Nicholas Udall (orUvedale[1]Udal,Woodall, or other variations[2]) (1504 – 23 December 1556) was anEnglish playwright, cleric, schoolmaster, the author ofRalph Roister Doister, generally regarded as the firstcomedy written in theEnglish language.[3][unreliable source][4]
Udall was born inHampshire and educated atWinchester College,[5] then atCorpus Christi College, Oxford, where he held a scholarship. In 1524 he was elected a probationer fellow and probably took his B.A.[6] He was tutored under the guidance ofThomas Cromwell, who mentions him in a letter to John Creke of 17 August 1523 as 'Maister Woodall'.
In 1527/1528, Udall was in trouble with his college for having or reading heretical books, but he was allowed to remain in college.[6] In 1533 he was aschoolmaster at agrammar school inLondon.
In 1534 Udall took the degree of M.A. and was appointed headmaster ofEton College.[6] He appears in Cromwell's accounts for 1535 as 'Nicholas Woodall Master of Eton'. He taughtLatin at Eton and was headmaster there until 1541, when he was forced to leave after being convicted of offences against his pupils under theBuggery Act 1533.[6][3][7] The felony ofbuggery, like all other felonies, carried a sentence ofcapital punishment byhanging, but Udall wrote an impassioned plea to his old friends from Cromwell's householdThomas Wriothesley andSir Ralph Sadler, then jointking's Secretaries, and his sentence was commuted to imprisonment for just under a year, which he served in theMarshalsea. The boys in question were not prosecuted. A former pupil, the poetThomas Tusser, later claimed that Udall had flogged him without cause.[3]
An adherent of theReformedChurch of England, Udall flourished underEdward VI and survived into the reign of the Roman CatholicMary I. In 1547, he became Vicar ofBraintree, in 1551 ofCalborne,Isle of Wight, and in 1554 returned to teaching as headmaster ofWestminster School.
Udall died in 1556 and was buried in the churchyard ofSt Margaret's, Westminster. No monumental inscription can now be traced.
Udall translated part of theApophthegms byErasmus, and translated in part and oversaw the English version of theParaphrases of Erasmus, published in 1548 asThe first tome or volume of the Paraphrase of Erasmus vpon the newe testamente. Other works he translated werePietro Martire'sDiscourse on the Eucharist and Thomas Gemini'sAnatomia. His most famous work, the playRalph Roister Doister, was probably presented toQueen Mary as an entertainment around 1553, but not published until 1566.
WithJohn Leland, he wrote a number of songs in Latin and English for pageants marking the coronation ofAnne Boleyn on 31 May 1533, using hisLatinized name "Udallus".[4][8] In the same year, he publishedFlovres for Latine Spekynge, a collection of material from his comedy and works by the Roman poetTerence put together for his pupils.[6]
Udall wrote a propaganda tract in response to thePrayer Book Rebellion in 1549,An Answer to the Articles of the Commoners of Devonshire and Cornwall Declaring to the Same How they have been Seduced by Evil Persons.[Notes 1] This tract has sometimes been wrongly attributed toPhilip Nichols.[9]
It has been argued that Udall is the author of the dramatic interludeRespublica, which was acted before Queen Mary in 1553.[10]
InFord Madox Ford's trilogy of historical novelsThe Fifth Queen, the character Magister Nicholas Udal is a decidedly heterosexual profligate, who serves as Latin tutor toPrincess Mary and toHenry VIII's fifth queen,Katharine Howard.[11] He defends himself against charges that he was "thrown out of his mastership at Eton for his foul living" by claiming that he, a Protestant, "was undone by Papist lies."[12]
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