vell's poem represents him as dying after too jovial an evening:
As one put drunk into the packet-boat,
Tom May was hurried hence and did not know't.
Marvell, Poems, ed. 1681, p. 35.
The council of state ordered May's friends, Chaloner and Henry Marten [q. v.], to arrange for his interment in Westminster Abbey, and voted 100l. for the purpose (Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1650, p. 432). He was buried ‘on the west side of the large south aisle or transept,’ and a large monument of white marble erected over his grave, with an epitaph by Marchmont Nedham (Wood, iii. 811). At the Restoration his body was taken up, by warrant dated 9 Sept. 1660, and buried in a pit in the yard of St. Margaret's Church, Westminster. His monument was taken down and its place filled in 1670 by that of Dr. Thomas Triplet (ib.; Chester, Westminster Abbey Registers, p. 521). A portrait of May, with a laurel-wreath over his head, is prefixed to his ‘Breviary of the History of the Parliament of England,’ 1655.
May's writings fall under the four heads of plays, poems, translations, and prose works. I. Plays.—1. ‘The Heir: a Comedy acted by the Company of the Revels, 1620,’ 4to, 1622. Reprinted in Dodsley's ‘Old Plays,’ ed. Hazlitt, vol. xi. This is probably the best of May's dramas (Ward, Dramatic Literature, ii. 348). 2. ‘The Tragedy of Antigone, the Theban Princess,’ 8vo, 1631. Dedicated to Endymion Porter, with a preface on the nature of tragedy and comedy. 3. ‘The Tragedy of Julia Agrippina, Empress of Rome,’ 12mo, 1639 and 1654. 4. ‘The Tragedy of Cleopatra, Queen of Egypt,’ 12mo, 1639 and 1654. 5. ‘The Old Couple,’ 4to, 1658 (Dodsley, vol. xii.). 6. ‘Julius Cæsar, a Latin Play.’ ‘The manuscript is in the possession of Mr. Stephen Jones’ (Biog. Dram. 1812). Mr. Fleay gives reasons for supposing that the tragedy of ‘Nero’ (1624) was by May, and holds that ‘The Old Couple’ was the earliest of May's plays (Biog. Chron. of the English Drama, ii. 83, 84).
II. Poems.—1. ‘The Reign of King Henry the Second. Written in seven books. By his Majesty's Command,’ 8vo, 1633. 2. ‘The Victorious Reign of King Edward the Third.’ Written in seven books. By his Majesty's Command,’ 8vo, 1635. 3. Miscellaneous verse. A manuscript poem, entitled ‘Neptune to King Charles,’ is among the ‘Domestic State Papers’ (Calendar, 1627–8, p. 238). Verses by May are prefixed to ‘The Tournament of Tottenham,’ 4to, 1631, to Alleyn's ‘Battles of Crescy and Poitiers,’ 1633, and to James Shirley's ‘Poems,’ 8vo, 1646. He also contributed an elegy to ‘Jonsonus Virbius,’ 4to, 1638.
III. Translations.—1. ‘Lucan's Pharsalia, or the Civil Wars of Rome between Pompey the Great and Julius Cæsar,’ 8vo, 1627, 1631, 1635. Verses by Ben Jonson are prefixed, which are also printed in ‘Underwoods,’ p. xxi. 2. ‘Virgil's Georgics, with Annotations on each Book,’ 16mo, 1628. 3. ‘Selected Epigrams of Martial,’ 16mo, 1629. 4. ‘John Barclay his Argenis, translated out of Latin into English, the Prose upon his Majesty's Command by Sir Robert le Grys, knight, and the verse by Thomas May, esq.,’ 1629, 4to (see Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1627–8, pp. 585, 589). 5. ‘The Mirror of Minds, or Barclay's Icon Animorum, englished by T. M.,’ 12mo, 1631. Dedicated to Lord-treasurer Weston. 6. May's English and Latin continuations of Lucan belong in part to both these classes. ‘A Continuation of Lucan's Historicall Poem till the death of Julius Cæsar, by T. M.,’ 8vo, 1630, 1633, 1657. ‘His supplement to Lucan,’ says Clarendon, ‘being entirely his own, for the learning, the wit, and the language, may be well looked upon as one of the best dramatic poems in the language’ (Life, i. 32, ed. 1857). 7. ‘Supplementum Lucani, lib. vii.,’ Leyden, 1640, 8vo. This is a translation of the foregoing, ‘written,’ says Wood, ‘in so lofty and happy Latin hexameter that he hath attained to much more reputation abroad than he hath lost at home.’
IV. Prose Works.—1. ‘A Discourse concerning the Success of former Parliaments,’ 4to, 1642. May's name is first attached to the second edition of this pamphlet, 1644. 2. ‘The Character of a Right Malignant,’ 4to, 1644. 3. ‘The Lord George Digby's Cabinet and Dr. Goff's Negotiations,’ 4to, 1646. This consists of the correspondence of Lord Digby, captured at Sherburn in October 1645. The ‘Observations’ prefixed to the letters were the joint work of May and Thomas Sadler (Commons' Journals, iv. 410). 4. ‘The History of the Parliament of England which began 3 Nov. 1640, with a short and necessary view of some precedent years. Written by Thomas May, Esq., Secretary for the Parliament,’ fol. 1647. This was published in May 1647 (ib. v. 174). Reprinted by Baron Maseres, with a preface, 1812, 4to, and by the Clarendon press, 8vo, 1854. 5. ‘Historiæ Parliamenti Angliæ Breviarium, tribus partibus explicitum,’ 12mo, 1650. 6. ‘A Breviary of the History of the Parliament of England,’ 1650, 12mo; 2nd edit. 1655. This is a translation of the foregoing, and is reprinted by Maseres in ‘Select Tracts relating to the Civil Wars in England,’ 1815. 7. ‘The Changeable Covenant,’ 1650, 4to. 8. ‘The
