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{{short description|16th/17th-century English playwright}}
{{Short description|English playwright (c. 1580 – c. 1632)}}
{{other people|John Webster}}
{{other people|John Webster}}
{{Use British English|date=August 2011}}
{{Use British English|date=August 2011}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=June 2021}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=June 2021}}
{{Infobox writer
{{Infobox writer
| name = John Webster
|name = John Webster
| birth_date = {{circa|1578}}
|birth_date = {{circa|1578}}
| birth_place = London, England
|birth_place = London, England
| death_date = {{circa|1626}} (age 53 or 54)
|death_date = {{circa|1626}} (age 53 or 54)
| death_place = London, England
|death_place = London, England
| spouse = Sara Peniall
|spouse = Sara Peniall
}}
}}
⚫
'''John Webster''' (c. 1578 – c. 1632) was an English [[English literature#Jacobean period (1603–1625)|Jacobean]] [[dramatist]] best known for his tragedies ''[[The White Devil]]'' and ''[[The Duchess of Malfi]]'', which are often seen as masterpieces of the early 17th-century English stage.<ref name="SBTW">{{Cite book |last=Forker |first=Charles |title=Skull Beneath the Skin |url=https://archive.org/details/skullbeneathskin0000fork |url-access=registration |publisher=Southern Illinois University Press| year=1995 |location=Carbondale |isbn=978-0-8093-1279-5}}</ref> His life and career overlapped with [[William Shakespeare|Shakespeare]]'s.

⚫
'''John Webster''' ({{circa|1580}} – {{circa|1632}}) was an English [[English literature#Jacobean period (1603–1625)|Jacobean]] [[dramatist]] best known for his tragedies ''[[The White Devil]]'' and ''[[The Duchess of Malfi]]'', which are often regarded as masterpieces of the early 17th-century English stage.<ref name="SBTW">{{cite book | last=Forker | first=Charles | title=Skull Beneath the Skin | url=https://archive.org/details/skullbeneathskin0000fork | url-access=registration | publisher=Southern Illinois University Press | year=1995 | location=Carbondale | isbn=978-0-8093-1279-5}}</ref> His life and career overlapped [[William Shakespeare|Shakespeare]]'s.


==Biography==
==Biography==
Webster's life is obscure and the dates of his birth and death are not known. His father, a carriage maker also named John Webster, married a blacksmith's daughter named Elizabeth Coates on 4 November 1577 and it is likely that Webster was born not long after in or near London. The family lived in St. Sepulchre's parish. His father John and his Uncle Edward were Freemen of the [[Merchant Taylors' Company]] and Webster attended Merchant Taylors' School in Suffolk Lane, London.<ref>"John Webster also attended the school, though probably after Mulcaster's retirement in 1586", Julia Briggs, ''This Stage Play World – Texts & Contexts 1580–1625'', OUP, p. 196.</ref> On 1 August 1598, "John Webster, lately of the New Inn" was admitted to the [[Middle Temple]], one of the Inns of Court; in view of the legal interests evident in his dramatic work, this may be the playwright.<ref name="continuum">{{cite book | last=Serafin | first=Steven | author2=Myer, Valerie Grosvenor | title=The Continuum Encyclopedia of British Literature | publisher=Continuum | year=2003 | pages=[https://archive.org/details/continuumencyclo0000unse/page/1032 1032] | isbn=0-8264-1456-7 | url-access=registration | url=https://archive.org/details/continuumencyclo0000unse }}</ref> Webster married 17-year-old Sara Peniall on 18 March 1605 at [[St Mary's Church, Islington]].<ref>Rene Weis, editor of ''John Webster: The Duchess of Malfi and Other Plays'' (Oxford World's Classics, 1996) in programme notes for The Duchess of Malfi, The Old Vic, Spring 2012</ref> A special licence had to be obtained to permit a wedding in [[Lent]], which was necessary as Sara was seven months pregnant. Their first child, John Webster III, was [[baptised]] at the parish of [[St Dunstan-in-the-West]] on 8 March 1606.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=SxTNvztLT2sC&pg=PA7&lpg=PA7&dq=%22Sara+Peniall%22+%22John+Webster%22&source=bl&ots=y7f0Wn9l5U&sig=0L2ol3OdOx95PcEcgzvzyrs2h-8&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjcntOCgYbbAhVLilQKHQXiC9MQ6AEIYDAF#v=onepage&q=%22Sara%20Peniall%22%20%22John%20Webster%22&f=false "Part I: John Webster Merchant Taylor and Citizen of London"] ''Skull Beneath the Skin: The Achievement of John Webster'' by Charles R. Forker (1986) [[Southern Illinois University Press]]; p. 7</ref> Bequests in the will of a neighbour who died in 1617, indicate that other children were born to him.
Webster's life is obscure and the dates of his birth and death are not known. His father, a carriage maker also named John Webster, married a blacksmith's daughter named Elizabeth Coates on 4 November 1577 and it is likely that Webster was born not long after, in or near London. The family lived in St Sepulchre's parish. His father John and uncle Edward were Freemen of the [[Merchant Taylors' Company]] and Webster attended Merchant Taylors' School in Suffolk Lane, London.<ref>"John Webster also attended the school, though probably after Mulcaster's retirement in 1586", Julia Briggs, ''This Stage Play World – Texts & Contexts 1580–1625'', OUP, p. 196.</ref> On 1 August 1598, "John Webster, lately of the New Inn" was admitted to the [[Middle Temple]], one of the Inns of Court; in view of the legal interests evident in his dramatic work, this may be the playwright.<ref name="continuum">{{Cite book |last=Serafin |first=Steven |author2=Myer, Valerie Grosvenor |title=The Continuum Encyclopedia of British Literature |publisher=Continuum |year=2003 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/continuumencyclo0000unse/page/1032 1032] |isbn=0-8264-1456-7 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/continuumencyclo0000unse}}</ref> Webster married 17-year-old Sara Peniall on 18 March 1605 at [[St Mary's Church, Islington]].<ref>Rene Weis, editor of ''John Webster: The Duchess of Malfi and Other Plays'' (Oxford World's Classics, 1996) in programme notes for ''The Duchess of Malfi'', The Old Vic, spring 2012.</ref> A special licence was needed to permit a wedding in [[Lent]], as Sara was seven months pregnant. Their first child, John Webster III, was [[baptised]] at the parish of [[St Dunstan-in-the-West]] on 8 March 1606.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=SxTNvztLT2sC&dq=%22Sara+Peniall%22+%22John+Webster%22&pg=PA7 "Part I: John Webster Merchant Taylor and Citizen of London"] ''Skull Beneath the Skin: The Achievement of John Webster'' by Charles R. Forker (1986) [[Southern Illinois University Press]]; p. 7.</ref> Bequests in the will of a neighbour who died in 1617, indicate that other children were born to him.


