Shakespeare in Love/John Webster character

[SJB]

Is this a real historical character we are supposed to know? He kept
popping up throughout the film (the young boy who was obsessed with
violence, death and anything gruesome.) If he was a real person, does
anyone know what he did when he grew up to deserve such infamy?

Sandy

[ELurio]

<<If he was a real person, does
anyone know what he did when he grew up to deserve such infamy?>>

He wrote ultraviolent plays in the early 17th century.

[John Harkness]

SJB wrote:

> Is this a real historical character we are supposed to know? He kept
> popping up throughout the film (the young boy who was obsessed with

> violence, death and anything gruesome.) If he was a real person, does

> anyone know what he did when he grew up to deserve such infamy?
>

> Sandy

In joke for English majors -- John Webster's wrote the best known of the
violent Jacobean revenge tragedies -- The Duchess of Malfi comes to mind.

John

[Tom Cervo]

> In joke for English majors -- John Webster's wrote the best known of the
>violent Jacobean revenge tragedies -- The Duchess of Malfi comes to mind.
>
>

And "The White Devil". He was not that violent compared to others, but his
characters live in a dark and poisonous world--"Play Noire", if you like.
I think Eliot said that "Webster saw the skull beneath the skin."

[Evelyn C. Leeper]

In article <19990102192506...@ng05.aol.com>,

Tom Cervo <tomc...@aol.com> wrote:
> > In joke for English majors -- John Webster's wrote the best known of the
> >violent Jacobean revenge tragedies -- The Duchess of Malfi comes to mind.

Not just English majors.

> And "The White Devil". He was not that violent compared to others, but his
> characters live in a dark and poisonous world--"Play Noire", if you like.
> I think Eliot said that "Webster saw the skull beneath the skin."

T.S. or George?
--
Evelyn C. Leeper | evelyn...@geocities.com
+1 732 957 2070 | http://www.geocities.com/Athens/4824
"If everyone in Congress who has ever had an affair resigned, I have a feeling
Barney Frank would have the place to himself." -Ailsa Murphy

[David Watkins]

I heard this joke about the London paparazzi:

Q - What are the three most poignant cries of grief on record?

A - 1) "Cover her face. Mine eyes dazzle. She died young." (John Webster)

2) "Varus, Varus, give me back my legions." (Augustus Caesar)

3) "Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman left two minutes ago."

[Jane Lumley]

In article <76mqr7$c...@nntpb.cb.lucent.com>, "Evelyn C. Leeper"
<e...@hobcs1.mt.lucent.com> writes

>In article <19990102192506...@ng05.aol.com>,
>Tom Cervo <tomc...@aol.com> wrote:
>> > In joke for English majors -- John Webster's wrote the best known of the
>> >violent Jacobean revenge tragedies -- The Duchess of Malfi comes to mind.
>
>Not just English majors.
>
>> And "The White Devil". He was not that violent compared to others, but his
>> characters live in a dark and poisonous world--"Play Noire", if you like.
>> I think Eliot said that "Webster saw the skull beneath the skin."
>
>T.S. or George?

T.S. 'Webster was much possessed by death/ And saw the skull beneath
the skin/ And breastless creatures underground / Leaned backward with a
lipless grin' (Whispers of Immortality).

Webster's violence is often perverse and sexual; in DoMalfi, for
instance, the Duchess is ultimately murdered by her brother who both
wants her incestuously. Which is why he says the line aoubt her beauty
after she's dead. Actually Shakespeare's late collaborator was
Fletcher, purveyor of mostly fun romps in naughty knickers, though he
also worked with Middleton (more violence, more perversity, but not as
memorable as Webster).
--
Jane Lumley