Nicholas Rowe

DLB J. Douglas Canfield and Alfred W. Hesse, ‘Nicholas Rowe’, Restoration and Eighteenth–Century Dramatists: Second Series. Dictionary of Literary Biography, vol. 84 (Detroit: Gale Research Co., 1989), pp. 262–289 NR Nicholas Rowe ODNB Arthur Sherbo, ‘Rowe, Nicholas (1674–1718), poetand playwright’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, ed. H. C. G. Matthew and Brian Harrison, sixty vols (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004), vol. 47, pp. 1000–1003 1674 June 20 NR born ‘in the house of his maternal grandfather, Jasper Edwards, at Little Barford, Bedfordshire’ (ODNB) 1686 NR is a private pupil by now of the master of the charity school at Highgate, London (DLB) 1688 NR elected a King’s Scholar at Westminster School, ‘where he came under the charge of the formidable Dr Richard Busby’ (ODNB) 1691 Aug. 4 NR entered as a student at the Middle Temple (ODNB), taking possession of his father’s chambers (DLB) 1692 April 30 NR’s father, John, a London barrister of the Middle Temple, dies; NR comes into an income of £300 p.a. and inherits his father’s chambers (ODNB); this was a ‘modest income’, derived from both Devon property and Middle Temple chambers (DLB) 1693 July 6 NR marries Antonia, daughter of Anthony Parsons, ‘one of the auditors of the revenue’ (ODNB) 1695 Nov. 15 NR’s son John baptized at St Dunstan in the West, Fleet Street; the Rowes have apparently moved in with the Parsons family in their house on Fetter Lane (DLB) 1696 May NR called to the bar, thus completing his studies in less time than the other eleven who finished, out of the sixty–five who enrolled in 1691 (DLB) June 22/23 NR’s Devon properties entailed to his son (DLB) Oct. 31 NR’s son buried (DLB) 1698 William Shippen’s Latin verse ‘Epistola ad N. R.’ is published; probably written three or four years earlier, when he and NR were both at the Middle Temple; Shippen had also studied at Westminster (DLB) 1699 Aug. 24 NR’s second son John baptized (ODNB, which reports that six more children followed but died within a year of birth), at St Andrew, Holborn, since NR and Antonia are now residing at Blewitts Court in that parish, neighbouring the previous one (DLB) 1700 After May NR relinquishes chambers (DLB) Dec. The Ambitious Step–mother performed at Lincoln’s Inn Fields (DLB) 1701 Jan. 29 The Ambitious Step–mother published by Peter Buck (DLB) July A New Miscellany of Original Poems, on Several Occasions ‘includes poems by Rowe and others’ (DLB) Dec. Tamerlane performed at Lincoln’s Inn Fields, and published by Jacob Tonson (DLB) 1703 Poetical Miscellanies: The Fifth Part. Containing a Collection of Original Poems, With Several New Translations, By the Most Eminent Hands, edited, with contributions, by NR (DLB) Poems on Several Occasions: Together with some Odes in Imitation of Mr. Cowley’s Stile and Manner ‘includes poems by Rowe and others’ (DLB) May The Fair Penitent performed at Lincoln’s Inn Fields and published by Tonson 1704 Nov./Dec. The Biter, ‘a very bad farce’ (ODNB), performed at Lincoln’s Inn Fields (DLB) 1705 NR writes prologue for The Gamester by Susanna Centlivre (DLB) The Biter published by Tonson Nov. 23 Ulysses, ‘a classical tragedy … which proved mildly successful, with Betterton taking the title role four years before his death in 1710’ (ODNB), performed at the Queen’s Theatre (DLB) 1706 Ulysses published by Tonson (DLB) Oct. 31 The Golden Verses of Pythagoras translated by NR in The Life of Pythagoras, with His Symbols and Golden Verses, Together with the Life ofHierocles, and His Commentaries upon the Verses. Collected out of the Choisest Manuscripts, and tr. into French, with annotations. ByM. [André] Dacier. Now Done into English (Tonson) (DLB) 1707 Jan. 6 A Poem upon the Late Glorious Successes of Her Majesty’s Arms, &c. published by Tonson (DLB) Nov. 25 The Royal Convert performed at the Queen’s Theatre (DLB) 1708 ’Some Account of Boileau’s Writings, and of this Translation’, in Boileau’s Lutrin: A Mock–Heroic Poem, translated by John Ozell (R. Burrough & J. Baker, E. Sanger and E. Curll) (DLB) The Royal Convert published by Tonson (DLB) 1709 ’Of the Manner of Living with Great Men’, an ‘original chapter’ added to Characters: or The Manner