Most of what is otherwise known of him relates to his theatrical activities. Webster was still writing plays in the mid-1620s but [[Thomas Heywood]]'s ''Hierarchie of the Blessed Angels'' (licensed 7 November 1634) speaks of him in the past tense, implying he was then dead.
Most of what is otherwise known of him relates to his theatrical activities. Webster was still writing plays in the mid-1620s, but [[Thomas Heywood]]'s ''Hierarchie of the Blessed Angels'' (licensed 7 November 1634) speaks of him in the past tense, implying he was then dead.


There is no known portrait depicting Webster.
There is no known portrait of Webster.


===Early collaboration ===
===Early collaboration ===
By 1602, Webster was working with teams of playwrights on history plays, most of which were never printed. These included a tragedy ''Caesar's Fall'' (written with [[Michael Drayton]], [[Thomas Dekker (poet)|Thomas Dekker]], [[Thomas Middleton]] and [[Anthony Munday]]) and a collaboration with [[Thomas Dekker (poet)|Thomas Dekker]] ''Christmas Comes but Once a Year'' (1602).<ref name=webworks>{{cite book | last=Webster | first=John|author2=Gunby, David |author3=Carnegie, David |author4= MacDonald P Jackson | title=The Works of John Webster | edition=An Old-Spelling Critical | location=Cambridge | publisher=University Press | year=2007 | isbn=978-0-521-26061-9}}</ref> With Dekker he also wrote [[Sir Thomas Wyatt (play)|''Sir Thomas Wyatt'']], which was printed in 1607 and probably first performed in 1602. He worked with Thomas Dekker again on two [[city comedy|city comedies]], [[Westward Ho (play)|''Westward Ho'']] in 1604 and ''[[Northward Ho]]'' in 1605. Also in 1604, he adapted [[John Marston (poet)|John Marston]]'s ''[[The Malcontent]]'' for staging by the [[King's Men (playing company)|King's Men]].
By 1602, Webster was working with teams of playwrights on history plays, most of which were never printed. They included a tragedy, ''Caesar's Fall'' (written with [[Michael Drayton]], [[Thomas Dekker (writer)|Thomas Dekker]], [[Thomas Middleton]] and [[Anthony Munday]]), and a collaboration with Dekker, ''Christmas Comes but Once a Year'' (1602).<ref name=webworks>{{Cite book |last=Webster |first=John |author2=Gunby, David |author3=Carnegie, David |author4= MacDonald P Jackson |title=The Works of John Webster |edition=An Old-Spelling Critical |location=Cambridge |publisher=University Press |year=2007 |isbn=978-0-521-26061-9}}</ref> With Dekker he also wrote [[Sir Thomas Wyatt (play)|''Sir Thomas Wyatt'']], which was printed in 1607 and had probably been first performed in 1602. He worked with Dekker again on two [[city comedy|city comedies]], [[Westward Ho (play)|''Westward Ho'']] in 1604 and ''[[Northward Ho]]'' in 1605. Also in 1604, he adapted [[John Marston (poet)|John Marston]]'s ''[[The Malcontent]]'' for staging by the [[King's Men (playing company)|King's Men]].


