" Ulysses," which was acted at the theatre in the Hay-
market, and dedicated to the Lord Godolphin. It was
successful at the time, and the character of Penelope,
which Mrs. Barry personated, was finely drawn; but it
has not escaped the neglect which has attended all
attempts in England to give novelty or variety to the
stories of the Pagan mythology. " The Royal Convert,"
acted in 1708, did not meet with much success, though
the part of Rodogune, a Saxon Princess, is finely con-
ceived and eminently tragical. Gibbon intimates that



Digitized by VjOOQIC



NICHOLAS ROWB. 227

Procopius might have afforded Rowe the hint for this
character.

Our dramatist had always been an admirer of Shake-
speare, 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-secre-
tary. 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 percep-
tion of the poet in a somewhat unfavourable light. When
he attended to present his respects to the Earl, who was
then Lord High Treasiu-er, 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

Digitized by VjOOQIC



228 NICHOLAS ROWE.

original !" The mortified Whig retired, and waited for
better times.

In 1714 he produced "Jane Shore," in which Gibber
took a part, written professedly in imitation of Shake-
speare ; though, as Dr. Johnson very justly remarks, in
what he thought himself an imitator of Shakespeare it is
not easy to conceive. The piece, however, was frequently
acted, and with success.

In the following year he produced his last, though by
no means his best tragedy, " Lady Jane Grey." A friend
of his, a Mr. Smith, of Christ Church, Oxford, whom
he terms a very learned and ingenious gentleman, had
meditated writing a play on this subject, but died, leaving
some papers filled with notes, though in a state of great
confusion. Rowe took up the idea, but could only avail
himself of one scene, which is that in the third act, in
which Lord Guildford persuades Lady Jane to accept the
crown. The preface to this piece, the only one he ever
wrote, concludes thus: "I shall turn this, my youngest
child, out into the world with no other provision than a
saying, which I remember to have seen before — one of
Mrs. Behn's :

" Va ! mon enfant, prend ta fortime."

The accession of George I. (1716) brought Rowe an
auspicious gale of worldly success. He was made Poet-
Lam-eate. " I am afraid," says Johnson, " by the ejection
of poor Nahum Tate, who died in the Mint, where he was
forced to seek shelter by extreme poverty." He likewise
became a land surveyor of the Customs in the port of
London. The Prince of Wales nominated him Clerk of
his Council ; and Parker, the Lord Chancellor, on the very
day he received the seals, appointed him without solicitation
Secretary of the Presentations. He was revolving a tragedy
on the story of the " Rape of Lucretia," when death over-



Digitized by VjOOQIC



NICHOLAS ROWE. 229

took him on the 6th of December, 1718, in the forty-fifth
year of his age. He was buried on the 19th in West-
minster Abbey, near Chaucer ; and his old schoolfellow,
Atterbury, Bishop of Rochester and Dean of Westminster,
read the funeral service over him. A monument was
erected to his memory by his widow, and Pope wrote the
following epitaph, which was subsequently altered, though
not improved*

"Thy relics, Rowe, to this fair urn we trust.
And, sacred, place by Dryden's awfal dust.
Beneath a rude and nameless stone he lies.
To which thy tomb shall guide inquiring eyes.
Peace to thy gentle shade, and endless rest !
Bless'd in thy genius — ^in thy love too blest !
One grateful woman to thy fame supplies
What a whole thankless land to his denies."

He was twice married, his first wife was a daughter of
Mr. Parsons, an auditor of the revenue ; his second, of Mr.
Devenish, a gentleman in Dorsetshire. He left a son by
the former, and a daughter by the latter. His translation
of Lucan's " Pharsalia," which he lived long enough to
complete, though not to publish, was found among his
papers after his death, and published by Dr. Welwood, with
a short memoir prefixed, from which we make the follow-
ing extract of his character, drawn with a slightly partial
hand.

" His person was graceful and well made, his face re-
gular and of a manly beauty. He had a quick and fruitful
invention, a deep penetration and a large compass of
thought, with singular dexterity and easiness in making
his thoughts to be understood. He was master of most
parts of. polite learning, especially the classical authors, both
Greek and Latin, understood the French, Italian, and
Spanish languages, and spoke the first fluently, and the
other two tolerably well. He had a good taste in philo-
sophy, and having a firm impression of religion upon his



Digitized by VjOOQIC



230 NICHOLAS ROWE.

mind, he took great delight in divinity and ecclesiastical
history.

