and poetry ; that he studied under Peter Pomponatius, and
became so devoted a student that Polybius and Plutarch
were scarce ever out of his hands ; that when not employed
in literary avocations he was occupied in curing disorders,
and that in the intervals of his professional exertion, while
the pestilence he so vividly describes, was raging in the
city he found leisure to compose these undying verses,
which no less a man than Sanazarius is driven in despair
to admit excelled his own poem "De Partu Virginis,"
which was a labour of twenty years. It is also recorded



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NAHUM TATE. 213

that Fracastorius died of apoplexy at seventy, having
contracted many friendships, and having deservedly no
enemy.

To criticise either the Latin or English would take us
beyond our limits. Tate appears to have been compelled
to work for the booksellers, as a translator of prose as
well as verse. In 1686, he published, under the title of
" Triumphs of Love and Constancy," a translation of the
" iEthopics" of Heliodorus. This work is the earliest
and best Greek romance, and narrates what are called
" The Heroic Amours of Theagenes and Chariclea." Its
author was bom at Emesa, in Syria, and lived at the end
of the fourth century, under the reign of Theodosius and
his sons. He wrote the " iEthiopics " in his youth, and
upon his being appointed Bishop of Tucca, it is said, that
a provincial Synod decreed that the author must biu-n his
romance or lay down his bishopric. Heliodorus chose the
latter alternative. The whole story, however, sounds very
apocryphal; and its improbability is heightened by the
fact that, although as a love story it offends against
modem notions of delicacy, its tendency is to exalt virtue.
It was twice translated into English before Mr. Tate and
liis coadjutor, who is described as a person of quality,
undertook it. A version has since been given by Mr.
Payne in 1792. The Greek manuscript was strangely
preserved. Although well known in earlier, it was in
modem times, almost forgotten, until, at the sacking
of Ofen, in 1526, the manuscript was found in the library
of Matthias Corvinus, King of Hungary, and as it was
decorated and illuminated it attracted the cupidity of a
soldier who brought it into Germany, where falling into
the hands of Vincentius Opsopaeus, it was printed at
Basil in 1534.

Tate also published a translation from the French of
" The Life of the Prince de Condd." We must, however.






214 NAHUM TATE.

forget what he had meanwhile been doing in his poetical
capacity. In 1697, he produced a short poem called
"The Innocent Epicure, or the Art of Angling." It
is of the didactic kind, and lays down minute directions
for fishing. It is tedious and prosaic, and the rhymes are
careless and faulty. " Panacea," a poem on tea, in 1700,
was a more successful eflfbrt of his Muse. The subjed;
may appear to us a strange one, but tea was then a novelty
and a luxury. It was sold in a liquid state. In Dry den's
" Wild Gallant " it is spoken of as a morning draught for
those who had drank too deeply overnight. Pepys teEs
us : " I sent for a cup of tea (a Chinese drink), of which
I had never drank before." In 1664, the East India
Company purchased two pounds and two ounces to pre-
sent to the King. Its virtues were then very highly
estimated, and they are celebrated in this poem with
Tate's utmost power. The versification is excellent, but
as a whole, from its plan and subject, it is uninteresting.

This effort, his partnership with Dryden, his trans-
lations, and the success of one volume of poem*s, which
had gone through two editions, seemed to have increased
the fame of the Laureate. By a poetical friend he is thus
addressed :

" The British Laurel by old Chaucer worn.
Still fresh and gay did Drydcn's brow adorn,
And that its lustre may not fade on thine.
Wit, fancy, judgment, Tate, in thee combine."

It remains that we should look on Tate as Psalmist.
And we shall see that he made much recompense for his
few former offences against m(H*ality in pandering to the
taste of the age, by his later writings, which tend to
support the cause of religion and virtue. The times were
mending a little, and some check seems to have been
given to the open profligacy which characterized the period
of the Restoration, In the Reformed Churches abroad,



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NAHUM TATE. 215

Protestantism and Psalmody had gone hand in hand
togeth^. A want was now fdt in the English Church.
The Old Version, written by Stemhold, and altered by
Hopkins and others, sometimes for the better, oftener for
the worse, had been in general use from the time of its
publication. It was now thought that the advance our
language had made, demanded a version more in accordance
with the taste of the age, and that smoothness of versifi-
cation which was more and more aimed at by our poets.
Hence we exchanged the rugged strength and occasional
doggrel of Sternhold and Hopkins for the more levd
mediocrity of Brady and Tate.

