Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 47.djvu/286

  History of Scotland). Randolph was sent on his last mission to Scotland in January 1585–6 with instructions for the negotiation of a treaty between the two kingdoms, to which he succeeded in obtaining the signature of James VI. He held the joint offices of chancellor of the exchequer and postmaster-general till his death, which took place in his house in St. Peter's Hill, near Thames Street, London, on 8 June 1590, when he was in his sixty-seventh year. He was buried in the church of St. Peter's, Paul's Wharf. Randolph, during his embassies, was kept very short of money, and had frequent difficulty in paying his expenses. Nor, important as had been his services, did he receive any reward beyond the not very remunerative offices above mentioned. The statement of Wood that he was knighted in 1571 is not supported by any evidence. Randolph is supposed to have been the author of the original short Latin ‘Life of George Buchanan,’ but this must be regarded as at least doubtful. He took a special interest in the progress of Buchanan's ‘History,’ and offered his aid—with money if necessary—towards its completion.

By Anne Walsingham Randolph had a son Thomas, who succeeded him (Cal. State Papers, Dom. Ser. 1601–3, p. 284). He had also a son (Ambrose) and a daughter (Frances), who married Thomas Fitzgerald. He is said to have married, probably as second wife, Ursula Copinger (Notes and Queries, 2nd ser. viii. 13).



RANDOLPH, THOMAS (1605–1635), poet and dramatist, was second son of William Randolph of Hamsey, near Lewes, Sussex, and afterwards of Little Houghton, Northamptonshire, by his first wife, Elizabeth, daughter of Thomas Smith of Newnham-cum-Badby, near Daventry, Northamptonshire. His father was steward to Edward, lord Zouch. Thomas was born at Newnham-cum-Badby in the house of his mother's father; a drawing of it appears in Baker's ‘Northamptonshire’ (i. 261). He was baptised on 15 June 1605. He showed literary leanings as a child, and at the age of nine or ten wrote in verse the ‘History of the Incarnation of our Saviour,’ the autograph copy of which was preserved in Anthony à Wood's day. He was educated at Westminster as a king's scholar, and was elected in 1623 to Trinity College, Cambridge, where he matriculated on 8 July 1624. [q. v.], who was his junior by a year, was an admiring friend at both school and college, and subsequently commemorated his literary powers (Musæ Subsecivæ, 1696, pp. 469–70). Randolph graduated B.A. in January 1627–8, and was admitted a minor fellow 22 Sept. 1629, and major fellow 23 March 1631–2. He proceeded M.A. in 1632, and was shortly afterwards incorporated in the same degree at Oxford.

While an undergraduate Randolph was fired with the ambition of making the acquaintance of Ben Jonson and other leaders of London literary society. According to a contemporary anecdote of somewhat doubtful authenticity, he shyly made his way on a visit to London into the room in the Devil Tavern, near Temple Bar, where Ben Jonson was entertaining his friends. The party noticed his entrance, and challenged him ‘to call for his quart of sack.’ But he had spent all his money, and in an improvised stanza confessed that he could only drink with them at their expense. Ben Jonson is said to have sympathised with him in his embarrassment, and to have ‘ever after called him his son.’ He acknowledged Jonson's kindness in a charming ‘gratulatory to Master Ben Johnson for his adopting of him to be his son,’ and gave further expression to his admiration for his master in two other poems, entitled respectively ‘An Answer to Master Ben Jonson's Ode to persuade him not to leave the Stage’ and in ‘An Eclogue to Master Jonson.’ After he had taken his degree in 1628, his visits to London grew more frequent, and his literary patrons or friends soon included, besides Jonson, Thomas Bancroft, James Shirley the dramatist, Owen Feltham, Sir Aston Cokain, and Sir Kenelm Digby. But until 1632 his time was mainly spent in Cambridge. According to his own account, while he ‘contented liv'd by Cham's fair stream,’ he was a diligent student of Aristotle (Poems, ed. Hazlitt, 609–10). But he became famous in the university for his ingenuity as a writer of English and Latin verse, and was especially energetic in organising dramatic performances by the students of pieces of his own composition. In 1630 he produced his first publication, ‘Aristippus, or the Joviall Philosopher. Presented in a priuate Shew. To which is added the Conceited Pedler’ (London, for Robert Allot, 1630, 4to; other editions, 1631 and 1635). ‘Aristippus,’ which is in prose interspersed with verse, is a witty satire in dramatic form on university education, and a rollicking defence of tippling. The phrase in one of Randolph's verses—