" His conversation was pleasant, witty, and learned, with-
out the least tincture of aflfectation or pedantry ; and his
inimitable manner of diverting and enlivening the company
made it impossible for any one to be out of humour when
he was in it. Envy and detraction seemed to be entirely
foreign to his constitution ; and whatever provocations he
met with at any time, he passed them over without the
least thought of resentment or revenge."

Pope bears testimony to the vivacity of his disposition.
In one of his letters he writes thus : " Mr. Rowe accom-
panied me, and passed a week in the forest. I need not
tell you how much a man of his turn entertained me ;
but I must acquaint you there is a vivacity and gaiety of
disposition almost peculiar to him, which makes it im-
possible to part from him without that uneasiness which
generally succeeds all our pleasures."

Our author had his weaknesses, however, as the following
trifling anecdote will show. Strolling one day into the
famed coflfee-house, "The Cocoa Tree," in St. James's
Street, he saw Garth in conversation with two noblemen ;
and sitting down nearly opposite, attempted to catch the
Doctor's eye. Garth perceived his drift, and was obtusely
blind to all his advances. At length Rowe summoned a
waiter, and sent him to ask Garth for his snuflf-box, a
vajuable one, the gift of some foreign prince. The
box was sent, but the lender still appeared absorbed in con-
versation. The request was repeated two or three times
with no better success. At length Garth drew out a
pencil, wrote on the lid the two Greek characters, f. g.
(fie, Rowe), and then sent it across. Rowe rose and left
the room in high dudgeon.

He translated the first book of Quillet's " Callipoedia,"
and the golden verses of Pythagoras.



Digitized by VjOOQIC



NICHOLAS ROWE. 231

His powers of elocution were great, and Mrs. Oldfield
used to say that the best instruction for an actress was to
hear Rowe read her part in any new play.

The biography of such a writer would scarcely seem
complete without some slight mention of the actors whose
eflforts were essential to the popularity of his works.
Plays whose chief merit lies in the melody of their versi-
fication and in their external structure, depend for their
success less upon their intrinsic merit than upon the degree
of ability with which they are represented on the stage.
Rowe's characters are few, and he was peculiarly fortunate
in his actors. Betterton, Booth, and Verbruggen, were
generally included in the cast, while Mrs. Barry and Mrs.
Bracegirdle invariably performed the female parts, of
which very few of 'his plays had more than two. We
append, therefore, the following brief notices of those
eminent performers who contributed in such an important
degree to our poet's reputation.

Thomas Betterton was bom at Westminster in Au-
gust, 1635. He was apprenticed to Rhodes, the bookseller
at Charing Cross, who, in the company he collected pre-
vious to the Restoration, had for his principal actors Bet-
terton and Kynaston, another of his apprentices, both of
whom eventually became prodigies in their art. In 1663,
the former married Mrs. Saunderson, who, according to
one report, was the first actress that trod the boards in
this country. She excelled in Shakespearian characters,
and her Lady Macbeth was one of the finest perform-
ances the stage has witnessed.

An outline of the principal events in Betterton's life
is elsewhere incidentally given in this work. His joining
Davenant's company, succeeding to the principal share of
the management, proposing the coalition of the two com-
panies, then heading the revolt, and afterwards transferring



Digitized by VjOOQIC



232 NICHOLAS ROWE,

his licence to Sir John Vanbrugh. His private character
was exemplary in the highest degree. He was kind*
hearted, charitable, modest, and sincere. Though his
salary was never large, he, with a prudence rare in his
profession, contrived to save a moderate competence, which,
when about to enjoy the reward of his life's labours,
he lost in a commercial speculation, through the culpable
persuasion of a friend. That friend, however, he frankly
forgave, took charge of his helpless daughter on his death,
and reared her as his own.

