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Fair Penitent
The 18th century was a wealth of knowledge, exploration and rapidly growing technology and expanding record-keeping made possible by advances in the printing press. In its determination to preserve the century of revolution, Gale initiated a revolution of its digitization of epic proportions to preserve these invaluable works in the largest archive of its kind. Now for the first time these high-quality digital copies of original 18th century manuscripts are available in print, making them highly accessible to libraries, undergraduate students, and independent scholars.Western literary study flows out of eighteenth-century works by Alexander Pope, Daniel Defoe, Henry Fielding, Frances Burney, Denis Diderot, Johann Gottfried Herder, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, and others. Experience the birth of the modern novel, or compare the development of language using dictionaries and grammar discourses.++++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++++Source John Rylands University Library of ManchesterN008189London : printed for W. Lowndes, J. Nichols, S. Bladon, and W. Nicoll, 1790. 55,[1]p.,plates ; 12°
106 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1703
About the author
Nicholas Rowe
271 books2 followers(Several authors on Goodreads share the name Nicholas Rowe. The following is the most prolific and best known.)
English writer who was the first to attempt a critical edition of the works of Shakespeare. 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.
See also https://www.britannica.com/biography/...
English writer who was the first to attempt a critical edition of the works of Shakespeare. 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.
See also https://www.britannica.com/biography/...
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
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March 5, 2015am amazed this is on goodreads tbh
December 19, 2017
I came across this book, written in 1703, while looking up the word, LOTHARIO:
So, Sciolto, a nobleman of Genoa promises daughter Calista to Altamont. Sciolto was fryiends with Altamont's parents. They died.
But Calista loves Lothario, who 'seduced' her.
Lothario is Altamont's enemy and further plans to meet Calista on her wedding day- threatening shaming her.
Days of old.
Altamont murders Lothario but Calista's father wanted to kill her for shaming the family.
Altamont prevents this murder
Calista keeps a deathwatch over the corpse of Lothario.
When her father enters the scene, she expresses her wish for death, and he offers his dagger.
As she takes the weapon, he announces that his duty as a judge is done and expresses his love for her as a father:
Project Gutenberg writes that:
The Fair Penitent is Nicholas Rowe's stage adaptation of the tragedy -
or- 
-The Fatal Dowry, the Philip Massinger and Nathananiel Field collaboration first published in 1632.
Rowe's adaptation, premiered onstage in 1702 and first published in 1703, was a great popular success through much of the 18th century, and was praised by critics as demanding as Samuel Johnson ("There is scarcely any work of any poet so interesting by the fable and so delightful in the language").
In making his adaptation, Rowe eliminated characters and simplified the action "to create a more focused play than the original." He 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.
In the play, Lothario is a notorious seducer, extremely attractive but a haughty and unfeeling scoundrel beneath his charming exterior.
He seduces Calista, an unfaithful wife and later the fair penitent of the title.
After the play was published, the character of Lothario became a stock figure in English literature.
For example, Samuel Richardson modeled the character of Lovelace on Lothario in his 1748 novel Clarissa.
As the character became well known, his name became progressively more generic, and lothario
(often capitalized) has since been used to describe a foppish, unscrupulous rake.
About the author: (1674-1718)-- His career was first, as a lawyer.
English writer who was the first to attempt a critical edition of the works of Shakespeare.
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.
His critical edition of the Works of William Shakespeare was published in 1709.
All this for researching one word!
So, Sciolto, a nobleman of Genoa promises daughter Calista to Altamont. Sciolto was fryiends with Altamont's parents. They died.
But Calista loves Lothario, who 'seduced' her.
Lothario is Altamont's enemy and further plans to meet Calista on her wedding day- threatening shaming her.
Days of old.
Altamont murders Lothario but Calista's father wanted to kill her for shaming the family.
Altamont prevents this murder
Calista keeps a deathwatch over the corpse of Lothario.
When her father enters the scene, she expresses her wish for death, and he offers his dagger.
