John Webster - Webster in Other Works

Webster in Other Works

• The eighteenth-century play The Fatal Secret by Lewis Theobald is a reworking of The Duchess of Malfi, imposing Aristotle's "unities" and a happy ending on the plot
• The short story "A Christmas in Padua" in F. L. Lucas's The Woman Clothed with the Sun (1937) retells the final hours of Vittoria Accoramboni (the original of Webster's White Devil) in December 1585, slanting the narrative from her perspective.
• The 1982 detective novel The Skull Beneath the Skin by P. D. James centres around an ageing actress who plans to play Webster's drama The Duchess of Malfi in a Victorian castle theatre. The novel takes its title from T.S. Eliot's famous characterisation of Webster's work in his poem "Whispers of Immortality".
• The song "My White Devil" from Echo & the Bunnymen's 1983 album Porcupine refers to Webster as "one of the best there was" and mentions his two tragic plays by name.
• Webster a play by Robert David McDonald. Written for and premiered at the Glasgow Citizens Theatre 1984
• A young John Webster, played by Joe Roberts, appears in the 1998 film Shakespeare in Love.
• A fragment of Scene Two, Act Four of The Duchess of Malfi is shown in the 1987 BBC TV film version of Agatha Christie's detective novel Sleeping Murder
• Webster's quote, "Cover her face; mine eyes dazzle: she died young", is used in the novel Queen of the Damned by Anne Rice, as well as in Sleeping Murder.
• Mike Figgis's 2001 film Hotel involves scenes from The Duchess of Malfi
• The antagonist in Paul Johnston's "The Death List" and "The Soul Collector" mimics The White Devil in character names and actions.
• In Episode 11, Season 2 of HBO's Boardwalk Empire, The White Devil is discussed in a Princeton classroom during a scene that takes place in Jimmy Darmody's past. At the end of the scene the teacher references the line "What because we are poor shall we be vicious?" to which Jimmy responds "Pray what means have you to keep me from the galleys, or the gallows?" Later in the episode, the teacher refers to Jimmy's life as Jacobean.