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    A Study Guide for John Webster's "The Duchess of Malfi"
    A Study Guide for John Webster's "The Duchess of Malfi"
    A Study Guide for John Webster's "The Duchess of Malfi"
    Ebook41 pages34 minutes

    A Study Guide for John Webster's "The Duchess of Malfi"

    By Gale and Cengage

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    About this ebook

    A Study Guide for John Webster's "The Duchess of Malfi," excerpted from Gale's acclaimed Drama For Students. This concise study guide includes plot summary; character analysis; author biography; study questions; historical context; suggestions for further reading; and much more. For any literature project, trust Drama For Students for all of your research needs.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherCengage Learning - Gale
    Release dateAug 3, 2016
    ISBN9781535836319
    A Study Guide for John Webster's "The Duchess of Malfi"

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      Book preview

      A Study Guide for John Webster's "The Duchess of Malfi" - Gale

      1

      The Duchess of Malfi

      John Webster

      1623

      Introduction

      John Webster's The Duchess of Malfi was written in 1613 or 1614, and had at least two successful productions in London before it was published in 1623 under the title The Tragedy of the Duchesse of Malfy. Generally considered to be Webster's masterpiece, it tells the story of a young widow who marries against the wishes of her powerful brothers, setting off a storm of revenge. The startling violence, the unbelievable plot twists, the mysterious motives of the brothers, and the calm strength of the Duchess have made The Duchess of Malfi a subject for fierce debate for hundreds of years. Critics and reviewers have loved or hated the play, with equal fervor.

      The Duchess's story is based on actual events that took place in Italy in the early sixteenth century. Webster freely borrowed elements of his story from several sources, including William Painter's popular collection of stories, The Palace of Pleasure (1566–1567), and Sir Philip Sidney's romance Arcadia (1590), and also borrowed dramatic elements from the Revenge Tragedy tradition, but he adapted the source materials to suit his own themes and dramatic purpose. The Duchess of Malfi is widely available in high school and college anthologies. It is also available separately as a Dover Thrift edition and collected in The Duchess of Malfi and Other Plays (1998), part of the Oxford World Classics series.

      Author Biography

      John Webster was born in London, England, probably in 1579 or 1580. Like most of the facts about Webster's life, his birthdate is not recorded in any documents that survive to this day; scholars estimate his birthdate by extrapolating from existing records of his parents' marriage in 1577. It is known that his father was also named John and that the father earned a good living as a coachmaker, but the name and background of Webster's mother is not known.

      It is likely that Webster attended the prestigious Merchant Taylors' School, an institution established for children of members of the Company of Merchant Taylors. There, he would have received a solid basic education, which included exposure to literature in Latin and English, and he would have participated in musical and dramatic performances.

      Although the play itself has been lost, there is evidence that Webster was part of a group that was paid in 1602 for writing Caesar's Fall. This play, written on commission, is the earliest known work to which Webster contributed. Webster would continue to collaborate with other playwrights, including Thomas Dekker, Thomas Middleton, and Michael Drayton,

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