Three Plays: The White Devil / The Duchess of Malfi / The Devil's Law-Case

by John Webster, David C. Gunby (Editor)

The plays of Jacobean dramatist John Webster are masterpieces of early seventeenth-century English theatre. "The White Devil" depicts a dark, sinister world of duplicity, intrigue and murderous infidelity, while "The Duchess of Malfi" tells the macabre story of a woman who marries beneath herself and sets in motion a terrible cycle of violence. Unlike these revenge tragedies, "The Devil's Law-Case" asserts social order in a plot filled with twists of fate. Written at a time when the court of King James was rife with instability and corruption, Webster's disturbing plays reflect this abuse of power and are known for their horrific vision of humanity - yet they are also some of the most rich, sophisticated dramas ever composed.

Genres: Drama, Plays, Classics, 17th Century, Literature, British Literature, Theatre

464 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1972

About the author

John Webster (c.1580 – c.1634) was an English Jacobean dramatist best known for his tragedies The White Devil (1612) and The Duchess of Malfi (1613), which are often regarded as masterpieces of the early 17th-century English stage. He was a contemporary of William Shakespeare.

Librarian’s note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

Reviews

[Kyle · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am glad that for my comprehensive exams I chose one of the more intriguing tragedies to be performed in the later years of the Globe Theatre: The Duchess of Malfi presents a cruel world punctuated by the clear-sightedness of its characters, for good or more often for evil, and the moral complexity of following traditions to a deadly 't'. The other two plays in this collection were more of a struggle to understand: White Devil and The Devil's Law-Case rely on unsympathetic stereotypes of Italians where everyone is an Iago, even those who appear on stage in the costume of a Moor. The females have it worse where only the defiant Duchess rises above the constant abuse from family members and a heinous hegemony.

[James Violand · Rating 3 out of 5]

Uneven in the extreme. John Webster had a brilliant wit and created memorable characters. This selection of his plays also shows a penchant for gross manipulation of his audience by manufacturing outrageous coincidences and irrational behaviors that fly in the face of reality. The Duchess of Malfi is the best of the three dramas and is so good that I wish some theatrical company would produce it. The White Devil and The Devil's Law-Case should be forgotten as they fail to display the gift Webster had.

[Mark Fuller Dillon · Rating 4 out of 5]

THE WHITE DEVIL, revisited.

As a Jacobean-mad teenager forty-five years ago, I read John Webster's THE WHITE DEVIL for the first time. I applauded its brilliance, but I also wanted to take a hot, soapy shower to wash away the grease of all that evil.

FRANCISCO:

Brachiano, I am now fit for thy encounter.

Like the wild Irish I'll ne'er think thee dead

Till I can play at football with thy head.

= = = = = = = =

[A man with a set of pistols threatens two women, and he means it]

FLAMINEO:

Look, these are better far at a dead lift

Than all your jewel house.

VITTORIA:

And yet methinks

These stones have no fair lustre, they are ill set.

FLAMINEO:

I'll turn the right side towards you: you shall see

How they will sparkle.

Above all, in the world of THE WHITE DEVIL, power counts for everything, people count for nothing.

FLAMINEO:

He was a kind of statesman, that would sooner have reckon'd how many cannon-bullets he had discharged against a town, to count his expense that way, than how many of his valiant and deserving subjects he lost before it.

= = = = = = = =

[A child, a mere child of murdered parents, has claimed the throne]

GIOVANNI:

Away with them to prison and to torture.

A world of power is a world of horrors.

BRACHIANO:

Look you; six gray rats that have lost their tails,

Crawl up the pillow....

= = = = = = = =

BRACHIANO:

O thou soft natural death, that art joint-twin

To sweetest slumber: no rough-bearded comet

Stares on thy mild departure: the dull owl

Beats not against thy casement: the hoarse wolf

Scents not thy carrion. Pity winds thy corse,

Whilst horror waits on princes.

VITTORIA:

I am lost for ever.

BRACHIANO:

How miserable a thing it is to die

'Mongst women howling!

Yet reading this play again -- for what, the fourth time? The fifth? -- I caught a hint of grey light in its darkness. There is goodness in this world, even if much of it endures in resigned sadness.

FLAMINEO:

I would I were from hence.

CORNELIA:

Do you hear, sir?

I'll give you a saying which my grandmother

Was wont, when she heard the bell toll, to sing o'er

Unto her lute--

FLAMINEO:

Do, and you will, do.

CORNELIA:

'Call for the robin red breast and the wren,

Since o'er shady groves they hover,

And with leaves and flow'rs do cover

The friendless bodies of unburied men.

Call unto his funeral dole

The ant, the field-mouse, and the mole

To rear him hillocks that shall keep him warm

And (when gay tombs are robb'd) sustain no harm,

But keep the wolf far thence that's foe to men,

For with his nails he'll dig them up again.'

They would not bury him 'cause he died in a quarrel

But I have an answer for them.

'Let holy church receive him duly

Since he paid the church tithes truly.'

