Nicholas Rowe and the Beginnings of Feminism on the London Stage

Nicholas Rowe flourished during the first quarter of the 18thc: he was poet laureate to George I, the author of eight plays (three of which were great successes) and he was the esteemed translator of Lucan’s PHARSALIA as well as the first modern editor of Shakespeare’s plays. But most of all he was known as a playwright. Rowe’s ‘She-tragedies
gave great prominence to women characters and further developed the Whig virtues of the ruling political elite: individual freedom and a belief in a strong parliament which would bring the cause of the people before a constitutionally limited, reasonable monarchy. Professor Sennett’s new monograph discusses Rowe’s vision of women caught up by tragic, unreasonable threat or menace. He also explores the literary and the political stakes in late Stuart and early Hanoverian theatre.. New material on Rowe’s life and his attempt to include ideas that can be described as incipient feminism are brought forward. While not a biography, Sennett’s new work is a contribution to the scholarship that has called for a new examination of Rowe and the theatre of early 18th century Whig London.