Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 58.djvu/17

 Udall the same place of ‘Katherin Woodall’ and of ‘Elizabeth Udall’ figure in the parish register under the respective dates 2 Dec. 1556 and 8 July 1559; but there is no means of determining the relationship of either of these persons to Nicholas Udall.

Udall owes his permanent fame to his work as a dramatist. Bale attributes to him not merely many comedies, but also a ‘Tragœdia de Papatu.’ Of the last nothing is known. Bale says that Udall translated it for Queen Catherine [Parr]. It is possible that Bale made a confused reference to ‘A Tragedie or Dialoge of the unjuste usurped Primacie of the Bishop of Rome’ (London, 1549, 8vo), which John Ponet translated from the Italian of Bernardino Ochino. Subsequent mention was made of another lost play by Udall. When Elizabeth visited Cambridge University in the autumn of 1564 on the night of 8 Aug. there was performed in her presence ‘an English play called “Ezekias,” made by Mr. Udall, and handled by King's College men only.’

The only extant play by Udall is ‘Ralph Roister Doister,’ a homely English comedy on the Latin model, which may have been originally written for performance by his pupils at Eton before 1541. A reference (act ii. sc. i.) to a ballad-monger, Jack Raker, who is more than once mentioned by Skelton and is noticed in Udall's play as a contemporary, and Ralph Roister Doister's favourite form of oath, ‘by the armes of Caleys,’ suggest that the piece was originally composed in Henry VIII's reign. It is in rhymed doggerel and is divided into five acts, each with numbered scenes varying from four to eight. Besides songs which are interspersed through the text, four songs to be sung ‘by those which shall use this comedy’ are collected in an appendix. The story, which is crudely developed, deals with the unsuccessful efforts of the swaggering hero, Ralph Roister Doister, to win the hand of a wealthy widow, Dame Christian Custance. It is doubtful if the piece were printed in Udall's lifetime.

A quotation of Ralph's letter to Dame Custance (Ralph Roister Doister, act iii. sc. iv.), which is shown to be capable of expressing two directly opposite significations by changes of punctuation, appeared in the third edition of Dr. Thomas Wilson's ‘Rule of Reason,’ 1553, with the note that the passage was quoted from ‘An Entrelude, made by Nicolas Vdal.’ In 1566 Thomas Hackett obtained a license ‘for pryntinge of a play intituled Rauf Ruyster Duster.’ The only early copy now known lacks a title-page; it was accidentally acquired by the Rev. Thomas Briggs, an Etonian, in 1818, and may be the edition printed by Hackett, which probably represents a revised version of the piece. The concluding verses plainly refer to Queen Mary or Queen Elizabeth, and were doubtless interpolated at a date subsequent to the composition of the play. In 1818 Briggs reprinted the comedy in London, in an edition of thirty copies, as an anonymous work, and at the same time presented the unique original to Eton College Library, in ignorance of the fact that the play was from the pen of an Eton headmaster. Another reprint followed in 1821; but the anonymous editor again had no information to give respecting the authorship of the play. John Payne Collier, in a note in Dodsley's ‘Old Plays’ (1825, ii. 3; cf. History of English Dramatic Poetry, 1831, ii. 445), was the first to recognise in ‘Ralph Roister Doister’ the interlude which Wilson assigned to Udall in 1551. The work has subsequently been four times reprinted—in Thomas White's ‘Old English Drama’ (1830, 3 vols. 18mo); in the publications of the Shakespeare Society, 1847; in Arber's ‘English Reprints,’ 1869; and in Dodsley's ‘Old Plays,’ ed. W. C. Hazlitt, 1874 (iii. 53–161). ‘Ralph Roister Doister’ enjoys the distinction of being the earliest English comedy known, and, in the capacity of its author, Udall is universally recognised as one of the most notable pioneers in the history of English dramatic literature [cf. art. STILL, JOHN]. Collier, in his ‘Bibliographical Catalogue’ (ii. 176), attributes to Udall, the first and last letters of whose surname figure on the undated title-page, a curious doggerel poem in which an old man gives the author much moral counsel. The poem bears the title: ‘The pleasaunt playne and pythye Pathewaye leadynge to a vertues and honest lyfe, no lesse profytable then delectable. U. L. Imprynted at London by Nicolas Hyll, for John Case,’ 4to.

[The fullest account of Udall is by William Durrant Cooper, and is prefixed to the Shakespeare Society's edition of ‘Ralph Roister Doister.’ See also Troubles connected with the Prayer Book of 1549, ed. Nicholas Pocock (Camden Soc.), pp. xx–xxv; Wood's Athenæ Oxon. ed. Bliss, i. 211; Tanner's Bibl. Brit.; Strype's Works; Fleay's Biographical Chronicle of the English Drama; Collier's History of English Dramatic Poetry.]  UFFORD, JOHN (d. 1349), chancellor. [See .]

UFFORD, ROBERT, first of his house  (1298–1369), was the second but eldest surviving son and heir of