Webster, John - John Russell Brown (essay date 1964)
John Russell Brown (essay date 1964)
SOURCE: An introduction to The Duchess of Malfi by John Webster, edited by John Russell Brown, 1623. Reprint by Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1964, pp. xvii-lix.
[In the following excerpt, Brown discusses The Duchess of Malfi's structure, language, dramatic characterization, and moral perspective.]
"I hold it, in these kind of Poems with that of Horace: Sapientia prima, stultitia caruisse; to bee free from those vices, which proceed from ignorance; of which I take it, this Play will ingeniously acquit it selfe."
Webster's introduction to The Devil's Law Case will serve for his earlier tragedy. The Duchess is skilfully and meticulously contrived; like a Pygmalion's image, it has been almost killed by being cherished too much.
Structure
Artfully the characters have been made to reflect upon each other....
[The entire page is 5582 words long]
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