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
The Fair Penitent pursued "neoclassical simplicity" but in the process sacrificed the "underlying moral principles" of the original. Rowe shifted the setting from Dijon to Genoa, and changed the main characters' names: Rowe also accentuated the role of the female protagonist, making the play much more a vehicle for a female star performer, a "better acting piece" for a prominent actress. Where the original "concentrates largely on the legal and political affairs of the cuckolded husband," Rowe focused far more directly on the domestic tragedy of Calista's infidelity. The play was staged at both of the major London theatres of the day, Drury