Happy start of the week, friends! Guess who is visiting Austenesque Reviews again today? The lovely Riana Everly! Not to long ago, Riana was here sharing about her Jane Austen/William Shakespeare mash-up Much Ado About Meryton. Now Riana is on blog tour for her latest installment of the Miss Mary Investigates series. A series that combine two things I love – mysteries and stories that spotlight Mary Bennet. 🔍

Riana is here to share more about her new release, Death of a Dandy: A Mansfield Park Mystery and the history of the infamous Lovers’ Vows play in Mansfield Park. We hope you enjoy! 🎭

Lovers’ Vows, the play that broke Mansfield Park

Thank you for hosting me today on this stop along my blog tour for my newest Miss Mary Investigates mystery, Death of a Dandy: A Mansfield Park Mystery.

In my book, as in Jane Austen’s novel Mansfield Park, a lot of the action revolves around the production of a play. Tom Bertram, the wayward heir to the estate, has returned home with a friend with the intention of rehearsing and mounting a performance of Lovers’ Vows, a mildly scandalous play that was quite popular around 1800.

Through the lens of the rehearsals, we see the characters of Mansfield Park interact with each other, and much of the plot hinges on these new relationships. We see Tom Bertram’s disregard for propriety in the interests of his personal amusement; we see Maria Bertram and Henry Crawford flirt shamelessly in front of Maria’s betrothed, Mr. Rushworth; we see Edmund’s stance against the play waver and then crumble in the face of Mary Crawford’s charms; and we see Fanny Price’s moral determination in refusing to be involved at all.

But what was this play? Why was it so problematic? Let me tell you a bit about Lovers’ Vows.

The play that is performed at Mansfield Park is an adaptation by Elizabeth Inchbald (1753-1821) of a German play, August von Kotzebue’s Das Kind der Liebe, written in 1780. The German means “love child” or “natural child,” and immediately we know there is some unmarried hanky-panky going on somewhere. Mrs. Inchbald’s adaptation was one of at least four, and it was premiered at Covent Garden in 1798. It was a huge success, the most successful play of the season, and further productions were staged across England, despite (or because of) its moral ambiguity.

In the play, returned soldier Frederick discovers that he is illegitimate, his mother, Agatha, having been seduced at the age of 17 by Baron Wildenhaim. The baron reneged on his promise of marriage and married someone else, leaving Agatha destitute, to raise her son alone.

Frederick is dismayed and tries to help Agatha by finding her a place to live with some kind cottagers. He decides to go and beg for money to help his mother, and after being rebuffed by a hunting party, attacks them. He is captured and taken prisoner.

The Baron, it turns out, was not permitted to marry according to his heart, and now wishes to avoid subjecting his daughter, Amelia, to the same pressures he succumbed to years ago. He sends the young clergyman Anhalt to speak to his daughter to learn her feelings about Count Cassel, a stupid man of questionable morality. But Amelia secretly loves Anhalt, and he her, but their case is hopeless for Anhalt is quite poor and nowhere near good enough for a baron’s daughter.

Anhalt and Amelia confess their love for one another, but their discussions of marriage are interrupted by the news that the Baron has been attacked. The culprit was Frederick, who did not know who his victims were. Amelia pleads for the life of the unknown young man, but her father refuses to be moved. Struck by pity, she takes Frederick food, and they discover who they are to each other. Frederick also now learns who it was whom he attacked, and begs for a private audience with the Baron.

Through Amelia, the Baron now discovers that Count Cassel is rather dissolute, with a history of promising marriage to young women and then abandoning them. Embarrassed about his own past, he agrees to see the young man whom he had arrested, and finally learns Frederick’s true identity: his own son by his long-lost lover Agatha.

At the same time, Anhalt goes to see Agatha, to explain the circumstances behind Baron Wildenhaim’s abandonment of her twenty years ago. After some agitation over their different social standings, Frederick and Anhalt convince the Baron to marry Agatha after all, and with a happy ending coming up, the Baron agrees to let his daughter Amelia marry Anhalt, even though he is poor.

And they all lived happily ever after.

In Mansfield Park, recall that Frederick is played by Henry Crawford, to Maria Bertram’s Agatha, giving a great deal of time to “rehearse” together. And Edmund is convinced into playing Anhalt, across from Mary Crawford who plays Amelia. How can he resist?

Here is an excerpt from Mansfield Park, where Edmund tries to convince Fanny—and himself—that taking part in the play is purely altruistic!

Put yourself in Miss Crawford’s place, Fanny. Consider what it would be to act Amelia with a stranger. She has a right to be felt for, because she evidently feels for herself. I heard enough of what she said to you last night to understand her unwillingness to be acting with a stranger; and as she probably engaged in the part with different expectations—perhaps without considering the subject enough to know what was likely to be—it would be ungenerous, it would be really wrong to expose her to it. Her feelings ought to be respected. Does it not strike you so, Fanny? You hesitate.”

