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    The White Devil: "Man is most happy, when his own actions are arguments and examples of his virtue"
    The White Devil: "Man is most happy, when his own actions are arguments and examples of his virtue"
    The White Devil: "Man is most happy, when his own actions are arguments and examples of his virtue"
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    The White Devil: "Man is most happy, when his own actions are arguments and examples of his virtue"

    By John Webster

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    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.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherStage Door
    Release dateMar 2, 2017
    ISBN9781787373419
    The White Devil: "Man is most happy, when his own actions are arguments and examples of his virtue"

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      Book preview

      The White Devil - John Webster

      The White Devil by John Webster

      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

      TO THE READER

      DRAMATIS PERSONÆ

      THE SCENE―ITALY

      ACT I

      SCENE I

      SCENE II

      ACT II

      SCENE I

      SCENE II

      A DUMB SHOW

      THE SECOND DUMB SHOW

      ACT III

      SCENE I

      SCENE II

      SCENE III

      ACT IV

      SCENE I

      SCENE II

      SCENE III

      ACT V

      SCENE I

      SCENE II

      SCENE III

      SCENE IV

      SCENE V

      SCENE VI

      TO THE READER

      In publishing this tragedy, I do but challenge myself that liberty, which other men have taken before me; not that I affect praise by it, for, only since it was acted in so dull a time of winter, presented in so open and black a theatre, that it wanted (that which is the only grace and setting-out of a tragedy) a full and understanding auditory; and that since that time I have noted, most of the people that come to that playhouse resemble those ignorant asses (who, visiting stationers' shops, their use is not to inquire for good books, but new books), I present it to the general view with this confidence:

      Nec rhoncos metues maligniorum,

      Nec scombris tunicas dabis molestas.

      If it be objected this is no true dramatic poem, I shall easily confess it, willingly, and not ignorantly, in this kind have I faulted: For should a man present to such an auditory, the most sententious tragedy that ever was written, observing all the critical laws as height of style, and gravity of person, enrich it with the sententious Chorus, and, as it were Life and Death, in the passionate and weighty Nuntius: yet after all this divine rapture, O dura messorum ilia, the breath that comes from the incapable multitude is able to poison it; and, ere it be acted, let the author resolve to fix to every scene this of Horace:

      ―Hæc hodie porcis comedenda relinques.

      To those who report I was a long time in finishing this tragedy, I confess I do not write with a goose-quill winged with two feathers; and if they will need make it my fault, I must answer them with that of Euripides to Alcestides, a tragic writer: Alcestides objecting that Euripides had only, in three days composed three verses, whereas himself had written three hundred: Thou tallest truth (quoth he), but here 's the difference, thine shall only be read for three days, whereas mine shall continue for three ages.

      Detraction is the sworn friend to ignorance: for mine own part, I have ever truly cherished my good opinion of other men's worthy labours, especially of that full and heightened style of Mr. Chapman, the laboured and understanding works of Mr. Johnson, the no less worthy composures of the both worthily excellent Mr. Beaumont and Mr. Fletcher; and lastly (without wrong last to be named), the right happy and copious industry of Mr. Shakespeare, Mr. Dekker, and Mr. Heywood, wishing what I write may be read by their light: protesting that, in the strength of mine own judgment, I know them so worthy, that though I rest silent in my own work, yet to most of theirs I dare (without flattery) fix that of Martial:

      ―non norunt hæc monumenta mori.

      DRAMATIS PERSONÆ

      MONTICELSO, a Cardinal; afterwards Pope PAUL the Fourth.

      FRANCISCO DE MEDICIS, Duke of Florence; in the 5th Act disguised for a Moor, under the name of MULINASSAR.

      BRACHIANO, otherwise PAULO GIORDANO URSINI, Duke of Brachiano, Husband to ISABELLA, and in love with VITTORIA.

      GIOVANNI―his Son by ISABELLA.

      LODOVICO, an Italian Count, but decayed.

      ANTONELLI, ) his Friends, and Dependants of the Duke of Florence.

      GASPARO,     )

      CAMILLO, Husband to VITTORIA.

      HORTENSIO, one of BRACHIANO's Officers.

      MARCELLO, an Attendant of the Duke of Florence, and Brother to VITTORIA.

      FLAMINEO, his Brother; Secretary to BRACHIANO.

      JACQUES, a Moor, Servant to GIOVANNI.

      ISABELLA, Sister to FRANCISCO DE MEDICI, and Wife to BRACHIANO.

      VITTORIA COROMBONA, a Venetian Lady; first married to CAMILLO, afterwards to BRACHIANO.

      CORNELIA, Mother to VITTORIA, FLAMINEO, and MARCELLO.

      ZANCHE, a Moor, Servant to VITTORIA.

      Ambassadors, Courtiers, Lawyers, Officers, Physicians, Conjurer, Armourer, Attendants.

      THE SCENE―ITALY

      ACT I

      SCENE I

      Enter COUNT LODOVICO, ANTONELLI, and GASPARO

      LODOVICO

      Banish'd!

      ANTONELLI

      It griev'd me much to hear the sentence.

      LODOVICO

      Ha, ha, O Democritus, thy gods

      That govern the whole world! courtly reward

      And punishment.  Fortune 's a right whore:

      If she give aught, she deals it in small parcels,

      That she may take away all at one swoop.

      This 'tis to have great enemies!  God 'quite them.

      Your wolf no longer seems to be a wolf

      Than when she

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