SOURCE: Walker, Greg. “Dramatic Justice at the Marian Court: Nicholas Udall'sRespublica.” In The Politics of Performance in Early Renaissance Drama, pp. 163-95. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998.

In the following essay, Walker provides an overview of Udall's life and career as well as an in-depth analysis of Respublica.

The Author

Born in Southampton in 1504, Nicholas Udall attended Winchester College from 1517 and went up to Corpus Christi College, Oxford in 1520. After a period as a Fellow of Corpus and university lecturer in Logic, he left Oxford in 1529 and made a living as a writer and freelance scholar before being appointed headmaster of Eton in 1534.¹ While at Eton, Udall seems to have developed a reputation for the zealous administration of corporal punishment. A former pupil was later to protest about his treatment at the headmaster's hands in doggerel verse.

From Paul's I went, to Eton sent, To learn straightways the...