‘Bald wird komen das Feur!’ Over de representatie van natuur-wetenschappelijke en medische kennis in de klucht De electriciteit; of Pefroen met het schaepshoofd ge-electricieerd (1746)

Abstract

'The sparks will show up soon'. On the representation of physical and medical knowledge in the Dutch burlesque play The electricity; or Pefroen the fool electrified (1746) The public fascination for attractive electrical performances in the 18th -century Dutch Republic has been studied by Lissa Roberts (Isis 90 (1999) 680-714). The cultural-historical analysis of a hardly known Dutch burlesque play, The electricity; or Pefroen the fool electrified (De electriciteit; of Pefroen, met het schaepshoofd ge-electriceerd) (1746), presented in this article, gives evidence that Roberts' historical interpretations of public electrical experiments as a new form a popular culture, has a literary-historical value as well. It is shown that The electricity; or Pefroen the fool electrified should be regarded as a satirical reaction on the treatise On the Usability of Electricity in Medicine (Abhandlung von der Nutzen der Electrizitat in der Artzneywissenschaft) (1744), in which the physicist Johann Gottlieb Kratzenstein (1723-1795), for the first time in history, stated that an electrical spark can cure all diseases. The article focuses on the social function of play, and describes it as a (in its European context) unique literary contribution to 18th-century popular electrical amusement.