Tanaquill, wife of Tarquinius, priscus of Rome. She was greatly venerated by the Romans, but Juvenal uses the name as the personification of an imperious woman with a strong independent will. In the Faëry Queen, Spenser calls Gloriana (Queen Elizabeth), “Tanaquill” (bk. i. introduction, 1590).
Tancred, son of Eudes and Emma. He was the greatest of all the Christian warriors except Rinaldo. His one fault was the love of woman, and that woman Clorinda, a pagan (bk. i.). Tancred brought 800 horse to the allied crusaders under Godfrey of Bouillon. In a night combat Tancred unwittingly slew Clorinda, and lamented her death with great and bitter lamentation (bk. xii.). Being wounded, he was tenderly nursed by Erminia, who was in love with him (bk. xix).--Tasso, Jerusalem Delivered (1575).
⁂ Rossini has an opera entitled Tancredi (1813).
Tancred, prince of Otranto, one of the crusaders, probably the same as the one above.--Sir W. Scott, Count Robert of Paris (time, Rufus).
Tancred (Count), the orphan son of Manfred, eldest grandson of Roger I. of Sicily, and rightful heir to the throne. His father was murdered by William the Bad, and he himself, was brought up by Siffre´di, lord high chancellor of Sicily. While only a count, he fell in love with Sigismunda, the chancellor’s daughter, but when King Roger died, he left the throne to Tancred, provided he married Constantia, daughter of William the Bad, and thus united the rival lines. Tancred gave a tacit consent to this arrangement, intending all the time to obtain a dispensation from the pope, and marry the chancellor’s daughter; but Sigismunda could not know his secret intentions, and, in a fit of irritation, married the Earl Osmond. Now follows the catastrophe: Tancred sought an interview with Sigismunda, to justify his conduct, but Osmond challenged him to fight. Osmond fell, and stabbed Sigismunda when she ran to his succor.--Thomson, Tancred and Sigismunda (1745).
⁂ Thomson’s tragedy is founded on the episode called “The Baneful Marriage,” Gil Blas, iv. 4 (Lesage, 1724). In the prose tale, Tancred is called “Henriquez,” and Sigismunda “Blanch.”
Tancredi, the Italian form of Tancred (q.v.). The best of the early operas of Rossini (1813).
Tanner of Tamworth (The), the man who mistook Edward IV. for a highwayman. After some little altercation, they changed horses, the king giving his hunter for the tanner’s cob, worth about four shillings; but as soon as the tanner mounted the king’s horse, it threw him, and the tanner gladly paid down a sum of money to get his old cob back again.
King Edward now blew his hunting-horn, and the courtiers gathered round him. “I hope [i.e., expect] I shall be hanged for this,” cried the tanner; but the king, in merry pin, gave him the manor of Plumpton Park, with 300 marks a year.--Percy, Reliques, etc.
Tannhäuser (Sir), called in German the Ritter Tannhäuser, a Teutonic knight, who wins the love of Lisaura, a Mantuan lady. Hilario, the philosopher, often converses with the Ritter on supernatural subjects, and promises that Venus herself shall be his mistress, if he will summon up his courage to enter Venusberg. Tannhäuser starts on the mysterious journey, and Lisaura, hearing thereof, kills herself. At Venusberg, the Ritter gives full swing to his pleasures, but in time returns to Mantua, and makes his confession to Pope Urban. His holiness says to him, “Man, you can no more hope for absolution, than this staff which I hold in my hand, can be expected to bud.” So Tannhäuser flees in despair from Rome, and returns to Venusberg. Meanwhile, the pope’s staff actually does sprout, and Urban sends in all directions for the Ritter, but he is nowhere to be found.