He, indeed, loads his scene with horrors almost past the point which modern taste can bear but the intensity of his dramatic situations, and his superb power of flashing in a single line a light into the recesses of the human heart at the crises of supreme emotion, redeems him from mere sensationalism, and places his best things in the first rank of dramatic writing. Webster's tragedies come toward the close of the great series of tragedies of blood and revenge, in which 'The Spanish Tragedy' and 'Hamlet' are landmarks, but before decadence can fairly be said to have set in. Four plays exist which he wrote alone, 'The White Devil,' 'The Duchess of Malfi,' 'The Devil's Law-Case,' and 'Appius and Virginia.' The dates 1580-1625 given for his birth and death are conjectural inferences, about which the best that can be said is that no known facts contradict them.The first notice of Webster so far discovered shows that he was collaborating in the production of plays for the theatrical manager, Henslowe, in 1602, and of such collaboration he seems to have done a considerable amount. As Michelle Dowd points out in Delinquent Pedigrees: Revision, Lineage, and Spatial Rhetoric in the Duchess of Malfi, Many commentators argue that the play champions Protestant ideals of marriage and domestic life by privileging the Duchess’ child from her marriage to Antonio, the play thus validates the ideology of companionship. Of John Webster's life almost nothing is known. In any case, it portrays with a terrible vividness one side of the court life of the Italian Renaissance and its picture of the fierce quest of pleasure, the recklessness of crime, and the worldliness of the great princes of the Church finds only too ready corroboration in the annals of the time. It is based on a story in Painter's 'Palace of Pleasure,' translated from the Italian novelist, Bandello and it is entirely possible that it has a foundation in fact. As the Jacobean period progressed, the spectacle became more violent and dark, reflecting the public’s growing dissatisfaction with the corruption of King James’ court.'The Duchess of Malfi' was published in 1623, but the date of writing may have been as early as 1611. Coming after Shakespeare’s equally sanguine Hamlet and Kyd’s The Spanish Tragedy, Webster’s The Duchess of Malfi brings to a close the era of the great Senecan tragedies of blood and revenge.

Marked by the period’s love of spectacular violence, each character exacts his revenge, and in turn suffers vengeance at the hands of others. Soon the intrigue, deceit, and murders begin.

On learning of this, her brothers become enraged and vow their revenge. The play is loosely based on a real Duchess of Amalfi, a widow who marries beneath her station. It appears to have been first performed in 1612–13 at the Blackfriars before moving on to the larger and more famous Globe Theatre, and was later published in 1623. John Webster was a later contemporary of Shakespeare, and The Duchess of Malfi, Webster’s best known play, is considered among the best of the period. Please note: This audiobook has been created using AI voice.

The duchess of malfi online