Lover's Vows.

by Mrs. Inchbald.

PREFACE.

IT would appear like affectation to offer an apology for any scenes or pa.s.sages omitted or added, in this play, different from the original: its reception has given me confidence to suppose what I have done is right; for Kotzebue's "Child of Love" in Germany, was never more attractive than "Lovers' Vows" has been in England.

I could trouble my reader with many pages to disclose the motives which induced me to alter, with the exception of a few common-place sentences only, the characters of Count Ca.s.sel, Amelia, and Verdun the Butler--I could explain why the part of the Count, as in the original, would inevitably have condemned the whole Play,--I could inform my reader why I have pourtrayed the Baron in many particulars different from the German author, and carefully prepared the audience for the grand effect of the last scene in the fourth act, by totally changing his conduct towards his son as a robber--why I gave sentences of a humourous kind to the parts of the two Cottagers--why I was compelled, on many occasions, to compress the matter of a speech of three or four pages into one of three or four lines--and why, in no one instance, I would suffer my respect for Kotzebue to interfere with my profound respect for the judgment of a British audience. But I flatter myself such a vindication is not requisite to the enlightened reader, who, I trust, on comparing this drama with the original, will at once see all my motives--and the dull admirer of mere verbal translation, it would be vain to endeavour to inspire with taste by instruction.

Wholly unacquainted with the German language, a literal translation of the "Child of Love" was given to me by the manager of Covent Garden Theatre to be fitted, as my opinion should direct, for his stage. This translation, tedious and vapid as most literal translations are, had the peculiar disadvantage of having been put into our language by a German--of course it came to me in broken English. It was no slight misfortune to have an example of bad grammar, false metaphors and similes, with all the usual errors of feminine diction, placed before a female writer. But if, disdaining the construction of sentences,--the precise decorum of the cold grammarian,--she has caught the spirit of her author,--if, in every altered scene,--still adhering to the nice propriety of his meaning, and still keeping in view his great catastrophe,--she has agitated her audience with all the various pa.s.sions he depicted, the rigid criticism of the closet will be but a slender abatement of the pleasure resulting from the sanction of an applauding theatre.

It has not been one of the least gratifications I have received from the success of this play, that the original German, from which it is taken, was printed in the year 1791; and yet, that during all the period which has intervened, no person of talents or literary knowledge (though there are in this country many of that description, who profess to search for German dramas) has thought it worth employment to make a translation of the work. I can only account for such an apparent neglect of Kotzebue's "Child of Love," by the consideration of its original unfitness for an English stage, and the difficulty of making it otherwise--a difficulty which once appeared so formidable, that I seriously thought I must have declined it even after I had proceeded some length in the undertaking.

Independently of objections to the character of the Count, the dangerous insignificance of the Butler, in the original, embarra.s.sed me much. I found, if he was retained in the _Dramatis Personae_, something more must be supplied than the author had a.s.signed him: I suggested the verses I have introduced; but not being blessed with the Butler's happy art of rhyming, I am indebted for them, except the seventh and eleventh stanzas in the first of his poetic stories, to the author of the prologue.

The part of Amelia has been a very particular object of my solicitude and alteration: the same situations which the author gave her remain, but almost all the dialogue of the character I have changed: the forward and unequivocal manner in which she announces her affection to her lover, in the original, would have been revolting to an English audience: the pa.s.sion of love, represented on the stage, is certain to be insipid or disgusting, unless it creates smiles or tears: Amelia's love, by Kotzebue, is indelicately blunt, and yet void of mirth or sadness: I have endeavoured to attach the attention and sympathy of the audience by whimsical insinuations, rather than coa.r.s.e abruptness--the same woman, I conceive, whom the author drew, with the self-same sentiments, but with manners adapted to the English rather than the German taste; and if the favour in which this character is held by the audience, together with every sentence and incident which I have presumed to introduce in the play, may be offered as the criterion of my skill, I am sufficiently rewarded for the task I have performed.

In stating the foregoing circ.u.mstances relating to this production, I hope not to be suspected of arrogating to my own exertions only, the popularity which has attended "The Child of Love," under the t.i.tle of "Lovers' Vows,"--the exertions of every performer engaged in the play deservedly claim a share in its success; and I must sincerely thank them for the high importance of their aid.

PROLOGUE.

WRITTEN BY JOHN TAYLOR, ESQ.

SPOKEN BY Mr. MURRAY.

POETS have oft' declared, in doleful strain, That o'er dramatic tracks they beat in vain, Hopeless that novelty will spring to sight; For life and nature are exhausted quite.

Though plaints like these have rung from age to age, Too kind are writers to desert the stage; And if they, fruitless, search for unknown prey, At least they dress _old game a novel way_; But such lamentings should be heard no more, For modern taste turns Nature out of door; Who ne'er again her former sway will boast, Till, to complete her works, _she starts a ghost_.

If such the mode, what can we hope to-night, Who rashly dare approach without a sprite?

No dreadful cavern, no midnight scream, No rosin flames, nor e'en one flitting gleam.

Nought of the charms so potent to invite The monstrous charms of terrible delight.

Our present theme the German Muse supplies, But rather aims to soften than surprise.

Yet, with her woes she strives some smiles to blend, Intent as well to cheer as to amend: On her own native soil she knows the art To charm the fancy, and to touch the heart.

If, then, she mirth and pathos can express, Though less engaging in an English dress, Let her from British hearts no peril fear, But, as a STRANGER*, find a welcome here.

* Hamlet.

========= DRAMATIS PERSONAE.

MEN.

BARON WILDENHAIM. . . . . Mr. Murray.

COUNT Ca.s.sEL. . . . . . . Mr. Knight.

ANHALT. . . . . . . . . . Mr. H. Johnston.

FREDERICK . . . . . . . . Mr. Pope.

VERDUN the BUTLER . . . . Mr. Munden.

LANDLORD. . . . . . . . . Mr. Thompson.

COTTAGER. . . . . . . . . Mr. Davenport.

FARMER. . . . . . . . . . Mr. Rees.

COUNTRYMAN. . . . . . . . Mr. d.y.k.e.

Huntsmen, Servants, &c.

WOMEN.

AGATHA FRIBURG. . . . . . Mrs. Johnson.

AMELIA WILDENHAIM . . . . Mrs. H. Johnston.

COTTAGER'S WIFE . . . . . Mrs. Davenport.

COUNTRY GIRL. . . . . . . Miss Leserve.

SCENE, Germany--Time of representation one day.

LOVERS' VOWS

ACT I.

SCENE I. A high road, a town at a distance--A small inn on one side of the road--A cottage on the other.

The LANDLORD of the inn leads AGATHA by the hand out of his house.

LANDLORD. No, no! no room for you any longer--It is the fair to-day in the next village; as great a fair as any in the German dominions.

The country people with their wives and children take up every corner we have.

AGATHA. You will turn a poor sick woman out of doors who has spent her last farthing in your house.

LANDLORD. For that very reason; because she _has_ spent her last farthing.

AGATHA. I can work.

LANDLORD. You can hardly move your hands.

AGATHA. My strength will come again.

LANDLORD. Then _you_ may come again.

AGATHA. What am I to do? Where shall I go?

LANDLORD. It is fine weather--you may go any where.

AGATHA. Who will give me a morsel of bread to satisfy my hunger?

LANDLORD. Sick people eat but little.

AGATHA. Hard, unfeeling man, have pity.

LANDLORD. When times are hard, pity is too expensive for a poor man.