The Devil's Law Case: "All things do help the unhappy man to fall"
By John Webster
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About this ebook
John Webster is known primarily for his two Jacobean tragedies, The Duchess of Malfi and The White Devil. Much of the detail and chronology of his life that led to these two pivotal works is, however, unknown. His father, a carriage maker also named John Webster, married a blacksmith's daughter, Elizabeth Coates, on November 4th, 1577, and it is likely that Webster was born within a year or two in or near London. The family lived in St. Sepulchre's parish. Both his father and his uncle, Edward Webster, were Freemen of the Merchant Taylors' Company and Webster attended Merchant Taylors' School in Suffolk Lane, London. Some accounts say he began to study law but nothing is certain although there are some legal aspects to his later works to suggest this may have been so. By 1602, Webster was employed working as part of various teams of playwrights on history plays, though unfortunately most were never printed and therefore do not survive. These include a tragedy Caesar's Fall (written with Michael Drayton, Thomas Dekker, Thomas Middleton and Anthony Munday), and a collaboration with Thomas Dekker; Christmas Comes but Once a Year (1602). This factory line assembly of plays may seem rather odd to us today but plays then ran for much shorter durations and consequently a steady supply had to be assured. Webster’s relationship with Dekker seems to have been a good one. Together they wrote Sir Thomas Wyatt, printed in 1607, although it is thought first performed in 1602 and two city comedies, Westward Ho! in 1604 and Northward Ho! in 1605. It seems Webster also adapted, in 1604, John Marston's The Malcontent for staging by the King's Men. On March 18th, 1606 Webster married the 17-year-old Sara Peniall at St Mary's Church, Islington. Sara was 7 months pregnant and marrying during Lent required the issuing of a special permit, hence the certainty of the date. Their first child, John, was baptised at the parish of St Dunstan-in-the-West on March 8th, 1606. Records show that on the death of a neighbour, who died in 1617, several bequests were made to the Webster family and it is therefore thought that other children were born to the couple. Despite his ability to write comedy, and to collaborate with others, Webster is remembered best for his sole authorship on two brooding English tragedies based on Italian sources. The White Devil, retells the intrigues involving Vittoria Accoramboni, an Italian woman assassinated at the age of 28. It was performed at the open-air Red Bull Theatre in 1612 but was unsuccessful, perhaps being too high brow for a working-class audience. In 1614 The Duchess of Malfi was first performed by the King's Men, most probably in the indoor Blackfriars Theatre and to a more high-brow audience. It proved to be more successful. The play Guise, based on French history, was also written but him but no text has survived. Webster wrote one more play on his own: The Devil's Law Case (c. 1617–1619), a tragicomedy. He continued to write thereafter but always in collaboration and usually city comedies; Anything for a Quiet Life (c. 1621), with Thomas Middleton, and A Cure for a Cuckold (c. 1624), 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). The play itself is lost, although its plot is known from a court case. There is also some certainty that he contributed to the tragicomedy The Fair Maid of the Inn with John Fletcher, John Ford, and Phillip Massinger. His Appius and Virginia, was probably written with Thomas Heywood, and is of uncertain date. It is believed, mainly from Thomas Heywood's Hierarchie of the Blessed Angels (licensed 7 November 1634) that speaks of him in the past tense that John Webster had died at some point in that year of 1634.
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Anything for a Quiet Life: "For the subtlest folly proceeds from the subtlest wisdom" Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAnything For a Quiet Life: "The strongest and the fiercest spirit That fought in heaven, now fiercer by despair." Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Duchess of Malfi: "Heaven fashioned us of nothing; and we strive to bring ourselves to nothing" Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe White Devil: "Man is most happy, when his own actions are arguments and examples of his virtue" Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
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The Devil's Law Case - John Webster
The Devil’s Law Case by John Webster
To the Right Worthy, All-accomplished Gentleman, Sir Thomas Finch, Baronet
John Webster is known primarily for his two Jacobean tragedies, The Duchess of Malfi and The White Devil. Much of the detail and chronology of his life that led to these two pivotal works is, however, unknown.
His father, a carriage maker also named John Webster, married a blacksmith's daughter, Elizabeth Coates, on November 4th, 1577, and it is likely that Webster was born within a year or two in or near London.
The family lived in St. Sepulchre's parish. Both his father and his uncle, Edward Webster, were Freemen of the Merchant Taylors' Company and Webster attended Merchant Taylors' School in Suffolk Lane, London.
Some accounts say he began to study law but nothing is certain although there are some legal aspects to his later works to suggest this may have been so.
By 1602, Webster was employed working as part of various teams of playwrights on history plays, though unfortunately most were never printed and therefore do not survive. These include a tragedy Caesar's Fall (written with Michael Drayton, Thomas Dekker, Thomas Middleton and Anthony Munday), and a collaboration with Thomas Dekker; Christmas Comes but Once a Year (1602). This factory line assembly of plays may seem rather odd to us today but plays then ran for much shorter durations and consequently a steady supply had to be assured.
Webster’s relationship with Dekker seems to have been a good one. Together they wrote Sir Thomas Wyatt, printed in 1607, although it is thought first performed in 1602 and two city comedies, Westward Ho! in 1604 and Northward Ho! in 1605. It seems Webster also adapted, in 1604, John Marston's The Malcontent for staging by the King's Men.
