At this critical crisis, while she is swelled with rage, and his friend covered with confusion, Altamont comes forward, with fresh declarations of love, but takes a natural alarm at seeing his bride and Hora|tio in such a situation; Calista here, by throwing inflammatory materials on the mind of her hus|band, and urging a quarrel of fatal nature between the friends, shews herself highly capable of plung|ing into one degree of iniquity to screen another, and that even a sacrifice of blood is not too much for her ill-founded pride; this we allow to be strict|ly in nature, but the grounds of an execrable cha|racter; at her departure she rages in some very poetical rhimes. Nicholas Rowe ( / r oʊ/; 20 June 1674 – 6 December 1718 [2]), English dramatist, poet and miscellaneous writer, was appointed Poet Laureate in 1715. His plays and poems were well-received during his lifetime, with one of his translations described as one of the greatest productions in English poetry. He was also considered the first editor of the works of William Shakespeare.

breaking all ties of paternal tenderness aims at Calista's life, which is saved by her husband's hu|mane interposition, even contrary to her strong persuasive supplications for death at a father's hand; Sciolto's start of phrenzy being passed off, he in|dulges reflection and reproach in a truly pathetic manner; the picture Calista gives of her own re|tirement, contrition, and mournful catastrophe is extremely affecting.married her, forward to expose her fatal weakness, and his own inhuman triumph over her unsuspect|ing virtue.

Calista is a lady of insuperable pride and violent passions; easy of belief, warm in affection, precipi|tate in resentment; she appears in no favourable point of view, except from her credulity; and though we contend for her being a penitent, yet we readily admit she is a reluctant one; she is one up|onRowe acted as under-secretary (1709–1711) to the Duke of Queensberry when he was principal secretary of state for Scotland. On the accession of George I, Rowe was made a surveyor of customs, and in 1715 he succeeded Nahum Tate as poet laureate. [2] As she takes the weapon, he announces that his duty as a judge is done and expresses his love for her as a father: 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. Ward, Adolphus William (1875). A History of English Dramatic Literature to the Death of Queen Anne. Vol.2. London: Macmillan and Co. p.560.