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.

If this comedy, is no better than these wretched commendatory lines,
it is miserable indeed.

5. Old Couple, a Comedy, printed in 4to; this play is intended to
expose the vice of covetousness.

Footnotes:
1. Langb