“I am sorry for Miss Crawford; but I am more sorry to see you drawn in to do what you had resolved against, and what you are known to think will be disagreeable to my uncle. It will be such a triumph to the others!”

“They will not have much cause of triumph when they see how infamously I act. But, however, triumph there certainly will be, and I must brave it. But if I can be the means of restraining the publicity of the business, of limiting the exhibition, of concentrating our folly, I shall be well repaid. As I am now, I have no influence, I can do nothing: I have offended them, and they will not hear me; but when I have put them in good-humour by this concession, I am not without hopes of persuading them to confine the representation within a much smaller circle than they are now in the high road for. This will be a material gain. My object is to confine it to Mrs. Rushworth and the Grants. Will not this be worth gaining?”

And here is an excerpt from my novel, Death of a Dandy: A Mansfield Park Mystery, where Alexander has been convinced into joining the cast of Lovers’ Vows. The play’s the thing, after all!

* * *

There came a knock at the door: Mr. Lyons’ presence was required in the rehearsal room at once; there would be trays of food if he had not yet taken his meal. Miss Bennet was welcome to observe. This was no request, but a command, and one which Alexander did not mind obeying, for he felt he might well discover something. “The play’s the thing,” he mumbled as he and Mary set about organising the piles of messages and locking them in the desk drawer that Edmund had allotted for this purpose.

He walked with Mary to the rehearsal space, then ran up to his chamber to collect the book of the play he had been using to learn his lines. When he returned, the room was full, the company gathered in groups of two or three, going over their lines and gestures and arguing over who should stand where so as best to be seen by the non-existent audience.

The Crawford siblings had returned to the house during the time that Alexander and Mary had been examining the messages in the study. Henry was standing with some of the others, discussing some arrangement of the furniture for one scene, whilst Maria stood to the side, listening carefully to the conversation. On the other side of the room, Edmund stood with Miss Crawford, their play books open in their hands, but their eyes never dropping to the words they held. She seemed to have recovered well from the shock the previous afternoon, and she looked very well with bright eyes and rosy cheeks. Alexander caught snatches of their conversation, which seemed to wander indistinctly around the topic of the play, though veering off in a variety of directions before being reined in to return to the nature of their scenes.

…At a glance, Mary nodded at Alexander and settled herself upon a chair not so close to Edmund and Miss Crawford as to intrude upon their conversation, but near enough to overhear anything above a whisper. He felt a rush of pride at how well she was attuned to what he needed to know. It would be of equal, or perhaps more, value to overhear what transpired between Maria and Henry Crawford, but that would be less easy to arrange without the conceit being apparent to all.

Alexander had spent a while at his lines the previous evening, and the combination of his diligence and his skills of recollection now allowed him to recite his speeches with some success and confidence. He had a naturally good memory, and this had been honed during his years studying the law and with the demands of his profession. As he presented his lines, he saw the others’ eyes widen in admiration and a smile grow over Yates’ aristocratic face.

Ooh! This is such an important sequence in Mansfield Park, so much happens or is learned. I look forward to seeing what discoveries Mary and Alex make about the Bertrams, Crawfords, and Fanny through these scenes together. 

Thanks so much for sharing about the history of Lovers’ Vows, Riana! I’m so happy to have a fuller understanding of the play now! All the best with your new release of Death of a Dandy: A Mansfield Park Mystery! 🤗

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~ Author Riana ~

Riana Everly was born in South Africa, but has called Canada home since she was eight years old. She has a Master’s degree in Medieval Studies and is trained as a classical musician, specialising in Baroque and early Classical music. She first encountered Jane Austen when her father handed her a copy of Emma at age 11, and has never looked back.

Riana now lives in Toronto with her family. When she is not writing, she can often be found playing string quartets with friends, biking around the beautiful province of Ontario with her husband, trying to improve her photography, thinking about what to make for dinner, and, of course, reading!

Riana’s novels have received several awards and citations as favourite reads of the year, including two Jane Austen Awards and a Discovering Diamonds review.

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GIVEAWAY TIME!!!

In conjunction with her blog tour for Death of a Dandy: A Mansfield Park Mystery, Riana Everly is generously giving away 5️⃣  ebooks of Death of a Dandy: A Mansfield Park Mystery to  5️⃣  lucky winners!

Commenting on this post and entering through the rafflecopter widget on this blog enters you in a chance to win!*

a Rafflecopter giveaway

• This giveaway is open worldwide.  Thank you, Riana!
• This giveaway ends April 13th! (make haste, friends!)

*For anybody who cannot use the link, please email me your name and preferred email address and I will add you manually to the list for the draw. My email is riana.everly@gmail.com. Good luck!

 

My gratitude to Riana Everly for paying us this lovely visit and putting together this interesting post!