===The major tragedies===
===The major tragedies===
[[File:Duchess of Malfi title page.jpg|thumb|Title page of ''[[The Duchess of Malfi]]'', 1623]]
[[File:Duchess of Malfi title page.jpg|thumb|Title page of ''[[The Duchess of Malfi]]'', 1623]]
Despite his ability to write comedy, Webster is best known for his two brooding English tragedies based on Italian sources. ''[[The White Devil]]'', a retelling of the intrigues involving [[Vittoria Accoramboni]], an Italian woman assassinated at the age of 28, was a failure when staged at the [[Red Bull Theatre]] in 1612 (published the same year) being too unusual and intellectual for its audience. ''[[The Duchess of Malfi]]'', first performed by the King's Men about 1614 and published nine years later, was more successful. He also wrote a play called ''Guise'', based on French history, of which little else is known as no text has survived.<ref name=webworks />
Despite his ability to write comedy, Webster is best known for two brooding English tragedies based on Italian sources. ''[[The White Devil]]'', a retelling of the intrigues involving [[Vittoria Accoramboni]], an Italian woman assassinated at the age of 28, was a failure when staged at the [[Red Bull Theatre]] in 1612 (published the same year) being too unusual and intellectual for its audience. ''[[The Duchess of Malfi]]'', first performed by the King's Men about 1614 and published nine years later, was more successful. He also wrote a play called ''Guise'', based on French history, of which little else is known, as no text has survived.<ref name=webworks/>


''The White Devil'' was performed in the [[Red Bull Theatre]], an open-air theatre that is believed to have specialised in providing simple, escapist drama for a largely working class audience, a factor that might explain why Webster's highly intellectual and complex play was unpopular with its audience. In contrast, ''The Duchess of Malfi'' was probably performed by the King's Men in the smaller, indoor [[Blackfriars Theatre]], where it would have played to a better educated audience that might have appreciated it better. The two plays would thus have been very different in their original performances. ''The White Devil'' would have been performed, probably in a continuous action, by adult actors, with elaborate stage effects a possibility. ''The Duchess of Malfi'' was performed in a controlled environment, with artificial lighting and musical interludes between acts, which allowed time, perhaps, for the audience to accept the otherwise strange rapidity with which the Duchess is able to have babies.
''The White Devil'' was performed in the Red Bull Theatre, an open-air theatre that is believed to have specialised in providing simple, escapist drama for a largely working-class audience, a factor that might explain why Webster's intellectual and complex play was unpopular with its audience. In contrast, ''The Duchess of Malfi'' was probably performed by [[the King's Men]] in the smaller, indoor [[Blackfriars Theatre]], where it might have been appreciated by a better educated audience. The two plays would thus have been played very differently: ''The White Devil'' by adult actors, probably in continuous action, with elaborate stage effects a possibility, and ''The Duchess of Malfi'' in a controlled environment, with artificial lighting and musical interludes between acts, which allowed time, perhaps, for the audience to accept the otherwise strange rapidity with which the Duchess could have babies.


===Late plays===
===Late plays===
Webster wrote one more play on his own: ''[[The Devil's Law Case]]'' ({{circa|1617}}–{{circa|1619}}), a [[tragicomedy]]. His later plays were collaborative [[city comedy|city comedies]]: ''[[Anything for a Quiet Life]]'' ({{circa|1621}}) co-written with [[Thomas Middleton]] and ''[[A Cure for a Cuckold]]'' ({{circa|1624}}) co-written with [[William Rowley]]. In 1624, he also co-wrote a topical play about a recent scandal, ''[[Keep the Widow Waking]]'' (with [[John Ford (dramatist)|John Ford]], Rowley and Dekker).<ref name=webworks /> The play is lost, although its plot is known from a court case. He is believed to have contributed to the tragicomedy ''[[The Fair Maid of the Inn]]'' with [[John Fletcher (playwright)|John Fletcher]], Ford and [[Phillip Massinger]]. His ''[[Appius and Virginia]]'', probably written with [[Thomas Heywood]], is of uncertain date.
Webster wrote one more play on his own: ''[[The Devil's Law Case]]'' (c. 1617–1619), a [[tragicomedy]]. His later plays were collaborative [[city comedy|city comedies]]: ''[[Anything for a Quiet Life]]'' ({{circa|1621}}) co-written with [[Thomas Middleton]] and ''[[A Cure for a Cuckold]]'' (c. 1624) co-written with [[William Rowley]]. In 1624, he also co-wrote a topical play about a recent scandal, ''[[Keep the Widow Waking]]'' (with [[John Ford (dramatist)|John Ford]], Rowley and Dekker).<ref name=webworks/> The play is lost, but its plot is known from a court case. He is believed to have contributed to the tragicomedy ''[[The Fair Maid of the Inn]]'' with [[John Fletcher (playwright)|John Fletcher]], Ford and [[Phillip Massinger]]. His ''[[Appius and Virginia]]'', probably written with [[Thomas Heywood]], is of uncertain date.

