  (Vol. iii., p. 167.) Thomas May, famous amongst the busy characters of his age, both as a politician and a poet, was the eldest son of Sir Thos. May, Knt., of Mayfield, in Sussex, where he was born in 1595. At the usual period of life, he was admitted a fellow-commoner of Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge; and having taken the degree of B.A. he entered himself at Gray's Inn, with the intention of studying the law, which, however, it is uncertain whether he ever pursued as a profession. Whilst he was a student of the law, he made the acquaintance of Edward Hyde, afterwards Earl of Clarendon; and became the intimate associate of Ben Jonson, Selden, Cotton, Sir K. Digby, Thos. Carew[1], "and some others of eminent faculties in their several ways."
As an elegant writer, indeed, of Latin verse, he is justly numbered amongst the most successful of the accomplished poets of our nation—Ben Jonson, Cowley, Milton, Marvell, Crashaw, Addison, Gray, Smart, T. Warton, Sir W. Jones, &c.—who have devoted their leisure to this species of composition. Clarendon goes on to say that May was "born to a fortune, if his father had not spent it; so that he had only an annuity left him, not proportionable to a liberal education:"
From Charles I., no mean judge of poetry, and a liberal patron of the Muses, May received much encouragement, and many substantial marks of favour in the shape of donatives; and it was at the express command of this monarch that he wrote his historical poem entitled The Victorious Reigne of Edward III. From disgust, however, at the appointment of D'Avenant to the Laureateship, on the death of Jonson in 1637,—a post to which, according to what he considered to be his own superior deserts[3], he was himself justly entitled,—"May fell from his duty, and all his former friends," and became an active agent in promoting the designs of the so-called popular leaders. Through the interest of Cromwell, he was nominated Secretary to the Parliament, in which capacity he wrote a History of its transactions, a work which was published in 1647. This performance, which is highly commended by Granger, rendered its author extremely obnoxious to the royal party, who exercised all their powers of pen to disparage both the book and its compiler. He is represented by Clarendon, for instance, "as prostituting himself to the vile office of celebrating the infamous acts of those who were in rebellion against the king; which he did so meanly, that he seemed to all men to have lost his wits, when he left his honesty." Anthony À Wood's account[4] of these matters, and of May himself, is that
His acquaintance with Challoner is also alluded to by Aubrey who says[5], "that his translation of Lucan's excellent poem, made him in love with the republique." Aubrey adds, he was—
Clarendon concludes his notice of May by observing that—
The fact is, he was found dead in his bed in Nov. 1650; but that he was "neglected" is not altogether correct. At any rate, he was honoured with a public funeral, a marble monument, and a laudatory epitaph in Westminster Abbey,—short-lived dignities! for, at the Restoration, the memorial of his fame was torn down, whilst his body was exhumed, and, after being treated with much ignominy, hurled into a large pit in St. Margaret's churchyard adjoining.—Besides the works above noticed, May also wrote The Description of Henry II., in verse, with A Short Survey of the Changes of his Reign, and The Single and Comparative Character of Henry and Richard his Sons, in prose. Nor was that of Lucan his only translation, for he rendered into English verse Virgil's Georgics and Selected Epigrams of Martial. He was also the author of five dramas, two of which are given in Dodsley's Old Plays. A now forgotten critic, Henry Headley, B.A., of Norwich, observes concerning his historical poetics, that May—
