Tortesa, the Usurer

Tortesa, the Usurer (1839), a play by Nathaniel Parker Willis. [National Theatre, 6 perf.] The usurer Tortesa (James W. Wallack) so loves Isabella (Virginia Monier), the daughter of Count Falcone (Mr. T. Matthews), that he buys up and gives Falcone all the mortgages on the Count's lands. But Isabella loves a young painter, Angelo (E. S. Conner), and plays dead rather than marry Tortesa. Impressed, Tortesa relinquishes his claim on her, stating, “She's taught me that the high‐born may be true.” Although George Odell dismissed this blank‐verse as “a very silly tragi‐comedy,” it remained popular for about a decade.