Austen's Use of "Lovers' Vows"

So much of modern criticism regarding Austen's use of Inchbald's "Lovers' Vows" focuses on the emphasis the acting scenes place on the immorality of the Bertram children and how this reflects their impropriety. I decided to research the reviews and critiques of the play upon its first performances in English and compare these comments with the idea that "Lovers' Vows" was a horribly scandalous play for the time and featured very provocative subject matter. I consulted the database of 18th century newspapers and searched for "Lovers' Vows". The majority of the results were from October of 1798, which corresponds to the plays first performances in Covent Garden. I was surprised to find that almost all of the reviews proclaimed it to be a marvelous adaption and very properly and tastefully done. Even more surprising perhaps, was the mention of "Kotzebue's considerable partiality for this country". Many of the critics praised the preface that Inchbald added to her play, as it justified her morality. She herself, in the preface, states the necessity of alteration because of its "original unfitness for an English stage" and that it would have been "revolting to an English audience". The newspapers even mention specific alterations, like the removal of a smoking scene, that Inchbald thought necessary. I then briefly researched the public perception of smoking during this period and found that it was indeed considered a vice to Christians, though not so horrible as to warrant open criticism. With these discoveries in mind, I am beginning to believe that Austen used the play not so much to emphasize the individuals' immorality, but rather to show the excessive priggishness of certain characters. There were a number of more "scandalous" German plays of the time, famously Goethe's Faust, that would have provided Austen with a considerably less ambiguous symbol, if that was her goal. Equally, in considering the assertion that it is not so much the content of the play, but rather the idea of these women acting that was improper, I came upon a series of Austen's work known as the "Juvenilia". These were written in her youth, for supposedly home performance, and often featured rather "racy" subject matter. Though I still intend to review the Anti-Jacobin perceptions of the play, it is beginning to seem to me that the play's tremendous success upon its introduction to England and the critics' praise of Inchbald's alterations reveal Austen's intentions as wholly those of satire. Even further, I quickly looked at the character that Fanny was supposed to play, the cottager's wife, and this is one of the most moral and praiseworthy characters. This may even further this idea that Fanny's actions were misguided to the extent of near inarticulateness by the excessive prudishness of her family's expectations.