- Tate, Nahum
-
died July 30, 1715, London, Eng.Irish-English poet and playwright.After graduating from Trinity College, Dublin, Tate moved to London. Though he wrote plays of his own, he is best known for his adaptations of Elizabethan works, notably William Shakespeare's King Lear, with a happy ending, which was performed well into the 19th century. He wrote the libretto for Henry Purcell's Dido and Aeneas (1689?) and collaborated with Nicholas Brady in A New Version of the Psalms of David (1696). The best of his own poems is "Panacea: A Poem upon Tea" (1700). He became England's poet laureate in 1692.
* * *
▪ English writerborn 1652, Dublin, Ire.died July 30, 1715, London, Eng.poet laureate of England and playwright, adapter of other's plays, and collaborator with Nicholas Brady in A New Version of the Psalms of David (1696).Tate graduated from Trinity College, Dublin, and moved to London. He wrote some plays of his own, but he is best known for his adaptations of the Elizabethan playwrights. His version of Shakespeare's King Lear, to which he gave a happy ending (Cordelia married Edgar), held the stage well into the 19th century.Tate also wrote the libretto for Henry Purcell's opera Dido and Aeneas (c. 1689). Some of his hymns found a lasting place in Protestant worship: “While shepherds watched,” “Through all the changing scenes of life,” and “As pants the hart for cooling streams.”Tate was commissioned by the poet John Dryden (Dryden, John) to write the second part of Absalom and Achitophel (1682), although Dryden added the finishing touches (probably including the portraits of Elkanah Settle and Thomas Shadwell) himself.The best of Tate's own poems is “Panacea: A Poem upon Tea” (1700). He succeeded Shadwell as poet laureate in 1692.* * *
Universalium. 2010.
