Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 37.djvu/221

 found that Suffren had anticipated them and landed such strong reinforcements that an attack would be useless. Johnstone now decided to return to Europe. Medows, however, having heard that the English in the south of India were being hard pressed by Hyder Ali, sultan of Mysore, sailed with three of the ships and a large body of troops to Madras, where he arrived on 13 Feb. 1783. He accompanied Colonel Fullarton in an expedition from Madras against Mysore, but the sudden conclusion of peace soon put a stop to the campaign. In September 1788 Medows received the post of commander-in-chief and governor at Bombay. He remained here till January 1790, when he was transferred to the supreme command at Madras. A war with Tippoo, Hyder Ali's son and successor as sultan of Mysore, had arisen, and Lord Cornwallis [q. v.], the governor-general, now instructed Medows to open the campaign. Starting from Trichinopoli at the head of fifteen thousand men on 15 June 1790, Medows crossed the frontier into Mysore, and advanced in a westerly direction. Karúr and Darapuram were taken and garrisoned in order to maintain communications with Madras, and on 22 July the army arrived at Coimbatore, which was found evacuated by the enemy. The latter place was made the centre of operations, from which detachments sent out by Medows captured the fortresses of Palghaut and Dindigal, and occupied the positions of Erode and Satyamangalam; the two latter with Karúr covering the road to the Gujelhuttey pass, through which Medows hoped to advance against Seringapatam in October. His forces, however, had been much weakened by being distributed over a large extent of territory, and Tippoo was thus able to fall upon the isolated English detachments in detail. On 13 Sept. Colonel Floyd was attacked at Satyamangalam and compelled to retreat. Erode was abandoned; Darapuram was recaptured by the sultan on 8 Oct., and the English were again compelled to concentrate at Coimbatore. Medows now marched out in strong force with the object of bringing on a pitched battle. But the English moved too slowly to come up with their enemy, and at last Tippoo, having outmanœuvred his opponent, crossed into English territory and laid siege to Trichinopoli, the neighbourhood of which was remorselessly ravaged. Medows hurried up to defend the city, which he reached on 14 Dec., and Tippoo now retired to his own country by the north. Medows returned to Madras. Four of the border fortresses of Mysore still remained in English hands; but their campaign had on the whole been a failure. Lord Cornwallis now announced his intention of undertaking sole command of the English army in Mysore. Medows went through the campaigns of 1791–2, but in a strictly subordinate character, and in the planning of operations he had no share. He led the storming party which captured Nandidrug on 19 Oct. 1791, and he commanded the right column in the night attack on the Seringapatam redoubts on 16 Feb. 1792. The latter event was followed by peace. Medows resigned the prize-money (nearly 15,000l.) which fell to his share and distributed it among the troops. He left for England in August 1792. On 14 Dec. of that year he was made a knight of the Bath, on 12 Oct. 1793 he was made a lieutenant-general, and in November 1796 he was appointed to the command of the 7th dragoon guards. At the brevet promotion of 1 Jan. 1798 he was made a general and received the post of governor of the Isle of Wight. In 1801 he succeeded Cornwallis for a short space as commander-in-chief in Ireland. He died at Bath on 14 Nov. 1813. 

MEDWALL, HENRY (fl. 1486), writer of interludes, was chaplain to John Morton [q. v.], who was raised to the see of Canterbury in 1486. The only work of his extant is ‘Nature: a goodly interlude of Nature [cotilde]pylyd by mayster Henry Medwall, chapleyn to the ryght reverend father in god Johan Morton, somtyme cardynall and archebyshop of Canterbury,’ b. l. folio, 36 leaves. It is without date, place, or printer's name, but was probably printed between 1510 and 1520 by John Rastell, the supposed author of the interlude entitled ‘The Nature of the Four Elements.’ In the British Museum copy, from the Garrick collection, are bound up two duplicate leaves (c. i. and ii.). ‘Nature’ was produced before Morton in Henry VII's reign, and is thus one of the most ancient of our moralities or moral plays. Bale states that it was translated into Latin. Another interlude not now extant, but ascribed to Medwall, ‘Of the Finding of Truth, carried away by Ignorance and Hypocrisy,’ was diversified by the introduction of a fool, an innovation which commended it to Henry VIII when it was produced before him at Richmond, Christmas 1516. Apart from this feature the piece was misliked, and the king ‘departyd before the end to hys chambre.’ 