Note 28 — Chapter III · Tales with the Simple Theme and Miscellaneous Combinations.

An echo of the simple theme of The Grateful Dead is found in two English plays—Massinger’s Fatal Dowry and Rowe’s Fair Penitent. In the former young Charolais goes to prison to release his father’s body from the clutch of creditors, who wish to keep it unburied for vengeance.28 He is rescued by Rochfort, who pays the debts and gives him his daughter in marriage. The intrigues of love and vengeance that follow do not concern us. In Rowe’s play, which was based on Massinger’s, this part has been curtailed to a few slight references. Altamont gives himself as ransom for his father’s body to the greedy creditors, who will not allow burial to take place. He is rewarded by the care and bounty of Sciolto, who becomes a second father to him.