181 



ROWLEY, WILLIAM. 



ROY, MAJOR-GENERAL WILLIAM; 



182 



politics of the day. In 1703 was published ' The Fair Penitent ;' and 

 in the interval between this date and his death he wrote ' Ulysses,' 

 ' The Royal Convert, 1 a comedy called ' The Biter,' which proved a 

 failure, 'Jane Shore,' written professedly in the style of Shakspere, 

 though with little of Shakspere's manner, and lastly ' Lady Jane Grey.' 

 la the meantime he had other avocations besides poetry: we find him 

 in the office of under secretary for three years when the Duke of 

 Newcastle was secretary of state, and after having been made poet- 

 laureate at the accession of George L, he was appointed one of the 

 land-surveyors of the customs of the port of London. He was also 

 clerk of the council to the Prince of Wales, and was made secretary 

 of the presentations by Lord Chancellor Parker, afterwards Lord 

 Macclesfield. Rowe died December 6, 1718, aged forty-five, and was 

 buried in Westminster Abbey. He was twice married, and had issue 

 by both wives. Besides the plays enumerated, he wrote short poems, 

 a translation of Lucan, and of Quillet's ' Callipsodia.' He published an 

 edition of Shakspere, in which he has ventured on various restorations 

 of his author's text. In the composition of his dramas, Rowe shows 

 little depth or refined art in the pourtrayiug of character, but he writes 

 with the easy grace of a well-educated man of fashion, undisturbed by 

 the cares of needy authorship, or the ambition of writing himself into 

 notice at the expense of good taste. His versification is harmonious, 

 and the language of his characters natural in the dialogues. ' The 

 Fair Penitent ' contains several passages which are well wrought and 

 show considerable powers of imagination. His translation of Lucan 

 has been much praised by Johnson for preserving the spirit of the 

 original, though upon comparison it will often be found feebly diffuse. 

 His other poems are not of sufficient importance to require a separate 

 notice. 



ROWLEY, WILLIAM, an English dramatic writer, of whose life 

 hardly anything is known. He flourished during the reign of James L, 

 and belonged to the royal company of players, and as an actor excelled 

 most in comedy. The " Maister Rowley, once a rare scholar of Pem- 

 broke Hall, in Cambridge," mentioned by Meres (2nd part of ' Wit's 

 Commonwealth,' 1598) is probably some earlier author. Rowley wrote 

 many plays, of which the following are the best known: 'A new 

 Wonder, a Woman never vext,' a comedy, 4to, 1532. A tragedy, 

 called 'All's lost for Lust,' 4to, 1633. 'A Match at Midnight,' a 

 comedy, 4to, 1633. 'A Shoemaker a Gentleman,' a comedy, 4to, 1638. 

 'The Witch of -Edmonton/ a tragi-comedy (in this he was assisted 

 by Thomas Deckar, John Ford, &c.), 4to, 1658. ' The Birth of Merlin,' 

 4to, 1662. Shakspere is said to have aided him in this play. The 

 titles of others of his plays may be found in Watt's 'Bibliotheca 

 Britannica/ and the ' Catalogue of the Library of the British Museum.' 

 Rowley is a somewhat unpolished writer, hardly deserving a less 

 obscure fate than he has met with. Several of Rowley's plays are 

 printed in Dodsley's collection. He is the author of a rare tract, 

 noticed with extracts in the 'British Bibliographer,' iv., entitled, 'A 

 search for Money ; or, the lamentable complaint for the losse of the 

 wandering knight Monsieur 1'Argent ; or, Come along with me, I know 

 thou lovest money : dedicated to all those that lack money, by William 

 Rowley,' London, 4to, 1609 ; a composition full of the ribaldry and low 

 wit of his time. 



For notices of his life, see a copy of Langbaiue's ' Dramatic Poets,' 

 with manuscript notes, in the British Museum, and some statements in 

 Collier's ' Dramatic History.' Two extracts from his plays are given 

 in Lamb's ' Specimens of English Dramatic Poets.' 



ROXA'NA was the daughter of Oxyartes, a Bactrian prince, who 

 fell into the power of Alexander (B.C. 327), on his conquest of a strong 

 natural fortress in Sogdiana, where Oxyartes had placed his wife and 

 daughters. Roxana was pronounced by the followers of Alexander to 

 be the handsomest woman they had seen in Asia after the wife of 

 Darius, and her beauty made such an impression on Alexander, that 

 he resolved to share his throne with her. Roxana, who was with 

 child at the death of Alexander, subsequently bore a son, to whom 

 the name of Alexander was given, and who was acknowledged as 

 partner of Arrhidseus Philip in the empire. Statira, the other wife of 

 Alexander, was also supposed to be pregnant ; and accordingly, Roxana 

 fearing lest Statira's child should become a rival of her own Eon, 

 invited her and her sister Drypetis to Babylon, where they were put 

 to death with the concurrence of Perdiccas. Roxana and her soi 

 subsequently fell into the hands of Cassander, who kept them in close 

 confinement in Macedonia. In the treaty of B.C. 311, made between 

 the principal generals of Alexander, it was agreed that Cassander 

 should continue military governor (ffrparrjy6s) of Europe, till the son 

 of Roxana came of age. Cassander however, to remove this obstacle 

 to the throne, put to death the young king and his mother in the fol- 

 lowing year. (Diod. Sic., xxi. 105; Droysen, Geschichte der NachfoJgcr 

 Alexanders.) 



