Nicholas Rowe (poet)

Nicholas Rowe

Nicholas Rowe (* probably June 20, 1674 in Little Barford in Bedfordshire , † December 6, 1718 in London ) was an important English poet and playwright in his day. From 1715 until his death in 1718 he was an English court poet .

Life

He came from a noble family from Devonshire , who traced their lineage back to the Middle Ages. His father belonged to the exclusive legal guild of the Serjeant of Law , from whose ranks only the positions at the higher courts were filled. He first attended a private grammar school in Highgate, but due to his talents soon switched to the famous Westminster School in London. In 1688 he went to Eton as King's Scholar . At the urging of his father, he began training as a lawyer in the Middle Temple in London in 1691 . Even in his youth, however, he devoted himself to poetry and wrote verses in Latin and Greek. After his studies, the talented young man quickly made a career in the civil service, which culminated in the position of Undersecretary of State (1709–1711). However, his commitment to poetry came more and more to the fore and reached its peak when Nicholas Rowe was appointed poet laureate , the state-appointed national poet , in 1715 (as the successor to Nahum Tate ) . When he died in 1718, he was born on December 19th. J. in the British Pantheon, the Poets' Corner in Westminster Abbey , next to Chaucer buried.

Rowe was friends with Alexander Pope . His own works, written in elegant language (mostly in elaborate blank verse ), some moralizing and emphasizing national pathos, attracted great attention in his time. This is how Samuel Johnson called his verse adaptation by Lucan one of the greatest creations of the English language. Even Wieland adapted his materials. However, they are largely forgotten today.

Shakespeare edition

In 1709 Rowe created the first modern complete edition of Shakespeare's works. The publisher of this six-volume edition was Jacob Tonson . For his edition, Rowe essentially used the fourth edition of Shakespeare's First Folio from 1685, but also used earlier text editions to restore individual passages in Hamlet , Romeo and Juliet , Henry V and King Lear . He adapted the spelling and punctuation of the plays to contemporary rules, completed stage directions, added numbered nudes and scenes and, for the first time, put together a list of the actors for each play . The foreword of the edition contains the first Shakespeare biography.

Works

Poems

A Poem upon the Late Glorious Successes of Her Majesty's Arms (1707)
Poems on Several Occasions (1714)
Maecenas. Verses occasion'd by the honors conferr'd on the Right Honorable Earl of Halifax (1714)
Ode for the New Year MDCCXVI (1716)

Spectacles

The Ambitious Stepmother (1700), comedy
Tamerlane (1702), based on Christopher Marlowe, with William III. as Tamerlane and Louis XIV as Bajazid
The Biter (1705)
Ulysses (1705)
The Royal Convert (1707)
The Tragedy of Jane Shore (1714), Shakespeare's Richard III. modeled on
Lady Jane Gray (1715), also based on Shakespeare

Adaptations and translations

The Fair Penitent (1702/3), after Philip Massinger Fatal Dowry
Ajax (1714), after Sophocles
A paraphrase on the Pharsalia of Lucan , a work on the Roman Civil War
Caractères, translation of the work of Jean de La Bruyère
Callipaedia, translation of the work of Claude Quillet

As editor

Works of William Shakespear (1709), 6 volumes, London by Jacob Tonson

Mixed works

Memoir of Boileau, in a foreword to a translation of his "Lutrin"
Some Account of the Life & c. of Mr. William Shakespear

Web links

Wikisource: Author: Nicholas Rowe - Sources and full texts (English)

