 A shining example of rhetorical humanist historiography, complete with plentiful classical citations (especially from Lucan), May presented recent English history as the wrecking of a peaceful and prosperous Elizabethan polity by the greed and stupidity of the Stuarts.In October 1649, following the regicide and the emergence of an English republican government, May contributed a dedicatory epistle to Charles Sydenham's attack on the Leveller John Lilburne, addressing the members of the Rump Parliament, Roman style, as 'Senators'.May's epistle counsels against legislating for greater freedom of conscience, arguing that it is alienating the regime from potential allies such as the Presbyterians.