Life

Bowle, called by his friends Don Bowle, was descended from Dr. John Bowle

John Bowle (bishop)

John Bowle was an Engish churchman and bishop of Rochester.A native of Lancashire, he was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he obtained a fellowship. He proceeded M.A. , D.D. , and was incorporated M.A. of Oxford on 9 July 1605, and D.D. on 11 July 1615...

, bishop of Rochester. He was born on 26 October 1725, was educated at Oriel College, Oxford, and became M.A. in 1750. He was elected Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries in 1776. Having entered holy orders, he obtained the vicarage of Idmiston

Idmiston

Idmiston is a village and civil parish in Wiltshire, England. It has a population of 2,025.All Saints Church was built in the 12th century. It has been designated as a Grade I listed building and is now in the care of the Churches Conservation Trust....

 (spelt Idemeston in his Don Quixote), in Wiltshire

Wiltshire

Wiltshire is a ceremonial county in South West England. It is landlocked and borders the counties of Dorset, Somerset, Hampshire, Gloucestershire, Oxfordshire and Berkshire. It contains the unitary authority of Swindon and covers...

, where he died on 26 October 1788, aged 63.

Works

Bowle was an erudite scholar, acquainted with French, Spanish, and Italian literature, and accumulated a large and valuable library, sold in 1790. He was a member of Samuel Johnson

Samuel Johnson

Samuel Johnson , often referred to as Dr. Johnson, was an English author who made lasting contributions to English literature as a poet, essayist, moralist, literary critic, biographer, editor and lexicographer...

's Essex Head Club. He preceded John Douglas in detecting William Lauder

William Lauder (forger)

William Lauder was a Scottish literary forger, the second son of Dr William Lauder , one of the original 21 Fellows of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh, by his spouse Catherine Brown...

's forgeries.

He published in 1765 miscellaneous pieces of ancient English poetry, containing Shakespeare's King John, and some of the satires of John Marston

John Marston

John Marston was an English poet, playwright and satirist during the late Elizabethan and Jacobean periods...

. In 1777 he printed a letter to Thomas Percy concerning a new edition of "Historia del valoroso Cavallero Don Quixote de la Mancha," to be illustrated by annotations and extracts from the historians, poets, and romances of Spain and Italy, and other writers, ancient and modern, with a glossary and indexes. He gave also an outline of the life of Cervantes

Cervantes

-People:*Alfonso J. Cervantes , mayor of St. Louis, Missouri*Francisco Cervantes de Salazar, 16th-century man of letters*Ignacio Cervantes, Cuban composer*Jorge Cervantes, a world-renowned expert on indoor, outdoor, and greenhouse cannabis cultivation...

 in the Gentleman's Magazine, 1781, and circulated proposals to print the work by subscription. It appeared in 1781, in six volumes., the first four containing the text, the fifth the notes, and the sixth the indexes. The whole work is written in Spanish. Its reception was unfavourable, except in Spain, where it was praised by Antonio Pellicer among others. In l784 Bowle complained in the Gentleman's Magazine about his critics; and in 1785 he published 'Remarks on the extraordinary conduct of the Knight of the Ten Stars and his Italian Squire, to the editor of Don Quixote. In a letter to J. S., D.D.' The pamphlet was directed against Joseph Baretti, who retorted in an anonymous pamphlet full of bitter personalities, entitled 'Tolondron, speeches to John Bowle about his edition of Don Quixote,' 1786.

Bowle wrote frequently under various signatures in the Gentleman's Magazine, contributed to James Granger

James Granger

James Granger was an English clergyman, biographer, and print collector. He is now known as the author of the Biographical History of England from Egbert the Great to the Revolution .-Life:...

's 'History,' George Steevens

George Steevens

George Steevens was an English Shakespearean commentator.He was born at Poplar, the son of a captain and later director of the East India Company. He was educated at Eton College and at King's College, Cambridge, where he remained from 1753 to 1756...

's edition of Shakespeare, 1778, and Thomas Warton

Thomas Warton

Thomas Warton was an English literary historian, critic, and poet. From 1785 to 1790 he was the Poet Laureate of England...

's 'History of Poetry.' In Archæeologia are remarks on the old pronunciation of the French language, musical instruments mentioned in Le Roman de la Rose, parish register

Parish register

A parish register is a handwritten volume, normally kept in a parish church or deposited within a county record office or alternative archive repository, in which details of baptisms, marriages and burials are recorded.-History:...

s, and playing cards.