ROWE (Nicholas), descended of an ancient family in Devonshire, was born in 1673. He acquired a complete taste of the classic authors under the famous Dr Busby in Westminster school; but poetry was his early and darling study. His father, who was a lawyer, and designed him for his own profession, entered him a student in the Middle Temple. He made remarkable advances in the study of the law; but the love of the belles lettres, and of poetry in particular, stopped him in his career. His first tragedy, The Ambitious Step-mother, meeting with universal applause, he laid aside all thoughts of rising by the law. He afterward composed several tragedies; but that which he valued himself most upon, was his Tamedlane. He wrote but one comedy, intitled The Bitter, which had no success; his genius not lying toward comedy. Being a great admirer of Shakespeare, he obliged the public with a new edition of his works. Mr Rowe's last, and perhaps his best poem, was his translation of Lucan. The love of learning and poetry did not incapacitate him from business, and nobody applied closer to it when it required his attendance. The late duke of Queensberry, when secretary of state, made him secretary for public affairs; but after the duke's death, and during the rest of queen Anne's reign, he passed his time with the muses. King George I. upon his accession to the throne of Britain, made him poet laureate, and one of the land surveyors of the customs in the port of London; and the lord chancellor Parker made him his secretary for the presentations. He died in 1718.