Jacobean
John Webster
1578 – 1634
English dramatist (1578-1634)
- United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
- British
- English Renaissance theatre
About
John Webster 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. His life and career overlapped with Shakespeare's.
Source: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA).
Life on the Timeline
Major Works
Exam Dossier
Most-asked topics
- The Duchess of Malfi: plot, themes, imagery of death and corruption
- The White Devil: revenge tragedy conventions and courtroom/trial scene
- Webster's place in Jacobean revenge tragedy alongside Kyd and Shakespeare
- Character study: Bosola as malcontent/intelligencer figure
- Character study: Ferdinand's incestuous obsession and lycanthropia
- Stoicism, fate and death in Webster's tragic vision
- Webster's collaborations with Thomas Dekker
- T.S. Eliot's critical assessment of Webster ('much possessed by death')
Previous-year themes
- Identification of famous lines from The Duchess of Malfi and The White Devil
- Webster's tragic vision compared with Shakespearean tragedy
- The figure of the malcontent/revenger in Jacobean drama
- Imagery of death, decay and the macabre in Webster's plays
- Webster's place within English Renaissance theatre and revenge tragedy tradition
- Critical reception of Webster (Eliot, Lamb, Archer) in essay/short-note questions
- Chronology and authorship of Webster's major and collaborative plays
Common confusions
- Confusing Webster's The White Devil (1612, centred on Vittoria Corombona) with The Duchess of Malfi (1623, centred on the Duchess).
- Confusing Bosola (malcontent-turned-avenger in The Duchess of Malfi) with Flamineo (Vittoria's brother and pander in The White Devil).
- Confusing Ferdinand (the Duchess's twin brother, Duke of Calabria) with the Cardinal (her other brother, a churchman) in The Duchess of Malfi.
- Mistaking Webster's revenge tragedies for Shakespearean tragedy in tone; Webster's world is markedly more nihilistic and macabre.
- Attributing Eliot's line 'much possessed by death' to Webster's own writing rather than to Eliot's poem about Webster.
- Confusing Webster's solo-authored tragedies with his collaborative city comedies written with Thomas Dekker.
Memory tricks
'White' comes before 'Duchess' alphabetically and in time: The White Devil (1612) precedes The Duchess of Malfi (1623).
Remember Bosola = 'Both sides' — he serves the brothers first, then becomes the Duchess's avenger.
Ferdinand = 'Fiendish and Fixated' — his incestuous obsession drives him to madness (lycanthropia).
Dekker collaborations = 'Directions Ho!' — Westward Ho and Northward Ho, both with Thomas Dekker.
'Skull beneath the skin' (Eliot) = Sk-Webster — link the skull image to Webster's death-obsessed imagination.
Vittoria = 'Victim on trial' — she is the accused/tried woman at the heart of The White Devil.