Oppressed by age and infirmities, he had to return to
the stage; and the last character he played was Melan-
tins, in " The Maid's Tragedy." He was then suffering
under a severe attack of the gout, but- took a repellent
medicine, which enabled him to walk in slippers ; and he
acted with all the fire of his youth and the success of his
manhood. But the ringing applause of that evening was
his death-knell. The distemper returned with aggravated
virulence, and in three days he was no more. He has
generally been esteemed as the ablest actor this country
has produced. His impersonation of Hamlet has been
the theme of universal praise, and no one, before or
since, ever approached so near that wondrous ideal. His
first interview with the Ghost, a scene generally so tame
and ineffective, he managed with such consummate art
— so profound was the awe and terror depicted in his
countenance — that a shudder would run through the
audience as though they also felt the presence of the
terrible phantom. And so thoroughly could he identify
himself with his part, that, though of a sanguine com-
plexion, he was frequently seen to turn ashy pale through
the intensity of his emotion when his father's spirit
again enters, and interrupts the dialogue with his
guilty mother. Yet such perfection cost many a labo-
rious effort. His figure was not good, his voice was



Digitized by VjOOQIC



NICHOLAS ROWE. 233

thick and low, and his actions ungainly ; but against all
these disadvantages he struggled, and achieved so great
success.

Barton Booth was honourably descended, and re-
ceived his education at Westminster. His first predi-
lection for the stage was excited by the applause he
received, when a Westminster scholar, on acting Pam-
philus, in the "Andrea" of Terence. The inclination
ripened into a passion, and when at Cambridge, he boldly
defied all consequences, and ran off with a company of
strolling players. The distress of his family on hearing
of his misconduct was excessive. His mother was attacked
with fever, his father became almost frenzied, but all was
forgotten when the scapegrace returned home hungry and
wet, without money and without clothes. The ill success
of his first adventure, however, failed to damp his ardour.
He again decamped, appeared on a stage in Bartholomew
Fair, and then went over to try his fortune in Ireland.
At Dublin, the first character he attempted was Oronooko,
and he was well received, though a ludicrous incident
moved the audience to laughter when they ought to have
been melted into tears. The evening was warm. Booth,
forgetful of his blackened face, wiped himself with his
handkerchief; and with his visage most grotesquely
streaked, returned to the stage, and was astounded at the
roar that greeted his re-appearance. He remained in
Ireland two .years ; and his success and pertinacity induced
his fnends to relent in their opposition to his choice.
About 1701, he returned to London, and was introduced to
Betterton ; and when his former schoolfellow Rowe brought
out his "Ambitious step-mother," Booth played the part
of Artaban.

He now progressed rapidly, was soon esteemed only in-
ferior to Betterton, and when that great actor died, sue-



Digitized by VjOOQIC



234 NICHOLAS ROWE.

ceeded him in his principal characters. He was extremely
forcible in depicting the passions of rage and grief, and ex-
celled in personating Othello and Jaffier. In private life he
was somewhat licentious. He married the daughter of Sir
William Barkham, and after her death formed a liaison
with Miss Mountfort, whom he deserted for Miss Saintlow,
the lady he afterwards married. Miss Mountfort sank
into a fit of despondency, and mental derangement ensued.
A strange story is related of her while in this state.
Ophelia had been one of her favourite characters ; and one
day, hearing that " Hamlet" was to be performed that
evening, she escaped from her keeper, hid herself in
the theatre, and pushed on the stage before the actress
who was to play that part. There was ah actual
Ophelia before the spectators, and the way in which she
sang her wild snatches of song must have been only too
truthful. There is no account of the effect of this incident
upon the audience. Whatever pleasm*e there may be in
witnessing such scenes, must consist in a consciousness of
the illusion : the sad reality could only cause unmitigated
pain.

Booth was the fortunate man selected to play Cato in
Addison's famous play, and the auspicious circumstance
was the crowning event in his career. It filled his purse,
overwhelmed him with popularity, and introduced him to
a share in the management of the theatre; but it spoilt
him as an actor, and he became so negligent that,
while playing Othello one evening, a message was sent to
him from a private box, to ask if he was acting merely
for his own amusement. In private life he was cheerful,
generous, fond of conviviality, though somewhat diflident.'
In person he was short but well-made, with an air of
dignity and the great advantage of large muscles, so that
the play of his features was distinctly discernible even in
the gallery.



