SCHOOLS 



In June and September 1553 nl ' Mr. Nicholas 

 Uvedale ' was paid at the rate of ^13 6s. 8d. a 

 year as ' scolemaster to Mr. Edward Courtney, 

 beinge within the Tower of London, by virtue 

 of the Kings Majesty's Warrant.' At Queen 

 Mary's entry into London he produced ' dities 

 and interludes' for which he received her thanks. 

 It was probably either on this occasion or at the 

 Christmas following that the play of Roister 

 Doisttr was produced. For it was in January 



1553, i.e. 1554, that Thomas Wilson, master 

 of St. Katharine's Hospital by the Tower, pro- 

 duced the third edition of The Rule of Reason, 

 which contains, while the two earlier editions 

 published in 1551 and 1552 respectively do not 

 contain, a long quotation from Roister Doister. 

 It gives under the heading of ' ambiguitie,' as 

 ' an example of such doubtful writing whiche, 

 by reason of poincting, maie have double sense 

 and contrarie meaning,' the letter ' taken out of 

 an intrelude made by Nicholas Vdal,' which 

 Ralph Roister procured a scrivener to compose 

 for him, asking Christian Custance, the heroine, 

 to marry him. Roister's emissary read it 



Sweete mistrcssc, where as I love you nothing at all, 

 Regarding your substance and richnesse chicfe of all, 



and so on ; whereas it was meant to read 



Sweete mistresse, whereas I love you, (nothing at all 

 Regarding your substance and richnesse,) chicfe of all, 

 For your personage, beautie, demeanour and wit. 



The play was entered at Stationers' Hall, when 

 printed- in 1566, and only one copy is known, 

 which was given to Eton by an old Etonian in 

 1 8 1 8. As the title-page is pone the only evi- 

 dence of its authorship is Wilson's quotation. 

 Wilson being an Etonian, it has been argued 

 that his quotation was a reminiscence of his 

 Eton days and that the play was written for and 

 first performed by Eton boys. But the occur- 

 rence of the quotation first in the edition of 



1554, and its absence in the previous editions of 

 1551 and 1552, coupled with the facts that 

 there is nothing in the play to suggest any con- 

 nexion with boys, that the scene is laid in 

 London and among London citizens and is 

 essentially a London play points ignored by 

 Maxwell Lyte (1899 edition) and the Dictionary 

 of National Biography appear to furnish an irre- 

 sistible argument that Roister Doister first 

 appeared in 1553, and therefore could not have 

 been written at Eton or for Eton boys. On 

 6 March 1553-4 Udal was given by Gardiner, 

 Bishop of Winchester, the living of Calbourne in 

 the Isle of Wight. It has hitherto been alleged lu 

 that in 1554 he was made head master of West- 

 minster School, which, as is not generally known, 

 was founded by Henry VIII as part of the 

 foundation of the cathedral church of West- 



111 Trereljan Paf>. (Caraden Soc. 84), ii, 31, 33. 

 '" Cf. Diet. Nat. Blag. 



minster, on the dissolution of the abbey in 1 540 ; 

 the only previous school in connexion with the 

 abbey being an almonry or charity school in the 

 subalmonry of the monastery for some 24 boys, 

 which began with some two or three about 

 1356. It has been supposed that Udal was 

 the last master of the Cathedral Grammar School, 

 which he is alleged to have resigned and the 

 school to have been suppressed on the re-erection 

 of the abbey 7 September, and the return of 

 monks to it 21 November 1556. It is, how- 

 ever, now certain us * that Udal was not master in 

 1554, and that he did not resign but died in 

 office, and that the school was not suppressed 

 in 1556. In the will of Stephen Gardiner, 

 Bishop of Winchester and Lord Chancellor, 

 dated 8 November I555, u * there is a bequest of 

 40 marks (28 13*. 4^.) 'to Nicholas Udale, my 

 scolemaister ; ' which is sufficient proof that 

 Udal was not then at Westminster. In what 

 sense he was Gardiner's schoolmaster it is diffi- 

 cult to guess. He was not head master or usher 

 of Winchester College. The Winchester Al- 

 monry School, which corresponded to that of 

 Westminster, came to an end with the dissolu- 

 tion of the monastery. The old High School, 

 or City Grammar School, which, under the im- 

 mediate control of the bishop, existed ages before 

 Winchester College, last appeared as a going 

 concern in the appointment of a master, who 

 bore the same name as the present dean, in 

 i488, 11Sa and the schoolhouse was let in 1529-30 

 at 5/. a year. It is just possible that Gardiner 

 revived it and appointed Udal master. However 

 that may be, the Act Book of the Westminster 

 Chapter established by Henry VIII, among admis- 

 sions of petty or minor canons, scholars and 

 almsmen, contains the following entry : ' Scole- 

 master. Mr. Udale was admitted to be scole- 

 master 1 6 December anno 1555.' The entry 

 is crossed out by a line drawn through it, prob- 

 ably as being considered out of place. The last 

 chapter order is dated 6 March 15556, but 

 leases were granted as late as 24 September 1556. 

 The parish register of St. Margaret's, Westmin- 

 ster, contains under ' Burials in December anno 

 Domini 1556,' ' 1 1 die Katerine Woddall.' ' 23 

 die Nicholas Yevedale." Whether Katherine 

 was Udal's wife, or some relation or not, it is 

 certain that Nicholas Yevedale is Nicholas Uve- 

 dale or Udal. For in the one and only extant 

 account of the cellarer of the revived monas- 

 tery for the year ending Michaelmas 4 and 5 

 Philip and Mary, i.e. 1556, under 'fees and 



lu * Mr. G. Russell Barker, who has for ome year* 

 been accumulating materials for the history of West- 

 minster School, first mentioned this. I am indebted 

 to the dean, the Very Rev. J. Armttagc Robinson, for 

 references and recourse to the abbey muniments which 

 prove it. 



111 P.C.C. 3 Noode*. Proved 25 Jan. 1557. 



'" y.C.H. Hanti, ii, 256. 



185 24 



