Playwright Nahum Tate

Madam, - In the interests of accuracy, may I point out that in John Armstrong's Fine Arts column of April 29th, in relation to…

Madam, - In the interests of accuracy, may I point out that in John Armstrong's Fine Arts column of April 29th, in relation to James Barry's painting on view in Sotheby's Molesworth Street last week, the "minor Restoration playwright" whose version of King Lear held the stage until 1838 was named Nahum, not Nathan Tate.

He was, moreover, an Irishman, born in Dublin - an amusing opportunist who managed other interesting adaptations in addition to the Shakespearean one. He became the English Poet Laureate in 1692.

- Yours, etc,

PAUL READE, Upper Leeson Street, Dublin 4.