Short answers, pulled from the story.
Nicholas Rowe (1674-1718) was an English dramatist, poet, and translator who became Poet Laureate in 1715. He is considered the first editor of William Shakespeare's works, publishing a seven-volume edition in 1709-10, and his translation of Lucan's Pharsalia was called by Samuel Johnson one of the greatest productions in English poetry.
Jane Shore, performed at Drury Lane in 1714 with Anne Oldfield in the title role, was Rowe's most enduring theatrical success. It ran for nineteen nights and kept the stage longer than any other of his works.
Rowe published the first eighteenth-century edition of Shakespeare's works in 1709-10, printed by Tonson in seven volumes. He divided the plays into scenes and acts, standardised character name spellings, added dramatis personae lists, and included a frontispiece engraving for each play. He also wrote a short biography titled Some Account of the Life &c. of Mr. William Shakespear.
Rowe created the character Lothario in The Fair Penitent (1702), and the name became synonymous with a rake or womaniser in common usage. Samuel Johnson described the play as one of the most pleasing tragedies ever written in English.
Rowe was buried in Westminster Abbey, where a monument by sculptor John Michael Rysbrack was erected around 1722. The inscription places his bust near Shakespeare's and praises him as "next him skill'd to draw the tender Tear." The monument also commemorates his daughter Charlotte, who died in 1739 at twenty-two.
George I granted Rowe's widow a pension in 1719 specifically in recognition of Rowe's verse translation of Lucan's Pharsalia, published in 1718. That translation ran through eight editions between 1718 and 1807 and was described by Samuel Johnson as one of the greatest productions in English poetry.