In confirmation of the general propriety and justness of these remarks, I would refer to the description of "The Den of the Vices" (H. II. b. i.), and to the accounts of "The Death of Rosamond" (H. II. b. v.), "The Battle of Cressy" (E. III. b. iii.), and "The Capture of Mortimer" (E. III. b. i.). These pieces can only be thus vindicated, being much too long for extracting; but I think a republication of the entire poems would be an acceptable boon to the public. The Life of Edward, Earl of Clarendon, &c., Oxf. 1827. The same. Southey calls May "the very able competitor of D'Avenant," and describes him as "a man so honourably known by his translation of Lucan, and his Supplement to that poet, that it were to be wished he were remembered for nothing else."—Biog. Sketches. AthenÆ Oxon. Bliss's edit. In MSS. Ashmol., as quoted in Biog. Britann., from which, and Chalmer's Biog. Dict., the dates, and such of the facts above given, not otherwise authenticated, are principally derived. Biographical Sketches, Lond., 12mo. 1787. Although May's version of Cato's soliloquy is immeasurably below Addison's, I am inclined to agree with J.H.L., that, on comparing them, it is more than probable, Addison had May's description of Cato's death in his mind at the same time he penned the justly celebrated soliloquy in the 5th Act of his Cato. 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." 81. Guilford Street. [We are also indebted to Balliolensis and other correspondents for general replies to this Query; and to W.S. (Richmond) for a reference to Baron Maseres' account of him prefixed to his edition of May's History of the Long Parliament.] DUCHESS OF BUCKINGHAM.(Vol iii., pp. 224, 249.) P. C. S. S. believes that a reference to almost any Peerage or work on British genealogy, would "And Sedley cursed the form that pleased a king"— was created Countess of Dorchester by James II., and subsequently married David Collyer, first Earl of Pontmore in Scotland. She died in 1692, having had by King James a natural daughter, to whom, by royal warrant, that monarch gave the rank and precedence of a duke's daughter; she was styled Lady Catherine Darnley, and married first, in October 1699, James, third Earl of Anglesey, from whom, on account of alleged cruelty on his part, she was separated by act of parliament in the following year. The earl died in 1701, and his widow married, secondly, in 1705, John Sheffield, first Duke of Normanby and Buckingham. She died on the 13th of March, 1743, and was interred with almost regal pomp in Westminster Abbey. By her first husband (the Earl of Anglesey) she had an only daughter, the Lady Catherine Annesley, married to Mr. William Phipps, father of the first Lord Mulgrave, and, consequently, great-grandfather of the present Marquis of Normanby, who on his recent elevation to that dignity, has, it appears, preferred to take one of the ducal titles of a nobleman from whom he does not descend, and of whose blood there does not flow a single drop in his veins, to the just assumption of the title of one from whom he does descend, and whose sole representative he undoubtedly is. Of the Duchess of Buckingham's inordinate pride, there are some curious stories in Walpole's Letters to Sir Horace Mann (sub anno 1743). But perhaps the most remarkable instance of it is to be found in a periodical paper called the British Champion, which was published at that time, and which is now not commonly to be met. In the No. for April 7, 1743, there is the following anecdote:—
P. C. S. S. is unwilling to believe this painful story—the more so, as it must be recollected that the author of the paper was an inveterate Whig, and the Duchess (jure paterno) as inveterate a Jacobite. SAN GRAIL.Sir Walter Scott, in his Marmion (Introduction to Canto First), writes of Sir Lancelot of the Lake, that— "A sinful man and unconfessed, He took the Sangreal's holy quest, And slumbering saw the vision high He might not view with waking eye." In his note on this passage, he refers to the romance of the Morte Arthur, and says:
The orthography of the word in the romance itself is Sancgreall, which affords us a clue to what I believe to be its true etymology, Sang rÉel (Sanguis realis), a name it derived from the tradition of its having been employed, not only to hold the paschal lamb at the Last Supper, but also by Joseph of Arimathea to catch the blood and water which flowed from the wounds of our Blessed Lord. Archdeacon Nares, in his Glossary, pp. 209. 