Page:Lives of Poets-Laureate.djvu/241

Rh Procopius might have afforded Rowe the hint for this character.

Our dramatist had always been an admirer of Shakespeare, and in 1709 he edited his plays, to which he prefixed a life of the poet; Betterton having visited Stratford to collect whatever traditionary matter to the purpose still existed. The edition is without notes, but the text received a careful revision, and contributed to that gradual revolution in public taste which in our day will acknowledge neither rival nor second to the "sweet swan of Avon."

Rowe was not so entirely devoted to his books and his plays as to be inattentive to matters of more worldly import, and when the Duke of Queensbury was made Secretary of State, he consented to act as his under-secretary. The Duke died when he had held his appointment but three years, and he then made some advances to the famous Harley, Earl of Oxford, and a story is told, which places either the urbanity of that minister or the perception of the poet in a somewhat unfavourable light. When he attended to present his respects to the Earl, who was then Lord High Treasurer, he was received with great affability, and in the course of conversation the Earl asked if he understood Spanish. Rowe, with the prospect of some mission to the Peninsula starting involuntarily to his mind, replied in the negative, but hoped in a very short time to be able to understand and speak it with facility. He instantly retired to a country farm-house, applied himself with unremitting assiduity to the language, and at the end of a few months waited again on the Earl, to acquaint him with the success of his industry. "Are you sure," said that nobleman, "you understand it thoroughly?" Rowe answered in the affirmative. "Then," replied the Earl, "how happy are you, Mr. Rowe, in being able to enjoy the pleasure of reading 'Don Quixote' in the Q 2