On March 18th, 1606 Webster married the 17-year-old Sara Peniall at St Mary's Church, Islington. Sara was 7 months pregnant and marrying during Lent required the issuing of a special permit, hence the certainty of the date. Their first child, John, was baptised at the parish of St Dunstan-in-the-West on March 8th, 1606. Records show that on the death of a neighbour, who died in 1617, several bequests were made to the Webster family and it is therefore thought that other children were born to the couple.
Despite his ability to write comedy, and to collaborate with others, Webster is remembered best for his sole authorship on two brooding English tragedies based on Italian sources. The White Devil, retells the intrigues involving Vittoria Accoramboni, an Italian woman assassinated at the age of 28. It was performed at the open-air Red Bull Theatre in 1612 but was unsuccessful, perhaps being too high brow for a working-class audience.
In 1614 The Duchess of Malfi was first performed by the King's Men, most probably in the indoor Blackfriars Theatre and to a more high-brow audience. It proved to be more successful.
The play Guise, based on French history, was also written but him but no text has survived.
Webster wrote one more play on his own: The Devil's Law Case (c. 1617–1619), a tragicomedy.
He continued to write thereafter but always in collaboration and usually city comedies; Anything for a Quiet Life (c. 1621), with Thomas Middleton, and A Cure for a Cuckold (c. 1624), 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). The play itself is lost, although its plot is known from a court case.
There is also some certainty that he contributed to the tragicomedy The Fair Maid of the Inn with John Fletcher, John Ford, and Phillip Massinger. His Appius and Virginia, was probably written with Thomas Heywood, and is of uncertain date.
It is believed, mainly from Thomas Heywood's Hierarchie of the Blessed Angels (licensed 7 November 1634) that speaks of him in the past tense that John Webster had died at some point in that year of 1634.
Index of Contents
DRAMATIS PERSONAE
ACT I
SCENE I
SCENE II
ACT II
SCENE I
SCENE II
SCENE III
SCENE IV
ACT III
SCENE I
SCENE II
SCENE III
ACT IV
SCENE I
SCENE II
ACT V
SCENE I
SCENE II
SCENE III
SCENE IV
SCENE V
DRAMATIS PERSONAE
ROMELIO, a merchant.
CONTARINO, a nobleman, and suitor to JOLENTA.
ERCOLE, a Knight of Malta, also suitor to JOLENTA.
CRISPIANO, a lawyer.
JULIO, son to CRISPIANO.
PROSPERO, a merchant, and colleage of ROMELIO.
ARIOSTO, a lawyer, and afterwards a judge.
CONTILUPO, a lawyer, representing LEONORA at the trial.
SANITONELLA, a law-clerk, assisting CONTILUPO
A CAPUCHIN FRIAR.
BAPTISTA, a merchant [ghost character].
LEONORA, mother of ROMELIO and of JOLENTA.
JOLENTA, sister of ROMELIO, and sought in marriage by CONTARINO and ERCOLE.
WINIFRID, her waiting woman.
ANGIOLELLA, a nun, pregnant by ROMELIO.
Two Surgeons, Judges, Lawyers, Bellmen, Registrar, Marshal, Herald, and Srevants.
SCENE
The Action takes place in Naples
ACT I
SCENE I
[Enter ROMELIO, and PROSPERO]
PROSPERO
You have shown a world of wealth; I did not think
There had been a merchant liv'd in Italy
Of half your substance.
ROMELIO
I'll give the King of Spain
Ten thousand ducats yearly, and discharge
my yearly custom. The Hollanders scarce trade
More generally than I: my factors' wives
Wear shaperoons of velvet, and my scriveners
Merely through my employment, grow so rich,
They build their palaces and belvederes
With musical water-works: never in my life
Had I loss at sea. They call me on th'exchange,
The fortunate young man, and make great suit
To venture with me. Shall I tell you sir,
Of a strange confidence in my way of trading?
I reckon it as certain as the gain
In erecting a lottery.
PROSPERO
I pray, sir, what do you think
Of Signor Baptista's estate?
ROMELIO
A mere beggar:
He's worth some fifty thousand ducats.
PROSPERO
Is not that well?
ROMELIO
How, well? For a man to be melted to snow-water,
With toiling in the world from three and twenty,
Till threescore, for poor fifty thousand ducats!
PROSPERO
To your estate 'tis little I confess:
You have the spring tide of gold.
ROMELIO
Faith, and for silver,
Should I not send it packing to th'East Indies,
We should have a glut on't.
[Enter SERVANT.]
SERVANT
Here's the great Lord Contarino.
PROSPERO
O, I know
His business, he's a suitor to your sister.
ROMELIO
Yes sir, but to you-
As my most trusted friend, I utter it-
I will break the alliance.
PROSPERO
You are ill-advis'd then;
There lives not a completer gentleman
In Italy, nor of a more ancient house.
ROMELIO
What tell you me of gentry? 'Tis nought else
But a superstitious relic of time past:
And sift it to the true worth, it is nothing
But ancient riches: and in him you know
They are pitifully in the wane. He makes his colour
Of visiting us so often, to sell land,
And thinks if he can gain my sister's love,
To recover the treble value.
PROSPERO
Sure he loves her
Entirely, and she deserves it.
ROMELIO
Faith, though she were
Crook'd-shoulder'd, having such a portion,
She would have noble suitors. But truth is,
I would wish my noble venturer take heed;
It may be whiles he hopes to catch a gilthead,
He may draw up a gudgeon.
[Enter CONTARINO.]
PROSPERO
He's come. Sir I will leave you.
[Exit PROSPERO and SERVANT]
CONTARINO
I sent you the evidence of the piece of land
I motioned to you for the