WEBSTER, John, English dramatist: b. about 1580; d. about 1625. He appears to have followed the occupation of his father, a tailor, and in 1604 was a freeman of the Merchant Taylors' Company. In 1602 he began to write plays in collaboration with other playwrights, but attained to his full power only when, be tween 1607 and 1612, he adopted independent authorship. He added to 'The Malcontent,' a play_ by John Marston, and was associated with Dekker in writing two vigorous prose com edies, 'Westward Hoe' (acted 1604) and 'Northward Hoe' (acted 1605). 'The White Devil,' or 'Vittoria Corombona,' a tragedy pub lished in 1612, was his first independent work, and is now recognized as one of the best trage dies of its age. 'Appius and Virginia,' pub lished in 1654, followed soon afterward and in 1616 his masterpiece, 'The Duchess of Malfi,' was first produced at the Blackfriars Theatre. It was first published in 1623. This great trag edy, which has won enthusiastic praise from Charles Lamb and many subsequent critics of eminence, is based on a Neapolitan story found in Bandello. 'The Devil's Law Case' was pub lished in 1623 and appears to have been Web ster's last play. Of other plays sometimes
ascribed in part to Webster, only 'A Cure for a Cuckold' (published 1661) seems to contain any of his work. Webster wrote in 1624 a pageant for the Lord Mayor of London and in 1612 was associated with Heywood and Tour neur in producing 'Three Elegies to the Memory of Prince Henry.' He also contributed verses to other works. There are editions of Web ster's works by Dyce (1830; new eds.. 1857 and 1886) and Hazlitt (1856). J. A. Symonds edited a selection in the 'Mermaid Series' in 1888 and there is an edition of 'The Duchess of Malfi, in the 'Temple Dramatists' by C. E. Vaughan (1896). Consult Hazlitt. 'Dramatic Literature of the Age of Elizabeth' (ed., 1840): Vopel, 'John Webster: Researches on his Life and Plays' (1887); Gosse, '17th Century Stud ies' (1883): Swinburne, 'Studies in Prose and Poetry' (104). Lamb was the earliest among 19th critics to give due praise to Web ster and Swinburne enthusiastically places him next to Shakespeare among English dramatists.