==Plays==
* ''[[Westward Ho (play)|Westward Ho]]'' (1603–4)
* ''[[Northward Ho]]'' (1605)
* ''[[Sir Thomas Wyatt (play)|Sir Thomas Wyatt]]'' (1607)
* ''[[The White Devil]]'' (1612)
* ''[[The Duchess of Malfi]]'' (1612–13)
* ''[[The Devil's Law Case]]'' (1616–20)
* ''[[Anything for a Quiet Life]]'' (1621)
* ''[[A Cure for a Cuckold]]'' (1624–25)
* ''[[The Fair Maid of the Inn]]'' (1625-26)
* ''[[Appius and Virginia]]'' (1625–27)


==Reputation==
==Reputation==
Intricate, complex, subtle and learned, Webster's plays are difficult but rewarding and are still frequently staged. Webster has received a reputation for being the Elizabethan and Jacobean dramatist with the most unsparingly dark vision of human nature. Even more than [[John Ford (dramatist)|John Ford]], whose ''[['Tis Pity She's a Whore]]'' is also very bleak, Webster's tragedies present a horrific vision of humanity. In his poem "Whispers of Immortality", [[T. S. Eliot]] memorably says that Webster always saw "the skull beneath the skin".
Webster's intricate, complex, subtle and learned plays are difficult, but rewarding and are still frequently staged. Webster has gained a reputation as the Elizabethan and Jacobean dramatist with the most unsparingly dark vision of human nature. Even more than [[John Ford (dramatist)|John Ford]], whose ''[['Tis Pity She's a Whore]]'' is also bleak, Webster's tragedies present a horrific vision of humanity. In his poem "Whispers of Immortality", [[T. S. Eliot]] memorably says that Webster always saw "the skull beneath the skin".


Webster's title character in ''The Duchess of Malfi'' is presented as a figure of virtue by comparison to her malevolent brothers and in facing death she exemplifies classical [[Stoicism|Stoic]] courage. Her martyr-like death scene has been compared to that of the titular king in Christopher Marlowe's play ''[[Edward II (play)|Edward II]]''. Webster's use of a strong, virtuous woman as his central character was rare for his time and represents a deliberate reworking of some of the original historical event on which his play was based. The character of the duchess recalls the Victorian poet and essayist [[Algernon Charles Swinburne]]'s comment in ''A Study of Shakespeare'' that in tragedies such as ''[[King Lear]]'' Shakespeare had shown such a bleak world as a foil or backdrop for virtuous heroines such as Ophelia and Imogen, so that their characterisation would not seem too incredible. Swinburne describes such heroines as shining in the darkness.{{citation needed|date=January 2013}}
Webster's title character in ''The Duchess of Malfi'' is presented as a figure of virtue compared with her malevolent brothers. She faces death with classic [[Stoicism|Stoic]] courage in a martyr-like scene which has been compared to that of the king in [[Christopher Marlowe]]'s play ''[[Edward II (play)|Edward II]]''. Webster's use of a strong, virtuous woman as his main character was rare for his time and marks a deliberate reworking of some of the original historical events on which the play was based. The character of the Duchess recalls the Victorian poet and essayist [[Algernon Charles Swinburne]]'s comment in ''A Study of Shakespeare'' that in tragedies such as ''[[King Lear]]'' Shakespeare had shown such a bleak world as a foil or backdrop for virtuous heroines such as Ophelia and Imogen, so that their characterisation would not seem too incredible. Swinburne describes such heroines as shining in the darkness.{{citation needed|date=January 2013}}


Webster's drama was generally dismissed in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries but many twentieth century critics and theatregoers have found ''The White Devil'' and ''The Duchess of Malfi'' to be brilliant plays of great poetic quality and dark themes. One explanation for this change is that only after the horrors of war in the early twentieth century, could their desperate protagonists be portrayed on stage again and understood. W. A. Edwards wrote of Webster's plays in ''Scrutiny'' II (1933–34) "Events are not within control, nor are our human desires; let's snatch what comes and clutch it, fight our way out of tight corners, and meet the end without squealing". The violence and pessimism of Webster's tragedies have seemed to some analysts close to modern sensibilities.<ref name="RER001">{{cite book | last=Fernie | first=Ewan | last2=Wray |first2=Ramona |last3=Thornton Burnett |first3=Mark |last4=McManus |first4=Clare | title=Reconceiving the Renaissance: A Critical Reader | url=https://archive.org/details/reconceivingrena00fern | url-access=limited | publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] | date=31 March 2005 | location=[[Oxford]] | pages=[https://archive.org/details/reconceivingrena00fern/page/n175 163] | isbn=0-19-926557-7 }}</ref>
Webster's drama was generally dismissed in the 18th and 19th centuries, but many 20th-century critics and theatregoers have found ''The White Devil'' and ''The Duchess of Malfi'' brilliant plays of great poetic quality. One explanation for the change of view is that the horrors of war in the early 20th century had led to desperate protagonists being on stage again and understood. W. A. Edwards wrote of Webster's plays in ''Scrutiny'' II (1933–1934) "Events are not within control, nor are our human desires; let's snatch what comes and clutch it, fight our way out of tight corners, and meet the end without squealing." The violence and pessimism of the tragedies have seemed to some analysts close to modern sensibilities.<ref name="RER001">{{Cite book |last1=Fernie |first1=Ewan |last2=Wray |first2=Ramona |last3=Thornton Burnett |first3=Mark |last4=McManus |first4=Clare |title=Reconceiving the Renaissance: A Critical Reader |url=https://archive.org/details/reconceivingrena00fern |url-access=limited |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |date=31 March 2005 |location=[[Oxford]] |pages=[https://archive.org/details/reconceivingrena00fern/page/n175 163] |isbn=0-19-926557-7}}</ref>