What brought about the literary partnership, which has
been so often made a target for the shafts of sarcasm,
we have no means of ascertaining or conjecturing, unless
it were the tie of a common nationality. Dr. Nicholas
Brady was Tate's fellow-countryman. He was educated at
Westminster, and showed very early a talent for writing
verse. He was an active politician and a popular preacher,
and took a busy part in the Revolution of 1688, for which
at the time he severely suflfered. He lived, however, to be
rewarded for his exertions, for at his death, in 1726, he
was the incumbent of three benefices. He outlived his
coadjutor eleven years, and could, with a better grace, have
preached the funeral sermon of the unfortunate Psalmodist
than that of sack-drinking Shadwell, whose name, until
heard from the pulpit, had been mainly associated with
taverns and theatres. Dr. l^dy, however, could have
quoted a precedent for his ftmeral oration ; for the praises
of Nell Gwynne had been sounded from the pulpit.

They at first printed a version of twenty Psalms, as an
"Essay," as they termed it, and in the following year
appeared the completed work, " A New Version of the
Psalms of David," fitted to the tunes used in churches,
by N. Brady, D.D., Chaplain in Ordinary to Her Majesty,



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216 NAHUM TATE.

and N. Tate Esq., Poet-Laureate. In a pamphlet entitled :
** A brief and full account of Mr. Tate and Mr. Brady's
* New Version of the Psalms/ by a true son of the
Church," the Royal Sanction is copied. " At the Court
of Kensington, Deer. 3rd, 1696. Present, the King's
most excellent Majesty in Council. Upon the humble
petition of Nicholas Brady and Nahum Tate this day read
at the Board, setting forth that the Petitioners have, with
their utmost care and industry, compleated a New Version
of the Psalms of David in English Metre, fitted for pub-
lick use ; and humbly praying His Majesty's Royal allow-
ance that the said Version may be used in such congre-
gations as shall think fit to receive it ; His Majesty, taking
the same into his royal consideration, is pleased to order
in Council that the said New Version of the Psalms in
English Metre be, and the same is hereby allowed, and
permitted to be used in all Churches and Chapels and
Congregations as shall think fit to receive the same."

Dr. Compton, Bishop of London, sent out circular
letters of recommendation to all the clergy of his 'diocese.
The version has been eulogised by Basil Kennet and
others ; but Bishop Beveridge has censured it for faults
which it would now be difficult to discover. " There
are," he says, " many such new phrases and romantic
expressions in the new version, which are taken up by our
present poets, and being now in fashion may serve well
enough in other places, but can by no means suit with a
divine poem, much less with one inspired by God him-
self." It encountered much prejudice and provoked some
controversy. Tate undertook its defence, and published,
in 1710, "An Essay for Promoting Psalmody." It is
dedicated to Queen Anne. The style is quaint and florid.
Psalmody is boldly personified and apostrophized as a
goddess, a princess, a charmer. Parts of the treatise are
written in a strain of rapture, and with the tone of a man



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NAHUM TATE. 21?

of warai and sincere piety. He complains that while
psalmody has been much cultivated in all the Reformed
Churches it has been neglected in ours, and he attributes
the decay into which it has fallen very much to the apathy
" of our quality and gentry." " You may hear them," he
says, " in the responses and reading psalms ; but the
giving out a singing psalm, seems to strike 'em dumb."
He next extols Praise in occupying a devotional rank
higher than Prayer, and supports his view by some
beautiful lines from the "Gondibert" of his Laureate
predecessor Davenant.

"For Prayer the Ocean is, where diversely ,
Men steer their course, each to a different coast.
Where oft our interests so discordant be.
That half beg winds by which the rest are lost.

" Praise is devotion fit for mighty minds.
The differing World* s agreeing sacrifice.**

These raptures about the superior nature of Praise
from one who had written a version of the Psalms,
remind \is forcibly of the clerk of a small country church
in Wales, who, inasmuch as by playing a violoncello
and singing lustily, he produced what is called in the
100th psalm " awful mirth," was so gratified with the
success of his musical efforts, that he informed the rector
one Sunday with an air of cheerful confidence, that
although prayer and preaching were perhaps necessary,
praise was the noblest part of divine worship. The
rector's reply is an answer to Tate and to the rural musi-
cian, and is a good comment on the lines of Davenant : " If
your prayers are not accepted, your praises will never be
heard."

