Alexander Dow

Edit links
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Alexander Dow
Dow by Joshua Reynolds, 1771
Born1735 or 1736
Crieff, Scotland, Great Britain
Died31 July 1779 (aged 42-44)
Bhagalpur, Bengal, Great Britain
AllegianceGreat Britain
Years of service1760-1769

Alexander Dow (1735 or 1736 – 31 July 1779) was a Scottish Orientalist, writer, playwright and army officer in the East India Company.

Life

He was a native of

Calcutta
. He joined the army there as an ensign in the Bengal infantry on 14 September 1760, and was rapidly promoted lieutenant on 23 August 1763, and then captain on 16 April 1764.

He returned to Britain on leave in 1768, and published in that year two translations, Tales translated from the Persian of Inatulla of Delhi and the History of Hindostan, translated from the Persian of Ferishta, from Firishta. Both works had a great success, and in the following year Dow had a five-act tragedy on Genghis Khan, Zingis, which was acted with some success at Drury Lane.

He then returned to India, and was promoted lieutenant-colonel on 25 February 1769, and in 1772 published the continuation of his history of Hindostan to the death of

Aurungzeb, with two dissertations, 'On the Origin and Nature of Despotism in Hindostan,’ and 'An Enquiry into the State of Bengal.' In 1774, he again returned to England, and David Garrick produced his second tragedy in verse at Drury Lane, entitled 'Sethona', set in a mythic ancient Egypt. It was acted only for nine nights, and was said by David Erskine Baker
in his Biographia Dramatica to be not really by Dow at all.

Dow returned once more to India, and died in Bhagalpur on 31 July 1779.

Works

  • Tales Translated from the Persian of Inatulla of Delhi (1768)
  • Zingis (1769) - 5-act tragedy
  • Sethona (1774) - verse tragedy

References

  1. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/7957. (Subscription or UK public library membership
    required.)
  2. ISBN 9780993470509
    .
  3. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/7957. (Subscription or UK public library membership
    required.)

External links

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Alexander_Dow&oldid=1221555546"