Q: Roister Doister is said to be the first regular comedy in English written by:
a) Thomas Norton
b) Sackville
c) Nicholas Udall
d) All of these
Correct answer: c) Nicholas Udall
Explanation of English Literature MCQs Test
Ralph Roister Doister by Nicholas Udall
Introduction
Among the first English comedy plays is Nicholas Udall's Ralph Roister Doister, a sixteenth-century drama. Udall was a schoolmaster in London around 1552 at the time when he wrote the play, which is disputed, but the balance of opinion indicates that it was written that year. A few theorists speculate that the play was intended for his pupils, who were all male at that time, to perform in public. However, the play was not published until 1567, 11 years after the writer had died.
Biography
Nicholas Udall, an English playwright, school headmaster and translator was born in December 1505. He got an education at the University of Oxford, and later on, he became a lecturer there. Afterwards, in 1529, he became a schoolmaster. In 1533, when he teaching in London, he wrote “ditties and interludes”. His additional works between 1529 to 1534:
Floures for Latine Spekynge Selected and Gathered out of Terence
Nicholas Udall as a translator (1542 to 1545)
From 1542 to 1545 Udall seems to have been in London, engaged in work as a translator. His translation of Erasmus' Apopthegmes was published in 1542, and he took on the task of translating Erasmus' paraphrase of the New Testament under Catherine Parr's direction, who shared his enthusiasm for the Reformation of the Gospels and Acts, was published in 1548; the Gospel According to Luke was translated by Udall, and the Gospel According to John was translated by Princess Mary (later Queen Mary I).
The only play extant which can certainly be assigned to Udall is Ralph Roister Doister, which is credited in John Bale's catalogue of English writers as having "many comedies." This must have been written, and probably was performed, in about 1553. Medieval morality plays, interludes, and farces are marked by this play as the emergence of English comedy.
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