Cow Cross.
_Thomas May, the author of the Supplement to Lucan_ (Vol. iii., p. 167),
was the secretary and historian of the Long Parliament. He was born at
Mayfield in 1595; took the degree of B.A. at Sydney-Sussex College,
Cambridge, and afterwards entered Gray's Inn, but devoted himself to
literature. He translated Virgil's _Georgics_, Selected Epigrams of
Martial, and in 1627 Lucan's _Pharsalia_; to the latter, in 1630, he
supplied an English continuation of his own in seven books; intituled, _ A
Continuation of the Subject of Lucan's Historical Poem till the Death of
Julius Cæsar_. It was dedicated to Charles. He afterwards published at
Leyden a Latin translation of the seven additional books; this was added to
the Amsterdam and other editions of Lucan, and has established May's fame
as a classic scholar. Andrew Marvell, who saw only an apology for the
doings of the tyrannical parliament in the continuation of Lucan's poem,
calls May--
"Most servile wit, and mercenary pen,
Polydore, Lucan, Allan, Vandal, Goth.
Malignant poet and historian both.
Go seek the novice statesmen and obtrude
On them some Roman cast similitude."
He died suddenly in the night of 13th Nov., 1650, his death being
attributed by Marvell to a little too much indulgence in wine.
"As one pot drunk into the packet-boat,
Tom May was hurry'd hence, and did not know't."