View source for Nicholas Udall

{{Short description|English playwright, cleric and schoolmaster (1504–1556)}}
{{for|the American politician and judge|Nick Udall}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=July 2024}}
{{Use British English|date=July 2024}}

'''Nicholas Udall''' (or '''Uvedale'''{{sfn|Lee|1899}} '''Udal''', '''Woodall''', or other variations{{sfn|Leach|1911}}) (1504 – 23 December 1556) was an [[England|English]] playwright, cleric, schoolmaster, the author of ''[[Ralph Roister Doister]]'', generally regarded as the first [[comedy]] written in the [[English language]].<ref name="tudorplace.com.ar">{{Cite web|url=http://www.tudorplace.com.ar/Bios/NicholasUdall.htm|title=Nicholas UDALL}}</ref>{{Unreliable source?|certain=y|reason=self published website; and Jorge H. Castelli is not an expert|date=January 2015}}<ref name="luminarium1">{{Cite web|url=http://www.luminarium.org/renlit/udallbio.htm|title=The Life of Nicholas Udall (1504—1556) &#91;Biography&#93;}}</ref>

==Biography==
Udall was born in [[Hampshire]] and educated at [[Winchester College]],<ref>C. Dilke, ''Dr. Moberly's Mint-mark'', Heinemann, 1965</ref> then at [[Corpus Christi College, Oxford]], where he held a scholarship. In 1524 he was elected a probationer fellow and probably took his B.A.<ref name=LE/> 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'.

In 1527/1528, Udall was in trouble with his college for having or reading heretical books, but he was allowed to remain in college.<ref name=LE/> In 1533 he was a [[schoolmaster]] at a [[grammar school]] in [[City of London|London]]. 

In 1534 Udall took the degree of M.A. and was appointed headmaster of [[Eton College]].<ref name=LE/> He appears in Cromwell's accounts for 1535 as 'Nicholas Woodall Master of Eton'. He taught [[Latin]] at Eton and was headmaster there until 1541, when he was forced to leave after being convicted of offences against his pupils under the [[Buggery Act 1533]].<ref name=LE>Nicoletta Caputo,  [http://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=4498 "Nicholas Udall"], ''[[The Literary Encyclopedia]]'' online edition, Vol. 1.2.1.03: English Writing and Culture: Renaissance (1485-1625), accessed 18 December 2024.</ref><ref name="tudorplace.com.ar"/><ref name=fathom>{{cite web |url=http://www.fathom.com/feature/121749/index.html |first=Retha M. |last=Warnicke |author-link=Retha Warnicke |title=Sex and the Tudors |year=2002 |access-date=2007-05-23 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070607152022/http://www.fathom.com/feature/121749/index.html |archive-date=7 June 2007 |df=dmy-all }}</ref>  The felony of [[buggery]], like all other felonies, carried a sentence of [[capital punishment]] by [[hanging]], but Udall wrote an impassioned plea to his old friends from Cromwell's household [[Thomas Wriothesley, 1st Earl of Southampton|Thomas Wriothesley]] and [[Sir Ralph Sadler]], then joint [[Secretary of State (England)|king's Secretaries]], and his sentence was commuted to imprisonment for just under a year, which he served in the [[Marshalsea]]. The boys in question were not prosecuted. A former pupil, the poet [[Thomas Tusser]], later claimed that Udall had flogged him without cause.<ref name="tudorplace.com.ar"/>

An adherent of the [[Protestant Reformation|Reformed]] [[Church of England]], Udall flourished under [[Edward VI of England|Edward VI]] and survived into the reign of the Roman Catholic [[Mary I of England|Mary I]]. In 1547, he became Vicar of [[Braintree, Essex|Braintree]], in 1551 of [[Calborne]], [[Isle of Wight]], and in 1554 returned to teaching as headmaster of [[Westminster School]].

Udall died in 1556 and was buried in the churchyard of [[St Margaret's, Westminster]].  No monumental inscription can now be traced.

==Works==
Udall translated part of the ''[[Apophthegmatum opus|Apophthegms]]'' by [[Erasmus]], and translated in part and oversaw the English version of the ''[[Paraphrases of Erasmus#English|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 Vermigli|Pietro Martire]]'s ''Discourse on the Eucharist'' and Thomas Gemini's ''Anatomia''.  His most famous work, the play ''[[Ralph Roister Doister]]'', was probably presented to [[Mary I of England|Queen Mary]] as an entertainment around 1553, but not published until 1566.

