Thomas May (poet)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Thomas May (* 1595 in England ; † November 13, 1650 in London ) was an English writer, poet and historian who became known not only for his poems, but in particular for the history of the so-called Long Parliament he wrote .

The son of Sir Thomas May from Mayfield in Sussex studied since 1609 at Sidney Sussex College of the University of Cambridge , where he obtained a Bachelor of Arts (BA) in 1612 . In 1615 he was admitted to the bar by the Gray's Inn Bar . After his father had to sell the family property due to financial difficulties, he began his writing career.

He made his debut in 1620 with the brilliantly constructed comedy The Heir , probably the stage work The Old Couple , written at the same time, only appeared in print in 1658. His other dramatic works are classic tragedies about historical figures like Antigone , Cleopatra and Agrippina . It is sometimes assumed that the tragic story about Nero , published anonymously in 1624 and later reprinted in Arthur Henry Bullen's Old English Plays and the Mermaid Series , can also be attributed to him. His best-known work in the field of beautiful literature , however, is his translation and translation of the epic De bello civili Lucans into heroic couplets , published in 1627 . The success led him to write a sequel to Lucanus' work until Caesar's death .

Soon afterwards, King Charles I became his sponsor. He commissioned him to write a story about the kings Heinrich II and Edward III. in verse form, completed by May in 1635.

When the then Lord Chamberlain of the Household insulted William Herbert, 3rd Earl of Pembroke May, at a festival, King Charles I placed May under his personal protection as his poet, whereupon the Earl of Pembroke apologized and a compensation of fifty pounds . This sign of royal favor aroused the expectation that he would be bestowed the titles of Poet Laureate and City Chronologer after the death of Ben Jonson . However, after William Davenant took over these offices, May left the royal court disappointed and in 1646 became one of the secretaries of the Long Parliament. In this capacity he published his most famous work, The History of the Long Parliament , in 1647 .

In this official defense he put together facts, but without taking sides for any political direction or expressing his own opinion. Even if May refrained from insults, however, he succeeded in expressing his own view through "omission, glossing over or subordinating", as later the French historian François Guizot . Such contemporary allegations were overlooked by May, who stated in his foreword that it was personal familiarity that made him provide more information about parliamentarians than about their opponents.

1650 followed with the Breviary of the History of the Parliament of England , another work written in English and Latin, this time with a more obvious partisanship with regard to the defense of the independent parliamentarians. This chronological representation ended shortly before the execution of King Charles I on January 30, 1649, although this "submission" to Oliver Cromwell did not seem entirely voluntary.

In February 1650 he was brought to London under heavy guard after he was accused of spreading false reports against Cromwell and the parliament that he had downsized, the so-called Rump Parliament . After his death on November 13, 1650, he was buried in Westminster Abbey before his body was exhumed after the Stuart Restoration and reburied in a pit on the site of the neighboring St Margaret's Church . His change of sides from the king's loyalist to Cromwell's partisans brought him numerous bitter enemies.

Text editions and translations

  • Birger Backhaus: The Supplementum Lucani by Thomas May. Introduction, edition, translation, commentary. Scientific publishing house Trier, Trier 2005, ISBN 3-88476-741-0 .

literature

Web links