Henry Medwall (8 September 1462 – c.1501/2?) was the first known English

vernacular Vernacular is the ordinary, informal, spoken language, spoken form of language, particularly when perceptual dialectology, perceived as having lower social status or less Prestige (sociolinguistics), prestige than standard language, which is mor ...

dramatist. '' Fulgens and Lucrece'' (c.1497), whose heroine must choose between two suitors, is the earliest known

secular Secularity, also the secular or secularness (from Latin , or or ), is the state of being unrelated or neutral in regards to religion. The origins of secularity can be traced to the Bible itself. The concept was fleshed out through Christian hi ...

English play. The other play of Medwall is titled ''Nature''. He stayed at the court of Cardinal Morton, Chancellor in the time of Henry VII.

Life

Born in 1462, he was educated at

Eton College Eton College ( ) is a Public school (United Kingdom), public school providing boarding school, boarding education for boys aged 13–18, in the small town of Eton, Berkshire, Eton, in Berkshire, in the United Kingdom. It has educated Prime Mini ...

from 1475, at age 13, and was admitted to

King's College, Cambridge King's College, formally The King's College of Our Lady and Saint Nicholas in Cambridge, is a List of colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college lies beside the River Cam and faces ...

in 1480. He left King's in 1483. Under Henry VII he acted as a notary, and acquired a civil law degree. With a living at Balinghem in English Calais, he is assumed to have worked for John Morton at

Lambeth Palace Lambeth Palace is the official London residence of the Archbishop of Canterbury. It is situated in north Lambeth, London, on the south bank of the River Thames, south-east of the Palace of Westminster, which houses Parliament of the United King ...

. He vanishes from the record after 1501.

Works

''Fulgens and Lucrece'' is based on a Latin work by Buonaccorso da Montemagno. The other work of Medwall's that is extant is ''Nature''.''Nature: a goodly interlude of Nature 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 printed by

William Rastell William Rastell (150827 August 1565) was an English printer and judge. Life Rastell was born in London, a son of John Rastell and his wife Elizabeth More, sister of Sir Thomas More. At the age of seventeen he went to the University of Oxford, b ...

. ''Nature'' was produced before Morton in Henry VII's reign;

John Bale John Bale (21 November 1495 – November 1563) was an English churchman, historian controversialist, and Bishop of Ossory in Ireland. He wrote the oldest known historical verse drama in English (on the subject of King John), and developed and ...

states that it was translated into Latin. Another interlude that has been ascribed to Medwall, ''Of the Finding of Truth, carried away by Ignorance and Hypocrisy'', was said to have introduced a fool, an innovation which commended it to Henry VIII when it was produced before him at Richmond, Christmas 1516; the king, however, left early. This is now thought to be a fabrication, perhaps by John Payne Collier.

References

;Attribution 1501 deaths English dramatists and playwrights 15th-century English writers 1462 births People educated at Eton College 16th-century English dramatists and playwrights English male dramatists and playwrights 16th-century English male writers {{UK-playwright-stub