==Webster in other works==
==Webster in other works==
* The eighteenth-century play ''The Fatal Secret'' by [[Lewis Theobald]] is a reworking of ''The Duchess of Malfi'', imposing [[Aristotle]]'s [[Classical unities|'unities']] and a happy ending on the plot.
*The 18th-century play ''The Fatal Secret'' by [[Lewis Theobald]] is a reworking of ''The Duchess of Malfi'', imposing [[Aristotle]]'s [[Classical unities|'unities']] and a happy ending on the plot.
* The short story 'A Christmas in Padua' in [[F. L. Lucas]]'s ''The Woman Clothed with the Sun'' (1937) retells the final hours in December 1585 of Vittoria Accoramboni (the original of Webster's ''White Devil''), slanting the narrative from her perspective.
*The short story 'A Christmas in Padua' in [[F. L. Lucas]]'s ''The Woman Clothed with the Sun'' (1937) retells the final hours in December 1585 of Vittoria Accoramboni (the original of Webster's ''White Devil''), slanting the narrative from her perspective.
* The 1982 [[detective novel]] ''[[The Skull Beneath the Skin]]'' by [[P. D. James]] centres on an ageing actress who plans to play Webster's drama ''[[The Duchess of Malfi]]'' in a [[Victorian era|Victorian]] castle theatre. The novel takes its title from T.S. Eliot's famous characterisation of Webster's work in his poem 'Whispers of Immortality'.
*The 1982 [[detective novel]] ''[[The Skull Beneath the Skin]]'' by [[P. D. James]] centres on an ageing actress who plans to play Webster's drama ''[[The Duchess of Malfi]]'' in a [[Victorian era|Victorian]] castle theatre. The novel takes its title from [[T. S. Eliot]]'s famous characterisation of Webster's work in his poem 'Whispers of Immortality'.
* ''[[Webster (play)|Webster]]'', a play by [[Robert David McDonald]], was written for and premiered at the [[Glasgow Citizens Theatre]], 1984.
*''Webster'', a play by Robert David McDonald, was written for and premièred at the [[Glasgow Citizens Theatre]], 1984.
* A young John Webster, played by [[Joe Roberts (English actor)|Joe Roberts]], appears in the 1998 film ''[[Shakespeare in Love]]''. When talking to Will Shakespeare he tells him that "When I write plays they'll be like Titus (Andronicus) ...plenty of blood - that's the only writing." This scene is an allusion to the real John Webster's macabre work. He is also the character who sees through Viola's disguise.
*A young John Webster, played by Joe Roberts, appears in the 1998 film ''[[Shakespeare in Love]]''. When talking to Will Shakespeare he tells him, "When I write plays they'll be like [[Titus Andronicus|''Titus'']]... plenty of blood – that's the only writing." The scene alludes to the real John Webster's macabre work. He is also the character who reveals Viola's disguise, after watching Viola and Shakespeare making love in the theatre.
* A fragment of Act Four, Scene Two, of ''The Duchess of Malfi'' is shown in the 1987 [[BBC]] TV film version of [[Agatha Christie]]'s detective novel ''[[Sleeping Murder]]''.
*A fragment of Act Four, Scene Two, of ''The Duchess of Malfi'' is shown in the 1987 [[BBC]] TV film version of [[Agatha Christie]]'s detective novel ''[[Sleeping Murder]]''.
* Webster's line, "Cover her face; mine eyes dazzle: she died young", is used in the novel ''Queen of the Damned'' by [[Anne Rice]], as well as in ''Sleeping Murder''.
*Webster's line, "Cover her face; mine eyes dazzle: she died young", is used in the novel ''Queen of the Damned'' by [[Anne Rice]], and in ''Sleeping Murder''.
* Mike Figgis's 2001 film ''[[Hotel (2001 movie)|Hotel]]'' involves scenes from ''The Duchess of Malfi''.
*Mike Figgis's 2001 film ''[[Hotel (2001 movie)|Hotel]]'' involves scenes from ''The Duchess of Malfi''.
* The antagonist in Paul Johnston's 'The Death List' and 'The Soul Collector' mimics ''The White Devil'' in character-names and actions.
*The antagonist in Paul Johnston's 'The Death List' and 'The Soul Collector' mimics ''The White Devil'' in character-names and actions.
* In Episode 11, Season 2 of HBO's ''[[Boardwalk Empire]]'', ''The White Devil'' is discussed in a Princeton classroom during a scene that takes place in Jimmy Darmody's past. At the end of the scene the teacher quotes the line "What, because we are poor shall we be vicious?" to which Jimmy responds "Pray what means have you to keep me from the galleys, or the gallows?" Later in the episode, the teacher refers to Jimmy's life as Jacobean.
*In Episode 11, Season 2 of HBO's ''[[Boardwalk Empire]]'', ''The White Devil'' is discussed in a Princeton classroom during a scene that takes place in Jimmy Darmody's past. At the end of the scene the teacher quotes the line "What, because we are poor shall we be vicious?" to which Jimmy responds "Pray what means have you to keep me from the galleys, or the gallows?" Later in the episode, the teacher refers to Jimmy's life as Jacobean.
* Webster and his works ''The White Devil'' and ''The Duchess of Malfi'' are mentioned in the lyrics to the song ''My White Devil'' by [[Echo & The Bunnymen]], included on their 1983 album [[Porcupine (album)|''Porcupine'']].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.metrolyrics.com/my-white-devil-lyrics-echo-the-bunnymen.html|title=Echo & The Bunnymen - My White Devil Lyrics - MetroLyrics|work=metrolyrics.com}}</ref>
*Webster and his works ''The White Devil'' and ''The Duchess of Malfi'' are mentioned in the lyrics to the song ''My White Devil'' by [[Echo & The Bunnymen]], included on their 1983 album [[Porcupine (album)|''Porcupine'']].<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.metrolyrics.com/my-white-devil-lyrics-echo-the-bunnymen.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304075629/http://www.metrolyrics.com/my-white-devil-lyrics-echo-the-bunnymen.html|archive-date=2016-03-04|url-status=unfit |title=Echo & The Bunnymen – My White Devil Lyrics – MetroLyrics |work=metrolyrics.com}}</ref>


