In 1704, Rowe tried his hand at comedy, producing The Biter at Lincoln's Inn Fields, which was unsuccessful, and Rowe returned to tragedy in Ulysses (1705). [2] According to Johnson, this play was to share the fate of many such plays based on mythological heroes, as, "We have been too early acquainted with the poetical heroes to expect any pleasure from their revival" [4]

So, Sciolto, a nobleman of Genoa promises daughter Calista to Altamont. Sciolto was fryiends with Altamont's parents. They died. The below data was compiled from various identification fields in the bibliographic record of this title. This data is provided as an additional tool in helping to insure edition identification:To the Memory of NICHOLAS ROWE Esq: who died in 1718 Aged 45, And of Charlotte his only daughter the wife of Henry Fane Esq; who, inheriting her Father’s Spirit, and Amiable in her own Innocence & Beauty, died in the 22nd year of her age 1739. Thy Reliques, Rowe, to this sad Shrine we trust, and near thy Shakespear place thy honour’d Bust, Oh next him skill’ed to draw the tender Tear, For never Heart felt Passion more sincere: To nobler sentiment to fire the Brave. For never Briton more disdain’d a Slave: Peace to the gentle Shade, and endless Rest, Blest in thy Genius, in thy love too blest; And blest, that timely from Our Scene remov’d Thy Soul enjoys that Liberty it lov’d. To these, so mourn’d in Death, so lov’d in Life! The childless Parent & the widow’d wife With tears inscribes this monument Stone, That holds their Ashes & expects her own. [3] short of her distress; in this character, as well as some others, we are to lament, that the lady just mentioned, should indulge a masculine extravagance of Frenchified action; that she should saw the air with her arms, and labour for attitude where it is rather superfluous; this may please the million, but is no point of real merit, and can only be deem|ed a pitiful trap to catch prostituted applause.

their high Birth and excellent Qua|lities have plac'd in a very distin|guishing manner above the rest of the World. If this be not a receiv'd Maxim, yet I am sure I am to wish it were, that I may have at least some kind of Excuse for laying this Tragedy at Your Grace's Feet. I have too much reason to fear that it may prove but an indifferent En|tertainment to Your Grace, since if I have any way succeeded in it, it has been in describing those violent Passions which have been always Strangers to so happy a Temper, and so noble and so exalted a Virtue as Your Grace is Mistress of. Yet for all this, I cannot but confess the Va|nity which I have, to hope that there may be something so moving in the Misfortunes and Distress of the Play, as may be not altogether unworthy of Your Grace's Pity. This is one of the main Designs of Tragedy, and to The Tragedy of Lady Jane Grey followed in 1715, and as this play was not successful, it was his last foray into the medium. [2] It was first mentioned in the modern sense in 1756 in The World, the 18th century London weekly newspaper, No. 202 ("The gay [meaning joyful, merry] Lothario dresses for the fight"). [5] Samuel Richardson used "haughty, gallant, gay Lothario" as the model for the self-indulgent Robert Lovelace in his novel Clarissa (1748), and Calista suggested the character of Clarissa Harlowe. [4] Edward Bulwer-Lytton used the name allusively in his 1849 novel The Caxtons ("And no woman could have been more flattered and courted by Lotharios and lady-killers than Lady Castleton has been"). [6] Anthony Trollope in Barchester Towers (1857) wrote of "the elegant fluency of a practised Lothario". [7] As she takes the weapon, he announces that his duty as a judge is done and expresses his love for her as a father:Rowe succeeded Nahum Tate as poet laureate in 1715 and was also the foremost 18th-century English tragic dramatist, doing much to assist the rise of domestic tragedy. manners would have taught him to decline perusal of it, as seeing the superscription—To Lothario— yet a curiosity stimulated by friendship occasions him to examine the contents, which afford a most alarming and painful discovery, not only of Ca|lista's previous but subsequent guilt, by soliciting an interview with him who has undone her, even with a man who is known as the determined foe of Al|tamont. —The soliloquy occasioned by this fatal let|ter is well suited to a man in Horatio's critical and disagreeable situation; reflection seems more to em|barrass him, and he is wrapped in the perplexity of thought when his wife appears. Lothario is the most reproachable character our moral author ever drew, and indeed as dangerous a one as we know; like the snake with a beauteous variegated skin, which lures the unguarded hand to a poisonous touch; this licentious gallant, gilds his pernicious principles with very delusive qualifica|tions, especially for the fair sex, which cannot be more plainly evinced than by a declaration which has often been made at the representation of this piece, by volatile, unthinking females; who have not scrupled saying, that they would rather be deceived by such a pretty fellow as Lothario, than counte|nance such a constant, passive, insipid creature as Altamont; yet, upon examination, we do not find one trace of intrinsic merit in his composition; he is sprightly, voluble, amorous and possessed of some courage; but the reverse shews him vain, super|ficial, inconstant and malevolent; capable not only of ruining a credulous woman who loves him, but on pretence of resentment against the man who has The genius of ROWE seemed to consist in rich|ness of fancy, purity of language, justness of images, and harmony of numbers; but was undoubtedly too poetical for the drama, of which every piece he wrote, as well as this, is an evident proof; indeed, the absurd manner of theatrical speaking in his time might lead him to monotony in composition, and jingling rhimes at the end of acts; the only Lothario, a young lord of dissolute principles, with his confidante Rossano, appear next; from the expressions at first dropped by Lothario we find, there is a rooted enmity subsisting between him and Sciolto's connections, chiefly on account of Calista, of whose unfortunate credulity, and his own triumph over her virtue, he gives a most fan|ciful, but highly censurable description; vice is here adorned with irresistable charms to an un|guarded mind, and therefore presented to public view in her most dangerous garb: reason and judg|ment commiserating the betrayed, must condemn the betrayer; yet we fear the luxuriance of fancy here works a quite contrary effect; less merit in the writing would have lessened the danger, either in perusal or representation; gross licentiousness disgusts, but the refined sort, like palatable poison, introduces destruction unperceived.