Scores by Nicholas Rowe in the catalog of the German National Library

Individual evidence

↑ See Philipp Wolf: Rowe, Nicholas. In: Metzler Lexicon of English-Speaking Authors . 631 portraits - from the beginning to the present. Edited by Eberhard Kreutzer and Ansgar Nünning, Metzler, Stuttgart / Weimar 2002, ISBN 3-476-01746-X , 666 p. (Special edition Stuttgart / Weimar 2006, ISBN 978-3-476-02125-0 ), p. 491f . See also the biographical information in the Encyclopædia Britannica : Nicholas Rowe - English writer and editor. Available online at [1] , accessed on October 20, 2018. On the dates of birth and death, see also the information in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography , available online at Rowe, Nicholas and Poem Hunter Nicholas Rowe , accessed on October 20 2018. In some older sources, Rowe's year of birth is also given as 1673, cf. e.g. WS Austin and J. Ralph: The Lives of the Poets-Laureate , London 1853, p. 223, available online from Wikisource Nicholas Rowe , accessed October 20, 2018.
↑ See the information in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography , available online at Rowe, Nicholas , accessed on October 20, 2018. See also Philipp Wolf: Rowe, Nicholas. In: Metzler Lexicon of English-Speaking Authors . 631 portraits - from the beginning to the present. Edited by Eberhard Kreutzer and Ansgar Nünning, Metzler, Stuttgart / Weimar 2002, ISBN 3-476-01746-X , 666 pages (special edition Stuttgart / Weimar 2006, ISBN 978-3-476-02125-0 ), p. 492 .
↑ See Philipp Wolf: Rowe, Nicholas. In: Metzler Lexicon of English-Speaking Authors . 631 portraits - from the beginning to the present. Edited by Eberhard Kreutzer and Ansgar Nünning, Metzler, Stuttgart / Weimar 2002, ISBN 3-476-01746-X , 666 pages (special edition Stuttgart / Weimar 2006, ISBN 978-3-476-02125-0 ), p. 492 .
↑ In the original Johnson says: The version of Lucan is one of the greatest productions of English poetry; for there is perhaps none that so completely exhibits the genius and spirit of the original . See the reproduction of the quote in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography , available online at Rowe, Nicholas , accessed October 20, 2018.
↑ See the information in the Encyclopædia Britannica : Nicholas Rowe - English writer and editor. Accessed online at [2] , accessed October 20, 2018. See also the presentation in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography , accessible online at Rowe, Nicholas , accessed October 20, 2018, and the remarks by Michael Dobson and Stanley Wells: The Oxford Companion to Shakespeare. P. 402.

personal data
SURNAME	Rowe, Nicholas
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	English civil servant, poet and playwright
DATE OF BIRTH	uncertain: June 20, 1674
PLACE OF BIRTH	Little Barford , Bedfordshire
DATE OF DEATH	December 6, 1718
Place of death	London

[1] See Philipp Wolf: Rowe, Nicholas. In: Metzler Lexicon of English-Speaking Authors . 631 portraits - from the beginning to the present. Edited by Eberhard Kreutzer and Ansgar Nünning, Metzler, Stuttgart / Weimar 2002, ISBN 3-476-01746-X , 666 p. (Special edition Stuttgart / Weimar 2006, ISBN 978-3-476-02125-0 ), p. 491f . See also the biographical information in the Encyclopædia Britannica : Nicholas Rowe - English writer and editor. Available online at [1] , accessed on October 20, 2018. On the dates of birth and death, see also the information in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography , available online at Rowe, Nicholas and Poem Hunter Nicholas Rowe , accessed on October 20 2018. In some older sources, Rowe's year of birth is also given as 1673, cf. e.g. WS Austin and J. Ralph: The Lives of the Poets-Laureate , London 1853, p. 223, available online from Wikisource Nicholas Rowe , accessed October 20, 2018.

[2] See the information in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography , available online at Rowe, Nicholas , accessed on October 20, 2018. See also Philipp Wolf: Rowe, Nicholas. In: Metzler Lexicon of English-Speaking Authors . 631 portraits - from the beginning to the present. Edited by Eberhard Kreutzer and Ansgar Nünning, Metzler, Stuttgart / Weimar 2002, ISBN 3-476-01746-X , 666 pages (special edition Stuttgart / Weimar 2006, ISBN 978-3-476-02125-0 ), p. 492 .

[3] See Philipp Wolf: Rowe, Nicholas. In: Metzler Lexicon of English-Speaking Authors . 631 portraits - from the beginning to the present. Edited by Eberhard Kreutzer and Ansgar Nünning, Metzler, Stuttgart / Weimar 2002, ISBN 3-476-01746-X , 666 pages (special edition Stuttgart / Weimar 2006, ISBN 978-3-476-02125-0 ), p. 492 .

[4] In the original Johnson says: The version of Lucan is one of the greatest productions of English poetry; for there is perhaps none that so completely exhibits the genius and spirit of the original . See the reproduction of the quote in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography , available online at Rowe, Nicholas , accessed October 20, 2018.

[5] See the information in the Encyclopædia Britannica : Nicholas Rowe - English writer and editor. Accessed online at [2] , accessed October 20, 2018. See also the presentation in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography , accessible online at Rowe, Nicholas , accessed October 20, 2018, and the remarks by Michael Dobson and Stanley Wells: The Oxford Companion to Shakespeare. P. 402.