ROWE, 'NICHOLAS, a dramatic poet and translator, the contemporary and friend of Cougreve, Addison, Steele. and the other wits of the queen Anne period, was the son of a sergeant-at-law, and was born at little Barford, in Derbyshire, in 1673. He was edu cated at Westminster, and studied law in the middle temple; but inheriting a small com petency by the death of his father, he devoted himself to literature. Between 1700 and 1114 he produced eight plays, of which three were long popular, viz.—Tamerlane, 1702; The Penitent, 1703; and Jane Shore, 1714. The character of Lothario in the lair Penitent was the prototype of Lovelace in R,ichardson's Clarissa Harloice, and the num() is still the synonym for an accomplished rake. Rowe translated Lucan's Pharsalia, and his translation was so highly valued that after his death his widow received a pension expressly on account of this service to literature rendered by her husband. He was also the first editor of Shakespeare, 1709. The popular talents and engaging manners of
Rowe procured him many friends, and he was appointed to several lucrative offices. The duke of Queensberry made him his under-secretary of state. In 1715 he succeeded Tate as poet-laureate, and the same year he was appointed one of the land-surveyors of the customs of the port of London; the prince of Wales made him clerk of Iris council; and the lord chancellor Parker created him clerk of the presentations. He died Dee. 6, 1718, and was buried in Westminster abbey. As a dramatist, Rowe is characterized by an easy and elegant style of diction and versification, but is destitute of originality, subtlety, or' force in the delineation of character or passion. In the construction of his dramas, "there is not," as Johnson remarks, "much art;" but there is no gross violation of taste or decorum, and he excels in scenes of domestic tenderness