His wealth is summed, and this is all his store:

This poor men get; and great men get no more.

Now the wares are gone, we may shut up shop.

Bless you all good people.

FLAMINEO:

I have a strange thing in me, to the which

I cannot give a name, without it be

Compassion. I pray leave me.

This night I'll know the utmost of my fate:

I'll be resolved what my rich sister means

T'assign me for my service. I have liv'd

Riotously ill, like some that live in court;

And sometimes, when my face was full of smiles

Have felt the maze of conscience in my breast.

Oft gay and honour'd robes those tortures try:

'We think cag'd birds sing, when indeed they cry'.

Yet along with resignation comes defiance, in particular, the courageous defiance of women. This hits a peak during Act 3, Scene 2, with an arraignment of the heroine, Vittoria, whose only crime is that men want her. She will not be cowed by accusations: instead, she argues back, brilliantly, and gains approval from the court's witnesses.

VITTORIA:

Find me but guilty, sever head from body:

We'll part good friends: I scorn to hold my life

At yours or any man's entreaty, sir.

ENGLISH AMBASSADOR:

She hath a brave spirit.

Her defiance, and the defiance of certain women around her, never fades, not even at the end.

VITTORIA:

'Twas a manly blow.

The next thou giv'st, murder some sucking infant

And then thou wilt be famous.

In THE WHITE DEVIL, defiance often snarls with bared fangs, but it remains courage, and as a light against the darkness, admirable.

Darkness obscured the critical consensus on Webster for decades. Even after Shakespeare had been revisited and rehabilitated from his long neglect by British and German Romantics, Webster was hobbled with the reputation of Horror Sensationalist until the end of the 19th Century, when critics like Swinburne and John Addington Symonds came forward to defend him. His rehabilitation continued in the 20th Century, thanks to critics like Rupert Brooke and F. L. Lucas. They pointed out what should have been obvious right from the start: John Webster was not only a great poet, but a great dramatist.

A great poet, a great dramatist. Marlowe was a great poet, but not exactly a good dramatist. Chapman could write beautifully, but dramatically, his plays, especially BUSSY D'AMBOIS, were unconvincing, inconsistent messes. Ford was often fine as a dramatist, and as a poet, often very fine. Above all, however, as dramatist and poet, stood William Shakespeare, and along with him, John Webster.

Webster's poetry differed from Shakespeare's in its precision. Shakespeare seems to have thought in metaphors, and he rarely used one or two when he could use twelve or fifteen; Webster showed more constraint, which enhanced the power of those metaphors he carefully chose. Webster's drama differed from Shakespeare's in its range of people and emotions. While Shakespeare understood all kinds of people, and covered a vast emotional range, Webster focused on angry, bitter people, ignored, passed by, denied promotion and money despite their qualities. It would not be exaggeration to call Webster a Poet Of Resentment.

Yet as THE WHITE DEVIL makes clear, he was also a Poet Of Defiance.

LODOVICO:

Dost laugh?

FLAMINEO:

Wouldst have me die, as I was born, in whining?

GASPARO:

Recommend yourself to heaven.

FLAMINEO:

No, I will carry mine own commendations thither.

For John Webster, defiance represents courage: a daylight strength against a world of brutal midnight power.

[One Sassy Reader · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was definitely one of the plays from this period that I enjoyed the most.
I read it for college, specifically to make a presentation on it.
I’ll definitely enjoy making that presentation.

Such a tragic tale of revenge, madness, impossible love, ambition and how it can corrupt a human being so thoroughly.

Great play!

[Ani · Rating 5 out of 5]

finally finished this! and damn. john webster is officially one of my favourite authors. maybe my favourite playwright?

the white devil made me fall in love with him. the dutchess of malfi become literally a favourite play of mine (that i've now read several times). and the devil's law-case left me needing more.

this man is the true jacobean who has stolen my heart.

[Gill · Rating 3 out of 5]

Placeholder for "Monuments of Honour", a seriously bizarre pageant written for the Lord Mayor.

I have now actually read all the plays in this volume

Read as part of the Shakespeare Institute's 2019 readathon: #Websterthon.

[rania · Rating 3 out of 5]

strange and convoluted ... me likey

[Bill FromPA · Rating 5 out of 5]

The White Devil 2/10
The Duchess of Malfi 3/21
The Devil's Law-Case 4/18-19

[Eleni · Rating 4 out of 5]

Webster is often thought of as the brutal playwright after Shakespeare. And there is a lot of violence in Webster's plays, that being said, they are well-crafted and entertaining in ways that would seem familiar to modern film audiences also used to graphic scenes of violence. Certainly, the point of Jacobean drama is more than just graphic violence, it is sometimes hard to get passed it, but it does comment on the times.

[Lysergius · Rating 4 out of 5]

I some ways less literary, but more action oriented than Shakespeare. There is the same wealth of allusion and some very fine turns of phrase but there are some passages that are quite obscure. "The Devil's Law case" is an unexpected gem.

[justin]

seriously, everyone should love The Duchess of Malfi. crazy murders and secret babies!