John Webster
and John Ford

THE DUCHESS OF MALFI,
THE WHITE DEVIL,
THE BROKEN HEART
AND
’TIS PITY SHE’S A WHORE

Edited and introduced by Jane Kingsley-Smith

PENGUIN CLASSICS

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First published in Great Britain by Penguin Classics 2014

Editorial material copyright © Jane Kingsley-Smith, 2014

Cover: Death wearing a cardinal’s hat and mantilla, hand-painted tarot card (photograph: The Bridgeman Art Library)

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The moral right of the editor has been asserted

ISBN: 978-0-141-39224-0

Contents

Chronology

Note on the Texts

Introduction

JOHN WEBSTER

The White Devil

The Duchess of Malfi

JOHN FORD

The Broken Heart

’Tis Pity She’s a Whore

Further Reading

Textual Variants

Follow Penguin

PENGUIN CLASSICS

THE DUCHESS OF MALFI, THE WHITE DEVIL, THE BROKEN HEART AND ’TIS PITY SHE’S A WHORE

JOHN WEBSTER was born in about 1578 in the parish of St Sepulchre-without-Newgate, London, the eldest son of a prosperous coachmaker. He probably attended Merchant Taylors’ School, before studying law at the Middle Temple, where he developed the rhetorical skills needed for a life in the theatre. His writing career was mainly collaborative, beginning with a tragedy, Caesar’s Fall (c. 1602, now lost), in which Anthony Munday, Thomas Middleton and Michael Drayton all had a hand, and ranging across a number of genres, including popular history (Lady Jane I and II, 1602), city comedy (Westward Ho, 1604), tragicomedy (The Devil’s Law-Case, c. 1618) and civic pageantry (Monuments of Honour, 1624). Yet it was his two solo-authored tragedies, The White Devil (1612) and The Duchess of Malfi (1614), which sealed his reputation. There are no records of theatrical output between 1605 and 1612, though we know that in 1606 he married Sara Peniall, who was seven months pregnant, and they had at least four children. It may be that during this time Webster was labouring over his two greatest plays. He was clearly aggrieved at the negative reaction to The White Devil when it was first performed at the Red Bull Theatre by the Queen Anne’s Men to an unenthusiastic audience. However, The Duchess of Malfi, performed by the King’s Men at the Blackfriars Theatre two years later, was an instant success. Despite this new fame, Webster continued to collaborate with all the major dramatists of the time and to work in genres other than tragedy until his death in the 1630s.

JOHN FORD was born in April 1586 in Ilsington, Devon, the second son of a wealthy landowner. We know very little about his life. He may have attended Exeter College, Oxford, before studying law at the Middle Temple in London, an association he seems to have continued throughout his life. His first published work was an elegy entitled Fame’s Memorial (1606) and his early career was wholly concerned with poetry and philosophical works. It was not until the 1620s that he began writing for the stage, collaborating with the more experienced dramatist Thomas Dekker on plays including The Witch of Edmonton (1621) and a masque, The Sun’s Darling (1624), and developing his connection with the King’s Men by completing John Fletcher’s The Fair Maid of the Inn (1626) with Webster and Philip Massinger. In the late 1620s Ford began writing alone, producing the eight plays on which his reputation is based. The precise dating of these works remains unknown, but the first three were probably The Lover’s Melancholy (c. 1628), The Broken Heart (c. 1629) and Beauty in a Trance (c. 1630, now lost), performed by the King’s Men at the Blackfriars Theatre. Ford then changed his allegiance to the Queen Henrietta’s Men at the Cockpit Theatre, Drury Lane, for whom he wrote ’Tis Pity She’s a Whore (c. 1630), Love’s Sacrifice (c. 1632), Perkin Warbeck (c. 1633) and The Fancies, Chaste and Noble (c. 1635). What looks like Ford’s last play, The Lady’s Trial (1638), was performed at the Cockpit by Beeston’s Boys, after which nothing more of him is known.

