Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 49.djvu/329

 took place in Soho Square, London, in 1694, he left many charitable benefactions for the benefit of his fellow-refugees. He etched some of his own landscapes in a spirited fashion. A portrait of Rousseau, by Claude Lefebre, was formerly in the possession of the Earl of Burlington.

[Walpole's Anecdotes of Painting, ed. Wornum; Redgrave's Dict. of Artists; De Piles's Lives of the Painters; Dussieux's Artistes Français à l'étranger; Law's Catalogue of the Pictures at Hampton Court.] 

ROUSSEAU, SAMUEL (1763–1820), printer and orientalist, born in London in 1763, was the eldest son of Philip Rousseau, at one time a fellow-workman with John Nichols at Bowyer's press. At the end of his life Philip was a Bowyer annuitant of the Company of Stationers (, Lit. Anecdotes, iii. 288). He was a cousin of Jean Jacques Rousseau, who refers to him as being ‘connu pour bon parent et pour honnête homme’ (Correspondance, 1826, iii. 317). Samuel Rousseau served his apprenticeship in Nichols's printing office, and taught himself Latin, Greek, Hebrew, Syriac, Persian, and Arabic, as well as several modern languages. A few years after the expiration of his apprenticeship he started a printing office in Leather Lane, Holborn, and afterwards removed to the ‘Arabic and Persian Press,’ Wood Street, Spa Fields, where most of his oriental books were printed. For a short time he was master of Joy's charity school in Blackfriars. He taught Persian. As a printer he was unsuccessful, and towards the end of his life did literary hack-work for the booksellers. Rousseau died in Ray Street, Clerkenwell, on 4 Dec. 1820, aged 57.

His chief publications were: 1. ‘The Flowers of Persian Literature, containing extracts from the most celebrated authors,’ London, 1801, 4to. 2. ‘Dictionary of Mohammedan Law, Bengal Revenue Terms, Shanscrit, Hindoo, and other Words used in the East Indies,’ 1802, 8vo. 3. ‘Vocabulary of the Persian Language,’ 1802, 8vo; issued in 1803 with a new title-page, ‘of use to those who cannot obtain the larger work of Richardson’ (see, Bibl. Misc. i. 283). 4. ‘The Book of Knowledge or Grammar of the Persian,’ 1805, 4to (‘contains a great variety of useful information,’, i. 281). 5. ‘Punctuation, or an Attempt to facilitate the Art of Pointing,’ 1813, sm. 8vo; said to be taken without acknowledgment from Robertson's work on the same subject (see Biogr. Dict. of Living Authors, 1816, p. 301). 6. ‘Essay on Punctuation,’ 1815, sm. 8vo. 7. ‘Principles of Punctuation,’ 1818, 8vo. 8. ‘Principles of Elocution,’ 1819, 8vo.

[Nichols's Illustr. Lit. Hist. 1858, viii. 494–495; Gent. Mag. 1820, ii. 569.] 

ROUSSEEL, THEODORE (1614-1689), portrait-painter. [See .]

ROUTH, BERNARD (1695–1768), Irish jesuit, son of Captain William Rothe (d. 1710) by Margaret O'Dogherty, was born at Kilkenny on 11 Feb. 1694–5. His father was great-grandson of Robert Rothe [q. v.], the antiquary. Bernard entered the Society of Jesus on 1 Oct. 1716, and was professed of the four vows on 2 Feb. 1733–4. He devoted himself to the career of teaching, and for many years he was a professor in the Irish College at Poitiers, where he composed several works which prove his erudition and critical discernment. His superiors afterwards summoned him to Paris, and from 1739 to 1743 he was on the editorial staff of the ‘Journal de Trévoux.’ With the assistance of Father Castel, one of his religious brethren, he administered to Montesquieu the consolations of religion, but the charge that he attempted, after the death of Montesquieu, to obtain possession of his manuscripts is baseless. Suard, who was present on the occasion, directly contradicted this story. On the suppression of the Society of Jesus in France in 1764, Routh withdrew to Mons in Belgium, where he became confessor of the Princess Charlotte de Lorraine. He died at Mons on 18 Jan. 1768.

His works are: 1. ‘Ode à la Reine,’ 4to. This is in the collection of poems published by the Collège Louis le Grand on the occasion of the marriage of Louis XV in 1725. 2. ‘Lettres Critiques sur “les Voyages de Cyrus”’ of Andrew Michael Ramsay [q. v.], Paris, 1728, 12mo. 3. ‘Suite de la nouvelle Cyropédie, ou Réflexions de Cyrus sur ses Voyages,’ Amsterdam, 1728, 8vo. 4. ‘Lettres critiques à Mr le comte * * * sur le Paradis Perdu et Reconquis de Milton par R. * *,’ Paris, 1731; this work is reprinted at the end of the French translation of ‘Paradise Lost’ by Dupré de Saint-Maur, 3 vols. 1775. 5. ‘Relation fidèle des troubles arrivés dans l'empire de Pluton, au sujet de l'histoire de Sethos, en quatre lettres écrites des Champs élisées à M. l'abbé * * [Terrasson], auteur de cette histoire,’ Amsterdam, 1731, 8vo, Paris [1743?]. 6. ‘Recherches sur la manière d'inhumer des Anciens à l'occasion des Tombeaux de Civaux en Poitou,’ Poitiers, 1738, 12mo, a rare and interesting dissertation. 7. ‘Noticia de la muerte de Monteschiu’ manuscript (Fe. 75) in the library at Madrid. 8. ‘Lettre sur la tragédie d'Osarphis,’ in the collected works of the Abbé Nadal, vol. iii. 