Page:The lives of the poets of Great Britain and Ireland to the time of Dean Swift - Volume 4.djvu/337

Rh for muſic, particularly that of a grave and ſolemn kind, as it was beſt ſuited to the grandeur of her ſentiments, and the ſublimity of her devotion. But her moſt prevailing propenſion was to poetry. This ſuperior grace was indeed the moſt favourite employment of her youth, and in her the moſt diſtinguiſhed excellence. So powerful was her genius in this way, that her proſe hath all the charms of verſe without the fetters; the ſame fire and elevation; the ſame richneſs of imagery, bold figures, and flowing diction.

It appears by a life of Mrs. Rowe, prefixed to the firſt volume of her miſcellaneous works, that in the year 1696, the 22d of her age, a Collection of her Poems on various Occaſions was publiſhed at the deſire of two of her friends, which we ſuppoſe did not contain all ſhe had by her, ſince the ingenious author of the preface, Mrs. Elizabeth Johnſon, gives the reader room to hope, that Mrs. Rowe might, in a little while, be prevailed upon to oblige the world with a ſecond part, no way inferior to the former.

Mrs. Rowe’s Paraphraſe on the 38th Chapter of Job was written at the requeſt of biſhop Kenn, which gained her a great reputation. She had no other tutor for the French and Italian languages, than the honourable Mr. Thynne, ſon to the lord viſcount Weymouth, and father to the right honourable the counteſs of Hertford, who willingly took the taſk upon himſelf, and had the pleaſure to ſee his fair ſcholar improve ſo faſt by his leſſons, that in a few months ſhe was able to read Taſſo’s Jeruſalem with eaſe. Her ſhining merit, with the charms of her perſon and converſation, had procured her many admirers: among others, the celebrated Mr. Prior made his addreſſes to her; ſo that allowing for the double licence of the poet and the lover, the concluding lines in his Anſwer to Mrs. Singer’s Paſtoral on Love and ,