Was born about the middle of the reign of Charles ii. in the kingdom of Ireland, and there received his education.  He was a man of learning, courteous, and candid, but was thought to possess no great genius, as being deficient in what is its first characteristic, namely, invention.  He was made poet laureat to King William, upon the death of Shadwell, and held that place ’till the accession of King George I, on whom he lived to write the first Birth-Day Ode, which is executed with unusual spirit.  Mr. Tate being a man of extreme modesty, was never able to make his fortune, or to raise himself above necessity; he was obliged to have recourse to the patronage of the earl of Dorset, to screen him from the persecution of his creditors.  Besides several other poetical performances, which will be afterwards enumerated and a Version of the Psalms, in conjunction with Dr. Brady, Mr. Tate has been the author of nine plays, of which the following is the list;

1.  Brutus of Alba, a Tragedy; acted at the Duke’s Theatre 1678, dedicated to the Earl of Dorset.  This play is founded on Virgil’s AEneid, b. iv, and was finished under the name of Dido and AEneas, but by the advice of some friends, was transformed to the dress it now wears.

2.  The Loyal General, a Tragedy; acted at the Duke’s Theatre 1680.

3.  Richard ii. revived, and altered from Shakespear, under the title of the Sicilian Usurper; a Tragedy, with a Prefatory Epistle, in Vindication of the Author, occasioned by the Prohibition of this Play on the Stage.  The scene is in England.

4.  The Ingratitude of a Commonwealth, or the Fall of Caius Marius Coriolanus; this was printed in 4to. 1682, and dedicated to the Marquis of Worcester; it is founded on Shakespear’s Coriolanus.

5.  Cuckold’s Haven, or an Alderman no Conjuror; a Farce; acted at the Queen’s Theatre in the Dorset-Garden 1685.  Part of the plot of this piece seems to be taken from Ben.  Johnson’s Eastward Hoe or the Devil is an Ass.

6.  A Duke, and No Duke, a Farce, acted 1684.  The plot from Trappolin supposed a Prince.

7.  The Island Princess, a Tragi-Comedy; acted at the Theatre Royal 1687, dedicated to Henry Lord Waldegrave.  This is the Island Princess of Fletcher revived, with alterations.

8.  Lear King of England, and his Three Daughters, an Historical Play, acted at the Duke s Theatre 1687.  It is one of Shakespear’s most moving tragedies revived, with alterations.

9.  Injured Love, or the Cruel Husband, a Tragedy, acted at the Theatre-Royal 1707.

His other works are chiefly these,

The Second Part of Absalom and Achitophel.  Mr. Dryden, author of the first, assisted in this, he being himself pressed to write it, but declined the task, and encouraged Mr. Tate in the performance.

The Rise and Progress of Priestcraft.

Syphilis, or a Poetical History of the French Disease.