Thomas May

Thomas May (1594/95 He wrote his first published poem while at Cambridge, an untitled three-stanza contribution to the University's memorial collection of poems on the death of Henry Prince of Wales in 1612. Although the majority of this volume's poems are in Latin, May's (along with a few others) is in English. It uses the trope of Pythagorean transmigration, which he re-employs in later works.

Acquaintance with Carew, Massinger and Jonson In 1615 May registered as a lawyer at Gray's Inn in London. There is no record of what he did for the next five years.

During the 1620s May was associated with dramatic circles. In 1620 his romantic comedy, The Heir, his epitaph (supposedly written by the journalist Marchamont Needham) saluting him as the 'defender of the English commonwealth [Vindex Reip. Anglicae]'. In later writings Nedham claims to have known May as a friend. After the Restoration his remains were exhumed and buried in a pit in the yard of St Margaret's, Westminster. May's change of side made him many bitter enemies, and he is the object of scathing condemnation from many of his contemporaries.