abbey tomb extends to fourteen (cf. Pope, Works, viii. 82). Rowe's will, which Pope witnessed, is printed in the ‘Gentleman's Magazine,’ 1822, i. 208. He distributed his property among his wife, son, daughter, and sister (Sarah Peele). Elegies, by Charles Beckingham, Nicholas Amhurst, Mrs. Centlivre, and T. Newcomb were collected by Curll in a volume, entitled ‘Musarum Lachrymæ, or Poems to the Memory of Nicholas Rowe, Esq.’ (1719); there was a dedication addressed to Congreve, and a memoir by Hales.
Rowe is described by Welwood as graceful and well made, his face regular and of a manly beauty. Lewis says he was ‘a comely personage and a very pretty sort of man’ (Spence, p. 257). His portrait was twice painted by Kneller; the pictures are now at Knole Park, Sevenoaks, and at Nuneham respectively. A mezzotint by Faber is dated 1715.
He was married twice: first, to Antonia (d. 1706), daughter of Anthony Parsons, one of the auditors of the revenue; and secondly, in 1717, to Anne, daughter of Joseph Devenish of Buckham, Dorset. By his first marriage he had a son John; by his second a daughter, Charlotte (1717–1739), wife of Henry Fane, youngest son of Vere Fane, fourth earl of Westmorland. Rowe's widow married, on 21 Jan. 1724, Colonel Alexander Deanes, a step which offended Pope, and led him to pass some severe strictures on the fickleness of widows (POPE, Dialogue ii. 1738). George I granted her on 8 May 1719 a pension of 40l. a year in consideration of Rowe's translation of Lucan. She died on 6 Dec. 1747, and was buried in Westminster Abbey.
Rowe was a cultivated man, well acquainted with the classics, and with French, Italian, and Spanish literature. Mrs. Oldfield used to say the best school she had ever known was ‘only hearing Rowe read her part in his tragedies’ (Richardsoniana, p. 77; Spence, p. 380). He was a charming companion, always witty and vivacious. Pope, who called him ‘the best of men,’ delighted in his society both in London and on excursions to the country. Rowe would laugh (Pope declared) all day long (Spence, p. 284). In a ‘Farewell to London,’ dated 1715, Pope spoke of Rowe as often drinking and drolling ‘till the third watchman's toll’ (Works, iv. 482). Addison credited him with too much levity to render it possible for him to become a sincere friend, an opinion with which on one occasion Pope expressed agreement (Ruffhead, Life of Pope). The blank verse in his tragedies is suave, but he showed little power of characterisation. Pope coupled him with Southern as a delineator of the passions. Smollett called him a ‘solid, florid, and declamatory’ playwright. ‘He seldom pierces the breast,’ says Johnson, ‘but he always delights the ear, and often improves the understanding.’
Several of Rowe's tragedies long held the stage. Besides the annual performance of ‘Tamerlane’ at Drury Lane, at the last of which (6 Nov. 1815) Kean was Bajazet, the piece was often performed at Covent Garden; there, on 9 Nov. 1819, Macready played Bajazet, and Charles Kemble Tamerlane. Of the ‘Fair Penitent,’ Genest notices twenty-three revivals up to 1824; at Drury Lane, on 29 Nov. 1760, Garrick played Lothario with Mrs. Yates as Calista; at Covent Garden, on 5 Nov. 1803, J. P. Kemble played Horatio, Charles Kemble Lothario, Mrs. Siddons Calista, and Mrs. Henry Siddons Lavinia; on 2 March 1816 Charles Kemble played Lothario with Miss O'Neill as Calista. Of ‘Jane Shore’ Genest describes twenty-two performances. Mrs. Yates and Mrs. Siddons both acquired much fame in the part of the heroine. ‘Lady Jane Grey’ was occasionally repeated till the end of the eighteenth century. Rowe's tragedies figure in Bell's and Inchbald's ‘Theatrical Collections.’ J. P. Kemble edited revised versions of ‘The Fair Penitent’ (1814) and ‘Jane Shore’ (1815). ‘The Fair Penitent,’ ‘Tamerlane,’ and ‘Jane Shore’ obtained some vogue in France through French translations. The first two are to be found in the ‘Théâtre Anglois’ (1746). ‘The Fair Penitent’ was again rendered into French by the Marquis de Mauprié (Paris, 1750), and ‘Jane Shore,’ after appearing in French verse (London, 1797), was translated by Andrieux for ‘Chefs d'œuvre des Théâtres étrangers’ (1822, vol. ii.), and was freely adapted by Liadières in 1824.
Eight editions of his Lucan (2 vols. 12mo) appeared between its first issue in 1718 [1719] and 1807. Among the Royal manuscripts in the British Museum is a presentation copy of Lucan, fairly transcribed, though not in the poet's autograph.
Collected editions of Rowe's works—his plays and occasional poems—appeared in 3 vols. 12mo in 1727 (with portrait and plates), and in 2 vols. in 1736, 1747, 1756, 1766, and 1792. His poems and translations are included in Johnson's, Anderson's, Chalmers's, Park's, and Sanford's collections of British Poets.
[Johnson's Lives of the Poets, ed. Cunningham, 1854, ii. 105–16; Boswell's Life of Johnson, ed. Hill, iv. 36 (notes 3 and 4); Pope's Works, ed. Elwin and Courthope; Colley Cibber's Autobiography; Genest's Hist. Account
