Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Medwall, Henry
MEDWALL, HENRY (fl. 1486), writer of interludes, was chaplain to John Morton [q. v.], who was raised to the see of Canterbury in 1486. The only work of his extant is ‘Nature: a goodly interlude of Nature [cotilde]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 probably printed between 1510 and 1520 by John Rastell, the supposed author of the interlude entitled ‘The Nature of the Four Elements.’ In the British Museum copy, from the Garrick collection, are bound up two duplicate leaves (c. i. and ii.). ‘Nature’ was produced before Morton in Henry VII's reign, and is thus one of the most ancient of our moralities or moral plays. Bale states that it was translated into Latin. Another interlude not now extant, but ascribed to Medwall, ‘Of the Finding of Truth, carried away by Ignorance and Hypocrisy,’ was diversified by the introduction of a fool, an innovation which commended it to Henry VIII when it was produced before him at Richmond, Christmas 1516. Apart from this feature the piece was misliked, and the king ‘departyd before the end to hys chambre.’
[Collier's Dramatic Poetry, i. 69, ii. 217–24; Warton's Hist. of Poetry, ed. Hazlitt, iii. 189, 292; Ames's Typograph. Antiq. ed. Herbert; Tanner, Bibl. Brit. s.v. Medwallus.]