: After the
duke's death, all avenues were stopt to his preferment; and during the
rest of queen Anne's reign, he passed his time with the Muses and his
books, and sometimes with the conversation of his friends.

While Mr. Rowe was thus without a patron, he went one day to pay his
court to the earl of Oxford, lord high treasurer of England, then at the
head of the Tory faction, who asked him if he understood Spanish well?
He answered no: but imagining that his lordship might intend to send him
into Spain on some honourable commission, he presently added, that in
a short time he did not doubt but he should presently be able, both to
understand it, and speak it. The earl approving of what he said, Mr.
Rowe took his leave, and immediately retired out of town to a private
country farm; where, within a few months, he learned the Spanish
tongue, and then waited again on the earl to give him an account of his
diligence. His lordship asking him, if he was sure he understood it
thoroughly, and Mr. Rowe answering in the affirmative, the earl burst
into an exclamation; 'How happy are you Mr. Rowe, that you can enjoy the
pleasure of reading, and understanding Don Quixote in the original!'

This wanton cruelty inflicted by his lordship, of raising expectations
in the mind, that he never intended to gratify, needs only be told to
excite indignation. Upon the accession of king George the 1st. to the
throne, Mr. Rowe was made Poet-Laureat, and one of the surveyors of the
customs, in the port of London. The prince of Wales conferred on him,
the place of clerk of his council, and the lord chancellor Parker, made
him his secretary for the presentations, the very day he received the
seals, and without his asking it.

He was twice married, first to a daughter of Mr. auditor Parsons;
and afterwards to a daughter of Mr. Devenish of a good family in
Dorsetshire. By his first wife, he had a son, and by his second a
daughter.

Mr. Rowe died the 6th of December 1718, in the 45th year of his age,
like a christian and a philosopher, and with an unfeigned resignation
to the will of God: He preferred an evenness of temper to the last, and
took leave of his wife, and friends, immediately before his last agony,
with the same tranquility of mind, as if he had been taking but a short
journey.

He was interred in Westminster-Abbey, over against Chaucer; his body
being attended with a vast number of friends, and the dean and chapter
officiating at th