John Webster

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.

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.

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.

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.

[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."