==References==
==References==
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==External links==
==External links==
{{wikiquote}}
{{wikiquote}}
*{{StandardEbooks|Standard Ebooks URL=https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/john-webster}}
* {{Gutenberg author |id=857}}
* {{Internet Archive author |sname=John Webster}}
*{{Gutenberg author |id=857}}
*{{Internet Archive author |sname=John Webster}}
* {{Librivox author |id=262}}
*{{Librivox author |id=262}}
* [http://www.letrs.indiana.edu/cgi-bin/acs-idx.pl?type=section&rgn=level1&byte=1613585 Algernon Swinburne's The Age of Shakespeare, "John Webster"]
*[http://www.letrs.indiana.edu/cgi-bin/acs-idx.pl?type=section&rgn=level1&byte=1613585 Algernon Swinburne's The Age of Shakespeare, "John Webster"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120213190931/http://www.letrs.indiana.edu/cgi-bin/acs-idx.pl?type=section&rgn=level1&byte=1613585 |date=13 February 2012 }}
* {{IMDb name|916925}}
*{{IMDb name|916925}}
* {{IBDB name}}
*{{IBDB name}}


{{John Webster}}
{{John Webster}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Webster, John}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Webster, John}}
[[Category:Births circa 1580]]
[[Category:16th-century births]]
[[Category:Year of birth uncertain]]
[[Category:1630s deaths]]
[[Category:1630s deaths]]
[[Category:English Renaissance dramatists]]
[[Category:English Renaissance dramatists]]
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[[Category:English dramatists and playwrights]]
[[Category:17th-century English poets]]
[[Category:17th-century English poets]]
[[Category:17th-century English male writers]]
[[Category:17th-century English male writers]]
[[Category:16th-century English poets]]
[[Category:16th-century English poets]]
[[Category:16th-century English male writers]]
[[Category:17th-century English dramatists and playwrights]]
[[Category:17th-century English dramatists and playwrights]]
[[Category:Plays by John Webster]]
[[Category:Plays by John Webster]]
[[Category:People from the City of London]]
[[Category:People from the City of London]]
[[Category:English male Shakespearean actors]]
[[Category:English male Shakespearean actors]]
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[[Category:English male stage actors]]
[[Category:English male dramatists and playwrights]]
[[Category:English male dramatists and playwrights]]
[[Category:English male poets]]
[[Category:English male poets]]

Latest revision as of 17:44, 24 December 2024

For other people named John Webster, see John Webster (disambiguation).

