In the year 1647, was published in London in folio, The History of the Parliament of England, which began November 3, 1640, with a Short and Necessary View of some precedent Years, written by Thomas May, Esq; Secretary to the Parliament, and published by their authority.  In 1650 he published in 8vo.  A Breviary of the History of the Parliament of England.  Besides these works, Mr. Philips tells us, he wrote a History of Henry iv. in English verse, the Comedy of the Old Wives Tale, and the History of Orlando Furioso; but the latter, Mr. Langbaine, who is a higher authority than Philips, assures us was written before May was able to hold a pen, much less to write a play, being printed in 4to.  London, 1594.  Mr. Winstanley says, that in his history, he shews all the spleen of a mal-content, and had he been preferred to the Bays, as he happened to be disappointed, he would have embraced the Royal interest with as much zeal, as he did the republican:  for a man who espouses a cause from spite only, can be depended upon by no party, because he acts not upon any principles of honour or conviction.

Our author died suddenly in the year 1652, and was interred near the tomb of Camden, on the West side of the North isle of Westminster Abbey, but his body, with several others, was dug up after the restoration, and buried in a pit in St. Margaret’s church yard[2].  Mr. May’s plays are,

1.  Agrippina, Empress of Rome, a Tragedy, printed in 12mo.  London, 1639.  Our author has followed Suetonius and Tacitus, and has translated and inserted above 30 lines from Petronius Arbiter; this circumstance we advance on the authority of Langbaine, whose extensive reading has furnished him with the means of tracing the plots of most part of our English plays; we have heard that there is a Tragedy on this subject, written by Mr. Gray of Cambridge, the author of the beautiful Elegy in a Country Church Yard; which play Mr. Garrick has sollicited him to bring upon the stage; to which the author has not yet consented.

2.  Antigone, the Theban Princess, a Tragedy, printed in 8vo.  London, 1631, and dedicated to Endymion Porter, Esq; Our author in the contexture of this Tragedy, has made use of the Antigone of Sophocles, and the Thebais of Seneca.

3.  Cleopatra, Queen of Egypt, a Tragedy, acted 1626, and printed in 12mo.  London, 1639, and dedicated to Sir Kenelme Digby:  The author has followed the historians of those times.  We have in our language two other plays upon the same subject, one by Shakespear, and the other by Dryden.

4.  Heir, a Comedy, acted by the company of revels, 1620; this play is much commended by Mr. Thomas Carew, in a copy of verses prefixed to the play, where, amongst other commendations bestowed on the stile, and natural working up of the passions, he says thus of the oeconomy of the play.

  The whole plot doth alike itself disclose,
  Thro’ the five Acts, as doth a lock, that goes
  With letters, for ’till every one be known,
  The lock’s as fast, as if you had found none.