Nahum Tate (1652 1715) is perhaps most familiar to those who read the name of the author in the hymn books as the writer of the much parodied and rather plodding While shepherds watched. He is also derided as the author of adaptations of Shakespeare to the taste of his time, especially a version of King Lear with a happier ending Cordelia survives and marries Edgar. But, as a recent article in the Guardian (13 October 2006) recalled, his version of King Lear continued to be performed for 150 years and he probably deserves rather to be remembered as librettist for Henry Purcell, including for Dido and Aeneas.
In 1696 he collaborated with a fellow Irishman, Nicholas Brady, to produce a set of metrical psalms. Psalms, with their scriptural basis, were from the mid 16th to at least the mid 18th Century the major, and often the only acceptable, form of congregational singing in Anglican churches and having them in verse format made them much more accessible. Singing Psalm 34 recently reminded me that it is the source of one of my favourite hymns, Through all the changing scenes of life. The part of Tate and Brady’s version that we sing stems from verses 1 to 10 Their rendering elegantly suppresses the wordiness of the prayer book verses 1 and 2, while expanding two little words “always” in verse 1 and “ever” in verse 2 into an opening line that seems to capture so well the flux of our modern condition. While military imagery may nowadays be out of fashion, I feel better protected by hosts who camp around us (echoes of Elisha at Dothan protected by invisible chariots and horses of fire [2 Kings ch 6]) than by the psalmist’s single angel who merely “tarrieth”. I like the still relevant reflection of the early scientific revolution of Tate and Brady’s century as they expand “oh taste and see” into an exhortation to try trust in God as an experiment whose outcome will convince us, and the reminder in the next stanza that God’s service is a delight, not, as in the psalm, a matter of fear, or, as in so many hymns, a cross to bear.
Like a composer writing variations on a theme, Tate and Brady have taken the psalm and made a new and splendid thing that has for over 300 years been a mainstay to many, me included, in bad times and good.
A favourite hymn
Anne Stevens