Mr. SHERIDAN whose voice and person, as we have before observed, rather speak against him, especially in points of importance; nevertheless made a more masterly figure in this part than any person we have seen; he broke with chaste judg|ment the lines into good sense, without violating just harmony; he sustained the sedateness of the charac|ter, and the spirit of it, with equal propriety, and had the merit of much greater uniformity, than any competitor we shall, or can mention; cool without sameness, firm without brutality. Ball, F. Elrington (1926). The Judges in Ireland 1221–1921. Vol.2. London: John Murray. p.42. ISBN 9781584774280. Jane Shore, professedly an imitation of Shakespeare's style, was played at Drury Lane with Anne Oldfield in the title role in 1714. It ran for nineteen nights, and kept the stage longer than any other of Rowe's works. [2] In the play, which consists chiefly of domestic scenes and private distress, the wife is forgiven because she repents, and the husband is honoured because he forgives. [4]

Lothario is Altamont's enemy and further plans to meet Calista on her wedding day- threatening shaming her. Upon his death his widow received a pension from George I in 1719 in recognition of her husband's translation of Lucan. This verse translation, or rather paraphrase of the Pharsalia, was called by Samuel Johnson one of the greatest productions in English poetry, and was widely read, running through eight editions between 1718 and 1807. [2] Family [ edit ] Mrs. BARRY, notwithstanding the disadvantage of an inexpressive, though engaging countenance, stands in our view next to Mrs. CIBBER; if she is fainter in the pathetic than that lady, and less con|sequential than Mrs. YATES, yet she is certainly more uniform through the whole than either; and has a very evident advantage of both in figure and deportment. Mrs. WOFFINGTON, through an unaccountable turn of public caprice, was very well received in Calista, though all her merit was comprehended in elegance of figure; she was a Lady Townly in heroics, and barked out the penitent with as disso|nant notes of voice as ever offended a critical ear; we allow she was very pleasing to the eye, but high|ly offensive to cultivated taste.