Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 55.djvu/390

 property tax of 1797. 9. ‘Observations on the Scarcity of Money and its Effects upon the Public;’ 3rd edit. 1816; reprinted in the ‘Pamphleteer’ (vol. vii.). He argued that there was too little money in circulation, and that the bullion committee should have compelled the Bank of England to produce large coinages in gold and silver. 10. ‘Letter to Lord Grenville on the Metallic Standard,’ 1820; 2nd edit. 1820. He pleaded that bank-paper should be continued as a ‘legal tender,’ and that silver should be made the metallic standard.



TATHAM, JOHN (fl. 1632–1664), dramatist and city poet, seems to have succeeded (1580–1653) [q. v.], the water poet, and Thomas Heywood in the office of laureate to the lord mayor's show. The pageant was supplied on one occasion, however, during the interregnum (1655) by [q. v.] Tatham began writing at a youthful age, his pastoral play ‘Love crowns the End’ having been composed and played in 1632, when he was barely twenty. His first volume appeared in 1640, and the interval of ten years before the appearance of a second lends colour to the supposition that some of his work is unidentified or lost. From internal evidence it seems probable that he saw some service in 1642 under Lord Carnarvon, and received a brief and disagreeable impression of the Scots. He wrote the city pageants regularly from 1657 to 1664. Among his friends seem to have been [q. v.] and [q. v.], his successor as ‘city poet.’ Jordan, in his ‘Wit in a Wilderness,’ speaks of their acquaintance as having taken birth ‘ere Austin was put down, or Burton sainted.’ Tatham was well acquainted with theatrical matters, and speaks in his earliest work of the removal of the players from the Fortune to the Red Bull. He also wrote a prologue to a play called ‘The Whisperer’ (Ostella, p. 211), which is not known to be extant. Some of his verses are pretty echoes of Cowley. His main characteristics seem to have been a bigoted loyalty and hatred of strangers, especially Scots. He disappears from view in 1665. Perfect copies of his works are rare. A portrait by an anonymous artist was prefixed to ‘Ostella,’ but the engraving is missing from the British Museum copy.

Tatham's works comprise: :—
 * 1) ‘Love crowns the End. A Pastorall presented by the schollees (sic) of Bingham in the county of Notingham, in the year 1631. Written by Jo. Tatham, gent.,’ 1640, 4to. Slender though its proportions were, it was reprinted in 1657 (Bodleian).
 * 2) . ‘The Distracted State. A Tragedy. Written in the year 1641 by J. T., gent. Seditiosi sunt reipublicæ ruina,’ 1651, 4to (Brit. Mus., three; Huth; Bodleian). Dedicated to Sir William Sidley, bart., grandfather of Sir Charles Sedley [q. v.], and prefaced by verses from Joseph Rutter, Robert Davenport, and George Lynn. This play, which has more calibre than Tatham's other efforts, is aimed in a pointed manner against sectaries and republicans, but above all against the Scots, who ‘sold their king.’ A Scottish apothecary is introduced who undertakes to poison the king [of Sicily], declaring ‘an me countremen ha' peyson'd three better kingdomes than this.’
 * 3) ‘The Scots Figgaries, or a Knot of Knaves,’ a comedy, 1652, 4to; reprinted 1735, 12mo (Brit. Mus.; Huth; Bodleian). Much of this play is in a curious dialect, the affinity of which to any known Scottish dialect appears to be remote
 * 4) ‘The Rump, or the Mirrour of the late Times. A new comedy, acted many time with great applause at the private house in Dorset Court,’ London, 1660, 4to; 2nd edit. 1661 (Brit. Mus., both editions; Bodleian). This was a key-play of great virulence, intended to speed the parting Rump. Bertlam is Lambert, Woodfleet Fleetwood, and so on; Trotter is probably meant for Thurloe. Desborough and Hewson appear by name, the former as a hawker, and the second as a cobbler; while Mrs. Cromwell is introduced with a washtub, exchanging Billingsgate with a rabble of boys. Most of the disguises were dispensed with in the second edition. It was first given in February 1659–60, and had considerable influence in preparing the political transition. Pepys mentions that he bought a copy in November 1660 (Diary, ed. Wheatley, i. 280). Appended to the second edition was a very scurrilous lampoon, ‘The Character of the Rump, London, printed in the year that the Saints are disappointed,’ in which he was enabled to give free rein to his hatred. To Tatham has also been ascribed, but not conclusively, a wretched comedy entitled ‘Knavery in all Trades, or the Coffee House … as it was acted in the Christmas Holidays by several apprentices with great applause,’ 1664, 4to.

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 * 1) ‘London's Triumph,