p. 8 _N. Tate_. Nahum Tate, born in Dublin, 1652, was educated at Trinity College. He does not appear to have followed any definite profession. Coming to London he produced much miscellaneous literary work, and was even entrusted by Dryden with a portion of the second part of _Absalom and Achitophel_ (1682), the master himself enriching it with some two hundred lines. Tate succeeded (24 December, 1692) Shadwell in the laureateship which he did not hold till his death (12 August, 1715) as Rowe was appointed to that post, 1 August, 1715. His plays are perhaps not so mediocre as they are often judged to be, but they have been damned by his outrageous mangling of King Lear (1681), which, none the less, persevered on the stage for many a long decade.[6] Perhaps he is chiefly known for this, and a version of the Psalms (the first twenty appeared in 1695) written in conjunction with Nicholas Brady (1696). [6] The Fool was not restored until the time of Macready, when (25 January, 1838), under his Covent Garden management, the rôle was entrusted to Miss Priscilla Horton (Mrs. German Reed), who, it is recorded, achieved great success. p. 9 _G. J._ George Jenkins, who, it will be remembered, edited Mrs. Behn’s posthumous play, _The Widow Ranter, vide_ Vol. IV, p. 215, and note p. 415 on G. J. (p. 222). p. 18 _cock, and comb_. Cock = set his hat jauntily. For comb (his wig), cf. Dryden’s prologue to _The Conquest of Granada, II_ (1670):-- when Vizard Masque appears in Pit, Straight every Man who thinks himself a Wit Perks up; and, managing his Comb with grace, With his white Wigg sets off his Nut-brown Face. And Shadwell’s _The Humorists_ (1671), Act v, where Briske says: ‘No man appears better upon a Bench in the Play-House; when I stand up to expose my Person between the Acts, I take out my Comb and with a _bonne mien_ comb my Perriwig to the Tune the Fiddles Play: Thus, look you; fa, la, la, la.’ Also Congreve, _The Way of the World_, iii, xii (1700): ‘The gentlemen stay but to comb, madam, and will wait on you.’ The phrase is frequent. p. 20 _Scrutore_. cf. Vol. V, p. 73, _The Fair Jilt_: ‘Scrutore perpetually employ’d,’ and note on that passage (p. 519).