of the Age, with the Moral Characters of Theophrastus … By Monsieur [Jean] de La Bruyère. Made English by Several Hands, fifth edition (Curll, Sanger and J. Pemberton) (DLB) The Works of Mr. William Shakespear, edited by NR (Tonson) (DLB) Contributes translation of ninth book of Pharsalia to the sixth part of Tonson’s Poetical Miscellanies, also edited by NR (Tonson) (DLB) Feb. 5 NR appointed under–secretary to James Douglas, the second duke of Queensberry, secretary of state for Scotland (ODNB) April 7 Epilogue Spoken by Mrs Barry, April the 7th, 1709. At a Representation of Love for Love. For the Benefit of Mr. Betterton At His Leaving the Stage (Sanger and Curll) (DLB) 1710 Squire Bickerstaff Detected; or, The Astrological Impostor Convicted, by John Partridge, includes undetermined contribution by NR (no publisher given; DLB) 1712 Callipaedia… With Some Other Pieces. Written in Latin by Claudius Quillet. Made English by N. Rowe, Esq. (Sanger and Curll) (DLB) Feb. 13 Death of NR’s first wife Antonia 1713 ’On the Last Judgment, and Happiness of the Saints in Heaven’, in Sacred Miscellanies, or Divine Poems upon Several Subjects (Curll) (DLB) Sept. 20 Pope to John Caryll: ‘I am just returned from the country, wither Mr. Rowe did me the favour to accompany me and to pass a week at Bin–field. I need not tell you how much a man of his turn could not but entertain me, but I must acquaint you there is a vivacity and gayety [sic] of disposition almost peculiar to that gentleman, which rends it impossible to part from him without that uneasiness and chagrin which generally succeeds all great pleasures.’ (See Correspondence of Alexander Pope, ed. George Sherburn, five vols (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1956), vol. 1, p. 190; quoted in ODNB) 1714 A Collection of Original Poems, Translations and Imitations, by Mr. Prior, Mr. Rowe, Dr. Swift, and Other Eminent Hands (Curll) (DLB) Feb. 2 The Tragedy of Jane Shore, with an epilogue by Pope (ODNB), performed at Drury Lane, and published by Bernard Lintot (DLB) Poems on Several Occasions. By N. Rowe, Esq. (Curll) (DLB) Maecenas. Verses Occasion’d by the Honours Conferr’d on the Right Honourable the Earl of Halifax. By N. Rowe, Esq. (Lintot) Ajax of Sophocles. Translated from the Greek, with Notes, possibly translated by NR (Lintot) 1715 April 20 The Tragedy of the Lady Jane Gray performed at Drury Lane, and published by Lintot (DLB) Aug. 11 NR appointed Poet Laureate after death of Nahum Tate, ‘and brought dignity and respectability to that position, virtues which his predecessors had not shown’ (ODNB) Oct. NR appointed one of the land surveyors of the customs of the Port of London (ODNB) Prince of Wales appoints NR clerk of his council (ODNB) Charles Gildon, Remarks on Mr. Rowe’s Tragedy of the Lady Jane Gray (’The Whore found more favour with the Town than the Saint’) The Poetical Works of Nicholas Rowe, Esq. (i.e. Poems on Several Occasions bound with the 1712 Callipaedia, published by Curll) (DLB) 1716 ’Verses upon the Sickness and Recovery of the Right Honourable Robert Walpole, Esq’ in State Poems (J. Roberts) (DLB) Ode for the New Year MDCCXVI. By N. Rowe (Tonson) (DLB) NR marries Anne, daughter of Joseph Devenish of Buckham, Dorset (ODNB) May 7 Addison in The Freeholder, no. 40, regarding Rowe’s Lucan translation, says NR ‘had delivered sentiments [Lucan’s] with greater perspicuity, and in a finer turn of phrase and verse’ [than Lucan himself] (quoted in ODNB) Dec. 17 The Cruel Gift by Susanna Centlivre performed with an epilogue by NR(ODNB) 1717 ’The Episode of Glaucus and Scylla’, translated by NR, in Ovid’s Metamorphoses in Fifteen Books. Translated by the most Eminent Hands. Adorn’d with Sculptures, edited by Samuel Garth (Tonson) (DLB) Oct. 6 Cibber’s Non–juror performed with prologue by NR 1718 Daughter Charlotte born (ODNB) May Lord Chancellor appoints NR clerk of the presentations (ODNB) Dec. 6 NR dies, aged forty–four Dec. 19 NR buried in Poets’ Corner, Westminster Abbey 1719 Lucan’s Pharsalia posthumously published (Tonson), with a preface by Rowe’s physician and friend Dr James Welwood, and a dedication to George I by Rowe’s widow ‘who was rewarded with a pension of £40 a year’ (ODNB) 30 31 32 33