John Webster
Bornc. 1578
London, England
Diedc. 1626 (age 53 or 54)
London, England
SpouseSara Peniall

John Webster (c. 1578 – c. 1632) was an English Jacobean dramatist best known for his tragedies The White Devil and The Duchess of Malfi, which are often seen as masterpieces of the early 17th-century English stage.[1] His life and career overlapped with Shakespeare's.

Biography

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Webster's life is obscure and the dates of his birth and death are not known. His father, a carriage maker also named John Webster, married a blacksmith's daughter named Elizabeth Coates on 4 November 1577 and it is likely that Webster was born not long after, in or near London. The family lived in St Sepulchre's parish. His father John and uncle Edward were Freemen of the Merchant Taylors' Company and Webster attended Merchant Taylors' School in Suffolk Lane, London.[2] On 1 August 1598, "John Webster, lately of the New Inn" was admitted to the Middle Temple, one of the Inns of Court; in view of the legal interests evident in his dramatic work, this may be the playwright.[3] Webster married 17-year-old Sara Peniall on 18 March 1605 at St Mary's Church, Islington.[4] A special licence was needed to permit a wedding in Lent, as Sara was seven months pregnant. Their first child, John Webster III, was baptised at the parish of St Dunstan-in-the-West on 8 March 1606.[5] Bequests in the will of a neighbour who died in 1617, indicate that other children were born to him.

Most of what is otherwise known of him relates to his theatrical activities. Webster was still writing plays in the mid-1620s, but Thomas Heywood's Hierarchie of the Blessed Angels (licensed 7 November 1634) speaks of him in the past tense, implying he was then dead.

There is no known portrait of Webster.

Early collaboration

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By 1602, Webster was working with teams of playwrights on history plays, most of which were never printed. They included a tragedy, Caesar's Fall (written with Michael Drayton, Thomas Dekker, Thomas Middleton and Anthony Munday), and a collaboration with Dekker, Christmas Comes but Once a Year (1602).[6] With Dekker he also wrote Sir Thomas Wyatt, which was printed in 1607 and had probably been first performed in 1602. He worked with Dekker again on two city comedies, Westward Ho in 1604 and Northward Ho in 1605. Also in 1604, he adapted John Marston's The Malcontent for staging by the King's Men.

The major tragedies

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Title page of The Duchess of Malfi, 1623

Despite his ability to write comedy, Webster is best known for two brooding English tragedies based on Italian sources. The White Devil, a retelling of the intrigues involving Vittoria Accoramboni, an Italian woman assassinated at the age of 28, was a failure when staged at the Red Bull Theatre in 1612 (published the same year) being too unusual and intellectual for its audience. The Duchess of Malfi, first performed by the King's Men about 1614 and published nine years later, was more successful. He also wrote a play called Guise, based on French history, of which little else is known, as no text has survived.[6]

The White Devil was performed in the Red Bull Theatre, an open-air theatre that is believed to have specialised in providing simple, escapist drama for a largely working-class audience, a factor that might explain why Webster's intellectual and complex play was unpopular with its audience. In contrast, The Duchess of Malfi was probably performed by the King's Men in the smaller, indoor Blackfriars Theatre, where it might have been appreciated by a better educated audience. The two plays would thus have been played very differently: The White Devil by adult actors, probably in continuous action, with elaborate stage effects a possibility, and The Duchess of Malfi in a controlled environment, with artificial lighting and musical interludes between acts, which allowed time, perhaps, for the audience to accept the otherwise strange rapidity with which the Duchess could have babies.

Late plays

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Webster wrote one more play on his own: The Devil's Law Case (c. 1617–1619), a tragicomedy. His later plays were collaborative city comedies: Anything for a Quiet Life (c. 1621) co-written with Thomas Middleton and A Cure for a Cuckold (c. 1624) co-written with William Rowley. In 1624, he also co-wrote a topical play about a recent scandal, Keep the Widow Waking (with John Ford, Rowley and Dekker).[6] The play is lost, but its plot is known from a court case. He is believed to have contributed to the tragicomedy The Fair Maid of the Inn with John Fletcher, Ford and Phillip Massinger. His Appius and Virginia, probably written with Thomas Heywood, is of uncertain date.

Plays

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Reputation

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Webster's intricate, complex, subtle and learned plays are difficult, but rewarding and are still frequently staged. Webster has gained a reputation as the Elizabethan and Jacobean dramatist with the most unsparingly dark vision of human nature. Even more than John Ford, whose 'Tis Pity She's a Whore is also bleak, Webster's tragedies present a horrific vision of humanity. In his poem "Whispers of Immortality", T. S. Eliot memorably says that Webster always saw "the skull beneath the skin".

