Webster, John c.1580-c.1625
English dramatist

He is supposed to have been at one time clerk of St Andrews, Holborn, London. In Lady Jane and The Two Harpies (both lost) he was the collaborator of Thomas Dekker, Michael Drayton, Henry Chettle and others, and in 1604 he made some additions to The Malcontent of John Marston. His other collaborations with Dekker include the Famous History of Sir Thomas Wyat, Westward Hoe and Northward Hoe (all 1607). He is best known, however, for his two tragedies, The White Devil (1612) and The Duchess of Malfi (1623). Appius and Virginia (first published 1654) may be Thomas Heywood's (or partly so). The tragedy, A Late Murder of the Son upon the Mother (1624), unpublished and lost, although licensed, was written by John Ford and Webster. He was not popular in his own day, and his stature was first recognized by Charles Lamb.

Bibliography: G M Lagarde, John Webster (1968)