John Webster | |
|---|---|
| Born | c. 1578 London, England |
| Died | c. 1626 (age 53 or 54) London, England |
| Spouse | Sara Peniall |
John Webster (c. 1578 – c. 1632) was an EnglishJacobeandramatist best known for his tragediesThe White Devil andThe Duchess of Malfi, which are often seen as masterpieces of the early 17th-century English stage.[1] His life and career overlapped withShakespeare's.
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 theMerchant 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 theMiddle 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 atSt Mary's Church, Islington.[4] A special licence was needed to permit a wedding inLent, as Sara was seven months pregnant. Their first child, John Webster III, wasbaptised at the parish ofSt 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, butThomas Heywood'sHierarchie 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.
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 withMichael Drayton,Thomas Dekker,Thomas Middleton andAnthony Munday), and a collaboration with Dekker,Christmas Comes but Once a Year (1602).[6] With Dekker he also wroteSir Thomas Wyatt, which was printed in 1607 and had probably been first performed in 1602. He worked with Dekker again on twocity comedies,Westward Ho in 1604 andNorthward Ho in 1605. Also in 1604, he adaptedJohn Marston'sThe Malcontent for staging by theKing's Men.
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 involvingVittoria Accoramboni, an Italian woman assassinated at the age of 28, was a failure when staged at theRed 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 calledGuise, 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 bythe King's Men in the smaller, indoorBlackfriars 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, andThe 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.
Webster wrote one more play on his own:The Devil's Law Case (c. 1617–1619), atragicomedy. His later plays were collaborativecity comedies:Anything for a Quiet Life (c. 1621) co-written withThomas Middleton andA Cure for a Cuckold (c. 1624) co-written withWilliam Rowley. In 1624, he also co-wrote a topical play about a recent scandal,Keep the Widow Waking (withJohn 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 tragicomedyThe Fair Maid of the Inn withJohn Fletcher, Ford andPhillip Massinger. HisAppius and Virginia, probably written withThomas Heywood, is of uncertain date.
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 thanJohn 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 inThe Duchess of Malfi is presented as a figure of virtue compared with her malevolent brothers. She faces death with classicStoic courage in a martyr-like scene which has been compared to that of the king inChristopher Marlowe's playEdward 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 essayistAlgernon Charles Swinburne's comment inA Study of Shakespeare that in tragedies such asKing 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 foundThe White Devil andThe 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 inScrutiny 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]
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