Scottish Orientalist, writer, playwright and army officer
Alexander Dow
(1735 or 1736 ? 31 July 1779) was a Scottish Orientalist, writer, playwright and army officer in the
East India Company
.
Life
[
edit
]
He was a native of
Crieff
,
Perthshire
. Alexander Dow's father worked at the Customs at
Dunbar
.
[1]
The younger Dow was educated in Dunbar for a time, and, in conjunction with his father's job, this would suggest that he lived in the area for a time.
[2]
Dow was in the process of being educated for a mercantile career in
Eyemouth
, when he abruptly left aboard the
King of Prussia
as a
midshipman
. The reason for this turn of events is not known, but one reason posited for this was that he was involved in a fatal duel.
[3]
Dow then worked his way to
Bencoolen
. There he became secretary to the
Governor
, and was commended to the patronage of the officials of the
East India Company
at
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
[
edit
]
- Tales Translated from the Persian of Inatulla of Delhi
(1768)
- Zingis
(1769) - 5-act tragedy
- Sethona
(1774) - verse tragedy
References
[
edit
]
External links
[
edit
]
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