With [[John Leland (antiquary)|John Leland]], he wrote a number of songs in Latin and English for pageants marking the coronation of [[Anne Boleyn]] on 31 May 1533, using his [[Latinized name]] "Udallus".<ref name="luminarium1"/><ref>[http://dev.hil.unb.ca/Texts/EPD/UNB/view-works.cgi?c=udallnic.1632&pos=1 Udall], unb.ca {{Dead link|date=April 2020 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref> In the same year, he published ''Flovres for Latine Spekynge'', a collection of material from his comedy and works by the Roman poet [[Terence]] put together for his pupils.<ref name=LE/>

Udall wrote a propaganda tract in response to the [[Prayer 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''. <ref group="Notes">In contemporary spelling and typesetting: "An answer to the articles of the comoners of Deuonshere and Cornewall declaring to the same howe they haue ben sedused by Euell persons".</ref> This tract has sometimes been wrongly attributed to [[Philip Nichols (evangelical writer)|Philip Nichols]].<ref>Jonathan McGovern, [https://academic.oup.com/nq/article-abstract/65/1/24/4796900?redirectedFrom=PDF @Nicholas Udall as Author of a Manuscript Answer to the Rebels of Devonshire and Cornwall, 1549"], ''Notes & Queries'' 65, no. 1 (2018), 24-25.</ref>

It has been argued that Udall is the author of the dramatic interlude ''[[Respublica (play)|Respublica]]'', which was acted before Queen Mary in 1553.<ref>Stewart Mottram, ''Empire and Nation in Early English Renaissance Literature'' (2008), pp. 170-208.</ref>

==In literature==
In [[Ford Madox Ford|Ford Madox Ford's]] trilogy of historical novels ''[[The Fifth Queen]]'', the character Magister Nicholas Udal is a decidedly heterosexual profligate, who serves as Latin tutor to [[Mary I of England|Princess Mary]] and to [[Henry VIII]]'s fifth queen, [[Katherine Howard|Katharine Howard]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Ford |first=Ford Madox |url=https://archive.org/details/fifthqueenfift00ford/mode/2up?view=theater |title=The Fifth Queen |publisher=The Vanguard Press |year=1963 |location=New York |page= |pages=[https://archive.org/details/fifthqueenfift00ford/page/62/mode/2up?view=theater 62–63] ''et seq.'' |url-access=registration}}</ref> 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."<ref>{{cite book |last=Ford |first=Ford Madox |url=https://archive.org/details/fifthqueenfift00ford/mode/2up?view=theater |title=The Fifth Queen |publisher=The Vanguard Press |year=1963 |location=New York |page=[https://archive.org/details/fifthqueenfift00ford/page/20/mode/2up?view=theater 20] ''et seq.'' |url-access=registration}}</ref>

==Notes==
{{Reflist|group="Notes"}}

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
{{Wikiquote}}
* {{Cite DNB|wstitle=Udall, Nicholas|volume=58|first=Sidney|last=Lee|authorlink=Sidney Lee |short=x}}
* {{Cite EB1911|wstitle=Udal, Nicholas |volume=27 |pages=554–556 |first=Arthur Francis |last=Leach |authorlink=Arthur Francis Leach |short=x}}
* {{Gutenberg author | id=9875| name=Nicholas Udall}}
* {{Internet Archive author |sname=Nicholas Udall}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Udall, Nicholas}}
[[Category:1504 births]]
[[Category:1556 deaths]]
[[Category:Writers from Hampshire]]
[[Category:English Renaissance dramatists]]
[[Category:People educated at Winchester College]]
[[Category:People convicted of sodomy]]
[[Category:16th-century LGBTQ people]]
[[Category:English LGBTQ writers]]
[[Category:16th-century English male writers]]
[[Category:16th-century English educators]]
[[Category:16th-century English dramatists and playwrights]]
[[Category:Head Masters of Eton College]]
[[Category:Inmates of the Marshalsea]]
[[Category:Canons of Windsor]]
[[Category:Child sexual abuse in England]]
[[Category:English male dramatists and playwrights]]