Nahum Tate

1652-1715. Irish playwright and third Poet Laureate. Infamous for his adaptation of Shakespeare's King Lear. Unjustly forgotten as author of the libretto of Dido and Aeneas. Ridiculed by Alexander Pope in The Dunciad as writing "prose run mad".

Tate was born in Dublin in 1652 as the son of Faithful Teate, a Puritan clergyman and Katherine Kenetie Teate. After he graduated from Trinity College in 1672, he moved to London where he was patronized by the Earl of Dorset and wrote for a living. In 1692, he was awarded with the post of post of poet laureate by King William III and thus succeeded John Dryden and Thomas Shadwell.

He is best known for his adaptations of Shakespeare's plays, most of all his King Lear (1687) in which Cordelia survived and married Edgar in the end. Though heavily criticized, his version of the play was shown in theaters until the 19th century. Among Shakespeare's plays, which had been adapted by Tate, were also Richard II and Coriolanus.

He collaborated with writers such as Dryden - with whom he wrote the second part of Absalom and Achitophel in 1682 - and Nicholas Brady, with whom he wrote his new version of the Psalms (1696), which was widely used in the Anglican Church until the 19th century. Other works by Nahum Tate were The Loyal General, Brutus of Alba, The Island Princess (adapted from John Fletcher), a Christmas carol called “While Shepherds Watched Their Flocks by Night” and the libretto for Henry Purcell's Dido and Aeneas. He also wrote several poems of which most are now forgotten.

He died, heavily indebted, on August 12, 1715 in London and was buried at St Paul's Cathedral.

Sources

• Corman, Brian. "Nahum Tate." The Literary Encyclopedia. 11 August 2003. Web. 30 June 2013. <http://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=4317>.

• Heaney, Peter, ed. Selected Writings of the Laureate Dunces, Nahum Tate (Laureate 1692-1715), Laurence Eusden (1718-1730), and Colley Cibber (1730-1757). Lewiston: E. Mellen, 1999.

• Library Ireland. "Nahum Tate." Library Ireland. N.p., n.d. Web. 30 June 2013. <http://www.libraryireland.com/biography/NahumTate.php>.

• Shakespeare, William. The History of King Lear. Ed. Stanley Wells and Gary Taylor. Oxford: Clarendon, 2000.