RANDOLPH, THOMAS

born June 15, 1605, Newnham-cum-Badby, Northamptonshire, Eng. died March 1635, Blatherwycke, Northamptonshire English poet and dramatist who used his knowledge of Aristotelian logic to create a unique kind of comedy. Educated at Westminster School and at the University of Cambridge, Randolph earned at both schools a reputation for English and Latin verse, and Ben Jonson adopted him as one of his sons. Randolph's university plays, both comedies, Aristippus, or The Joviall Philosopher and The Conceited Pedler, were performed at Cambridge and were published in 1630. Aristippus was a debate about the relative virtues of ale and sack, full of the terms of Aristotelian logic and innumerable puns drawn from Randolph's classical learning. The Jealous Lovers (1634), performed at Cambridge for King Charles I, was well received. The Muse's Looking-Glass, performed about 1630, opens and closes with a masque and consists of 15 scenes presented before a comic puritan couple, with each scene devoted to an Aristotelian vice. Hey for Honesty, a comedy adapted from The Plutus of Aristophanes, was published in 1651. Randolph's untimely death at age 29 cut short a promising literary career. Some of Randolph's poetry appeared in collections during his lifetime, notably three poems addressed to Jonson. A posthumous collection (1638) contained The Muse's Looking-Glass and Amyntas.