Digitized by VjOOQIC



NICHOLAS RPWE. 235

He died in May, 1733, in the fifty-third year of his age,
bequeathing all his property to his widow ; a sum, however,
considerably less than the portion she had brought to him
on her marriage.

John Verbruggen. The date of this actor's life or
death is uncertain. He was hanging about Drury Lane
at the time that Gibber was seeking employment there.
On the death of Montfort, he succeeded him in his part
of Alexander, and was so successful, that he assumed the
appellation as a surname for some years. In person he
was tall and well-made, with a slight malformation in his
knees, which gave him a shambling gait. This defect,
however, he turned to his advantage, and rendered posi-
tively becoming on the stage. His principal characters
were Bajazet, Oronooko, Edgar in "King Lear," Arta-
xerxes in "The Ambitious Step-mother," Loveless in
" The Relapse," Wilmore in " The Rover," Cassius, and
others.

The acting of Verbruggen has been contrasted with that
of Betterton as the realization of untutored nature in opposi-
tion to the perfection of art. However false such a descrip-
tion may be, yet it conveys a tolerably accurate idea of their
respective styles. Two of the most exquisite pieces of acting
ever beheld on the stage were Verbruggen and Betterton as
Cassius and Brutus ; and Verbruggen and Mrs. Bracegirdle
as Wilmore and Helena in Mrs. Afra Behn's play of
" The Rover." In the latter piece, Verbruggen's " untaught
airs, and the smiling repartees" of Mrs. Bracegirdle, had
an extraordinary eflfect upon the audience, who appeared
in constant fear that the performers were in earnest, and
that each moment they would quit the stage.

He married Mf^. Montfort, a beautiful woman, and a
most accomplished actress.



Digitized by VjOOQIC



236 NICHOLAS ROWE.

Mks. Barry. A stately person, a graceful carriage, a me-
lodious and powerful voice, and a well-trained understand-
ing constituted Mrs. Barry's inducements to try her
fortune on the stage. She was the daughter of Edward
Barry, a barrister, afterwards called Colonel Barry, from
his having raised a regiment of horse for the service of
King Charles. His ruin was involved in that of his royal
master, and his family were compefled to trust to their
own exertions for their future subsistence. Lady Dave-
nant, who had known the Colonel in his prosperous days,
took charge of his daughter Elizabeth, superintended her
education, and in the year 1673 obtained her admission
into the Duke's company. After a year's trial, her talents
were deemed so inferior, and her progress was so slow,
that she was discharged as being a burden on the troupe.
Through Lady Davenant's interest, she obtained a further
trial, and received a second and a third dismissal for the
same reasons. Such rebuffs might have daunted the most
sanguine mind, but Mrs. Barry had resolved to succeed
and did. Her principal defect was in the ear ; but by the
most untiring assiduity she so far perfected that organ, as
to bring it into unison with her other extraordinary
faculties, and when Otway brought his " Alcibiades" on
the stage, she was included in the cast, and reaped the
reward of her labours in the unexpected applause she
commanded. Her sphited performance of Mrs. Lovitt,
in Etheredge's " Man of the Mode" extorted universal
commendation, and in 1680, her Monimia in Otway's
"Orphan" fixed her future fame. Her Belvidera in
" Venice Preserved," and her Isabella in Southerne's " Fatal
Marriage," were exhibitions of the highest art ; and the
epithet of " famous" was so universally applied to her, that
it became her distinguishing title. She was equally
eminent in depicting the wildest passion and the most
winning tenderness. Her outbursts of resentment or



Digitized by VjOOQIC



NICHOLAS ROWE. 237

despair were terrible to witness ; but when she attuned
her voice to the utterance of love, or pity, or virgin sorrow,
she laid, as it were, a spell on her audience, and melted
or soothed them with the easy mastery of some superior,
being.

Her private life accorded not with the superiority of her
public merits, and there seems little reason to doubt her
criminal connection with the notorious Earl of Rochester.
Though we cannot palliate, yet we may drop a veil over
the errors of a beautiful and gifted woman, exposed to
severe temptation ; and regret that genius should ever
stoop to vitiate its fairest title to respect. She died on
the 7th of March, 1713, aged fifty-three, and was
buried in the churchyard of Acton.