JANE KINGSLEY-SMITH studied English at Oriel College, Oxford, and completed her PhD at the Shakespeare Institute, Stratford-upon-Avon. She is the author of two monographs: Shakespeare’s Drama of Exile (Palgrave, 2003) and Cupid in Early Modern Literature and Culture (Cambridge, 2010), and is currently editing Love’s Labour’s Lost for the new Norton Shakespeare. She is a Reader at Roehampton University, London, and a regular guest speaker at Shakespeare’s Globe.

Chronology

c. 1578 John Webster born in Smithfield, London, the first son of John Webster Snr.

1586 John Ford baptized on 12 April at Ilsington, Devon, second son of Thomas Ford and Elizabeth Popham.

1598 Webster admitted to the Middle Temple, London, to study law.

1601 Ford matriculates at Exeter College, Oxford.

c. 1602 Webster collaborates on Caesar’s Fall (with Anthony Munday, Thomas Middleton and Michael Drayton), Lady Jane I and II (with Thomas Dekker) and Christmas Comes but Once a Year (with Thomas Heywood), all lost.

        Webster contributes a commendatory poem to Munday’s translation of Palmerin of England, Part III.

        Ford admitted to the Middle Temple, London, to study law.

1603 Death of Elizabeth I; accession of James I.

1604 Webster writes the Induction and other additions for a revised version of John Marston’s The Malcontent, performed by the King’s Men at the Blackfriars Theatre.

        Westward Ho by Webster and Dekker first performed by Paul’s Boys.

        Webster contributes a commendatory poem to Stephen Harrison’s Arches of Triumph.

1605 Northward Ho by Webster and Dekker first performed by Paul’s Boys.

        Ford suspended from the Middle Temple for failure to pay his buttery bill.

1606 In March Webster marries Sara Peniall, aged seventeen and pregnant with their first child, John Webster Jnr, born in May 1606.

        Ford publishes Fame’s Memorial, an elegy for Charles Blount, Lord Mountjoy, dedicated to his widow, Penelope, née Devereux.

        Ford publishes Honour Triumphant, a prose pamphlet dedicated to the Countesses of Pembroke and Montgomery.

1607 Publication of Webster and Dekker’s Westward Ho, Northward Ho and Sir Thomas Wyatt (based on Lady Jane).

1608 Ford readmitted to the Middle Temple.

1610 Death of Ford’s father; he inherits £ 10.

1612 Webster’s The White Devil performed by the Queen Anne’s Men at the Red Bull Theatre in Clerkenwell and published the same year.

        Webster contributes prefatory poems to Heywood’s An Apology for Actors.

        Death of Henry, Prince of Wales. Webster publishes an elegy for him entitled A Monumental Column.

1613 Ford publishes a Stoic tract, The Golden Mean, dedicated to the imprisoned Earl of Northumberland.

        Ford publishes the long poem Christ’s Bloody Sweat, dedicated to the Earl of Pembroke.

        Ford’s comedy An Ill Beginning Has a Good End (now lost) performed at the Cockpit Theatre.

1614 Webster’s The Duchess of Malfi performed by the King’s Men at the Blackfriars Theatre and the Globe Theatre.

        Webster writes The Guise (now lost).

        Death of Webster’s father.

1615 Webster contributes thirty-two characters to the sixth edition of Sir Thomas Overbury’s Characters.

        Webster claims membership of the Merchant Taylors’ Company.

        Ford’s work (perhaps an elegy or pamphlet) Sir Thomas Overbury’s Ghost (now lost) entered into the Stationers’ Register.

1616 Death of William Shakespeare.

        Death of Francis Beaumont.

        Death of Ford’s elder brother Henry, leaving Ford with an annuity of £ 20.

        Ford contributes an elegy to the new edition of Sir Thomas Overbury His Wife.

