by

From the German of Kotzebue

Historical Note

Text of "Lovers' Vows" & Archive Information

The Cast at Mansfield

Fanny's Opinion

Historical Note

   Biographia Dramatica gives particulars of no fewer than four adaptations of Kotzebue's Natural Son, all of which were published (1798-1800) under the name of Lovers' Vows; but only Mrs. Inchbald's version seems to have been performed, and there is no doubt of its being the Lovers' Vows of Mansfield Park, for the quotation on page 358 [RWC/Oxford] agrees with Mrs. Inchbald's text, and the number of Count Cassel's speeches is just two-and-forty.

[Further proof that Jane Austen refers to Mrs. Inchbald's edition: on page 132 (RWC/Oxford), Tom refers to "the rhyming butler", a character developed by Mrs. Inchbald. See preface.  KLH]

   Lovers' Vows had a great vogue and was frequently reprinted; a twelfth edition is recorded of 1799. The fifth edition here reprinted seems to be identical with the first, published in the same year.

   Without such familiarity with Lovers' Vows as Miss Austen assumes her readers to possess, a large part of the first volume [of Mansfield Park] is not fully intelligible. Attention may in particular be directed to the passages in the preface in which Mrs. Inchbald dwells on her 'solicitude and alteration' of the part of Amelia—a solicitude thrown away upon Sir Thomas—and her reform of the 'dangerous insignificance of the Butler'.

—R.W. Chapman
Addendum to the OUP
Mansfield Park

Text of "Lovers' Vows"

HTML Edition
Preface	Prologue; Dramatis Personae; & Act I	Act II
Act III	Act IV	Act V & Epilogue
Plaintext Edition
Preface	Prologue; Dramatis Personae; & Act I	Act II
Act III	Act IV	Act V & Epilogue

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The Mansfield Casting

Character		Portrayer
Agatha Friburg		Maria Bertram
Frederick		Henry Crawford
Cottager & Butler		Tom Bertram
Cottager's Wife		Mrs. Grant
Baron Wildenhaim		Mr. Yates
Amelia		Mary Crawford
Count Cassel		Mr. Rushworth
Anhalt		Edmund Bertram

Fanny's Opinion of "Lovers' Vows"

From Volume I, Chapter 14
last paragraph, page 137 [RWC/OUP]

   The first use [Fanny] made of her solitude was to take up the volume [of "Lovers' Vows"] which had been left on the table, and begin to acquaint herself with the play of which she had heard so much. Her curiosity was all awake, and she ran through it with an eagerness which was suspended only by intervals of astonishment, that it could be chosen in the present instance—that it could be proposed and accepted in a private Theatre! Agatha and Amelia appeared to her in their different ways so totally improper for home representation—the situation of one, and the language of the other, so unfit to be expressed by any woman of modesty, that she could hardly suppose her cousins could be aware of what they were engaging in; and longed to have them roused as soon as possible by the remonstrance which Edmund would certainly make.