THE

ANCIENT BRITISH DRAMA.

THE

WHITE DEVIL;

OR,

VITTORIA COROMBONA.

A LADY OF VENICE.

BY

JOHN WEBSTER.

JOHN WEBSTER flourished in the reign of King James the First. He was clerk of the parish of St. Andrew, Holborn,' and a member of the Merchant-Taylors' Company. The times of his birth and death are unknown. From the following verses, he appears to have had the character of an illnatured critick, but whether with justice or not cannot now be determined, as none of his works of that kind are come down to posterity.

2" But h'st with him crabbed (Websterio),

The play-wright, cart-wright: whether? either ho

No further. Looke as yee'd bee lookt into:

Sit as ye woo'd be read: Lord! who woo'd know him?

Was ever man so mangl'd with a Poem?

See how he drawes his mouth awry of late,

How he scrubs: wrings his wrests: scratches his pate;

A midwife! helpe? By his braines coitus

Some Centaure strange: some huge Bucephalus,

'Gildon's Lives of the Poets.

2 Notes from Black-Fryers, printed in certain Elegies. Done by sundrie excellent Wits. With Satyrs and Epigrams. 1620. 12mo.

VOL. III.

A

Or Pallas (sure) ingendred in his braine,
Strike Vulcan with thy hammer once againe.

This is the crittick that (of all the rest)
I'de not have view mee, yet I feare him least,
Heer's not a word cursively I have writt,
But hee'll industriously examine it;

And in some 12 monthes hence (or there about)
Set in a shamefull sheete my errors out.

But what care I? it will be so obscure,

That none shall understand him (I am sure)."

Theobald, who altered the Dutchess of Malfy, says of him3: "He had a strong and impetuous genius, but withall a most wild and indigested one: he sometimes conceived nobly, but did not always express with clearness; and, if he now and then soars handsomely, he as often rises into the regions of bombast: his conceptions were so eccentric, that we are not to wonder why we cannot trace him. As for rules, he either knew them not, or thought them too servile a restraint. Hence

it is, that he skips over years and kingdoms with an equal liberty. (It must be confessed, the unities were very sparingly observed at the time in which he wrote; however, when any poet travels so fast, that the imagination of his spectators cannot keep pace with him, probability is put quite out of breath.) Nor has he been less licentious in another respect he makes mention of Galileo and Tasso, neither of whom were born till near half a century after the Dutchess of Malfy was murthered."

Philip Frowde, Esq. in the Prologue to the same play, says:

"The rude, old bard, if critick laws he knew,
From a too warm imagination drew;

And scorning rule should his free soul confine,
Nor time, nor place, observ'd in his design."

He was the Author of the following plays :

(1.) "The White Devil; or, the Tragedy of Paulo Giordano Ursini Duke of Brachiano; with the Life and Death of Vittoria Corombona, the famous Venetian Curtizan. Acted by the Queen's Servants at the Fhanix, Drury-Lane. 4to. 1612; 4to. 1631; 4to. 1665; 4to. 1672."

(2.) "The Tragedy of the Dutchesse of Malfy. As it was presented privatly at the BlackFriers, and publiquely at the Globe, by the King's Majesties Servants. The perfect and exact Coppy, with diverse things printed, that the length of the play would not beare in the presentment. 4to. 1623; 4lo. 1640; 4to. 1678; 4to. 1708."

(3.) "The Devil's Law-case; or, When Women goe to Law, the Devil is full of Businesse: A New Trage-comeedy. The true and perfect Copie from the Originall. As it was approved well acted by her Majesties Servants. 4to. 1623."

66

(4.) Appius and Virginia. A Tragedy, 4to. 1654; 4to. 1655." It was revived and printed in 1679, by Betterton, in 4to. and acted at the Duke's Theatre, under the title of The Roman Virgin, or Unjust Judge.

(5.) "The Thracian Wonder. A Comical History, as it hath been several times acted with great applause. Written by John Webster and William Rowley; 4to. 1661.

(6.) A Cure for a Cuckold: A Pleasant Comedy. As it hath been several times acted with great applause. Written by John Webster and William Rowley; 4to. 1661."

He also wrote The Induction to The Male Content, by Marston, 1604.

"A Monumental Columne, erected to the living Memory of the ever-glorious Henry, late Prince of Wales; 4to. 1613."