445., enters largely into the legendary history of the Sangreal, as well as the question of its orthography. He takes some pains to refute the etymology given above, and quotes Roquefort (Dict. de la Langue Romane) to prove that graal or greal signifies a broad open dish. Will any one who has the means of consulting Roquefort inform us, whether he brings forward any instance of the existence of such a word in this sense? or, if so employed, whether such use may not have arisen from the ordinary erroneous orthography? It is a question well worth investigation, which I hope may call some abler pens than mine into exercise. This holy relic, the object of so much fruitless search to Arthur and his knights, is now safely deposited in the cathedral of Genoa, where all, holy or unholy, may behold it, on making the accustomed offering to its sanctity. Of old, it concealed itself from the eyes of all but those free from mortal sin; but now, the ability to pay five francs puts one in possession of every Christian virtue, and the Sacro Catino (as it is called) is exhibited on the payment of that sum. In addition to the authorities quoted by Nares, I would refer to Sir F. Palgrave, in Murray's Handbook to Northern Italy, 1st edition, p. 105. The St. Graal (Vol. iii. p. 224.).—Your correspondent W.M.K. will find the subject of "the Sangreal's holy quest" treated in the late Mr. Price's elaborate preface to Warton's History of English Poetry (ed. 1840), p. 53; also an account of the MS. at C.C.C., Cambridge, in the same work, vol. i. p. 149.; and a reference to Walter Map's translation of the Latin romance of St. Graal into French, vol. ii. p. 416. See also Sismondi, Lit. of the South of Europe (Bohn, 1846), vol. i. p. 197., and note. THE FROZEN HORN.(Vol. ii., p. 262. Vol. iii., p. 25.) Your correspondent J. M. G. quotes Hudibras, p. i. c. i. l. 147.: "Where truth in person does appear, Like words congeal'd in northern air." Zachary Grey does not, in his note, refer to Mandeville, but he says:
Manchester. J. M. G. quotes Sir John Mandeville for the story of the congealed words falling like hail from the rigging of his ship in the Arctic regions. I do not remember the passage, but there is one almost identical in Rabelais' Pantagruel, lib. iv. ch. lv., headed—
In the notes to Bohn's translation it is said:
Temple. BAB AT THE BOWSTER.(Vol. ii., p. 517.) Your correspondent Mac is mistaken when he says that no words are used in the Scottish dance of "Bab at the Bowster:" I have myself "babbed at the Bowster" within the last few years. Upon that occasion the words sung by the company while dancing round the individual bearing the "bowster" were— "Wha learn'd you to dance, You to dance, you to dance, Wha learn'd you to dance Bab at the bowster brawly?" To which the "bowster-bearer" replies— "My mither learned me to dance, Me to dance, me to dance, My mither learned me to dance Bab at the bowster brawly." After which, throwing down the "bowster" or cushion before one of the opposite sex, they both kneel upon it, and kiss one another affectionately. I never heard any words save the above; but a friend from a neighbouring county (Dumbartonshire) informs me, that with them it is sometimes changed into "Wha gi'ed you the keys to keep, The keys to keep," &c. There are also other variations which I believe I can procure, should they be desired by Mac or others. I should perhaps mention, for the benefit of Southrons, that almost all untravelled Scotchmen in conversation use the verb to learn in place of the verb to teach. Glasgow. The dance in Scotland called "Bab at the Bowster" is always the winding up at "kirns" and other merrymakings, and is most likely similar to the cushion-dance. The tune to which it is danced has words belonging to it. The beginning lines are— "There's braw yill, Down at the mill, Bab at the bowster," &c. OLIVER CROMWELL AND HIS DEALINGS WITH THE DEVIL.(Vol. iii., p. 207.) Among the papers of an old personal friend and correspondent of the "Sylvanus Urban" of his day,—a clergyman of the good old school, who died a quarter of a century ago, aged eighty-six, I find the inclosed. It may possibly lead to the further elucidation of one of the Notes of B.B. It is unfortunate that no date is attached to it, nor any intimation of its history. Its owner was the intimate friend of Bennet, Bishop of Cloyne, of Dr. Farmer, of Burgess, Bishop of St. David's (afterwards Salisbury), and other eminent divines of his time. With this MS. was inclosed another, in more modern writing; but, from the orthography, copied from an older paper, headed "Private Amours of Oliver Cromwell." It is very short, and also without date. It is at your service if desired. A NARRATIVE CONCERNING CROMWELL'S DEALINGS WITH THE D——L
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