1617 Ford reprimanded by the Middle Temple for demonstrating against wearing lawyers’ caps in hall.

1618 Webster’s The Duchess of Malfi performed at court, before the Venetian ambassador, Orazio Busino.

        Webster’s The Devil’s Law-Case perhaps first performed by the Queen Anne’s Men, probably at the Cockpit Theatre.

        Execution of Sir Walter Raleigh.

1620 Ford publishes a neo-Stoic pamphlet, A Line of Life, dedicated to Sir James Hay, the son-in-law of the Earl of Northumberland.

1621 Webster collaborates with Middleton on Anything for a Quiet Life.

        The Witch of Edmonton, a tragedy by Ford, Dekker and William Rowley, first performed.

1623 Publication of Webster’s The Duchess of Malfi, with a commendatory verse by Ford, and The Devil’s Law-Case.

        The Spanish Gipsy by Ford, Middleton and Rowley first performed.

        The Welsh Ambassador by Ford and Dekker first performed.

        The Laws of Candy by Ford and John Fletcher first performed.

        Webster and Ford contribute commendatory verses to Henry Cockeram’s English Dictionary.

1624 Webster collaborates with Ford, Dekker and Rowley on The Late Murder of the Son upon the Mother, or Keep the Widow Waking (now lost).

        Ford’s The London Merchant (now lost) first performed.

        Ford and Dekker’s The Bristol Merchant and The Fairy Knight (both now lost) first performed.

        Ford and Dekker’s The Sun’s Darling, a masque (now lost) first performed at the Cockpit Theatre.

        Webster writes the pageant Monuments of Honour for the inauguration of Lord Mayor, Sir John Gore, of the Merchant Taylors’ Company.

1625 Death of James I; accession of Charles I.

        Webster and Rowley collaborate on A Cure for a Cuckold.

        Death of Fletcher. His The Fair Maid of the Inn completed by Webster, Ford and Philip Massinger.

1627 Webster collaborates with Heywood on the tragedy Appius and Virginia.

1628 Ford’s The Lover’s Melancholy first performed at the Blackfriars and Globe theatres by the King’s Men.

        Ford publishes commendatory verses to Shirley’s The Wedding and Massinger’s The Roman Actor.

1629 Publication of Ford’s The Lover’s Melancholy, his first surviving independent play.

        Ford’s The Broken Heart probably first performed by the King’s Men at the Blackfriars Theatre.

1630 Ford’s ’Tis Pity She’s a Whore perhaps first performed by Queen Henrietta’s Men at the Cockpit Theatre in Drury Lane.

        Ford’s Beauty in a Trance (now lost) perhaps first performed.

        Webster’s The Duchess of Malfi revived by the King’s Men for performance in theatres and at court.

1632 Ford’s Love’s Sacrifice perhaps first performed.

        Ford publishes commendatory verses to Richard Brome’s The Northern Lass.

1633 Publication of Ford’s The Broken Heart, Love’s Sacrifice and ’Tis Pity She’s a Whore.

        Ford’s Perkin Warbeck perhaps first performed.

c. 1634 Death of Webster, in his mid-fifties.

        Publication of Ford’s Perkin Warbeck.

1635 Ford’s The Fancies, Chaste and Noble perhaps first performed.

1636 Publication of Ford’s commendatory verses to Massinger’s The Great Duke of Florence and Charles Saltonstall’s The Navigator.

1637 Death of Ben Jonson.

1638 Publication of Ford’s The Fancies, Chaste and Noble.

        Ford’s The Lady’s Trial first performed by Beeston’s Boys at the Cockpit Theatre.

        Ford publishes a tribute to Ben Jonson in the collection Jonsonus Virbius.

1639 Death of Massinger.

Publication of Ford’s The Lady’s Trial. Nothing more is heard of Ford.

1640 Webster’s The Duchess of Malfi published again.

1642 English Civil War begins. Closure of the London theatres.

1649 Execution of Charles I.

1653 Anonymous publication of Ford’s The Queen.