"The Monument of Honour, at the confirmation of the right worthy brother John Goare in the high office of his Majesty's lieutenant over his royal chamber, at the charge and expence of the right worthy and worshipfull fraternity of eminent Merchant-Taylors. Invented and written by John Webster, Taylor; 4to. 1624."

3 Preface to The Fatal Secret, 12mo. 1735.

TO THE READER.

IN publishing this Tragedy, I do but challenge to myself that liberty which other men have taken before me; not that I affect praise by it, for nos hac novimus esse nihil: only, since it was acted in so open and black a theatre, that it wanted (that which is the only grace and setting-out of a tragedy) a full and understanding auditory; and that, since that time, I have noted most of the people that come to that play-house resemble those ignorant asses (who, visiting stationers' shops, their use is not to inquire for good books, but new books), I present it to the general view with this confidence:

Nec rhoncos metues malignorum,

Nec scombris tunicas dabis molestas.

If it be objected this is no true dramatick poem, I shall easily confess it, non potes in nugas dicere plura meas, ipse ego quam dixi; willingly, and not ignorantly, have I faulted. For should a man present, to such an auditory, the most sententious tragedy that ever was written, observing all the critical laws, as height of stile, and gravity of person, inrich it with the sententious chorus, and, as it were, enliven death, in the passionate and weighty Nuntius; yet, after all this divine rapture, O dura messorum Ilia, the breath that comes from the uncapable multitude is able to poison it; and, ere it be acted, let the author resolve to fix to every scene this of Horace :

-Hæc hodie porcis comedenda relinques.

To those, who report I was a long time in finishing this tragedy, I confess, I do not write with a goose-quill wing'd with two feathers; and, if they will needs make it my fault, I must answer them with that of Euripides to Alcestides, a tragick writer: Alcestides objecting that Euripides had only, in three days, composed three verses, whereas himself had written three hundred: Thou tell'st truth (quoth he); but here's the difference, thine shall only be read for three days, whereas inine shall continue three ages.

Detraction is the sworn friend to ignorance: for mine own part, I have ever truly cherished my good opinion of other men's worthy labours, especially of that full and heightened stile of master Chapman, the laboured and understanding works of master Jonsou, the no less worthy composures of the both worthily excellent master Beaumont and master Fletcher; and lastly (without wrong last to be named), the right happy and copious industry of master Shakespeare, master Decker, and master Heywood, wishing what I write may be read by their light; protesting that, in the strength of mine own judgment, I know them so worthy, that though I rest silent in my own work, yet to most of theirs I dare (without flattery) fix that of Martial :

non norunt hæc monumenta mori.

DRAMATIS PERSONE.

MONTICELSO, a Cardinal; afterwards Pope
PAUL IV.

FRANCISCO DE MEDICIS, Duke of Florence; in
the fifth Act disguised for a Moor, under the
name of MULINASSAR.

BRACHIANO, otherwise PAULO GIORDANO UR-
SINI, Duke of Brachiano, Husband to Isa-
BELLA, and in love with VITTORIA.
GIOVANNI, his Son by ISABELLA.
LODOVICO, an Italian Count, but decay'd.

CORNELIA, Mother to VITTORIA, FLAMINEO, and MARCELLO.

ANTONELLI, his Friends, and Dependents of ZANCHE, a Moor, Servant to VITTORIA.

GASPARO,

the Duke of Florence.

CAMILLO, Husband to VITTORIA.

HORTENSIO, one of BRACHIANO's Officers.

MARCELLO, an Attendant of the Duke of Florence, and Brother to VITTORIA.

Ambassadors, Courtiers, Lawyers, Officers,
Physicians, Conjurer, Armourer, Attend-

ants.

SCENE-ITALY.

In mentem Authoris.

Scire velis quid sit mulier ? quo percitet astro?
En tibi, si sapias, cum sale, mille sales.

+ Black a theatre.-I think we should read blank, i. e. vacant, unsupplied with articles necessáry toward theatrical representation.

S.

THE

WHITE DEVIL;

OR,

VITTORIA COROMBONA.

A LADY OF VENICE.

ACT I.

5 Swoop-The technical term for the descent of a hawk on its prey. So, in Macbeth :

See Note on that passage, Vol. IV. of Shakspeare, p. 565, edit. 1778. S.

6 Mummy. See Note 3 to The Bird in a Cage, Vol. I. p. 226.

7 Caviare. See Note 19 to The Ordinary, postea.