teach us at once esteem and detestation, to make virtuous resentment
overpower all the benevolence which wit, elegance, and courage,
naturally excite; and to lose at last the hero in the villain. The
fifth act is not equal to the former; the events of the drama are
exhausted, and little remains but to talk of what is past. It has
been observed that the title of the play does not sufficiently
correspond with the behaviour of Calista, who at last shows no
evident signs of repentance, but may be reasonably suspected of
feeling pain from detection rather than from guilt, and expresses
more shame than sorrow, and more rage than shame.

His next (1706) was Ulysses; which, with the common fate of
mythological stories, is now generally neglected. We have been too
early acquainted with the poetical heroes to expect any pleasure
from their revival; to show them as they have already been shown, is
to disgust by repetition; to give them new qualities, or new
adventures, is to offend by violating received notions.

"The Royal Convert" (1708) seems to have a better claim to
longevity. The fable is drawn from an obscure and barbarous age, to
which fictions are more easily and properly adapted; for when
objects are imperfectly seen, they easily take forms from
imagination. The scene lies among our ancestors in our own country,
and therefore very easily catches attention. Rodogune is a
personage truly tragical, of high spirit, and violent passions,
great with tempestuous dignity, and wicked with a soul that would
have been heroic if it had been virtuous. The motto seems to tell
that this play was not successful.

Rowe does not always remember what his characters require. In