaint” stands for Anna Louisa Geertruida Bosboom-Toussaint, one of the most respected and popular female writers of the nineteenth century.

            On March 16th, Anna Bosboom-Toussaint saw Aldridge as Shylock at the Royal Theater in The Hague. According to Anna’s husband, the painter Johannes Bosboom, Aldridge’s performance made such an impression on Anna that for “two days she was bedridden.”[26] Deeply moved, Anna sent Aldridge a copy of her most recent book Het Huis Lauernesse (The House of Lauernesse) with an explanatory letter. In the library at the University of Leiden, one can read Aldridge’s reply:

                             London, 22 Judd Place, Euston Square, 29th May/55

Sir, - I fear you have thought me exceedingly uncourteous by delaying so long to acknowledge your very elegant present consisting of the two Vols: entitled “Het Huis Lauernesse.” My time was so fully occupied during the last days I was in Holland, and the serious illness of Mrs Aldridge and myself after our arrival here must plead as excuse. I am but now enabled to leave my bed and the first and most pleasing duty is to thank you sincerely for your sympathy and complimentary approval of my humble abilities. My great ambition has been to prove that my fellow countrymen are not deficient in intellectual ability but that the circumstances and prejudice have been almost insurmountable obstacles. Oh that the time my hasten on when all distinctions may cease, when man may be estimated by his individual worth, and not by consideration of taste or colour.

      Once more sincerely thanking you, and with kindest regards to the dear friends the Ballanfante family individually and collectively.

      I remain your very much obliged servant Ira Aldridge[27]

            According to her biographer, Hans Reeser, Anna Bosboom-Toussaint kept Aldridge’s letter along with the program of Shylock carefully tucked in a red velvet folder that Queen Sophie had given her. In one of his articles, Bernth Lindfors identified the black actor as a womanizer who, when he traveled, left broken hearts behind.[28] Was Anna one of these? Is she possibly the Anna who on 7 April 1855 in a dramatic letter declares her life-long love for Ira and calls upon God to return the ailing actor to health?

My Dearest Ira, - The news of your severe illness makes me wretched. I am beside myself with pain and heartrending. My foreboding has not vanished; you are ill, my dear Ira, and must suffer so much and I cannot be with you. While here I am twiddling my thumbs day and night and not able to do anything for you except to pray for you with my whole soul. When I read your last lines to me, my heart almost breaks with sorrow and anguish, because I cannot be by your side to help you; it makes one most unhappy. Who will take care of you, since your wife is also ill. God alone can help you, my true friend. He will not forsake you. He will hear my prayers and restore your health. We will count upon His aid.

      Do not worry on my account, my Ira, though I am far away, my heart and thoughts are ever with you. My love grows daily deeper and more tender, the longer I do not see you the more clearly I see that you are everything to me, and that my love will only end with my death. I have never believed what those who despised you have said. I do not ask what the world says; it you love me, nothing else matters, and you are my world….

      My dearest friend, I am so miserable and sad that I could die with crying. I shall not be happy until I have news of you. May God bless you, heal your pains, strengthen you, soothe your sufferings, and send you support. He can uphold you. Nothing else can.

      Farewell, my dearest Ira. My love will always await you.

                                         Your true, Anna.

P.S. – I received your letter yesterday 6th April.[29]

            The date, combined with Aldridge’s distant wording, “Sir,” several weeks later, makes it appear unlikely that Anna-Bosboom-Toussaint was the sender of that dramatic letter. On the other hand, her deep religious feelings do match. Inspired by Aldridge’s interpretation of Shylock, Anna Bosboom-Toussaint did begin to make plans for a historical novel about Willem II and the Portuguese Jews. Because of her own ill health during this period, however, this book was never completed.

            Aldridge left the Netherlands having made a formidable impression. The’s Gravenhaagsche Nieuwsbodedeclared him a fine example for his race: “The appearance of Mr. Aldridge is…powerful evidence of ungrounded prejudice, as if color contributes to the development of heart and soul.” According to the paper, “it is important to negroes themselves” that necessary care be taken: negroes can achieve the same as whites, but they must be trained in the proper [read: white] way.[30]

            It is odd that in The Hague the publisher Ch. van Lier brought out a booklet in Dutch and English entitledGesprek tusschen den heer Ira Aldridge, den beroemden Afrikaan, en Een Staatsman, over de slavernij(Discussion between Mr. Ira Aldridge, a Famous African, and a Statesman, about Slavery). In this book Aldridge asks a certain “P” to clarify why he never brought an end to “that horrible scandal about the poor Negro-slaves, our fellow-countrymen, in your West-Indian possessions.”[31] The person referred to here as “P” was Minister of Colonies Charles Ferdinand Pahud, who on 3 March 1855 was asked by the Government, because of serious misdeeds in the colonies, to review the regulations for dealing with slaves. In response to the Governor of Surinam, R.F. van Raders, Pahud had, at the time of his appointment in 1853, urged that children of slaves be declared free at birth. However, with no official method to compensate slave holders, the Government put his advice aside without taking action.[32]

