Blackwell Reference Online

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The dramatist, historian, and translator Thomas May (c. 1596–1650) suffered a number of posthumous insults. Born with great expectations, May experienced hard times and lived by his pen. Because his loyalties changed at a crucial point in English history, he was derided by his former friends and came to be seen as an unprincipled hack who wrote for hire. He suffered a final, posthumous indignity at the Restoration when his body was disinterred from Westminster Abbey, home to many great English poets, and his final resting place given to his rival, the poet laureate William Davenant. May's prosperous father, Sir Thomas May of Sussex, lost much of his money in the second decade of King James's reign. By that time, May had completed his education at Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge (he received his BA in 1613), and been admitted to Gray's Inn. It became clear that he would not make a living in the legal profession because of his stutter. Although he had a small annuity, May turned to writing plays and translating others’ work to support himself. His translation of John Barclay's Argenis (1625), an immensely popular Latin romance and political allegory, was the first of his translations, and he quickly turned to some of the Latin classics, including Lucan's Pharsalia (1627), Virgil's Georgics (1628), and Martial's Epigrams (1629). May is best known for his translation of Lucan, ... log in or subscribe to read full text