Mrs. Bracegirdle. But few records remain of the
career and the triumphs of Mrs. Bracegirdle. The time
and place of her birth are alike uncertain. Her powers
as an actress were of the highest order, and her forte lay
in genteel comedy. She excelled in male characters, " and
her gait or walk," says her biographer, " was free, manlike,
and modest in breeches." For years she was a reigning
toast, and dramatic writers vied with each other in studying
her powers, and in adapting their pieces to her peculiar ex-
cellencies. She was included in all the plays of Rowe and
Congreve, who each endeavoured to captivate the heart of
their idol by love speeches placed in the mouths of her
fictitious]]adorers on the stage.

Her figure was finely proportioned. She was of a dark
complexion, with dark brown hair and eyebrows, black
eyes, and a most expressive countenance. In private life
she was gentle, modest, and charitable. Though sur-
rounded by admirers, scandal has not fastened on any
impropriety in her behaviour ; and " her virtue had its
reward both in applause and specie." She retired from



Digitized by VjOOQIC



238 NICHOLAS ROWEi

the stage about thirty years before Garrick appeared,
induced in a measure by the more general approbation
with which a younger rival (Mrs. Oldfield) acted
some of her favourite characters. She died on the
12th of September, 1748, after having lived to an
advanced age, and was buried in the cloisters of West-
minster Abbey.



Digitized by VjOOQIC



REVEREND LAURENCE EUSDEN.

Shadwell was the first of the second-rate laureates
under whose dynasty the wits were in opposition. But
his plays manifest considerable ability, and he was a
brilliant conversationalist.

Tate enjoyed a good reputation among contemporaries.
Rowe was a first-rate translator, and a man of genius
and taste. We must now descend a great many steps,
ay, almost to the bottom of the ladder. Horace Walpole
has observed that nations are most commonly saved by
the worst men in them, and so the Laureateship was in
this instance preserved and handed down by perhaps our
worst poet. In a small biographical dictionary he is
described as no " inconsideiable versifier," and a writer
must be in the last state of the " lues Boswelliana," did
he give any lengthened accoimt of works which had so
justly merited oblivion, or were he very enthusiastic in
speaking of the Rev. Laurence Eusden. Of good Irish
family, and the son of Dr. Eusden, of Spotisworth, in
Yorkshire, he was educated at Trinity College, Cam-
bridge, entered holy orders, and was chaplain to Lord



Digitized by VjOOQIC



240 REV. LAURENCE EUSDEN.

Willoughby de Broke. At Rowe's death, December
1718, Eusden was appointed his successor. The Duke
of Newcastle was Lord Chamberlain at the time. The
" versifier " had won the favour of that nobleman, by a
poem addressed to him on his marriage with Lady Hen-
rietta Godolpbin. He had, however, other claims to the
office of "the birthday fibber," for, besides propitiating
the Lord Chamberlain by his far-fetched flatteries of him
and his bride, he had published a poetical epistle to Mr.
Addison, on the accession of the King to the throne. It
is a tedious panegyric on CJeorge H. That monarch, he
tells us, was, as a child, marvellously precocious; as a
man, glorious from his heroic exploits. The banks of the
Rhine are said to echo his praises. He had given names
to mountains by his warlike deeds. The eulogy termi-
nates with this sublime couplet :

"Streams which in silence flowed obscure before,
Swell'd by thy conquests, proudly leam'd to roar."

He had also, in 1717, followed this up with three
poems of a similar character. The first, " Sacred to the
Memory of the Late King," is an apotheosis of George I.
The second, another laudation of George II., and as full
of fulsome fustian as the former one. Take, for example,
the four following lines :

"Hail, mighty Monarch ! whom Desert alone
Would, without Birthright, raise up to the throne ;
Thy virtues shine peculiaijjr nice,
Ungloom'd with a confinity to vice."

The third is to the Queen, and teems with servile
adulation and tiresome triplets.

His appointment has very justly filled with indignation
contemporaneous and succeeding writers. It is asserted
by some, that no better man would accept office. More
correctly is it stated by others that he owed his prefer-