Nicholas Rowe (writer) many years regularly acted on the anniversary of William's landing at Torbay. In Dublin in 1712, at a time when political passions were running high, the performance provoked a serious riot. "The Fair Penitent" (1703), an adaptation of Massinger and Field's "The Fatal Dowry", was pronounced by Samuel Johnson as one of the most pleasing tragedies ever written in English. It featured the character of Lothario from "The Impertinent Curious Man", a story within a story in Miguel de Cervantes' 1605 novel "Don Quixote". As a result of this play, the name became synonymous with a rake (womaniser). Calista is
She-tragedy She-tragedy The term she-tragedy, also known as ""pathetic tragedy"" refers to a vogue in the late 17th and early 18th centuries for tragic plays focused on the sufferings of a woman, sometimes innocent and virtuous but often a woman who has committed some sort of sexual sin. Prominent she-tragedies include Thomas Otway's "The Orphan" (1680), John Banks' "Virtue Betrayed, or, Anna Bullen" (1682), Thomas Southerne's "The Fatal Marriage" (1694) and Nicholas Rowe's "The Fair Penitent" (1703) and "Lady Jane Grey" (1715). Rowe was the first to use the term "she-tragedy," in 1714. When English drama was reborn in 1660 with