John Webster

Webster: The White Devil

In this course, we explore John Webster’s ‘The White Devil’, beginning by thinking about John Webster himself, before moving on to consider the play itself – its setting in Italy, and the presentation of the various male and female characters in the play. In the last module, we think about how Webster’s play might best be staged – an issue that Webster himself commented on when he complained (in the preface to the printed version of the play) that the original production had been “presented in so open and black a theatre, that it wanted a full and understanding auditory”

John Webster

In this module, we introduce the playwright John Webster, a part-time playwright who wrote his first plays only when he had already turned thirty, and the reception of his play ‘The White Devil’, which was most likely first performed in the period 1608-11.