Nicholas Rowe (1673-1718)

Nicholas Rowe attended Westminster School before entering the Middle Temple in 1691; he abandoned the law to become a successful tragic playwright. In 1709 Rowe edited the first critical edition of Shakespeare's works. A friend of Addison, John Hughes, and Pope, he succeeded Nahum Tate as Poet Laureate in 1715. A staunch Whig, Rowe held a number of government posts.

TEXT RECORDS:

1714Colin's Complaint.
1716Ode for the New Year MDCCXVI.

PUBLICATIONS:

The ambitious step-mother. A tragedy. 1701.
Tamerlane. A tragedy. 1702.
The fair penitent. A tragedy. 1703.
The biter. A comedy. 1705.
Ulysses. A tragedy. 1706.
The royal convert. A tragedy. 1708.
A poem upon the late glorious successes of her Majesty's arms. 1707.
The life of Pythagoras [Dacier, trans. Rowe]. 1707.
Callipaedia: a poem written in Latin by Claudius Quillet [Rowe et al.] 1712.
The works of Mr. William Shakespear. 6 vols, 1709.
The tragedy of Jane Shore. 1714.
Poems on several occasions. 1714.
Colin's complaint for his mistress's unkindness. 1715?
Poetical works. 1715.
The tragedy of Lady Jane Grey. 1715.
Ode for the new year 1716. 1716.
Verses upon the sickness and recovery of the Right Honourable Robert Walpole. 1716.
Lucan's Pharsalia, translated. 1719.
Poems on several occasions, with a life. 1720.
The dramatick works. 2 vols, 1720.
Works, ed. Anne Deanes Devenish. 2 vols, 1747.
Works. 4 vols, 1756.

PROFILE AND
ASSOCIATES:

English
Anglican

Westminster School
Middle Temple
Inns of Court

lawyer
secretary
Poet Laureate
dramatist
poet
translator

Joseph Addison
Susannah Centlivre
Samuel Cobb
Rev. William Diaper
John Gay
John Hughes
Bernard Lintot
Alexander Pope
Dr. George Sewell
Rev. Jonathan Swift

REFERENCE:

DNB; NCBEL; DLB .

Giles Jacob, Poetical Register (1719) [portrait]; Life in Poems (1720); Giles Jacob, An Historical Account of ... English Poets (1720); Biographia Britannica (1747-66) 5:3520-23; Cibber-Shiels, Lives of the Poets (1753); "Life of Rowe" Universal Magazine (Supplement, 1755) 305-14 [portrait]; David Erskine Baker, Companion to the Play-House (1764); Bell's Poets of Great Britain (1776-82); Samuel Johnson, Life in Works of the English Poets (1779-81); Biographia Dramatica (1782; 1812); Robert Anderson, British Poets (1795); Robert Southey, Specimens of Later English Poets (1807); Samuel Jackson Pratt, Cabinet of Poetry (1808); Alexander Chalmers, English Poets (1810); Alexander Chalmers, General Biographical Dictionary (1812-17); Weekly Entertainer [Sherborne] 57 (7 April 1817) 273-74; "Time and Place of Birth of Rowe" Gentleman's Magazine 89 (September 1819) 230-31; Thomas Campbell, Specimens of the British Poets (1819); Ezekiel Sanford, British Poets (1819); John Aikin, Select Works of the British Poets (1820); Robert Watt, Bibliotheca Britannica (1824); Henry Neele, Lectures (1829); The Georgian Era: Memoirs of the most Eminent Persons (1832-34) ; Robert Chambers, Cyclopaedia of English Literature (1844); Allibone, Critical Dictionary of English Literature (1858-71; 1882); Wright, West-Country Poets (1896) 409-10; Moulton, Library of Literary Criticism (1901-05); life in Three Plays, ed. J. R. Sutherland (1929); Alfred Jackson, "Pope's Epitaphs on Nicholas Rowe" RES 7 (1931) 76-79; Dobree, OHEL (1959); G. W. Whiting, "Rowe's debt to Paradise Lost" Modern Philology 32 (1935) 271-79.

