Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 55.djvu/377

 houre,’ London, 4to, containing a description of purgatory purporting to come from Tarlton, with which several tales were interwoven. One of them, the story of the ‘Two Lovers of Pisa,’ is a version of the tale employed by Shakespeare in the ‘Merry Wives of Windsor.’ Tarlton was in no way responsible for the book. Tom Nash has been claimed as the author, but the point cannot be determined (a reprint appeared in 1630). It evoked a reply in the year of its original publication, entitled ‘The Cobler of Canterburie: or an Invective against Tarltons Newes out of Purgatorie.’ Another edition appeared in 1608, and this was reprinted in 1862. It was republished, with alterations, in 1630 under the title ‘The Tincker of Turvey.’ Tarlton's fame also led to the collection and publication of a popular volume of more or less fictitious anecdotes in which he figured as hero. Many of the stories are far older than Tarlton. Some of them, however, contain biographical details concerning him which in several instances are confirmed by independent testimony, and serve to show that the compiler of the work was familiar with Tarlton's history. The work, ‘Tarltons Jests,’ appeared in three parts. An allusion by Nash would seem to refer the first part to 1592. The second part was licensed on 4 Aug. 1600. The earliest extant edition is that of 1611, London, 4to, which contains the three parts. That impression was issued with a new title-page in 1638, was reprinted in Hazlitt's ‘Shakespeare Jest Books,’ vol. ii., in 1874, and was reproduced in facsimile about 1876. The ‘Jests’ and ‘Newes out of Purgatorie’ were edited by James Orchard Halliwell in 1844 for the Shakespeare Society, with a valuable biographical introduction.

In person Tarlton was ugly. He had a flat nose with a tendency to squint. An early drawing of him is preserved in the Harleian manuscripts with some verses by John How of Norwich (No. 3885, f. 19). There is another likeness in the Pepysian Library, and a ballad in the Ashmolean collection has Tarlton's portrait as a drummer.

[Halliwell's introduction to his edition of Tarlton's Jests; Halliwell's Papers respecting Disputes from Incidents at the Deathbed of Tarlton (privately printed), 1866; Fleay's Biogr. Chronicle of the English Drama, ii. 258; Collier's Dramatic Poetry, 1879; Warner's Cat. of Dulwich MSS. pp. 341–2; Malone's Variorum Shakespeare, ed. Boswell, iii, 132, 348; Hunter's Chorus Vatum in Addit. MS. 24487 ff. 424–6; Corser's Collectanea Anglo-Poetica; Notes and Queries,. vi. 7, xii. 62, 102, 302, 361, 412, 450, 514, . iii. 328, xii. 222, . i. 113.] 

TARRAS,. [See, 1644-1693.]

TARRING, JOHN (1806–1875), architect, was born at Holbeton, near Plymouth, in 1806, and worked there as a carpenter or plasterer till he migrated to London in 1828. He studied at Brown's academy in Wells Street, and obtained a Royal Academy medal for a measured drawing. He became a member of the Royal Institute of British Architects in 1845. He built numerous chapels for nonconformist bodies in London and the provinces, and was styled ‘the Gilbert Scott of the Dissenters.’ He restored Combermere Abbey, Shropshire, and Thornton Hall, Buckinghamshire, and designed many private residences, including Wickham Park and Springfield, both at Banbury, Oxfordshire. He died at Torquay on 27 Dec. 1875.

[The Builder, 1876, xxxiv. 30; Dict. of Architecture.] 

TARVER, JOHN CHARLES (1790–1851), educational writer, son of John Tarver of London, by his wife Sarah (Fox), was born at Dieppe on 27 March 1790. Upon the outbreak of war with England in 1793, the Tarvers were thrown into prison, together with the other English residents. John was at that time staying in the house of M. Féral, a friend of his mother, and chief engineer of the ‘Ponts et Chaussées’ for Seine-Inférieure; and when the means of escape were offered to his parents, he was left in France until an opportunity should offer to send him to England. This never occurred. M. Féral, however, brought the child up as his own son, educated him, partly himself and partly at the government school at Pont Audemer, and in 1805 took him into his own employment in the service of the Ponts et Chaussées. Three years later he obtained him an appointment in the administration de la marine, in which service he remained, first as secretary to the admiral of the fleet at Toulon, and afterwards at Leghorn, Spezzia, Genoa, and Brest, until at the cessation of war in 1814 he was enabled to renew his intercourse with his family. In March of this year he obtained leave of absence and hastened to England, where he found his mother and a brother and sister living. He returned to Paris during the ‘hundred days,’ immediately after the flight of Louis XVIII, but, his prospects there appearing unsettled, he decided to rejoin his friends in England. He soon obtained a post as French master at Macclesfield free school. While there he was struck by the lack of guidance afforded by existing dictionaries as to the right word to choose when a number of equivalents were