When he died is not precisely known, but he seems to have subsisted mainly by his pen, especially late in his career. He lived in 1614 in the parish of Saint Bartholomew the less, where several of his children were baptized. In 1625 his wife Mary was a widow, and on 31st August buried a posthumous child named Bonaventura. These are new, though small, points in his insignificant history.

TARLTON, RICHARD. Tarlton's Newes out of Purgatorie. Onelye such a jest as his Jigge, fit for Gentlemen to laugh at an houre &c. Published by an old companion of his, Robin Goodfellow. At London Printed for Edward White. n. d. B. L. 4to. 28 leaves.

Two circumstances fix the date of this production prior to 1590: one is the death of Tarlton, (who is supposed to communicate the "News out of Purgatory,") who was buried on 3d September, 1588; and the other, which is quite as decisive, that an answer to it was published in 1590, under the title of "The Cobler of Caunterbury, or an Invective against Tarlton's Newes out of Purgatorie." This tract was again printed in 1608, at the time when, perhaps, a new edition of "Tarlton's News" made its appearance, although none is now known between the first, the title of which is given above, and a reprint of it in 1630. In 1630 also came out a new edition of "The Cobler of Caunterbury," then called "The Tinker of Turvey," the main difference being the title, the introductory matter, and the conclusion. The allusions to Tarlton, and to his "News out of Purgatory," are the same in all editions.

The "News out of Purgatory" is introduced by two pages "to the Gentlemen Readers," in which the anonymous author states that it is his first appearance in print. The work then commences by lamenting the loss of Tarlton, who had been so great a favorite at the theatre, and was so famous for that species of humorous performance then and afterwards called "Jigs," consisting of singing and recitation, accompanied by the sound of

the pipe and tabor. The writer feigns a dream, in which he saw the ghost of Tarlton, dressed, as he usually was upon the stage, “in russet, with a buttond cap on his head, a great bag by his side, and a strong bat in his hand; so artificially attired for a Clowne, as I began to call Tarlton's woonted shape to remembrance." Harleian MS. 3885, contains a rather elaborately and carefully executed likeness of Tarlton, accompanied by some explanatory lines, in which the reader is informed that the celebrated actor is represented as,

When he in pleasaunt wise

The counterfet expreste

Of Clowne, with cote of russet hew,

And sturtups with the reste."

These verses were, it seems, by a person of the name of John Howe, and the likeness to which they are appended was (according to a note in one of Bagford's MSS., as we are kindly informed by Mr. Halliwell) in the possession of the Bishop of Norwich.

It appears from a scene in the old play of "The Three Lords and Three Ladies of London," 1590, 4to, that an engraving of Tarlton, doubtless on wood, was then current. Tarlton was famous for his "flat nose," as well as for "the squint of his eye."

In the work before us, Tarlton gives a description of Purgatory, and introduces many tales, among them that of Friar Onion, the Crane with one Leg, &c., from Boccaccio, although he does not state the source from which he derived them. To these succeed a translation of "Ronsard's Description of his Mistress," in lyric verse, and some more novels, the whole work being intended as a vehicle for merry stories. It appears, at the end, that Tarlton had been appointed "to sit and play Jigs all day on his taber to the ghosts," as a punishment for his sins on earth; and beginning one of them, to show how much better he performed after death than when he was alive, the shrill sound of the pipe awoke the author, and his dream was over.

"Tarltons Jests, drawn into three Parts" must have come out soon after his death, but the earliest known impression of them bears date in 1611: it included "his Court witty Jests; his sound City Jests and his Country pretty Jests," and they were perhaps originally published separately. On 4th August, 1600,

Thomas Pavier entered at Stationers' Hall "the second part of Tarleton's Jests," and on 21st February, 1608-9, John Budge assigned "Tarleton's Jests" to Knight, the stationer. They were reprinted by the Shakspeare Society in 1844, but with some omissions, because one or two of the jests were considered unfit for eyes and ears polite. This defect was remedied as far as possible, in a few copies, by the insertion of printed slips, containing what ought originally to have found its place in the reprint. How long the jests maintained their popularity, though not altogether well deserved, may be seen from the following lines inserted in a volume called "Wit and Drollery," printed in 1682, and perhaps before and afterwards:

"Wit that shall make thy name to last,

when Tarletons Jests are rotten,

And George a Greene and Mother Bunch
shall all be quite forgotten."

"Tarlton's Jests" were reprinted in 1638; and we have a fragment before us of a third impression, which, judging from the type, must have been later than either of the others.

