Rowe, Nicholas (1674-1718), was an English playwright, poet, translator, and editor. He became poet laureate of Britain, now called the United Kingdom, in 1715, during the reign of King George I. Rowe is best known for his plays, particularly his tragedies, and his editing of William Shakespeare’s works.
Rowe’s tragic plays were written between 1700 and 1715. They are in blank verse (unrhymed lines with iambic pentameter, which consists of 10 syllables alternately unaccented and accented in each line). Critics have noted that Rowe was influenced by the earlier English playwrights John Dryden and Thomas Otway. Rowe’s first play, The Ambitious Step-Mother, was produced at Lincoln’s Inn Fields in 1700 and is set in Persepolis, a capital of ancient Persia. His next play, Tamerlane, a Tragedy (1701), refers to the hero of Tamburlaine the Great (about 1587) by Christopher Marlowe. Tamerlane symbolizes and celebrates the heroic qualities of King William III, who died in 1702. Throughout the 1700’s, the play was performed every year on November 4 or 5, William III’s birthday and the anniversary of his 1688 landing in England. Other plays by Rowe include the melancholy The Fair Penitent (1703) and The Tragedy of Jane Shore (1714). The Fair Penitent introduced the character of Lothario, which has become a synonym for a selfish seducer of women. These plays offered the famous actress Sarah Siddons some of her best-known tragic roles (see Siddons, Sarah Kemble).
Rowe also achieved acclaim for his innovative critical editing of William Shakespeare’s plays, published in six volumes in 1709. He added stage directions, made the text more comprehensible, and arranged the plays logically into acts and scenes. Rowe’s edition of the plays was the first attempt to treat Shakespeare’s work in this way.
Rowe’s poetry includes such works as A Poem upon the Late Glorious Successes of Her Majesty’s Arms, written in 1707, Ode for the New Year, 1716, and Ode to the Thames for the Year 1719. His best-known translation is one of the Roman poet Lucan’s Pharsalia, published in 1719.
Rowe was born in Little Barford, Bedfordshire on June 20, 1674. He studied law at the Middle Temple, one of London’s Inns of Court where lawyers lived and studied law. He d began practicing law in 1696. Rowe’s inheritance provided enough financial support for him to leave the profession of law and devote his time to writing. Rowe also held several other government posts besides that of poet laureate. He was undersecretary to the secretary of state for Scotland from 1709 to 1711, and later served as clerk of the council of the Prince of Wales and as a surveyor of customs in 1715. He died on Dec. 6, 1718.
