Nicholas Udall

Nicholas Udall (1504 – December 23, 1556), was an English playwright, cleric, pederast and schoolmaster, the author of Ralph Roister Doister, generally regarded as the first comedy written in the English language.^[1][2]

Biography

Udall was born in Hampshire and educated at Westminster School (according to the Encyclopaedia Britannica, at Winchester College) and at Corpus Christi College, Oxford. He was tutored under the guidance of Thomas Cromwell who mentions him in a letter to John Creke of 17 August 1523 as 'Maister Woodall' and he appears again in Cromwell's accounts for 1535 as 'Nicholas Woodall Master of Eton'. After graduation he taught at a London grammar school in 1533. He taught Latin at Eton College, of which he was headmaster from about 1534 until 1541, when he was forced to leave after being convicted under the Buggery Act 1533 after confessing to sexually and physically abusing a number of his pupils^[1][3][4]. He wrote an impassioned plea to his old friends from Cromwell's household Thomas Wriothesley and Sir Ralph Sadler; then joint principal secretaries of state. Although the felony of buggery carried a sentence of capital punishment (by hanging), his sentence was reduced to just under a year in the Marshalsea prison. In later years, a former pupil, the poet Thomas Tusser claimed Udall flogged him without cause.^[1]

A Protestant, he flourished under Edward VI and survived into the reign of the Roman Catholic Mary I. In 1547, he became Vicar of Braintree, in 1551 of Calborne, Isle of Wight and in 1554 headmaster of Westminster School.

Works

He translated part of the Apophthegms by Erasmus, and assisted in the English version of his Paraphrases of Erasmus, published in 1548 as The first tome or volume of the Paraphrase of Erasmus vpon the newe testamente. Other works he translated were Pietro Martire's Discourse on the Eucharist and Thomas Gemini's Anatomia. Ralph Roister Doister was probably presented to Queen Mary as an entertainment around 1553, but not published until 1566.

With John Leland he wrote a number of songs to celebrate the coronation of Anne Boleyn on the 31st of May 1533 using his Latinized name "Udallus".^[5][6]

Likewise, he is the author of a Latin textbook utilizing material from his comedy as well as the Roman poet Terence.

Notes

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