            In the discussion with Aldridge mentioned above, Pahud responded by noting that an official commission had been established to explore the slavery question. For Aldridge, that response was insufficient; Aldridge wanted action, not words. Did Pahud want to experience in person what it means to be whipped every day? The book concludes with the words:

And now, sir, are you a true patriot? Are you a Christian? Do you believe there exists a God? And can you shut your eyes in the night and sleep calmly? Or is it but a restless slumber, disturbed by the shades of the poor negroes; fathers, mothers and children, beseeching your protection and compassion, with a tenderness able to alarm the feelings of the most selfish man, who banished the last spark of humanity out of his heart? O might it be so! You cannot, sir, you may not, you shall not sleep calmly, before you have entirely setted this wholy matter [sic].

Now, sir, I take my leave, and beseech you to do, what may give you peace with yourself, and a hopefull [sic] prospect in the terrible moment of your soul returning to its Creator into Eternity. May Ira Aldridge not be obliged to return to you once more, and to implore you again for his brothers.[33]

            Nothing came of it. After regaining his health, Ira Aldridge made two additional tours through Europe, but because of the ongoing slave trade in the Dutch colonies, both times the Netherlands were not part of the tour. Four years after the abolition of slavery in Dutch overseas territories in 1863, Aldridge died in Poland en route to Russia. In the press of the day, his death was announced in a few brief lines. Aldridge enjoyed enormous fame as a tragic actor during his lifetime, but after his death, he was soon forgotten. In theater history, his name is seldom mentioned. Only in the last fifty years has his name again become part of the historical narrative; the biography by Marshall and Stock was published in 1958, and in the Shakespeare Theatre at Stratford-on-Avon, his name has been engraved among the names of the most famous interpreters of Shakespeare of his time. In African American circles, Aldridge is a legendary figure. Many black actors view him as an inspirational model. Paul Robeson took voice lessons from Aldridge’s daughter Amanda. Also, the African American author, Lonne Elder III, wrote a play about Aldridge, Splendid Mummer, which was performed in 1991 at the Fusion Festival in Amsterdam. It is astonishing, then, that in his study of interpreters of Shylock, John Gross still dismisses him as a curiosity.[34]


Ira Aldridge’s Performances in the Netherlands

15 February 1855, Neues Hochdeutsches Theater, Amsterdam: Othello
17 February 1855, Neues Hochdeutsches Theater, Amsterdam: Othello
19 February 1855, Neues Hochdeutsches Theater, Amsterdam: Othello
22 February 1855, Neues Hochdeutsches Theater, Amsterdam: Macbeth and The Padlock
24 February 1855, Neues Hochdeutsches Theater, Amsterdam: Othello
26 February 1855, Neues Hochdeutsches Theater, Amsterdam: Othello (3rd, 4th and 5th acts) and The Padlock
1 March 1855, Neue Hochdeutsches Theater, Amsterdam: Othello and a Farewell Address
3 March 1855, Neue Hochdeutsches Theater, Amsterdam: The Padlock
5 March 1855, Rotterdamsche Schouwburg: Othello
9 March 1855, Koninklijke-Hollandsche Schouwburg, The Hague: Othello
15 March 1855, Leydsche Schouwburg: Othello
16 March 1855, Koninklijke-Hollandsche Schouwburg, The Hague: Shylock, the Merchant of Venice and The Padlock
19 March 1855, Rotterdamsche Schouwburg: Shylock, the Merchant of Venice and The Padlock
23 March 1855, Nieuwe Schouwburg, Haarlem: Othello
24 March 1855, Utrechtsche Schouwburg: Othello
26 March 1855, Leydsche Schouwburg: Shylock, the Merchant of Venice and The Padlock 


Notes

[1] Clipping in scrapbook 1935-1951, Otto Sterman Archive, held by his wife in Amsterdam.

[2] For more information on Sterman, see Joost Groeneboer, “3 maart 1952. Otto Sterman draagt voor het eerst ‘Ik ben een neger’ voor. De ommezwaai van een zwarte acteur op het Nederlands toneel,”Cultuur en migratie in Nederland: Kunsten in beweging 1900-1980, ed. Rosemarie Buikema and Maaike Meijer (Den Haag: Sdu Uitgevers, 2003) 223-42.

[3] Nicolaas Simon van Winter,Monzongo, of de Koningklyke slaaf (Amsterdam: Pieter Meijer, 1774).

[4] De Telegrafist 2 April 1853.

