MEDWALL, HENRY

flourished 1490 author remembered for his Fulgens and Lucrece, the first known secular play in English. Medwall was chaplain to Cardinal John Morton, archbishop of Canterbury, and was the rector of Balynghem in the English marches of Calais, in France. The first note of him is in Morton's register at Lambeth, London, in 1490; in 1501 he seems to have been granted letters of protection allowing him to go abroad; a few months later he resigned, and no later reference to him is known. Medwall's dramatic works were written for the entertainment of the cardinal and his guests. A morality play, Nature, a good example of the allegorical type of early drama, displays Medwall's talent for realistic dialogue and his skill as a versifier.