John Webster's The Duchess of Malfi was first performed in either 1613 or 1614.

It was likely written the year before its first onstage appearance, and it was first performed privately at the Blackfriars Theatre, a theatre held in possession by the King's Men, the troupe to which Shakespeare, William Sly, and Richard Burbage all belonged. It was not until 1613 or 1614 that the play opened publicly at the open-air Globe Theatre, across the river, also held by the King's Men. This was a time when the "revenge tragedy" was increasingly popular, with plays such as Shakespeare's Othello, written ten years earlier, gaining critical acclaim.

However, the text of Webster's play that was published in 1623 and has been read for centuries is different to that which was originally performed, though we do not know exactly how. From the title page of the original publication, we know that the performed version was a condensed version of the script and that certain scenes and passages were cut. Publishers tried to tempt people into buying the published version, with promises of an "unedited" version and more of Webster's original writing. The fact that this was an effective means of encouraging the public to buy the script speaks to Webster's popularity as a writer and poet at the time.