No bibliographer (Mr. Halliwell excepted, in the Introduction to his reprint of "Tarlton's Jests") has noticed that Tarlton began authorship as early as 1570, when a ballad, with his name appended, was published on the "Fierce Fluds which lately flowed in Bedfordshire." His "Toyes" were licensed in 1576, and his " Tragical Treatises" in 1578. These have not come down to our day; but his ballad on the Floods in Bedfordshire was reprinted by the Percy Society in 1840. Tarlton was, doubtless, a popular actor in 1570, and his name may have been used in order to give greater circulation to the ballad, which, in truth, has no merit, although great curiosity. It is a unique broadside.

TATHAM, JOHN. The Mirrour of Fancies.

With a

Tragi-comedy intitled Love crowns the End. Acted by the Schollars of Bingham in the County of Nottingham. By Jo. Tatham Gent. London Printed for W. Burden &c. 1657. 12mo. 81 leaves.

The author calls this volume his "first sacrifice," and "the maiden blossoms of his Muse," and it was originally printed under the title of "The Fancies Theatre," in 1640. This in truth is the identical impression, and the old title-page is pasted under the new one. The drama, forming the second part of the volume, has two separate title-pages, one dated 1640, and the other 1657. The fact no doubt was, that the new title-page was prefixed in 1657, to get rid of some copies remaining unsold. The dedication is to Sir John Winter, Secretary of State, and Master of the Requests to the Queen; and the volume is ostentatiously ushered by commendatory verses, signed R. Broome, Tho. Nabbes, C. G., Geo. Lynn, Robert Chamberlaine, H. Davison, James Jones, William Barnes, Tho. Rawlins, An. Newport, R. Pyndar, and W. Ling. Tatham's poems in general are trifling and conceited, but the most curious is a prologue on the removal of the players at the Fortune Theatre to the Red Bull Theatre, where these lines occur:

แ

Onely we would request you to forbeare

Your wonted custome, banding tyle or peare
Against our customes, to allure us forth," &c.

For "customes we should probably read "curtains,” and so Malone (Shakesp. by Boswell, III. 79) has printed it, but without stating that he had altered the text. It seems, on the same authority, that the curtains at the Bull were of silk, while those at the Fortune were worsted. Malone does not seem to have been aware that "The Fancies Theatre" of 1640 was the same as "The Mirrour of Fancies" of 1657.

TATHAM, JOHN.

Beauty reconcil'd. for John Tey &c.

Ostella: or the Faction of Love and By J. T. Gent. London: Printed 1650. 4to. 62 leaves.

In point of date, this was John Tatham's second known work, but, as there had been an interval of ten years between it and "The Fancies Theatre," printed in 1640, it is very likely that he wrote some production which was either published anonymously,

or has not been discovered. His "Distracted State," which came out in 1652, is said on the title-page to have been written in 1641. It has been disputed whether Tatham was at any time City Poet, but he certainly was the author of the Lord Mayor's Pageants for 1657, 1658, 1659, 1660, 1661, 1662, 1663, and 1664, besides three other occasional pieces of a similar kind in honor of the King and Queen.

His claims as a poet do not place him much above the mercenary position of rhymer to the Lord Mayor and Court of Aldermen, although the volume before us contains some pretty songs which he seems to have contributed to a Masque. One of them, in praise of a country life, opens with this stanza :

"Who can boast of happiness

More completely sure than we,

Since our harmless thoughts we dress,

In a pure simplicity;

And chaste nature doth dispense

Here her beauty's innocence?"

If Tatham had himself "dressed his thoughts in a pure simplicity," he would have deserved greater praise than that of a poor imitator of Cowley. On p. 111 is inserted a prologue to a play called "The Whisperer, or What you please," the existence of which we know on no other authority: it was probably acted before the closing of the theatres: it is included by Mr. Halliwell in his "Dictionary of English Plays to the close of the seventeenth Century," 8vo, 1860.

TAYLOR, JOHN.—The Eighth Wonder of the World, or Coriats Escape from his supposed drowning. With his safe Arrival and entertainment at the famous Citty of Constantinople &c. By John Taylor.- Printed at Pancridge neere Coleman-hedge, and are to bee sold at the signe of the nimble Traveller. 1613. 12mo. 14 leaves.

This is one of the many pieces of ridicule levelled at Thomas Coryat, author of the "Crudities," published in 1611. It is dedi