The traditional view of the history of the rhetoricians tells us that the first halfof the seventeenth century was a period of total decline for these theatre societies.Even less is known about the period after 1650. The case of the AntwerpChamber of Rhetoric called The Olive Branch (originally named TheGillyflowers) demonstrates that the rhetoricians were quite resilient: between1662 en 1762 performances continued, new plays were written and therhetoricians were sympathetic towards new and popular forms of drama, asthe surviving repertoire demonstrates.
