Читать книгу Notes and Queries, Number 76, April 12, 1851 - Various - Страница 5

THOMAS MAY

(Vol. iii., p. 167.)

Thomas May, famous amongst the busy characters of his age, both as a politician and a poet, was the eldest son of Sir Thos. May, Knt., of Mayfield, in Sussex, where he was born in 1595. At the usual period of life, he was admitted a fellow-commoner of Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge; and having taken the degree of B.A. he entered himself at Gray's Inn, with the intention of studying the law, which, however, it is uncertain whether he ever pursued as a profession. Whilst he was a student of the law, he made the acquaintance of Edward Hyde, afterwards Earl of Clarendon; and became the intimate associate of Ben Jonson, Selden, Cotton, Sir K. Digby, Thos. Carew1, "and some others of eminent faculties in their several ways."

"His parts of nature and art," writes Clarendon2, in describing his character, "were very good, as appears by his translation of Lucan (none of the easiest work of that kind), and more by his Supplement to Lucan, which being entirely his own, for the learning, the wit, and the language, may be well looked upon as one of the best epic poems in the English language."

1

The Life of Edward, Earl of Clarendon, &c., Oxf. 1827.

2

The same.