During his short but rather productive life, in the first part of the seventeenth century, Thomas Randolph (sometimes called Randall) achieved fame for his poetry and drama as one of the renowned "sons of Ben." Ben Jonson was the great literary leader of this time, the model for the Tribe of Ben, whose "sons" were special followers of the stylistic and innovative leads that he provided. Attaining a wide reputation in his own day for his literary productions in the tradition of Jonson, Randolph was called one of "the most pregnant wits of his age."

Born at Newnham-cum-Badby in Northamptonshire to William Randolph (steward to Edward, Lord Zouch) and his wife Elizabeth, Thomas was baptized on 15 June 1605. Supposedly he demonstrated his literary abilities early; around the age of ten he wrote a poem entitled "History of the Incarnation of our Saviour." He received his education as a king's...