Udall, Nicholas

Udall, Nicholas, 1505–56, English dramatist, educated at Oxford. He was headmaster of Eton (1534–41) and of Westminster School (from 1554). His one extant play, Ralph Roister Doister (c.1545), is regarded as the first complete English comedy. The influence of Plautus and Terence is evident, but the play is distinguished by its elements of native English humor.

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Udall, Nicholas

(born December 1505?, Southampton, Hampshire, Eng.—died December 1556, Westminster) English playwright, translator, and schoolmaster. The headmaster of Eton College from 1534 and of Westminster from 1555, Udall was well known as a translator. He is credited with writing many plays, of which only one is extant, Ralph Roister Doister (performed c. 1553), the first known English comedy. About a braggart soldier-hero who is finally shown to be an arrant coward, it marks the emergence of comedy from the medieval morality plays, interludes, and farces.