Mrs Inchbald

Lover's Vows Mrs Inchbald

Book Excerpt: ...om 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 s..