Webster's title character in The Duchess of Malfi is presented as a figure of virtue compared with her malevolent brothers. She faces death with classic Stoic courage in a martyr-like scene which has been compared to that of the king in Christopher Marlowe's play Edward II. Webster's use of a strong, virtuous woman as his main character was rare for his time and marks a deliberate reworking of some of the original historical events on which the play was based. The character of the Duchess recalls the Victorian poet and essayist Algernon Charles Swinburne's comment in A Study of Shakespeare that in tragedies such as King Lear Shakespeare had shown such a bleak world as a foil or backdrop for virtuous heroines such as Ophelia and Imogen, so that their characterisation would not seem too incredible. Swinburne describes such heroines as shining in the darkness.[citation needed]

Webster's drama was generally dismissed in the 18th and 19th centuries, but many 20th-century critics and theatregoers have found The White Devil and The Duchess of Malfi brilliant plays of great poetic quality. One explanation for the change of view is that the horrors of war in the early 20th century had led to desperate protagonists being on stage again and understood. W. A. Edwards wrote of Webster's plays in Scrutiny II (1933–1934) "Events are not within control, nor are our human desires; let's snatch what comes and clutch it, fight our way out of tight corners, and meet the end without squealing." The violence and pessimism of the tragedies have seemed to some analysts close to modern sensibilities.[7]

Webster in other works

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  • The 18th-century play The Fatal Secret by Lewis Theobald is a reworking of The Duchess of Malfi, imposing Aristotle's 'unities' and a happy ending on the plot.
  • The short story 'A Christmas in Padua' in F. L. Lucas's The Woman Clothed with the Sun (1937) retells the final hours in December 1585 of Vittoria Accoramboni (the original of Webster's White Devil), slanting the narrative from her perspective.
  • The 1982 detective novel The Skull Beneath the Skin by P. D. James centres on an ageing actress who plans to play Webster's drama The Duchess of Malfi in a Victorian castle theatre. The novel takes its title from T. S. Eliot's famous characterisation of Webster's work in his poem 'Whispers of Immortality'.
  • Webster, a play by Robert David McDonald, was written for and premièred at the Glasgow Citizens Theatre, 1984.
  • A young John Webster, played by Joe Roberts, appears in the 1998 film Shakespeare in Love. When talking to Will Shakespeare he tells him, "When I write plays they'll be like Titus... plenty of blood – that's the only writing." The scene alludes to the real John Webster's macabre work. He is also the character who reveals Viola's disguise, after watching Viola and Shakespeare making love in the theatre.
  • A fragment of Act Four, Scene Two, of The Duchess of Malfi is shown in the 1987 BBC TV film version of Agatha Christie's detective novel Sleeping Murder.
  • Webster's line, "Cover her face; mine eyes dazzle: she died young", is used in the novel Queen of the Damned by Anne Rice, and in Sleeping Murder.
  • Mike Figgis's 2001 film Hotel involves scenes from The Duchess of Malfi.
  • The antagonist in Paul Johnston's 'The Death List' and 'The Soul Collector' mimics The White Devil in character-names and actions.
  • In Episode 11, Season 2 of HBO's Boardwalk Empire, The White Devil is discussed in a Princeton classroom during a scene that takes place in Jimmy Darmody's past. At the end of the scene the teacher quotes the line "What, because we are poor shall we be vicious?" to which Jimmy responds "Pray what means have you to keep me from the galleys, or the gallows?" Later in the episode, the teacher refers to Jimmy's life as Jacobean.
  • Webster and his works The White Devil and The Duchess of Malfi are mentioned in the lyrics to the song My White Devil by Echo & The Bunnymen, included on their 1983 album Porcupine.[8]

References

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  1. ^ Forker, Charles (1995). Skull Beneath the Skin. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press. ISBN 978-0-8093-1279-5.
  2. ^ "John Webster also attended the school, though probably after Mulcaster's retirement in 1586", Julia Briggs, This Stage Play World – Texts & Contexts 1580–1625, OUP, p. 196.
  3. ^ Serafin, Steven; Myer, Valerie Grosvenor (2003). The Continuum Encyclopedia of British Literature. Continuum. pp. 1032. ISBN 0-8264-1456-7.
  4. ^ Rene Weis, editor of John Webster: The Duchess of Malfi and Other Plays (Oxford World's Classics, 1996) in programme notes for The Duchess of Malfi, The Old Vic, spring 2012.
  5. ^ "Part I: John Webster Merchant Taylor and Citizen of London" Skull Beneath the Skin: The Achievement of John Webster by Charles R. Forker (1986) Southern Illinois University Press; p. 7.
  6. ^ a b c Webster, John; Gunby, David; Carnegie, David; MacDonald P Jackson (2007). The Works of John Webster (An Old-Spelling Critical ed.). Cambridge: University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-26061-9.
  7. ^ Fernie, Ewan; Wray, Ramona; Thornton Burnett, Mark; McManus, Clare (31 March 2005). Reconceiving the Renaissance: A Critical Reader. Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. 163. ISBN 0-19-926557-7.
  8. ^ "Echo & The Bunnymen – My White Devil Lyrics – MetroLyrics". metrolyrics.com. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016.
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