The Sun.
London, England, 1870-04-04 00:00:00

LA CLAQUE.

Everybody has heard of la claque, the French institu-
tion for securing the systematic applause of every theatri-
cal piece, good or bad. The claqueur is a gentlemen who
for a pecuniary consideration, takes his seat in the pit,
and claps his hands at everything and everybody he sees
on the stage, from seven o'clock in the evening till
midnight inclusively. If any individual among the
paying portion of the public appears dissatisfied
with the performance, and so far forgets him-
self as to hiss, it is the honourable mission of
the claqueur to bawl, " Turn him out ? " " Hit him on the
head ! ' and other amenities; and if there be any song or
tirade which seems particularly to jar on the nerves of the
audience so as to excite shouts of Oh ! " and acute indi-
cations of suffering, the claqueurs never miss the oppor-
tunity of energetically demanding an " encore," in the hope,
no doubt, that a second hearing of the piece may enable
the malcontents to perceive its beauties. The Pall Mall
Gazette rives some interesting details of this noble institu-
tion. Up to 1820 it was usual for theatrical managers
to covenant with a chef de claque (or leader of the
claque orchestra), and give him so much a year, on
the understanding that he should bring five-and-thirty or
forty claqueurs to the house every night, One day, how-
ever, it was discovered that this arrangement was not at
all a paying one. The only man who thrived under it was
the chef de claque, who generally made his fortune at the
end of a few years, and retired rich; while his ex-employer,
the manager, too often ended his career in the bankruptcy
court. The chef de claquehad several ways of making money
out of his contract. Besides his fixed salary from the ma-
nager he received so much a year from most of the actors
and actresses, especially from those who had not much
talent • and, in addition to this, he frequently sold at high
rate the forty seats which he received gratis. Nowadays
all this is changed. Instead of the manager paying the
chef de claque, it is the latter functionary who pays the
manager. Three or four years ago, when a cabal was
organised by the Quartier Latin against ti-e " Henriette,
Marechal " of the Brothers Goncourt, the chef de claque
of the Thatre Francais brought, on the
second and third nights of the performance, five
hundred claqueurs to the rescue. The uproar
within the theatre was terrific ; the claqueurs raved
and the students shrieked, but in the end it was the stu-
dents who got the best of it. They had stronger lungs
than the mercenaries, and after the third performance the
piece was withdrawn. It is very curious to see a chef de
claque in the act of recruiting his troupe. Within a few
doors of every French theatre is a café where the chief
claqueur establishes his head-quarters. Towards five
or six o'clock he puts in an appearance, and is im-
mediately mobbed by the forty or fifty persons who are
anxious to be enrolled for that evening. As a rule, the
first thing the chef de claque looks at is the dress of the
candidates. He accepts no blouses and no slovens. If
he sees a man well arrayed, hearty-looking and florid of
countenance, endowed with good broad shoulders and fine
big hands, he generally enlists him at once. The terms of
admission to the claque vary. Sometimes (especially in
summer) if there is a dull piece being performed it is diffi-
cult to find claqueurs, and the chef presses every one he
can get, accepting eight sous, six sous, and even as little
as four sous from each of his troupe. Should the piece
be so hopelessly dull or the weather so hot that no
one will volunteer to pay even twopence, the chef
must then have recourse to what ragamuffins he can find,
and pay his troupe instead of being paid by them. When
there is a popular piece, however, the chef de claque some-
times has several hundred candidates to choose from, and
on such occasions he can make his own terms. On the
nights of a first performance of Angier, Sardou, or
Alexandre Dumas fill, the seat in the claque fetch five or
ten francs apiece. If a row is expected, as at the revival
of " Ernani" three years ago, and that of " Lucrbce
Borgia," last January, the places fetch quite fancy prices.
In addition to the income he derives from selling seats at
a profit, the contractor of the claque still makes a fine
bonus by levying a tribute upon the actors and actresses.
It is always easy for a spectator to guess which of the
performers pays the claque and which does not. No
matter how slight may be the part which an actor
or actress has to play, he or she is sure to
be warmly applauded if the chef de claque has
been well paid. For a (Mutant to refuse payment would
be folly almost amounting to artistic suicide. Some of
the more popular dramatists, Alexandre Dumas among
them, have, at different times, endeavoured to abolish the
claque, at least so far as their own works were concerned,.
but the attempt has always failed. As in the days of
Napoleon I. and under the Restoration, so now, the
claque is in too good odour with the police to be easily
superseded.