ROWE, NICHOLAS (1674-1718), English dramatist and miscellaneous writer, son of John Rowe (d. 1692), barrister and serjeant-at-law, was baptized at Little Barford in Bedfordshire on June 3o, 1674. Nicholas Rowe was educated at Westminster school under Dr. Busby. He became in 1688 a King's scholar, and entered the Middle Temple in 1691. On his father's death he became the master of an independent fortune. His first play, The Ambitious Stepmother, the scene of which is laid in Per sepolis, was produced in 1700, and was followed in 1702 by Tamerlane. In this play the conqueror represented William III., and Louis XIV. is denounced as Bajazet. It was for many years regularly acted on the anniversary of William's landing at Torbay. In The Fair Penitent (1703), an adaptation of Massinger and Field's Fatal Dowry, occurs the character of Lothario, whose name passed into current use as the equivalent of a rake. Calista is said to have suggested to Samuel Richardson the character of Clarissa Harlowe, as Lothario suggested Lovelace. Other plays are: The Biter (17o4), Ulysses (1706), The Royal Convert (1707), The Tragedy of Jane Shore (1714) and The Tragedy of Lady Jane Grey (1715).
In 1715 Rowe succeeded Nahum Tate as poet laureate. He died on Dec. 6, 1718, and was buried in Westminster Abbey.
Rowe was the first modern editor of Shakespeare. It is unf or tunate that he based his text (6 vols., 1709) on the corrupt Fourth Folio, a course in which he was followed by later editors. We owe to him the preservation of a number of Shakespearian traditions, collected for him at Stratford by Thomas Betterton. These materials he used with considerable judgment in the memoir prefixed to the Works. He divided the play into acts and scenes on a reasonable method, noted the entrances and exits of the players, and prefixed a list of the dramatis personae to each play.
Rowe's Works were printed in 1727, and in 1736, 1756, 1766 and 1792; his occasional poems are included in Anderson's and other collections of the British poets.