Webster, John
Webster, John.
ACHIEVEMENTS: Leading Jacobean dramatist
NICKNAME/ALIAS: None.
DATE/PLACE OF BIRTH: c1580, in London, England.
DATE/PLACE OF DEATH/AGE AT DEATH: c1625), in London, England. Aged 45?
DISCIPLINE: Dramatist.
FIELD: Theatre.
LANGUAGE: English.
PARENTS: John Webster and Elizabeth Coates.
SIBLINGS: Edward.
SPOUSE: Sara Peniall.
CHILDREN: John, Elizabeth, Sara and others, names unknown.
EDUCATION: Merchant Taylors school, London; Middle Temple law school, London.
MAJOR WORK: "The White Devil" (c1609-12), "The Duchess of Malfi" (c1612-13).
LIFE AND TIMES: In England, in spite of opposition by the church and an outbreak of the plague in 1592-4, public theatres were accepted by the turn of the 17th century and, in 1602, Webster had become known as a writer for the stage.
He was associated with entrepreneur Philip Henslowe, who had opened the Rose Theater in Southwark, London and set up an actors' company called the Lord Admiral's Men. At the time, they shared the limelight with the Lord Chamberlain's Men who, over time, included Shakespeare* and Burbage*.
Henslowe accepted "Caesar's Fall", a play that Webster had written in collaboration with four friends, among them Thomas Middleton, the son of a London bricklayer and later a successful writer. Dekker* then joined the group of writers, and they produced "The Famous History of Sir Thomas Wyatt", in 1604.
The play referred to events surrounding the execution of Lady Jane, who was the Queen of England for only nine days in 1553. It also ventured into the rebellion by Wyatt against the marriage of Mary Tudor to the Catholic king of Spain. So the play dealt with a politically-dangerous subject, particularly as the recent rebellion by the Earl of Essex, in 1601, paralleled that of Wyatt.
Later, the play was published as a book by Dekker and Webster, called "The Famous History of Sir Thomas Wyatt with the Coronation of Queen Mary and the Coming in of King Philip".
In 1604, Webster was employed by the King's Men to make additions to "The Malcontent" by John Marston, a higher calibre of writer than had been his earlier collaborators. His contribution was an introduction, in which each of the leading roles discussed their characters on stage. Like most of his literary friends, he also contributed material for the celebrations that marked the arrival of the new King James, in London in 1604.
Collaborating with Dekker again, he produced two successful comedies in 1604-5. "Westward Ho," a play based in London, was a bawdy domestic comedy about life among different classes. This play was named after the cry of the Thames boatmen and included a parody of a tragedy written by John Marston.
Marston, together with Jonson* and Chapman*, replied with "Eastward Ho," which landed them briefly in jail for offending the King by mocking the Scots accent (James was a Scotsman). Continuing with the game, Webster and Dekker produced "Northward Ho".
Webster married the daughter of a saddler in 1605 and settled down to family life. Two years later, he wrote the first of his masterpieces, with the lengthy title "The White Devil, or the Tragedy of Paulo Giordano Ursini, Duke of Brachiano, with the Life and Death of Vittoria Corombona, the famous Venetian Curtizan".
The play was produced by the Queen’s Company in 1608, before being re-worked and presented in 1612, with a much shorter name, “The White Devil”, with Richard Burbage in the role of Brachiano.
Webster wrote his second masterpiece, "The Duchess of Malfi", around 1616. This was
first performed by the King's Men at the Blackfriars theatre before being revived at
the Globe in 1622, with its first publication in 1623.
Webster’s inspiration for the play came from the episode in history when Ferdinand, the Duke of Calabria and his brother, a Cardinal, exacted revenge on their sister, the Duchess of Malfi, after she disgraced the family by marrying her steward, Antonio. Again, Burbage took the lead role, playing Ferdinand who, by the end of the play, had inflicted several horrifying murders and had gone completely mad. The audience loved it.
In 1624, Webster wrote a piece for the Lord Mayor's pageant when Middleton, the City poet, was unable to do so. The following year, the theatres closed during an outbreak of the plague and it is assumed that Webster died during this period, as there are no further records of his activities.
ASSESSMENT: Webster's fame rests on his two tragedies, that have come to symbolize the best of Jacobean drama on the English stage.
EXTRA CONNECTIONS: None.
ONELINER: John Webster, famous Jacobean dramatist
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
Bradbrook, M.C., John Webster, Citizen and Dramatist, Weidenfeld and Nicolson, London, 1980.