John Webster was born in about 1578 in London. He studied law at
the Middle Temple before embarking on a career in the theatre,
collaborating on many plays with contemporary dramatists. But it
was his two solo-authored tragedies, The White Devil (1612) and The
Duchess of Malfi (1614), which sealed his reputation. He died in
the 1630s.
John Ford was born in 1586 in Devon. His early career was wholly
concerned with poetry and philosophical works, and it was not until
the 1620s that he began writing stage plays, including The Broken
Heart (1620) and 'Tis Pity She's a Whore (c.1630). Nothing more is
known of Ford after the performance of his last play in 1638.
Jane Kingsley-Smith is a Reader at Roehampton University, London
and author of Shakespeare's Drama of Exile (2003) and Cupid in
Early Modern Literature and Culture (2010).
Revenge, hatred, villainy, incest, and murder upon murder are their
constant themes . . . and they handle these horrors with little or
no moral purpose, save that of exciting and amusing the audience .
. . We should call him a madman who allowed his daughters or his
servants to see such representations
*Charles Kingsley*
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