The Shepherd of Derwent Vale

The Shepherd of Derwent Vale is a musical drama in two acts by Joseph Lunn (1784-1863)[1] (English libretto) and Charles Edward Horn (1786–1849)[2] (music).

Also given as The Shepherd of Derwent Vale, or, The Innocent Culprit.

The original text

First performed as The Shepherd of Derwent Vale, or, The Innocent Culprit at the Drury Lane Theatre, London, on 12 February, 1825. Said to be "from the French".

Published in London by T. Dolby. (Dolby's British theatre.) [c.1825] and J. Cumberland as Issue 65 of Cumberland's British Theatre, 1860.

Translations and adaptations

Performance history in South Africa

1863: According to the Cape Argus of 15 September 1863 (as cited by F.C.L. Bosman, 1980: p. 298), a work called The Shepherd of Ettrick Vale (unattributed) was performed by the officers of the 10th Regiment in King Williams Town on the Eastern Cape border during September of 1863. Though the title may have been a reference to the Scottish poet, novelist and essayist James Hogg (1770–1835)[3], widely known as "The Ettrick Shepherd" of "The Shepherd of Ettrick Vale", no play by this specific name can be traced. There are a few options (see the entry on The Shepherd of Ettrick Vale), but one possibility is that it may have been a performance of The Shepherd of Derwent Vale, wrongly titled.