Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 49.djvu/348

 it was published in full—it was somewhat curtailed on the stage—with a dedication addressed to the Earl of Jersey. According to Cibber, Rowe fell in love with Mrs. Bracegirdle, who helped to make the piece a success. Thenceforth Rowe was for some years a professional playwright, and soon gained the acquaintance of the leaders of literary society, including Pope and Addison. In 1702 he produced, again at Lincoln's Inn Fields, his second tragedy, ‘Tamerlane,’ on which ‘he valued himself most’. The hero was intended as a portrait of William III, and was endowed with the most amiable virtues, while his villainous rival, Bajazet, was a caricature of Louis XIV. Gibbon and Prescott both note Rowe's eccentricity in crediting Tamerlane with ‘amiable moderation’ (Decline and Fall, cap. lxv. n.; Mexico, ed. 1855, ii. 152 n.) Although the plot is somewhat congested, the political tone of the play rendered it popular. It at once became a stock piece, and was played annually at Drury Lane Theatre on 5 Nov., the anniversary of William III's landing and of the ‘Gunpowder Plot,’ until 1815. Rowe dedicated it, when published, to William Cavendish (afterwards first Duke of Devonshire).

In 1703 he completed his ‘Fair Penitent,’ a highly sentimental tragedy adapted from Massinger's ‘Fatal Dowry.’ This was produced at Lincoln's Inn Fields. The printed piece was dedicated to the Duchess of Ormonde. Downes pointed out, when describing the first representation, that the interest, which was well maintained in the first three acts, failed in the last two. Sir Walter Scott justly noticed that Rowe's effort fell as far below Massinger's ‘as the boldest translation can sink below the most spirited original’ (Essay on Drama). Dr. Johnson gave it unstinted praise: ‘There is scarcely any work of any poet at once so interesting by the fable and so delightful in the language.’ The playgoing public emphatically approved its pathos. The villain, ‘the gallant, gay Lothario,’ acquired a proverbial reputation. The heroine, Calista, was a favourite character with the chief actresses of the century. Rowe's Lothario and Calista suggested Lovelace and Clarissa Harlowe to Richardson, the novelist. Rowe was less successful in his classical tragedy of ‘Ulysses’ (1706), though, ‘being all new cloathed and excellently well performed,’ it had a successful run at the Queen's Theatre in the Haymarket. Betterton took the title-rôle. Rowe dedicated the published play to Sidney, lord Godolphin.

Rowe's ‘Royal Convert,’ based on early British history, was produced at the Haymarket on 25 Nov. 1707. Booth appeared as Hengist, Wilks as Aribert, and Mrs. Oldfield as Ethelreda. The final lines spoken by Ethelreda described the blessing anticipated from the union of England and Scotland, and panegyrised Queen Anne. It was dedicated to Charles, lord Halifax. Of ‘Jane Shore,’ which Rowe professed to write ‘in imitation of Shakespeare's style,’ Pope justly remarked that the only resemblance to Shakespeare he could detect was the single borrowed line— And so good morrow t'ye, good master lieutenant! When first produced at Drury Lane, 2 Feb. 1713–14, it ran for nineteen nights, and long held the stage. Rowe dedicated it to the young Duke of Queensberry, and eulogised the young duke's father, who had been a useful patron.

On 20 April 1715 Rowe's last tragedy, ‘Lady Jane Grey,’ saw the light at Drury Lane. It appears that Edmund Smith [q. v.] had designed a piece on the same theme, and on his death Rowe examined his materials, but owed nothing to them. Smith merely projected an adaptation of Banks's ‘Lady Jane Grey.’ Rowe dedicated his play to the Princess of Wales. Pope wrote an epilogue to be spoken by Mrs. Oldfield, who created the part of Lady Jane (, Works, ed. Elwin and Courthope, iv. 419).

Rowe's intimacy with Pope exposed him to venomous attacks from the piratical publisher Curll, and from Curll's hacks. In 1706 there appeared some caustic ‘Critical Remarks on Mr. Rowe's last Play, call'd Ulysses,’ and in 1714 Charles Gildon put forth his ‘New Rehearsal, or Bays the Younger, containing an examen of Seven of Rowe's Plays’ (an appendix denounced Pope's ‘Rape of the Lock’). In 1715 there was issued under like auspices ‘Remarks on the Tragedy of Lady Jane Grey.’ Pope subsequently made Curll remark in his ‘Barbarous Revenge on Mr. Curll,’ that Gildon's onslaught on Rowe ‘did more harm to me than to Mr. Rowe, for I paid him double for abusing him and Mr. Pope’ (, Works, x. 465–6).

Meanwhile Rowe made endeavours in other departments of literature. In 1704 he ventured on a comedy called ‘The Biter,’ which was acted at Lincoln's Inn Fields. Although some of the songs were sprightly, it was ‘a foolish farce,’ wrote Congreve, ‘and was damned.’ But it pleased the author, who sat through the first and only representation, ‘laughing with great vehemence’ at his own wit. The prologue was spoken by Betterton, and the epilogue by Mrs. Bracegirdle. It was published by Tonson in 1705, but was not included in Rowe's collected works. He