the fifth month in the year, reckoning from January; and the third, supposing the year to begin with March, as the Romans anciently did. It was called Maius by Romulus, in respect to the senators and nobles of his city, who were named maiores; as the following month was called Junius, in honour of the youth of Rome, (in honorem juvenum,) who served him in the war; though some are of opinion that it was thus called from Maia, the mother of Mercury, to whom they offered sacrifice on the first day of the month; and Papius derives it from Madius, eo quod tume terra meadae. In this month the sun enters Gemini, and the plants of the earth in general begin to flower.

May, Isle of, a small island at the mouth of the Frith of Forth, in Scotland, about a mile and a half in circumference, and seven miles from the coast of Fife, almost opposite to the rock called the Bass. It formerly belonged to the priory of Pittenweem, and was dedicated to St. Adrian, supposed to have been martyred in this place by the Danes; and hither, in ancient times, barren women used to come and worship at his shrine, in hopes of being cured of their sterility. It was here that the French squadron, having the Chevalier de St. George on board, anchored in the year 1708, when the vigilance of Sir George Byng obliged him to relinquish his design, and bear away for Dunkirk. The shores all round the island abound with fish, and the cliffs with water fowl.

May, Thomas, an eminent English poet and historian of the seventeenth century, was descended of an ancient but decayed family in Sussex, and received his education at Cambridge, whence he afterwards removed to London. Whilst he resided at court, he wrote the five plays now extant under his name. In 1622, he published a translation of Virgil's Georgics, with annotations; and in 1635 a poem on Edward III., and a translation of Lucan's Pharsalia, which he continued down to the death of Julius Caesar, both in Latin and in English verse. Upon the breaking out of the civil wars he adhered to the parliament, and in 1647, published the History of the Parliament of England, which began November the third, 1640, with a short and accessory view of some precedent years. In 1649, he published in three parts, Historie Parlamenti Anglicae Breviarium, which he afterwards translated into English. He also wrote the history of Henry II. in English verse. His death occurred in 1650. Having gone to rest after a cheerful bottle as usual, he died in his sleep before morning. Soon after the Restoration, his body, with those of several others, was dug up, and buried in a pit in St. Margaret's churchyard; and his monument, which was erected by the appointment of parliament, was taken down and thrown aside.