The Sun. — 1870-04-04 (London, England)

CLAQUE.  Everybody has heard of la claque, the French institution for securing the systematic applause of every theatrical 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 himself 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 indications of suffering, the claqueurs never miss the opportunity 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 institution. 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, however, 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 manager 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 students 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 immediately 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 difficult 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 sometimes 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.