Tate then proceeds, in his treatise, to show what were
the faults of the old version, and to lament the prejudices
which obstruct the attempt to produce one better fitted
for purposes of devotion. "You must," he writes,



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218 NAHUM TATE.

" expect the first outcry against any new version of the
Psalms fh)m the ignorance amongst some of our common
people, who, because they found the old singing psalms
bound up with their Bibles, take it for granted that these
English metres, as weU as the matter, were compiled by
King David. Nay, some have supposed a greater poison
was the composer of these metres. For instance, the late ,
Bishop of Ely upon his first using of his brother Dr.
Patrick's new version in family devotion, observed (as I
have heard himself relate the passage) that a servant maid
of a musical voice was silent for several days together.
He asked her the reason, whether she were not well or
had a cold, adding that he was much delighted to hear
her, because she sung sweetly and kept the rest in tune.
* I am well enough in health,' answered she, ' and have
no cold, but if you must needs know the plain truth of
the matter, as long as you sang Jesus Chrisfs psalms^ I
sung along with ye, but now you sing psalms of your own
invention, you may sing by yourselves.' "

Tate concludes his essay with a rhapsody, from which
we give a brief extract.

" O Queen of Sacred Harmony, how powerful are thy
charms. Care shuns thy walks. Fear kindles with
courage, and Joy sublimes into ecstasy. What! shall
stage syrens sing and Psalmody sleep ! Theatres be
thronged, and thy temples empty ! Shall thy votaries
abroad find heart and voice to sing in the fiery furnace of
persecution, upon the waters of affliction, and our Britons
sit sullenly silent under their vines and fig-trees ?"

To expend any criticism on this version of the Psalms
would scarcely be less absurd, than to gravely endeavour
to discover by internal evidence which were contributed
by Brady and which by Tate. In "Miscellanea Sacra,"
published in 1698, there is a rendering of the 104th
Psdm by him which is excellait. Nothing but want of

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NAHUM TATE. 219

space prevents our inviting critidsm to it by a long quo-
tation. To sum up his merits as a psalmodist, it may be
said of him that he has only failed where others have
done so ; for are not all attempts, save a few by ^ninent
poets, scattered here and there in literature, rather parodies
than paraphrases ?

The sorrow and the triumphs which shook the strings
of the royal harp are breathed in such strains of poetry as
speak with divine eloquence in the unfettered rhythm of
our version ; but the sublimity is dwarfed by the exact-
ments of metre, and the music faintly and falsely echoed
by the jingle of rhyme.

In 1713, Tate undertook the management of a well-
meaning publication, which was as short-lived as many
such have been, and, strange to say, as one of the same
name started in London within the last fbiur years.
" The Monitor," for so was it called, was to appear on
alternate days, and the first number was issued on
March 2nd, 1713. It was ''intended for the promoting
of Religion and Virtuo, and the suppression of vice and
immorality, in pursuance of Her Majesty's most gracious
Direction."

The undertaking not only enjoyed royal patronage, but
was encouraged by many of the nobility, bishops, and
clergy. But in spite of all this, and the moderate price
(one penny per number), it struggled imsuccessfully for
but a short time. They were sent to the subscribers'
houses on the terms of twelvepence a month, " sixpence
on the recent of the first paper, and sixpence more when
the twelfth paper is delivered."

We are informed that through the contribution of some
pious persons, some schools were to be supplied with them,
" the masters of which will oblige their scholars to get the
Poems by heart as part of their exercise." These scholars
merit our sincerest sympathies. The publication commences

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220 NAHUM TATE.

with an "Essay on Divine Poesie." Then follows an
exhortation to the youth of Great Britain, which endea-
vours to carry out the principle which the paper professed,
viz., " to establish them in the principles of Religion and
Virtue, and fortify them against the attacks of Vice."
The swearer and the gambler are denounced in two
separate numbers. " The Witch of Endor" is the subject
of a sublime dialogue, full of pious profanity. Another
is a description of " The Upright Man," and is a bom-
bastic paraphrase of Horace's " justum et tenacem pro-
positi vu-um." The stem stoicism of the character is
depicted in a couplet, which prophetically expresses a
phrase of modern slang —

" Though whirl'd by storms the racking clouds are seen.
His unmolested breast is all serene.*'

