THOMAS

See also:

• RANDOLPH, EDMUND [JENNINGS] (1753–1813)
• RANDOLPH, JOHN (1773–1833)
• RANDOLPH, PEYTON (1721-1775)
• RANDOLPH, THOMAS (1523-1590)
• THOMAS RANDOLPH (1605-1635)

RANDOLPH (1605-1635)  , English poet and dramatist, was born near Daventry in Northamptonshire, and was baptized on the 15th of June 16o5 . He was educated at Westminster and at Trinity College, Cambridge . He took his B.A. degree in 1628, proceeded M.A. in 1632 and became a major fellow of his college in the same year . He soon gave promise as a writer of comedy . Ben Jonson, not an easily satisfied critic, adopted him as one of his " sons." He addressed three poems to Jonson, one on the occasion of his formal " adoption," another on the failure of The New Inn, and the third an eclogue, describing his own studies at Cambridge . He lived with his father at Little Houghton in Northamptonshire for some time, and afterwards with William Stafford of Blatherwick, at whose house he died before completing his thirtieth year . He was buried . in Blatherwick church on the 17th of March 1634-35, and his epitaph was written by Peter Hausted, the author of The Rival Friends . Randolph's reputation as a wit is attested by the verses addressed to him by his contemporaries and by the stories attached to his name . His earliest printed work is Aristippus, Or, The Joviall Philosopher . Presented in a private skew, To which is added, The Conceited Pedlar (163o) . It is a gay interlude burlesquing a lecture in philosophy, the whole piece being an argument to support the claims of sack against small beer . The Conceited Pedlar is an amusing monologue delivered by the pedlar, who defines himself as an " individuum vagum, or the primum mobile of tradesmen, a walking-burse or movable exchange, a Socratical citizen of the vast universe, or a peripatetical journeyman, that, like another Atlas, carries his heavenly shop on's shoulders." He then proceeds to display his wares with a running satirical comment .

The Jealous Lovers was presented by the students of Trinity College, Cambridge, before the

king and queen in 1632 . The Muse's Looking-Glass is hardly a drama . Roscius presents the extremes of virtue and vice in pairs, and last of all the " golden mediocrity " who announces herself as the mother of all the virtues . Amyntas, or The Impossible Dowry, a pastoral printed in 1638, with a number of miscellaneous Latin and English poems, completes the list of Randolph's authenticated work . Hey for Honesty, down with Knavery, a comedy, is doubtfully assigned to him . His works were edited by W . C . Hazlitt in 1875 .