As she takes the weapon, he announces that his duty as a judge is done and expresses his love for her as a father:
Project Gutenberg writes that:
The Fair Penitent is Nicholas Rowe's stage adaptation of the tragedy -
or- -The Fatal Dowry, the Philip Massinger and Nathananiel Field collaboration first published in 1632.Rowe's adaptation, premiered onstage in 1702 and first published in 1703, was a great popular success through much of the 18th century, and was praised by critics as demanding as Samuel Johnson ("There is scarcely any work of any poet so interesting by the fable and so delightful in the language").
In making his adaptation, Rowe eliminated characters and simplified the action "to create a more focused play than the original." He 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.
In the play, Lothario is a notorious seducer, extremely attractive but a haughty and unfeeling scoundrel beneath his charming exterior.
He seduces Calista, an unfaithful wife and later the fair penitent of the title.
After the play was published, the character of Lothario became a stock figure in English literature.
For example, Samuel Richardson modeled the character of Lovelace on Lothario in his 1748 novel Clarissa.
As the character became well known, his name became progressively more generic, and lothario
(often capitalized) has since been used to describe a foppish, unscrupulous rake.
About the author: (1674-1718)-- His career was first, as a lawyer.
English writer who was the first to attempt a critical edition of the works of Shakespeare.
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.
His critical edition of the Works of William Shakespeare was published in 1709.
All this for researching one word!
March 6, 2025
But be it so,
We'll go together, my advent'rous Love
Shall follow thee to those uncertain Beings;
Whether our lifeless Shades are doom'd to wander,
In gloomy Groves, with discontented Ghosts,
Or whether thro' the upper Air we fleet,
And tread the Fields of Light, still I'll pursue thee,
'Till Fate ordains that we shall part no more.
We'll go together, my advent'rous Love
Shall follow thee to those uncertain Beings;
Whether our lifeless Shades are doom'd to wander,
In gloomy Groves, with discontented Ghosts,
Or whether thro' the upper Air we fleet,
And tread the Fields of Light, still I'll pursue thee,
'Till Fate ordains that we shall part no more.
March 26, 2025
Although Lothario is a walking red flag, I can't help but be flustered by his rakish charm. The overdramatic effusions of the rest of the characters throw his unbothered nobility into striking relief.
April 2, 2018
Last year I started a personal challenge to read more books from the 1700s. After reading two or three, and discussing them with some family, my Mom asked, "But are you enjoying them?" She told me how she recently abandoned several classics friends had recommended because she wasn't enjoying the experience. It took me a few months to consider this, but I realized I did enjoy doing this challenge. Maybe I don't always like reading these old books, but I like having them on my "Read" list. I guess there's a little book snob in me after all.
Anyway, as for this book, I really only picked it up because it popularized the name Lothario as a womanizer. I find it remarkable that a largely forgotten play can contribute a term to the language that is still in use (more or less) 300 years later.
As for the play itself, the edition I read had an intro that explained why it was better than most, but I'll lave that to the academics. The fact that the female lead was unapologetically in love with the antagonist made it different enough for me from the other plays I've read from this era.
Anyway, as for this book, I really only picked it up because it popularized the name Lothario as a womanizer. I find it remarkable that a largely forgotten play can contribute a term to the language that is still in use (more or less) 300 years later.
As for the play itself, the edition I read had an intro that explained why it was better than most, but I'll lave that to the academics. The fact that the female lead was unapologetically in love with the antagonist made it different enough for me from the other plays I've read from this era.
January 5, 2025
Working on my review backlog again! I found this play quite useful for my exam, it helped me to get a sense of the theatrical tradition so many of my favorite novelists were inspired by and/or parodying. I was drawing a lot of connections between this play and Haywood's Love In Excess. Overall it was better than I expected it to be. And now all the times it or the playwright are referenced in later works (which seems to happen quite often) I'll know what's going on.
September 16, 2011
** 1/2 out of *****.
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