COMMENTARY RECORDS
for Nicholas Rowe:

1.	1701 William Shippen, "An Epistle to N. Rowe, Esq; translated from the Latin by H. Lloyd" Gildon, A New Miscellany of Original Poems (1701) 42-46.
2.	1703 Anonymous, "To Mr. Rowe, on his excellent Works" Poems on Several Occasions: together with some Odes (1703) 51-52.
3.	1703 ca. Anonymous, "On Mr. Rowe's Fair Penitent" 1703 ca.; Nichols, Select Collection of Poems (1780-82) 5:154-55.
4.	1715 Thomas Hearne, 26 August 1715; Reliquae Hearniae, ed. Bliss (1869) 2:16.
5.	1718 ca. Anonymous, "On a Monument intended to be erected for Mr. Rowe, by his Widow; written before Mr. Dryden's was set up" Collection of Epigrams (1727) No. LXVII.
6.	1719 Susanna Centlivre, "A Pastoral to the honoured Memory of Mr. Rowe" Musarum Lachrymae: or Poems to the Memory of Nicholas Rowe (1719) 31-40.
7.	1719 Thomas Newcomb, "An Ode sacred to the Memory of N. Rowe, Esq." Musarum Lachrymae: or Poems to the Memory of Nicholas Rowe (1719) 41-62.
8.	1719 Nicholas Amhurst, "On the Death of Mr. Rowe, Esq." Musarum Lachrymae: or Poems to the Memory of Nicholas Rowe (1719) 22-30.
9.	1720 Giles Jacob, in Historical Account of the Lives and Writings of our most considerable English Poets (1720) 276-80.
10.	1722 Matthew Concanen, in "A Letter to a Critick, in Defence of the Modern Poets" 1722; Universal Journal No. 21 (29 April 1724).
11.	1728 James Ralph, in The Muses' Address to the King (1728) 17-18.
12.	1739 Anonymous, in "The Apotheosis of Milton" Gentleman's Magazine 9 (January 1739) 20.
13.	1743 Anonymous, Rowe's Epitaph in Westminster Abbey; Daily Advertiser (20 June 1743).
14.	1749 Anonymous, in Westminster Abbey, an Heroic Poem (1749) 33-35.
15.	1756 Joseph Warton, in Essay on the Genius and Writings of Pope (1756; 1782) 1:282-84.
16.	1782 Anonymous, in Biographia Dramatica (1782; 1812) 1:609.
17.	1795 Robert Anderson, in Works of the British Poets (1795) 7:129.
18.	1796 Richard Polwhele, in "Genius of Danmonium" Essays by a Society of Gentlemen (1796) 546.
19.	1806 John Aikin, in Letters to a Young Lady (1806) 254-55.
20.	1807 Robert Southey, in Specimens of the Later English Poets (1807) 1:196.
21.	1820 Isaac D'Israeli, in Review of Spence's Anecdotes, Quarterly Review 23 (July 1820) 421-22.
22.	1824 Bryan Waller Procter, in Effigies Poeticae, or, the Portraits of the British Poets (1824) 68-69.
23.	1862 Thomas Arnold, in A Manual of English Literature (1862; 1885) 361.

BIOGRAPHY RECORDS
for Nicholas Rowe:

1.	1718 S. Hales, "Some Memoirs of the Life and Writings of Nicholas Rowe, Esq." 1718; Musarum Lachrymae: or Poems to the Memory of Nicholas Rowe (1719) 1-11.
2.	1719 Giles Jacob, in Poetical Register: or the Lives and Characters of the English Dramatick Poets (1719) 212-13.
3.	1753 Anonymous, in Cibber-Shiels, Lives of the Poets of Great Britain and Ireland (1753) 3:272-84.
4.	1776 John Nichols, Note in Original Works of William King (1776) 3:184-85n.
5.	1779 Samuel Johnson, Lives of the English Poets (1779-81); ed. Hill (1905) 2:65-77.
6.	1808 Samuel Jackson Pratt, in Cabinet of Poetry (1808) 2:310-11.
7.	1812 Alexander Chalmers, in General Biographical Dictionary (1812-17) 26:423-26.
8.	1819 Thomas Campbell, in Specimens of the British Poets (1819; 1845) 332.
9.	1820 John Aikin, in Select Works of the British Poets (1820) 230.
10.	1844 Robert Chambers, in Cyclopaedia of English Literature (1844; 1850) 1:590.

AUTHOR AS CRITIC:
(commentary records)

1.	1714 John Dryden: Nicholas Rowe, "On Mr. Bays's Dramatick Pieces" Poems and Translations by Several Hands (1714) 50.
2.	1716 ca. Joseph Addison: Nicholas Rowe, "Stanzas to Lady Warwick on Mr. Addison's going to Ireland" 1716 ca.; Works of the English Poets (1779) 26:61-62.
3.	1716 John Hughes: Nicholas Rowe to John Hughes, 22 October 1716; Duncombe, ed. Letters by Several Eminent Persons (1772; 1773) 1:150-51.