In the number for April 6th, a prose notice is added,
which contains an anecdote not in the least a-propos to the
subject of the paper, but referring to a matter which has
been alluded to in a former part of this work. " We shall
beg the reader's pardon for mentioning a passage told us by a
gentleman of our society, almost forty years since, by Mr.
Dryden, who went, with Mr. Waller in company, to make a
visit to Mr. Milton, and desire his leave for putting his ^ Pa-
radise Lost' into rhyme for the stage. * Well, Mr. Dryden,'
says Milton, * it seems you have a mind to tagg my
points, and you have my leave to tagg 'em ; but some of
'em are so awkward and old-fashioned, that I think you
had as good leave 'em as you found 'em.' " In the last
number but one, we are told that those " who particularly
approve of these Divine subjects, seem anxious that enter-
taining ones may be mixed with them, and that to meet
this want, some gentlemen of the brightest parts are
setting upon such a work." Whether "The Oracle'*
ever appeared, we know not ; but next day " The Monitor"
died.

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NAHUM TATE. 221

And so ends the literary career of Nahum Tate.

Of his private life and habits, little can be ascertained.
He was, we are told, of a downcast look, and very silent
in company ; but he has also been described as a " free
and fuddling companion.*' He has been praised for his
integrity and modesty.

There is nothing to justify Dr. Johnson's surmise that
he was ejected from his ofBce at the accession of
George I. The date of Rowe's appointment is 1715,
and it was in this year that Tate died in the Mint,
Southwark, where he had taken refuge from his numerous
creditors.

He appears to have been very industrious with his pen,
but in worldly matters imprudent and unfortunate. His
case is one among a thousand which prove the necessity
of such institutions as the Athenaeum Institute and the
Guild of Literature and Art. Patronage was of some
avail to Tate and other necessitous men of letters ; but
when improvidence has not even patronage to fall back
upon, as is now the case, there would seem to be greater
need for co-operative providence.

Had Tate lived in these days, his life would doubtless
have been very badly written by a near relative, and the
minutest details of his existence chronicled with precision.
There was no such lust for biography when he died in
the Mint. But gibbeted by the sarcasms of Pope, he has
been much misrepresented by those who copied the sar-
casms without reading his works. Sir Walter Scott, who
doubtless knew them, gives a mention of him, severe, but
fairer than that of many other writers. " He is one of
those second-rate bards," he says, " who, by dint of
pleonasm and expletive, can find smooth lines if any one
will supply ideas."

Neither he nor Shadwell deserve the treatment they have
suffered even at the hands of recent writers. Miss



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222 NAHUM TATE.

Strickland calls the latter '^ the loathsome LaxireateV
Religious and political prejudice can see nothing but what
is detestable in the poet of the court of William and
Mary. We are more surprised to read in Southey's
"Life of Cowper'* — "Nahum Tate, of all my prede-
cessors, must have ranked the lowest of the Laureates if he
had not succeeded Shadwefl." Could Southey, with all
his varied book lore, have been ignorant of the verses of
Eusden ? and is he not in this estimate somewhat polite
and merciful to his inunediate predecessor, Pye ?



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NICHOLAS ROWE.

Nicholas Rowe was bom at his maternal grand-
father's seat, Little Beckford, in Bedfordshire, in 1673.
The family from which he descended had long been
settled at Lamerton in Devonshire, and the arms they bore
had been won for them by a crusader from whom Rowe
could trace his descent in a direct line. His father was
the first of the house who neglected the cultivation of the
ancestral estate, allured by the more brilliant temptations of
professional life. He entered at the Middle Temple — rose
to the degree of serjeant-at-law, and now lies in the
Temple Church. Rowe was first sent to a private school
at Highgate, from whence he was removed to West-
minster, then flourishing under the rod of Dr. Busby. In
1688 he was elected a king's scholar. He gave early
indications of superior ability, and no boy*s faculties were
alloWred to lie dormant under the Doctor's energetic, though
kind-hearted, supervision. HSs academical exercises we
are told were above the average merit, and were produced
with little labour. At sixteen, his father removed him
from Westminster to the Middle Temple, and at that



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224 NICHOLAS ROWE. .

early age he commenced with great resolution the study of
the law. He had already naade considerable progress in
the acquisition of Greek, Hebrew, and Latin, and had
dabbled in poetry. The way in which he applied himself
to his legal studies showed that his mind was capable of
grasping a large conception, his powers of application were
great, and under the superintending advice of his father
he might have become a legal luminary. But when he
was but nineteen years of age his father died, and accident,
indolence, or constitutional bias gave a different direction
to his career. He turned aside from the prospects of
wealth and eminence that were opening upon him, declined
the patronage of Treby, Lord Chief Justice, and devoted
himself unreservedly to the cultivation of his literary
tastes.

