A civakodó színész, a hanyag ruhatárnok és a részeg statiszta a színházi bíróság előtt
The Quarrelsome Actor, the Negligent Cloakroom Attendant and the Drunk Supernumerary before the Theatre Tribunal

The Internal Ethical Code of the Hungarian National Theatre and Its Practical Use in the Mid-Nineteenth Century

Summary/Abstract: The study sheds light on a single aspect of the professionalisation of the Hungarian Theatre of Pest (the later National Theatre), inaugurated in 1837, based on the examination of the in-house ethical codes and the written minutes of in-house tribunals. These two types of sources reveal the internal processes deployed to build and manage the professional everyday operation of this new, representative, and unique institution. Within a decade after its opening, the theatre could boast three generously supplemented codes. From 1842 onwards, the code of ethics stipulated the job description, jurisdiction and financial liability of all employees, extending to the regulation of the moral conduct of the staff and actors both in and outside the theatre, the enforcement of the regulations and the potential retribution for violating the code. The minutes taken at the hearings contain details, resolutions and fines imposed upon professional misconduct and other violation. A comparative analysis of surviving documentation of the code itself and that of its enforcement and execution presents the stage productions and their behind-the-scenes work from an unusual angle. The misdemeanours recorded reveal a wealth of information about the private life of the nation’s leading theatre community, including episodes such as discovering the sartorial mishap of Zsigmond Szentpétery’s overly tight costume minutes before his stage appearance or the deplorably loud quarrel erupting behind the scenes between two leading actors, Gábor Egressy and Márton Lendvay.

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