Allegorical Causation and Aristotelian Physics in Henry Medwall’s Nature

Abstract

This article argues that Henry Medwall’s early interlude Nature (ca. 1495) reworks the typical staged allegory of the morality play, staging a struggle not over the fate of man’s soul but over two competing interpretations of Aristotelian physics. Medwall finds in theater the perfect way of investigating the role that allegorical drama can—and must—play in understanding not only how our ideas about nature are intimately connected to ideas such as causality, responsibility, and the place of the human within the natural world but also how staged allegory might be used to engage in debates about nature.