He first came forward as a candidate for poetical fame
in his twenty-fifth year, when his tragedy, " The Ambi-
tious Step-mother," was acted at the theatre in Lincoln's
Inn Fields. It is a sacred piece, taken from the first
Book of Kings, the story turning upon the establish-
ment of Solomon upon the throne. This performance
exhibits great strength and sweetness of diction, and a
loftiness of sentiment, conspicuous in all the after writings
of Rowe, while the characters are maintained with dis-
crimination, and when we reflect that Betterton, Booth,
Mrs. Barry, and Mrs. Bracegirdle exerted their rare and
varied powers in its representation, we cease to wond^ at
its decided success. This was followed by " Tamerlane,"
a political play, acted at the same theatre in 1702. Rowe
always regarded this production with the fondest affection,
and doubtless it excited the noisiest applause. He had
always been a stanch supporter of the Hanoverian suc-
cession, and the imaginary virtues with which he encum-
bered Tamerlane were intended as a compliment to the
reigning King, William III. Tamerlane was performed



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NICHOLAS ROWE. 225

by Bettcrton, and Bajazet, Emperor of the Turks, in
whom it wais presumed Louis XIV. was exhibited, by
Verbruggen. It was for a time regularly acted every 4th of
November, the anniversary of the landing of William III. ;
but at length, when that King was dead and the two
monarchies were at peace, the impropriety of such a
distorted caricature of a great, though rival Sovereign,
became manifest even to national prejudice, and the repre-
sentation was discountenanced.

In the following year appeared "The Fair Penitent,"
the plot taken almost entirely from " The Fatal Dowry '*
of Massinger. This tragedy was so popular until within a
very recent period, that it seems unnecessary to make any
observations on its merit. The great fault of the play is
that the action terminates with the foiuth act. One of the
characters, Lothario, was the foundation of the Lovelace of
Richardson, which was more familiar to the readers of
a past age than " Pendennis " or " Mr. Pickwick " are
to those of the present.

A ludicrous incident happened in connection with the
performance of this play the first season it was brought
out. Lothario, after he is killed by Altamont in the
fourth act, lies dead on the stage in the last. Such a
situation is of course filled by one of the underlings in a
theatre. Powell played Lothario, and Warren, his man,
claimed the right of lying for his defunct master, and
flattered himself he performed the part in a superior
manner. One evening, the fifth act began as usual, and
was proceeding successfully, when, about the middle of the
distressful pourtrayal, Powell, behind the scenes, called
aloud for his man, quite forgetful of the important part
he was performing. Warren, from his bier upon the
stage, answered instantly, " Here, Sir !" Powell, who was
of an impatient temper, annoyed at his non-appearance,
vociferated with an insulting expression : " Come here

Q

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226 NICHOLAS ROWE.

this moment, or I'll break every bone in your skin!''
Warren, terrified, jumped up with all his funereal appen-
dages about him, which unfortunately were tied fast to the
handles of the bier. The audience burst out into a roar.
This only frightened him ; Jie tugged away, threw down
Calista (Mrs. Barry), and overwhelmed her with the table,
lamp, book, bones, and all the paraphernalia of the charnel-
house. He succeeded at last in breaking away from his
trammels, and rushed off the stage ; and the play at
once ended, amid shrieks of laughter. Even the stately
Betterton relaxed from his gravity,

" Smiled in the tumult and enjo/d the storm."

But he prudently withdrew the play for the remainder of
the season.

In 1706, a strange fancy came over our poet. He was
of an hilarious disposition, always ready for a laugh, and
this propensity he probably mistook for comic power. He
accordingly produced his comedy of " The Biter" (a cant
term for one who hoaxes), and the dreary production
failed ignominiously. Rowe was not at aU prepared for
such a catastrophe, and himself keenly enjoyed its repre-
sentation, laughing immoderately at the exquisite jokes
with which he fancied it abounded.

In the same year he produced the tragedy of