Nicholas Rowe (writer) said to have suggested to Samuel Richardson the character of Clarissa Harlowe, as Lothario suggested Lovelace. Samuel Johnson noted of "The Fair Penitent" that, "The story is domestic, and therefore easily received by the imagination, and assimilated to common life; the diction is exquisitely harmonious, and soft or spritely as occasion requires." 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" (1706). According to Johnson, this play was to share the fate of many such plays based on mythological heroes, as, "We have been
Jakob Greber to have studied in Italy and arrived in London from there in 1702, accompanied by his mistress, the opera singer Margherita de L'Epine. He was to remain in London for the next three years composing incidental music for plays and arias for L'Epine. In 1703, Greber composed the incidental music for the premiere of Nicholas Rowe's play "The Fair Penitent", including four arias sung by L'Epine during the interlude. It was during this time that Rowe dubbed L'Epine "Greber's Peg", a name by which she was known for several years. Although L'Epine left Greber in 1703 to live with Daniel