Webster & Tourneur

PLAYS BY
WEBSTER & TOURNEUR

_WITH AN INTRODUCTION AND NOTES_

BY

JOHN ADDINGTON SYMONDS.



UNEXPURGATED EDITION.


[THE MERMAID SERIES.]

LONDON:

_VIZETELLY & CO._, 16, _HENRIETTA STREET_,

COVENT GARDEN.

1888.




[Transcriber's Note: "The Revenger's Tragedy," attributed here to Cyril
Tourneur, is now generally recognised as the work of Thomas Middleton.]






CONTENTS.


THE GLOBE THEATRE.

JOHN WEBSTER AND CYRIL TOURNEUR.


John Webster:

THE WHITE DEVIL.

THE DUCHESS OF MALFI.


Cyril Tourneur:

THE ATHEIST'S TRAGEDY.

THE REVENGER'S TRAGEDY.
[_Reattributed to Thomas Middleton._]


NOTES.





  _THE GLOBE THEATRE._

  The first Globe Theatre, on the Bankside, Southwark, "the summer
  theatre of Shakespeare and his fellows," is believed to have been built
  in 1594, partly of materials removed from the Theatre in Shoreditch,
  "the earliest building erected in or near London purposely for scenic
  exhibitions." Outside, the Globe was hexagonal in shape, and, like all
  the theatres of that epoch, was open at the top, excepting the part
  immediately over the stage, which was thatched with straw. The interior
  of the theatre was circular. The performances took place by daylight,
  and while they were going on a flag with the cross of St. George upon
  it was unfurled from the roof. Originally, in place of scenery, the
  names of the localities supposed to be represented were inscribed on
  boards or hangings for the information of the audience. The sign of the
  theatre was a figure of Hercules supporting the globe, beneath which
  was written "Totus mundus agit Histrionem."

  In 1601, the Globe Theatre was used as a place of meeting by the
  conspirators engaged in Essex's rebellion, and next year Shakespeare's
  _Hamlet_, following upon other of his plays, was here produced for the
  first time. In subsequent years plays by Shakespeare, Webster, Ford,
  and contemporary dramatists were performed at the Globe, until in 1613
  the theatre was burnt to the ground owing to some lighted paper, thrown
  from a piece of ordnance used in the performance, igniting the thatch.
  The theatre was rebuilt in the following spring with a tiled roof, and
  according to Howes's MS., quoted by Collier in his life of Shakespeare,
  "at the great charge of King James and many noblemen and others." Ben
  Jonson styled the new theatre "the glory of the Bank and the fort of
  the whole parish."

  The Globe Theatre was pulled down in 1644 by Sir Matthew Brand with the
  view to tenements being erected upon its site, a portion of which at
  the present day is occupied by Barclay and Perkins's brewery.




  _JOHN WEBSTER AND CYRIL TOURNEUR._


  Nothing is known about the lives of John Webster and Cyril Tourneur. We
  are ignorant when they were born and when they died. We possess only
  meagre hints of what contemporaries thought of them. One allusion to
  Tourneur survives, which shows that he was not popular in his lifetime
  as a dramatist:--

      His fame unto that pitch so only raised
      As not to be despised nor too much praised.

  A superficial critic speaks of "crabbed Webster, the playwright,
  cart-wright," and proceeds, at some length, to deride his laborious
  style and obscurity. Commendatory verses by S. Sheppard, Th. Middleton,
  W. Shirley, and John Ford prove, however, that Webster's tragedies won
  the suffrage of the best judges. None such are printed with Tourneur's
  plays.

  Webster began to write for the stage as early as 1601. Between that
  date and 1607 he worked upon Marston's _Malcontent_, and is supposed
  to have collaborated with Dekker in the _History of Sir Th. Wyatt,
  Northward Ho,_ and _Westward Ho_. Tourneur began his literary career
  by a satire called _Transformed Metamorphosis_, in 1600, which was
  followed in 1609 by a _Funeral Poem on the Death of Sir Francis Vere_.
  Both he and Webster published Elegies in 1613 upon the death of Prince
  Henry.

  In this year he was employed upon some business for the Court, as
  appears from this passage in the Revels Accounts (ed. Cunningham, p.
  xliii.):

   To Cyrill Turner, upon a warraunte signed by the Lord Chamberleyne
   and Mr. Chauncellor, dated at Whitehall, 23rd December, 1613, for
   his chardges and paines in carrying l'res for his Mats. service to
   Brussells.... X li.

  The amount of this payment renders it improbable that Tourneur's
  mission was of any political or diplomatical importance.

  We do not know when he commenced playwright; but _The Revenger's
  Tragedy_ was licensed in 1607 and printed in the same year. _The
  Atheist's Tragedy_ was printed in 1611; it had been written almost
  certainly at some earlier period. Webster's _White Devil_ was printed
  and probably produced in 1612; his _Duchess of Malfi_, produced perhaps
  in 1616, was printed in 1623.

  It is needful to dwell on the comparison of these dates, since they
  give Tourneur the priority of authorship in a style of tragedy which
  both poets cultivated with marked effect.