Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 55.djvu/398

 Conyngham Montgomery, first baronet. She was married on 29 Jan. 1838 to Cajetan Josef Friedrich, baron von Tautphœus of Marquartstein (1805–1885), chamberlain to the king of Bavaria, and the remainder of her life was principally spent in Bavaria, where she was equally at home in court circles and, as her works evince, with the peasantry and the middle classes. Baron von Tautphœus died on 14 Nov. 1885, a few days after his only son, Rudolf Edgeworth Josef (b. 20 Nov. 1838–d. 1 Nov. 1885), who had risen to be Bavarian minister at the Quirinal. The baroness died on 12 Nov. 1893.

Baroness von Tautphœus is one of the most distinguished members of a highly interesting group of writers of fiction—the Englishmen and Englishwomen who, becoming residents in foreign countries, have devoted their talents to the illustration of foreign manners, and have shown themselves entirely at home when abroad. There is no novel in the language in which the epithet ‘charming’ could be applied with more strict propriety than to her first work, ‘The Initials’ (London, 1850, 3 vols. 12mo; 6th ed. 1863, 8vo), with its admirably contrasted pair of German sisters, the almost perfect yet most natural and human character of Hildegarde, the skilful suspense and the happy dénouement. ‘Quits’ (London, 1857, 3 vols. 8vo; 4th ed. 1864; in German, Leipzig, 1863) is equally bright, clever, and true to nature, but the plot lacks unity, and none of the characters inspire so deep an interest as the Hildegarde of its predecessor. ‘Cyrilla’ (1853, 1854, and in German, Leipzig, 1854, 8vo) is a romance of an entirely different class, being founded upon the criminal trial of Assessor Zahn, the details of which are accurately followed. It is consequently entirely true to life, and the objection raised against the catastrophe as too melodramatic falls to the ground. The baroness's last novel, ‘At Odds’ (1863), is also brilliant and interesting, but does not quite attain the charm of ‘The Initials’ or the tragic pathos of ‘Cyrilla.’

[Times, 17 Nov. 1893; Athenæum, 1893, ii. 736; Foster's Baronetage; Gothaisches Genealogisches Taschenbuch der freiherrlichen Häuser, 1889, pp. 884–6.] 

TAVERNER, JOHN (fl. 1530), musician, was presumably identical with ‘Taverner of Boston, the good musician,’ who (according to John Foxe, himself of Boston) was called by Wolsey to Oxford about 1525 to become master of the choristers at the newly founded Cardinal College, now Christ Church. Taverner, by Wolsey's statutes, received 10l. a year stipend, four yards of cloth at 3s. 4d. for livery, and 1s. 8d. a week for his commons, in all 15l. a year, a higher sum than was allotted to any officer of the college except the dean and subdean. Wood (Athenæ Oxon. i. 94) calls Taverner ‘organist of Cardinal College;’ the Gutch manuscript (quoted in Alumni Oxon.) calls him canon of the college as well as organist. Taverner, indeed, acted as organist, as appears from Anthony Dalaber's account in Foxe, but this was not his official position. Wolsey's statutes make no mention of an organist, for which no special appointment was then customary, even in the chapel royal. When, very early in the history of the college, Clerk, Frith, and others of the new society were persecuted for heresy, Taverner was implicated, ‘being accused and suspected of hiding Clerk's books under the boards in his school, yet the cardinal, for his music, excused him, saying that he was but a musician, and so he escaped.’ In a note Foxe adds: ‘This Taverner repented him very much that he had made songs to popish ditties in the time of his blindness.’ In the account-book for the college's fifth year a payment to Taverner of 5l. for the second ‘terminus’ is recorded. Nothing further of Taverner is definitely known, but John Ward (Lives of the Gresham Professors, p. 216) asserts that a manuscript, then (1740) in possession of Dr. Pepusch, stated that Taverner returned to Boston, where he died and was buried. Foxe's use of the past tense suggests that when he wrote (c. 1560) Taverner was already dead. There is nothing by Taverner in the services, anthems, and psalter published by John Day from 1560 to 1565. His name, however, was held in high repute all through the century, and his compositions continued in use. John Case mentions him among the musicians whom the English ‘magnis præmiis affecerunt;’ Meres counts him among England's ‘excellente musitians;’ and Thomas Morley (1597) places him with those ‘famous Englishmen who have been nothing inferior to the best composers on the continent.’ Fuller (Church Hist. vol. v. sect. 1) has inaccurately called him Richard Taverner, a mistake which has caused some confusion with Richard Taverner [q. v.]

To the song-book which Wynkyn de Worde published in 1530, Taverner contributed three pieces: ‘The bella’ (four-voiced), ‘My herte my minde,’ and ‘Love wyll I’ (for three voices). The only other pieces of Taverner's in print are the specimens given in the histories of Hawkins and Burney, reprinted in Michaelis's translation of Busby's history, Leipzig, 1822.

In almost all the manuscripts of vocal