born 1652, Dublin, Ire.
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.