John Webster as a Jacobean Dramatist II Jacobean Drama

 

John Webster: A Jacobean Dramatist

 ·       John Webster, A figure of mystery, we don’t know a lot about John Webster’s life. It’s believed he was born sometime around 1580 and died sometime around 1632.

 ·       John Webster’s plays dealt with incredibly dark themes unlike William Shakespeare. He had quite a dark outlook on life. In his poem Whispers of Immortality, T.S Eliot says he “always saw the skull beneath the skin”.

MAJOR WORKS OF JOHN WEBSTER:

·       Not many details are available to us as to how many plays were written by Webster. But we have eight surviving plays written by him (some written as a sole author, others in collaboration with Thomas Dekker, Middleton and others).

·       But Webster is known by his two most outstanding tragedies: ‘The White Devil’ and ‘The Dutches of Malfi’.

 ‘The White Devil’ (1611):

The White Devil is considered one of the finest tragedies of the Jacobean Era. This play revolves around the story of love affair of Vitoria Corombona and The Duke of Brachiano. It is packed with political intrigues, extramarital desire, and bloody revenge.

 The Duchess of Malfi (1612):

The play is cantered around the court of Malfi, Italy and the recently widowed Duchess, who falls in love with Antonio, a poor agent. The play begins as a love story as Duchess marries Antonio but ends as a tragedy as her two brothers undertake their revenge, destroying themselves in the process.

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