John Webster est un dramaturge anglais, contemporain de William Shakespeare. Ses tragédies, jalonnées d'épisodes atroces, font de lui un des plus vigoureux auteurs du théâtre élisabéthain. En présentant le côté le plus sombre de l'humanité, ses pièces préfigurent la littérature gothique anglaise du XVIIIe siècle. Wikipedia
“Whether we fall by ambition, blood, or lust,
Like diamonds, we are cut with our own dust.”
Act V, scene v.
Duchess of Malfi (1623)
“Cover her face; mine eyes dazzle: she died young.”
Act IV, scene ii.
Duchess of Malfi (1623)
Source: The Duchess of Malfi
Act I, scene ii. Compare: "To public feasts, where meet a public rout,— Where they that are without would fain go in, And they that are within would fain go out", John Davies, Contention betwixt a Wife, etc.
The White Devil (1612)
Academiarum Examen, or the Examination of Academies (1654), p. 71; of chemistry.
“Glories, like glow-worms, afar off shine bright,
But look'd too near have neither heat nor light.”
Act IV, scene 4. Compare Distance.
The White Devil (1612)
Westward Hoe, Act II, scene ii. See also Wine, Friendship.
Act IV, scene ii.
Duchess of Malfi (1623)
“But keep the wolf far thence, that's foe to men,
For with his nails he'll dig them up again.”
Act V, scene iv.
The White Devil (1612)
“I know death hath ten thousand several doors
For men to take their exits.”
Act IV, scene ii. Compare: "Death hath so many doors to let out life", John Fletcher, The Custom of the Country, act ii, scene 2.
Duchess of Malfi (1623)
“Prosperity doth bewitch men, seeming clear;
But seas do laugh, show white, when rocks are near.”
Act V, scene vi.
The White Devil (1612)
“Glories, like glowworms, afar off shine bright,
But looked to near have neither heat nor light.”
Act IV, scene ii.
Duchess of Malfi (1623)
Kenneth Tynan, review of The Duchess of Malfi at the Aldwych Theatre (1960), from Tynan Left and Right (1967).
