Lover's Vows

The play from Mansfield Park

For decades I have wondered about the play "Lovers Vows," cited in Jane Austin's novel "Mansfield Park." What did Baron Wildenhaim rant and storm about? What where Count Cassel's two and forty speeches? Most of all, what was so objectionable about the situation of Agatha or the language of Amelia, such that their parts should not have been performed by young ladies of quality? Thanks to iBooks, I have now been able to read this very enjoyable play.

According to the forward, "Lovers Vows" is a 1798 English re-write of the 1791 German play "Child of Love" by August Von Kotzebue. Since a direct translation of the original was not considered likely to appeal to a British audience, a Mrs. Inchbald was entrusted with revising the play to make it suited to the English tastes of the time. Apparently her revisions did not go quite far enough. For example, though she admittedly revised Amelia's character to make her less brash, Amelia is still shockingly forward for those times.

The play begins with a meeting between the starving Agatha and her son, a soldier who has just returned from war. Seeing that his mother is almost to the point of death, young Friedrick's desperation to save her leads him to commit a crime to obtain money for food. He is caught, and questioning reveals past wrongs and hypocrisies on the part of the reputedly good Baron Wildenhaim.

The play is well-written, with both pathos and humor in good supply. This typeset has a few typographical errors, such as converting "is" to "os" more than once, but even so it is quite readable. I wish to express my heartfelt thanks to those who converted this +200-year-old, obscure play into an electronic book and made it available for no cost.