The History of King Lear
The History of King Lear is an adaptation by Nahum Tate of William Shakespeare's "King Lear". It first appeared in 1681, some seventy-five years after Shakespeare's version, and is believed to have replaced Shakespeare's version on the English stage in whole or in part until 1838.
Nahum Tate
Tate wrote the libretto for Henry Purcell's opera "Dido and Aeneas"; its first known performance was in 1689. He also wrote the text for Purcell's Birthday Ode "Come Ye Sons of Art" in 1694. Tate also translated "Syphilis sive Morbus Gallicus", Girolamo Fracastoro's Latin pastoral poem on the subject of the disease of syphilis, into English heroic couplets.