[5] De Telegrafist 2 April 1853.

[6] “Ira Aldridge,” De Tijd (1852): 289-91.

[7]In their book175 jaar Koninklijke Schouwburg 1804-1979 (’s Gravenhage: Kruseman, 1974) C.H. Slechte, Guus Verstraete and L. van der Zalm incorrectly claim on page 54 that Abraham van Lier asked Aldridge to perform in the Netherlands. Instead he was asked to do so by Pierre Boas.

[8]Ira Aldridge’s Othello. Het Engelsch van Shakespeare en Hoogduitsche vertaling van von Schlegel en Tieck, vereenigd en gevolgd (’s Gravenhage: Museum Willem Twee/A.J. van Tetroode, March 1955). See also Ira Aldridge’s Shylock (’s Gravenhage: Museum Willem Twee/A.J. Tetroode, March 1855).

[9] A. van der Hoop, Jr., “Ira Aldridge, eene vriendschapsherinnering den grooten kunstenaar toegewijd,”Lectuur voor de Huiskamer3 (1856): 89-96.

[10]Dagblad van Zuid-Holland en ’s Gravenhage2 March 1855.

[11] “Kunstnieuws. Ira Aldridge als Othello,”Nieuwe Amsterdamsche Courant17 February 1855.

[12]De ’s Gravenhaagsche Nieuwsbode11 March 1855.

[13]Algemeen Handelsblad17 February 1855.

[14] Joost Groeneboer, “Joodse personages op het Nederlands toneel: Joodse stereotypen en hun aantrekkingskracht op het publiek,” inDat is de kleine man: 100 jaar joden in het Amsterdamse amausement, 1840-1940, ed. Joost Groeneboer en Hetty Berg, 117-…42 (Zwolle, Netherlands, Waanders, 1995).

[15]De ’s Gravenhaagsche Nieuwsbode25 March 1855.

[16]De ’s Gravenhaagsche Nieuwsbode25 March 1855.

[17]Düsseldorfer Zeitung20 March 1855: “Im Haag war die königl. Familie bei der Hoftrauer im Stillen ohne Etiquette im Theater.”

[18] Van der Hoop 93.

[19]Allgemeine Theater-Chronik23 March 1855: “Ira Aldridge hat im Amsterdam grossen Beifall aber leere Kassen erzielt.”

[20] Herbert Marshall and Mildred Stock,Ira Aldridge, the Negro Tragedian (London: Rockliff, 1958).

[21] 25% of the profit from sales of the Shylock booklet were meant for the victims of the flood disaster. See the title page of Ira Aldridge’s Shylock.

[22] Van der Hoop 91.

[23] Marshall and Stock 200-01.

[24] Marshall and Stock 201-02.

[25]Beknopte levensbeschrijving van den wereldberoemden Afrikaanschen treurspeler Ira Aldridge, genaamd: de neger-akteur(’s Gravenhage: A. Belinfante, 1855).

[26] See note 171 in Hans Reeser,De huwelijksjaren van A.L.G. Bosboom-Toussaint, 1851-1886(Groningen: Wolters-Noordhoff/Bouma’s Boekhuis, 1985) 410. There Reeser errs in referring to note 970b: H.F.W. Jeltes,Uit het leven van een kunstenaarsechtpaar: Brieven van Johannes Bosboom verz. en toegelicht(Amsterdam: S.L. van Looy, 1910) 153-54. In the mentioned book of Jeltes, that contains the letters of Bosboom, however the quotation of Reeser doesn’t appear.

[27] Letter from Ira Aldridge to Anna Toussaint dated 29 May 1855 in the University Library of the University of Leiden (UBL Ltk 1798).

[28] Bernth Lindfors, “’Nothing extenuate, nor set down aught in malice’:New Biographical Information on Ira Aldridge,” African American Review 28 (1994): 469-71.

[29] Marshall and Stock 185-86. The letter is translated (by the authors?) from German.

[30]De ’s Gravenhaagsche Nieuwsbode25 March 1855.

[31]Gesprek tusschen den heer Ira Aldridge, den beroemden Afrikaan, en Een Staatsman, over de slavernij(’s Gravenhage: Ch. Van Lier, 1855) 3. The bad grammer in this dialogue suggests that it has not been written by Aldridge himself, as he had an excellent command of English.

[32] M. Kuitenbrouwer, “Nederlandse afschaffing van de slavernij in vergelijkend perspectief,”Bijdragen en mededelingen betreffende de geschiedenis der Nederlanden93.1 (1978): 77-79.

[33] Gesprek tusschen den heer Ira Aldridge 11-12.

[34] John Gross, Shylock: Four Hundred Years in the Life of a Legend (London: Chatto & Windus, 1992) 226.


In het Nederlands:
Trouw, 22 april 1993


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