ROXBURGH, WILLIAM, M.D., a native of Scotland, who proceeded 

 to India in the medical service of the East India Company, and distin- 

 guished himself by his attention to the botany of that country. In 

 the early part of his career his attention was confined to the peninsula, 

 as he was stationed at Samulcottah from the year 1781, where he paid 

 particular attention to the cultivation of pepper. Into the plantations 

 established for this purpose he introduced the coffee, cinnamon, nut- 

 meg, annotto, bread-fruit tree, sappan-wood tree, and mulberry. He 

 also endeavoured to introduce the culture of silk, as well as to 



improve the manufacture of sugar, and was remarkable throughout 

 for the great attention which he always paid to the improvement of 

 the resources of the country. He knew and corresponded with 

 Kcenig, a pupil of Linnsous, who first gave an impulse to scientific 

 botany in India. Dr. Roxburgh made large collections of plants in 

 the Carnatic, but he had the misfortune to lose them all, with his 

 books and papers, in an inundation at Injeram. He however recom- 

 menced making a fresh collection, and the Court of Directors sent him 

 out a present of botanical books. 



In the autumn of 1793, from his great merits, he was removed to 

 Calcutta, where he was appointed superintendent of the botanic 

 garden which had been established by Colonel Kyd. During his 

 superintendence, which extended to 1814, few men have laboured 

 with greater zeal, assiduity, and success, though he had very indifferent 

 health ; having been obliged to make three separate voyages for its 

 re-establishment, once to the Cape and twice to Europe, on the latter 

 of which occasions ho died, in 1815. On one of these occasions, Dr. 

 Carey, the celebrated missionary and Orientalist, took charge of the 

 garden, and published, at Serampore, Dr. Roxburgh's catalogue of the 

 contents of the botanic garden at Calcutta. From Dr. Carey's preface 

 to this catalogue we learn that the number of described species then 

 in the garden amounted to 3500, of which 1510 were named and 

 described by Dr. Roxburgh, besides 453 which, though described, had 

 not then been introduced. Besides describing, he had been in the 

 habit of having splendid drawings made'of the various plants that he 

 discovered ; these, to the amount of 2000, were sent to the Court of 

 Directors. At their request, Sir Joseph Banks undertook the general 

 superintendence of the publication of a work in which a preference 

 was given to subjects connected with medicine, the arts, and manufac- 

 tures, and which is now well known as Roxburgh's ' Coromandel 

 Plants,' in 3 vols. folio, with 300 coloured engravings. Dr. Roxburgh's 

 general descriptive work of the plants of India, called ' Flora Indica,' 

 was not published for many years after his death. An edition was 

 commenced, to be published at Serampore, by Dr. Carey, with additions 

 by Dr. Wallich, the first volume in 1820, and the second in 1824. A 

 complete edition, in 3 vols., was published by Dr. Roxburgh's sons 

 in 1832. 



ROY, MAJOR-GENERAL WILLIAM, R.A., F.R.S., F.S.A. the first 

 British geodesist, with whom commences the history of the Ordnance 

 trigonometrical survey of the United Kingdom, adorned by so many 

 distinguished names that have already appeared in this work. The 

 events connected with the suppression of the rebellion of 1745 having 

 pointed out the propriety of exploring and mapping the wild High- 

 land districts with a view to the establishment of military posts and 

 roads of communication, a plan suggested by Lieutenant-General 

 Watson, Deputy Quarter-Master General in North Britain, was under- 

 taken in 1746 and 1747 by Colonel Roy, then Assistant Quarter-Master 

 General; and the work was at length extended from the Highlands 

 over the whole main land of Scotland. But this work, formerly known 

 by the name of the Duke of Cumberland's map, was never published, 

 and having been carried on with inferior instruments, was considered 

 by Roy as merely "a magnificent military sketch." The war of 1755 

 put a stop to these works of peace; but at the peace of 1763 the 

 subject of a general survey of Great Britain, which would have in- 

 cluded the work already done in Scotland, again engaged the attention 

 of the government, but was again thrown into shade by the American 

 war. The peace of 1783 however permitted the reconsideration of 

 the proposed survey ; and at this critical period, a memoir by the 

 French astronomer, M. Cassini de Thury, recommending the connec- 

 tion by trigonometrical measurements of the national observatories of 

 Paris and Greenwich, and the consequent determination of the exact 

 differences between their latitudes and longitudes, was submitted to 

 the English government by the French ambassador. Cassini, Mechain, 

 and Legendre had already carried a series of triangles from Paris to 

 Calais, and it was only necessary that the English geodesists should 

 complete the work by carrying a similar series from Greenwich to 

 Dover. Mr. Fox by consent of the king (George III.) transmitted 

 this memoir to the president of the Royal Society, Sir Joseph Banks, 

 by whom the sufbject was brought before the council, and through 

 whose influence General Roy was eventually appointed to conduct the 

 operations. The site of the initial base of this work, which must be 

 considered the germ of all subsequent and future scientific surveys of 

 the United Kingdom, and which in fact was designed to be such by 

 its projectors, in addition to the special object of the connection of 

 the two observatories, was fixed at Hounslow Heath. After various 

 experiments and preliminary trials, the base was ultimately measured 

 by means of glass tubes, as suggested by Lieutenant- Colonel Calder- 

 wood, F.R.S., but General Roy made a direct comparison between 

 them, and a steel chain constructed by Ramsden, by measuring the 

 same 1000 feet with both, the result of which was very satisfactory. 

 The length of the Hounslow base, as measured by him, when reduced 

 to the level of the sea, was 27,404f feet, or about 5\ miles. In 1785 

 General Roy received the Copley Medal from the Royal Society for 

 this achievement. On the 31st of July 1787 the triangulation was 

 commenced, by means of the great theodolite which had been con- 

 structed by Ramsden [RAMSDEN, JESSE] for the purpose. The 

 measurement of a base of verification on Romney Marsh was entrusted 

 by General Roy to Lieutenant Fiddes, R.E. and Lieutenant Bryce, R. A. 



